Daily Story
Pat and His Garden
[Rebuffing Know-Nothing supporters in 1854 because of their bias against immigrants:] “I had some time ago an Irishman named Patrick cultivating my garden. One morning I went out to see how he was getting along.” “Mr. Lincoln, what do yez think of these Know-Nothings?” he inquired. I explained what they were trying to do, and asked Pat why he had not been in America. “Faith,” he replied, “I wanted to, but me mother wouldn’t let me.”
Emanuel Hertz, Anecdotes by & about Abraham Lincoln, p. 145.