A tale of two quotations

Two "quotations" from Thomas Jefferson from both sides of the political spectrum.

Left side

"The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations."

Right Side 

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

Both are not really quotations from Jefferson, while the right's version is obviously false.  Let's face it, Jefferson was a slave owner: talk about taking from people who work for a living without proper compensation!

The exact quotation used by the Left also has not been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It may be a mistaken amalgamation of the author's comments in the above 1994 reference with a real Jefferson quotation. Jefferson wrote in 1825 to William Branch Giles of "vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and monied in corporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry."

This gets to what exactly were the real reasons for the American War for Independence?  If it was based upon free trade and an end to monopolies (i.e. The British East India Company), then the legacy would be one which is more left leaning than the current right wing appropriation of the "Tea Party" title would have us believe.


The problem with the period of the War of Independence is that it has become part of the US National myth.  It is romanticised and not seen in its proper historical context.  Instead of creating a utopia, it created anarchy and economic ruin which was only fixed by the adoption of the Constitution.

People need to reassess that period of Early American history in a new light.  I would hope that it would help extinguish the insurrectionist nonsense that has become common which none of the founders would tolerate.

Jefferson was a commie

I wonder what he would say about a corporation going bankrupt after destroying the economy or poisoning a river?

Thomas Jefferson on Constitutional change

Fake Jefferson Quotes

CNN

The Founding Fathers are frequently quoted in the gun control debate, but many of those quotations turn out to be fake.

The most popular comment on a recent story about gun control featured a purported quotation from Thomas Jefferson. More than 2,000 votes pushed it to the top.

"When governments fear the people, there is liberty," reads the quotation. "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

The same quotation has been posted dozens of times in other readers' posts. Some readers worked to debunk it by mentioning Monticello.org, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation's website, which has a section devoted to "spurious" quotations that have been attributed to the third president of the United States. The website lists several variations of the quotation, featured on two pages, and says staff "have not found any evidence that Thomas Jefferson said or wrote" those words.

Guess which side of the gun debate uses and benefits from fake quotes that are repeated and repeated?

Please leave a comment.

Thomas Jefferson's Code

The incredibly complex and ingenious code was not deciphered until 2007. The NRA moved in to suppress all dissemination of it's long-hidden and prophetic message. In part it reads:

The day will come when men will bastardize the intent of my words in order to use them for their own advantage. This will be especially true concerning the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights. As a safeguard, as soon as the young Nation is successfully thriving, perhaps 50 years, certainly no more, the 2nd Proposal shall be stricken from the document - a time limit or expiration date shall have been imposed.

via Dan Lewis, archive - subscribe.

The ACLU and Christmas

Liberal Viewer posted this video and posed the following question:

Which seems more in keeping with the Christmas spirit, the ACLU's message of tolerance or those smears and false personal attacks from Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter?

The Thomas Jefferson quotes are the best. I wonder what he would have thought about a biblical justification for bearing arms?