Daily Story
Demands of South
He avoided discussing the political questions of the day. The nearest he would come to it was to illustrate with quaint humor and simplicity the demands of the South upon the North by a little home story. He said it reminded him of a dispute that once occurred between his two younger boys, Tom and Bill, a pair of mischievous rogues of eight and ten years. One of them had a toy that the other wanted and demanded in terms emphatic and boisterous. At length he was told to let his brother have it in order to quiet him. “No, sir,” was the sturdy response, “I must have it to quiet myself.” Lincoln was of the opinion that the quiet of the South at the expense of the North did not amount to much.
Daniel J. Ryan, “Lincoln and Ohio”
In an article in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, 14 February 1861 in Emanuel Hertz, Anecdotes By & About Abraham Lincoln, p. 148.