The Churchill Series - Mar. 9, 2009

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

Here’s an amusing Churchill anecdote, the authenticity of which I can't confirm.

In 1900 Churchill, then 26, was in Washington, D.C., to deliver a lecture after which he was a 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."

Did Churchill really say that or something like it?

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

I've found it in some of the "Churchill’s wit” books, but it’s always been unsourced.

I’d love to confirm the remark which sure sounds like Churchill.

Can anyone help?

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