Things Lincoln never said

[RJNorton]

David, thank you very much for all of your input. In the past I have tried to find independent corroboration that Mrs. Stowe actually visited the White House. Yes, I realize nearly every Lincoln biography includes mention of her visit, and it seems "a given." But I still have wondered about it.

What surprises me is that there is no mention of it in Lincoln Day By Day.

The web page here says, "According to biographer Joan Hedrick, Stowe was accompanied on her
2 December 1862 visit to the White House by her sister Isabella Beecher Hooker and her daughter Hattie. Although Joan Hedrick does not report the famous quote in her biography–presumably it is not mentioned in Hattie’s contemporaneous letter to her twin sister Eliza or in Harriet’s letter to her husband Calvin–she emphasizes their reports on the joviality of the occasion."

In Lincoln Day By Day, December 2, 1862, was not a particularly busy day for Lincoln, and there is no mention of Harriet Beecher Stowe visiting the White House. Abraham Lincoln, himself, made no known record of the encounter.

Apparently the famous quote did not appear in print until 1896.

From what I can tell we just have to trust the Stowe family members that the meeting and famous quote actually happened. But I am somewhat surprised that are no accounts from Lincoln, White House personnel, or contemporary newspapers that the visit took place.

Apparently, in later years, three Stowe family members wrote accounts of the meeting, but their accounts differ substantially.