in the movie Lincoln ....Lincoln tells a story about John Adams seeing a painting of Washington in an English Lord's water closet, then going to the Lord & quipping about Washington being "the only thing that could make an Englishmen shit faster". Did that ever actually happen?

by grapp
TheProfessor8

According to Chuck Wills's book, Lincoln: The Presidential Archives (2007) p. 20, "...Lincoln was no prude. Many of his jokes and stories were earthy enough to amuse even the thirstiest customers. In one favorite tale, he had Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen visiting England after the war, only to find that his hosts had hung a portrait of George Washington in their "back house" (toilet) to goad him- to which Allen replied that the picture was a good idea, because 'there is nothing that will make an Englishman shit so quick as the sight of General Washington.'"