False Lincoln Quote

[erpowers]

A few days ago the blog Think Progress pointed out that Congressman Don Young falsely attributed a quote to Abraham Lincoln. Today Rep. Young is stating that he will not correct the statement. The quote in question states:

"Congressmen who willfully take action during wartime that
damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs,
and should be arrested, exiled or hanged,"

This statement has been mentioned on many occasions by supporters of President Bush and the Iraq War. Recently the quote was also used by Diana Irey, a Republican opponent of Rep. John Murtha. However, the quote does not actually come from Abraham Lincoln. The quote is actually that of a conservative writer J. Michael Waller who started a 2003 article with those words. Somehow when Waller's article appeared in Insight magazine it appeared with quotes and the words "Lincoln said" after the quote. When contacted about the quoted Waller admitted that the quote was actually his and not Lincoln's. For more information on the misquote you can follow the links below.


http://thinkprogress.org/
http://www.factcheck.org/article415.html