“Mr. Edison’s phonograph preserves a conversation for 100 years. But conversations can be preserved that long without a phonograph. For instance, there is the celebrated conversation between the Governor of North Carolina and the Governor of South Carolina….”
— From Daily Alta California, Dec. 26, 1887 (via Louisville Courier-Journal)
How many people today would recognize this once world-famous expression, much less any of its numerous origin stories?
Not many, the Google Ngram Viewer suggests.