William J. H. Boetcker

William John Henry Boetcker (1873–1962) was an American religious leader, influential public speaker, and outspoken political conservative.

Biography Boetcker was born in Altona, Hamburg, Germany on July 17, 1873, one of four children. At age 17, Boetcker became Germany's youngest published author. This attracted the attention of the Countess Mary von Waldersee, who paid for Boetcker's steamship passage to the United States.

Boetcker enrolled in the Chicago Theological Seminary and, two years later, transferred to the German Theological School (now Bloomfield College) in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where he graduated in 1897. He was ordained as a minister in 1897.

The Ten Cannots In 1916, Boetcker authored a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots that emphasized individual freedom, frugality, and responsibility to oneself. Publications exhibit minor variations, but a typical version appears below:

This text is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln. The error apparently stems from a leaflet printed in 1942 by a conservative political organization called the Committee for Constitutional Government. The leaflet bore the title "Lincoln on Limitations" and contained some genuine Lincoln quotations on one side and The Ten Cannots on the other, with the attributions switched. The mistake of crediting Lincoln for The Ten Cannots has been repeated, notably by Ronald Reagan in his address to the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston, and by John Kasich on Fox News Sunday in 2015.

Boetcker also spoke of the "Seven National Crimes":

I don't think. I don't know. I don't care. I am too busy. I leave well enough alone. I have no time to read and find out. I am not interested.