To Quote Thomas Jefferson, 'I Never Actually Said That'

[Valin]

WSJ

Librarian Tracks Sayings Misattributed to Founding Father; 'A Fine Spiced Pickle'

CAMERON MCWHIRTER

12/6/12

 

Thomas Jefferson once famously wrote, "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

 

Or did he? Numerous social movements attribute the quote to him. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to U.S. Government and Politics" cites it in a discussion of American democracy. Actor Chuck Norris's 2010 treatise "Black Belt Patriotism: How to Reawaken America" uses it to urge conservatives to become more involved in politics. It is even on T-shirts and decals.

 

Yet the founding father and third U.S. president never wrote it or said it, insists Anna Berkes, a 33-year-old research librarian at the Jefferson Library at Monticello, his grand estate just outside Charlottesville, Va. Nor does he have any connection to many of the "Jeffersonian" quotes that politicians on both sides of the aisle have slung back and forth in recent years, she says.

 

(Snip)

 

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