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SUGAR-COATED.
Government Printer Defrees, when one of the President's messages
was being printed, was a good deal disturbed by the use of the term
"sugar-coated," and finally went to Mr. Lincoln about it.
Their relations to each other being of the most intimate character, he
told the President frankly that he ought to remember that a message
to Congress was a different affair from a speech at a mass meeting in
Illinois; that the messages became a part of history, and should be
written accordingly.
"What is the matter now?" inquired the President.
"Why," said Defrees, "you have used an undignified expression in the
message"; and, reading the paragraph aloud, he added, "I would alter the
structure of that, if I were you."
"Defrees," replied the President, "that word expresses exactly my
idea, and I am not going to change it. The time will never come in this
country when people won't know exactly what 'sugar-coated' means."
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Stories and Anecdotes About the Life of Abraham Lincoln
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