Quotations aren't always absolutely solid links to what someone said, wrote, or witnessed. They seem sharper, more certain, than they often are. A writer must use careful judgment as he or she puts them to use -- and reader need to be careful as well. Here are a few examples of issues we faced in our work on this book.
In all of what follows, the important rule is to trace back the sources, and, if possible to find the primary source -- the first time the quotation was set down. The most trustworthy quotation is usually one noted down by the person who spoke or wrote the words, or by someone who actually heard the speaker -- and by someone who set it down almost immediately afterwards. The worst case would be someone relating what he or she heard from a third party about something that happened days or weeks or months or years -- or even decades -- earlier.
Quotations are supposed to be exactly what someone said or wrote. But if someone is speaking (especially before the age of recording devices) then we are relying on the person who eventually writes those words down to get them exactly right. He or she has to hear and remember and write down everything without any mistakes. One of the most famous quotations about Abraham Lincoln comes from the moment of his death, when Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton is supposed to have said "Now he belongs to the ages." Unless, as some versions have it, he said "Now he belongs to the angels."
It is often -- but not always -- safer to rely on written quotations, because the writer has, after all, set down his or her own exact words. But even that is not a perfect defense against the quote being manipulated. Quotes are often taken out of some larger whole -- and removing words from their context changes their meaning. For example, let's look at one of the most famous quotations of the war -- William T. Sherman's message: "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won." That is a fully accurate quote, taken from Sherman's own writings -- but, at the same time, it is misleading. As presented, it reads as a grand pronouncement, a triumphant statement of victory. But the full sentence, as written by Sherman, is "So Atlanta is ours, and fairly won." It comes in the middle of a letter to Major General Henry W. Halleck, giving a detailed description of the military movements that forced the Confederates to retreat. In the context, "So" means something like "as a result" or "because of all that." You can read the full message, and see the quote in context, here. This is an example of a quotation being completely accurate, while not actually saying what the person being quoted meant. Sherman wasn't declaring a triumph to the world, but reporting a series of military moves to the army chief of staff. Adding to the muddle, this quote is very often misdated as being from September 1 -- the day the Confederates evacuated their troops from the city -- rather than the actual date of September 3. (Probably this happens because the message refers to events that took place on September 1.) (This is a common problem, and not just with quotations. Events that take place on one day are reported on the next day -- and then later writers and researchers confuse the date of the report with the day of the event.) This quote is often incorrectly described as being addressed to Lincoln, and not Halleck -- probably because it sounds more important if it is directed to Lincoln.
Sometimes it is not clear if someone spoke or wrote the words, or exactly when he or she did so -- or even exactly what the person said. Our book, Mr. Lincoln's High-Tech War, includes the following quotation on page 113 (there is a shortened version of the quote on the back cover.): "[Lincoln] reported that he had 'seen the most remarkable structure that human eyes ever rested upon. That man Haupt has built a bridge across Potomac Creek, about 400 feet long and nearly 1000 feet high, over which loaded trains are running every hour, and, upon my word, gentlemen, there is nothing in it but beanpoles and cornstalks.'"
But is that absolutely exactly and precisely what he said -- or wrote? Here are five different versions of the same quotation:
In Lincoln and the Tools of War, Robert V Bruce,1956, page 215: is this version: "I have seen the most remarkable structure that human eyes ever rested upon," exclaimed the President. "That man, Haupt, has built a bridge across Potomac Creek, about four hundred feet long and nearly a hundred feet high, over which loaded trains are running every hour, and upon my word . . . there is nothing in it but beanpoles and cornstalks."
Reminiscences of General Herman Haupt, written by himself with notes and a personal sketch by Frank Abial Flower, 1901, page 49: "seen the most remarkable structure that human eyes have ever rested upon. That man Haupt has built a bridge across Potomac Creek, about 400 feet long and nearly 100 feet high, over which loaded trains are running every hour, and, upon my word, gentleman, there is nothing in it but beanpoles and cornstalks."
The National Cyclopedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time 1900, page 225: "Gentlemen, I have witnessed the most remarkable structure that human eyes have ever rested upon. That man, Haupt, has built a bridge across Potomac creek in nine days with common soldiers, and, upon my soul, gentlemen, there is nothing in it but bean poles and corn stalks."
A. Edwin McMasters Stanton, the Autocrat of Rebellion, Emancipation and Reconstruction. by Frank A Flower,1905, page 225: "That man Haupt has built a bridge four hundred feet long and one hundred feet high, across Potomac Creek, on which loaded trains are passing every hour, and upon my word, gentlemen, there is nothing in it but cornstalks and beanpoles."
