A problem turned into a picture
Instead of an abstract explanation of scarcity, the anecdote supplies a scene a listener can immediately imagine.
Story · A CLOSER LOOK
“Too many pigs for the tits”
ABOUT THIS STORY
In Ken Burns’s The Civil War, Shelby Foote tells of Lincoln comparing the demands on government to animals competing for a sow’s milk. The blunt punch line gives the problem of too many claimants and too little to distribute a physical, unmistakable image.
The selected telling belongs here as an example of the stories and language that interest me about Lincoln. It is attributed to Foote’s account in the documentary.
Anecdote retold in The Civil War (1990) ·
How it unfolded.
“Too many pigs for the tits”
A Lincoln anecdote about competing demands, preserved in Shelby Foote’s telling.
A CLOSER LOOK
The story behind it.
A Lincoln anecdote about competing demands, preserved in Shelby Foote’s telling.
A voice in a documentary
Foote’s delivery is part of the encounter. The PBS episode includes the story and provides its transcript.
Sources for this closer look
Pigs (opens in a new tab)Explore the original.
Follow the original source to explore the work in its own context.
Footnotes
1. The source of this telling
This page identifies Foote’s retelling; an earlier contemporary record of Lincoln saying the exact words has not been established in this research.
Sources & credits
Introductions are grounded in the sources below. Collection notes and reading prompts provide an editorial starting point; personal opinions are identified in the collection’s content.
KEEP EXPLORING
Discover the person. Follow the work.
PersonAbraham Lincoln
A selected story in Abraham Lincoln’s part of the collection.
START WITHLincoln’s Second Inaugural Address
HistoryLeadership
PersonKen Burns
A selected story in Ken Burns’s part of the collection.
START WITHGet to know the person
FilmStorytelling
PersonKen Burns
Shelby Foote tells the anecdote in The Civil War.
START WITHGet to know the person
FilmStorytelling