# Which president of the USA was illiterate?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-of-the-usa-was-illiterate/130412>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 1, 2002, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-of-the-usa-was-illiterate/130412 "2002-10-01T15:42:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-of-the-usa-was-illiterate/130412/21 "2002-10-02T00:51:11Z")

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I have to laugh at the notion that Lincoln was “functionally illiterate.” He is the author of some of the most the most famous speeches in the English language, after all. (Yes Virginia, in those days presidents actually wrote their own speeches!) If that’s functional illiteracy, I’ll take some of it myself.

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**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-of-the-usa-was-illiterate/130412/22 "2002-10-02T01:13:13Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by dougie\_monty \*  
> **In any case, _I_ don’t believe Lincoln was illiterate as a lawyer; he grew up reading the Bible, Ben Franklin’s _Autobiography,_ and Shakespeare…learned them almost by heart. 🙂**

That’s my point. Lincoln was remarkably well read. He just lacked a formal education, but lacking a formal education doesn’t mean ignorant.

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**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2002, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-of-the-usa-was-illiterate/130412/23 "2002-10-02T01:50:37Z")

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What’s really remarkable is that this is the second thread today to feature [Millard Fillmore](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=137603)

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