Lincoln supposedly addressed those words to the War Committee when he met with them. The visit to the bridge took place on May 23, 1862. The Lincoln Log site reports that Lincoln "President appears before Committee on Conduct of War and describes 400-foot railroad bridge across Potomac built by Col. Haupt as having nothing in it but cornstalks and beanpoles." However, one of the Lincoln Log's sources for this statement is Flowers' 1905 book about Edwin Stanton. That book also says Lincoln visited the bridge on the 28th (apparently, the date he addressed the committee), and not the 23rd. If a book is wrong on one detail, it can't be utterly relied on for a closely related other detail, so that date is also not quite certain. (Flowers is also the author of the 1901 book with a version of the quote.)
From the context, it would appear that the "War Committee" is a reference to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War. We have not been able to track down any minutes or records the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War that could serve as a source for the quote. It is not at all clear that it was the usual practice of the President to appear before that committee. For various reasons, his paying a visit to the committee seems unlikely. It is possible that Lincoln made some sort of written report to the committee, but we have not been able to find this statement among his collected works, which are detailed and extensive. Furthermore, all the versions of the quote have more of the flavor of Lincoln speaking rather than writing.
It should also be noted that the earliest published version of the quotation we have located is from 1900 -- a full thirty-eight years after the events described. Either there is an earlier source we have not located, or else someone recalled the story in later years and set it down. Perhaps two or three people recorded their versions of the story decades after the fact, and that accounts for the discrepancies. The History of the 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers is a 1905 reprint from a 1888 version of the same book we have not located. However, the Haupt footnote might well have been inserted into the 1905 edition. It reads like a paraphrase of the version from 1900.
We're left with the strong impression that Lincoln either said or wrote some version of the words -- but it would be difficult -- and perhaps impossible -- to track down the primary source of this quotation that could give us the exact wording. We are left with a muddled series of secondary source that don't quite agree on what was said. The best we could do in the book was to present what appeared to be the most reliable version of the quote, and one that presented the sense and the flavor of the statement.
If there is this much disagreement over a casual, almost whimsical statement, it only demonstrates the care that must be taken in finding primary sources and double-checking them. If and when we do locate a reliable primary source for this story, we'll post it here!
There are also times when the quote is completely accurate, but the speaker got his facts wrong, or there is evidence that his memory is playing tricks on him. We located a quote from Christopher Miner Spencer in which he told the story of the target shooting he had done with the president. (See page 89 of our book.) However, we only had it from a website that did not quote an original source, and we weren't willing to trust that source too far. When we finally did track the quote down, we discovered it came from a book published in 1921 or 1922 (the printed book shows both dates.) However, the interview must have been done in 1919 or 1920. (It describes Spencer as being 86, and he was born June 20, 1833. He died in 1922, age 88.) One source indicates that the article was originally published in the Boston Transcript, but does not provide a date.
You can read a long quotation from Spencer's story, along information from other sources, and a link to the Google Books version of the book in question, by using this link.
Spencer's version of Lincoln simply doesn't sound anything like the Lincoln we know. His Lincoln is ungrammatical, and at times sounds like something close to a shambling clown. Spencer describes the shooting as taking place "about where now stands the Washington Monument" -- implying that the Monument had gone up since the Civil War. Work on he Washington Monument was started in 1848, but ground to a halt some years later. Its very ugly stump stood on the Mall throughout the Civil War, and for nearly two decades after, until it was completed in 1884. Various other details of Spencer's story also don't quite gibe with other sources -- understandable, given that he is recalling a story about events fifty-six years in his past. Furthermore, we have to remember that what appears as a quotation from Lincoln is actually the interviewer's version of what Spencer said the President said. (And one or more editors might well have reworked the original material submitted by the writer.) As colorful as Spencer's version is, therefore, it can't be relied upon for precise details. We used the one part of the quote that sounded like Lincoln: "Well, you are younger than I am, have a better eye, and a steadier nerve." It is the President's comment when Spencer did better shooting. It struck us as something that would appeal to the young inventor, and would stick in his memory for a lifetime. We made a judgment call that it was the part of the quote most likely to be reasonably close to Lincoln's actual words. Even so, the only reason we felt comfortable in using even that small piece of the quotation was that we had other sources that confirmed the general outlines of the story Spencer told.