The Churchill Series - Jun. 7, 2006

(One of a series of weekday posts on the life of Winston S. Churchill.)

Here’s an amusing Churchill anecdote, the authenticity of which I doubt.

It’s 1900 and Churchill, then twenty-six, is in Washington, D.C., where he delivered a lecture and later was guest at a reception where has met a very well-endowed woman.

The woman let Churchill know she was from the South and wished the Confederacy had won the Civil War.

"Mr. Churchill, you see before you a rebel who has not been Reconstructed."

”Madam,” he is supposed to have replied, “in your case reconstruction would be blasphemy.”

Now did he say that or something like it?

I’ve looked through Martin Gilbert’s Churchill and America and can’t find it there.

Yes, you find it in many of the Churchill’s “wit” books, but it’s always unsourced.

I’d love to confirm the remark. It sure sounds like Churchill, doesn’t it?

Can anyone help?

If someone can find a confirming source, I'll reconstruct this post.