The Ten Cannots

(CORRECTION: Philip Beyer here - Thanks to Bob Bliss for finding an error in this “Ten Cannots” blog post. Although William Boetcker's list of “Ten Cannots” has been quoted by many others, including President Ronald Reagan, we mistakenly included President Abraham Lincoln as one of those. Good catch, Bob! A little more research shows that Lincoln never said them. The “Ten Cannots” were, of course, written in 1916 by the Rev. Boetcker, a Presbyterian clergyman and pamphlet writer, and President Lincoln was assassinated eight years before Boetcker was born. However, in 1942, a group called the Committee for Constitutional Government gave out a great many leaflets entitled “Lincoln on Limitations” that contained on one side a real Lincoln quote and on the other side the 10 Boetcker statements. Since then, many have attributed the “Ten” to Lincoln. I apologize for adding to that confusion. Thanks for reading!)

As a business owner for nearly 30 years, I have come to see how the state of our nation—the political landscape, a virtual battlefield for conservative and liberal thinking—has had a profound influence on the success or failure of American businesses.