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Lock of Lincoln hair offered at auction
A lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair, wrapped in a bloodstained telegram received on the night of his assassination in 1865, is for sale. The bush hair was removed during Lincoln’s post – mortem examination. (September 9)
AP
The claim: Abraham Lincoln said: ‘Nations do not die because of invasion; they die of inner rot. ‘
Several quotation sites – such as AZ Quotes and Quotes Pond – claim that President Abraham Lincoln said, “Nations do not die from invasion; they die from internal rot.”
A link to this quote was recently viral on Facebook, but is the quote accurate?
The quote is from Minister Jenkin Lloyd Jones
In fact, the quote is from Minister Jekin Lloyd Jones. It comes from his book of sermon studies, “Love for the Battle-torn Peoples,” published in 1916.
“No enemy from outside can ever deny this land, even if they want to storm the shores with shells or sink our battleships,” he wrote. “Nations do not die because of invasion, they die because of internal rot.”
Steve Perisho – a librarian for theology and philosophy at Seattle Pacific University – first identified the true origins of the quote on his blog, Liber Locorum Communium.
Jones himself recorded several quotes attributed to Lincoln in the same chapter, “Why Love Russia” – also in the sentence after the quote.
“Lincoln was right when he said in the same speech, ‘If our republic ever dies, it will die of suicide, of degeneration,'” he wrote.
Fact check: Abraham Lincoln HS of San Francisco on the renaming list, but the decision is not final
But the quote is actually also false. The closest bonafide quote from the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln comes from a speech he gave in 1838 in Springfield, Illinois.
“At what point is the approach to danger then to be expected? I answer, if it ever reaches us, it must originate among us. It cannot come from abroad,” he wrote. “If destruction is our part, we must be the author and finisher of it ourselves. As a nation of freemen, we must go through all times or die by suicide.”
This quote is widely used, including in Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents. USA TODAY also checked other versions of it.
AZ Quotes and Quotes Pond has not yet responded to requests from the US TODAY for comment.
Our rating: false
Based on our research, the claim that Abraham Lincoln said: ‘Nations do not die by invasion; they die of internal rot ‘is FALSE. The quote actually comes from a book of sermon studies by Minister Jenkin Lloyd Jones.
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