Most Americans have grown up hearing Lincoln’s answer to a group complaining that the commander of Union forces, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, drank too much whiskey. “Tell me what brand of whiskey that Grant drinks,” Abe is reported to have said. “I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals.”
Some historians question that anecdote. The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations sources the remark to a November 1863 story in the now-defunct New York Herald. If that’s true, we have a good notion where Abe might have gotten his inspiration.
Four months earlier, another New York newspaper ran a story also devoted to complaints that Gen. Grant was drinking too much. This story appeared right after the decisive Union victory at Vicksburg. Very much in line with Lincoln’s remark, it offered this assessment:
“If anyone still believes that Grant is a drunkard,” it said, “we advise him to place none but drunkards in important commands.”
And this one we can confirm. Because these words appeared in a Post editorial dated July 8, 1863. Happy 204th, Abe!