Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1180 |
| AUTHOR: | Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) |
| QUOTATION: | I could as easily bail out the Potomac River with a teaspoon as attend to all the details of the army. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Attributed to President This supposedly had been part of Lincoln’s response to a young volunteer soldier who had come to Lincoln’s office asking his help with a grievance. The story has been repeated in numerous books on Lincoln: Alexander K. McClure, “Abe” Lincoln’s Yarns and Stories, p. 162 (1904); Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 153 (1917); and Caroline T. Harnsberger, The Lincoln Treasury, p. 14 (1950). |
| SUBJECTS: | Military affairs |