Jefferson Memorial - photo from Utah's Cache County Democrats
A commentary from Cal Thomas caught my eye – little more than a few quotes from Thomas Jefferson strung together. Jefferson seems oddly prescient in these quotes, and, also oddly, rather endorsing the views of the right wing.
From the way the text is laid out, and the brevity of the piece, I’m guessing it’s a radio commentary.
I read Jefferson often. I’ve read Jefferson a lot. I don’t recognize any of the quotes.
So I plugged them into the Jefferson collection at Liberty Fund’s Online Library of Liberty, which has a lot of Jefferson ready for full-text searching.
Oops. None of the quotes scored a hit.
Couldn’t find them in the Library of Congress’s on-line list of quotes, either.
It looks as though Jefferson didn’t say these things that are being attributed to him.
Cal, is that you?
Cal, can you give us citations on these quotes?
How about you, Dear Reader? Can you save Cal Thomas’s bacon by providing a citation for any of the quotes below, alleged to be from Thomas Jefferson?
AS WE LISTEN TO TALK OF BAILOUTS AND ENDLESS DEBT, THINK ON THESE THOUGHTS FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON:
“THE DEMOCRACY WILL CEASE TO EXIST WHEN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO WORK AND GIVE TO THOSE WHO WOULD NOT.”
HERE’S ANOTHER: “IT IS INCUMBENT ON EVERY GENERATION TO PAY ITS OWN DEBTS AS IT GOES. A PRINCIPLE WHICH IF ACTED ON WOULD SAVE ONE-HALF THE WARS OF THE WORLD.”
AND ANOTHER: “I PREDICT FUTURE HAPPINESS FOR AMERICANS IF THEY CAN PREVENT THE GOVERNMENT FROM WASTING THE LABORS OF THE PEOPLE UNDER THE PRETENSE OF TAKING CARE OF THEM.”
AND ONE MORE: “MY READING OF HISTORY CONVINCES ME THAT MOST BAD GOVERNMENT RESULTS FROM TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT.”
There you have ‘em, Dear Readers. Did somebody hoodwink Cal Thomas into thinking these are Jefferson’s bon mots, when they are not?
Shake of the wet scrub brush to Truthseeker.
Below the fold, the complete Cal Thomas commentary.CAL THOMAS COMMENTARY JANUARY 16, 2009
ANCIENT WISDOM IS ALMOST ALWAYS BETTER THAN WHAT PEOPLE COME UP WITH TODAY. CONSIDER THAT IT BECAME ANCIENT BECAUSE IT WAS WISE.
AS WE LISTEN TO TALK OF BAILOUTS AND ENDLESS DEBT, THINK ON THESE THOUGHTS FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON:
“THE DEMOCRACY WILL CEASE TO EXIST WHEN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO WORK AND GIVE TO THOSE WHO WOULD NOT.”
HERE’S ANOTHER: “IT IS INCUMBENT ON EVERY GENERATION TO PAY ITS OWN DEBTS AS IT GOES. A PRINCIPLE WHICH IF ACTED ON WOULD SAVE ONE-HALF THE WARS OF THE WORLD.”
AND ANOTHER: “I PREDICT FUTURE HAPPINESS FOR AMERICANS IF THEY CAN PREVENT THE GOVERNMENT FROM WASTING THE LABORS OF THE PEOPLE UNDER THE PRETENSE OF TAKING CARE OF THEM.”
AND ONE MORE: “MY READING OF HISTORY CONVINCES ME THAT MOST BAD GOVERNMENT RESULTS FROM TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT.”
JEFFERSON IS CONSIDERED BY THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO HAVE BEEN THE FIRST DEMOCRAT. TODAY’S DEMOCRATS (AND REPUBLICANS) WOULD DO WELL TO ATTEND TO HIS ANCIENT WISDOM.
WANT THESE QUOTES? VISIT CALTHOMAS.COM AND CLOCK ON “TRANSCRIPTS.” I’M CAL THOMAS IN WASHINGTON.
Here is an image of Jefferson’s letter to Thomas Cooper of November 29, 1802 — from which comes the quote upon which is based the third quote attributed by Thomas; see comments for corrected wording.
2nd page, letter of Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, November 29, 1802 (often misquoted) - Library of Congress
Stumble It!
May 23, 2009 at 9:40 am
This exact quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It bears a very vague resemblance to Jefferson’s comment in a prospectus for his translation of Destutt de Tracy’s Treatise on Political Economy: “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, ‘the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, & the fruits acquired by it.”
March 11, 2009 at 4:16 pm
That would be pretty cool if either the Madison Papers or Montpelier could provide a spurious Madison quotations resource. We basically did ours to preserve our own sanity – we are asked about TJ quotations so often, we thought perhaps it might cut down on our crushing reference question load if we put the information out there for people. I’m sure other famous figures could do with their own spurious quotes debunking resource as well. I think most places take the tack though of just providing legitimate sources for the Writings of Whomever, and not directly addressing all the material floating around that’s wrong (or possibly/probably wrong). I’ll ask them, though.
March 10, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Oooh, thanks for the link, Anna.
Hey, do you have any influence at the Madison Papers group at the University of Virginia? Could they do the same thing for Madison quotes?
It would be a full-time job for anybody working in Lincoln quotes . . .
March 10, 2009 at 9:27 am
This list has accounted for an inordinate amount of reference traffic for us lately, so your blog entry here made me very happy. I’m so glad to see I’m not the only one who reads that list and says, “Hey, wait a minute…!” I did my best to run down the whole list and include each quote in our TJ Encyclopedia (which I’ve very happy to see you’ve discovered) but just for easy access here’s a blog entry I did that goes down this list one by one: http://jeffersonlibrary.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/epic-10-part-reference-question/. – Anna Berkes, Research Librarian, Jefferson Library
February 4, 2009 at 2:46 pm
“IT IS INCUMBENT ON EVERY GENERATION TO PAY ITS OWN DEBTS AS IT GOES. A PRINCIPLE WHICH IF ACTED ON WOULD SAVE ONE-HALF THE WARS OF THE WORLD.”
Well, Christ Almighty! It’s a pity George Bush or Dick Cheney never heard that one!
February 3, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Who in the world is John Sharp Williams — and what are the odds that we can properly cite the quote to him?
Thanks for the news, Karl.
February 2, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Oh, but one of them is also attributed to John Sharp Williams:
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/my_reading_of_history_convinces_me_that_most_bad/195448.html
An interesting excercise in accuracy…
February 2, 2009 at 5:54 pm
One site confirms the first quote as from Jefferson without specific attribution as to when and where he said it.
http://www.famous-quote.net/thomas-jefferson-quotes.shtml
The second and fourth quotes are at:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasjeff136389.html
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomasjeff157220.html
karl
February 2, 2009 at 5:08 pm
It’s interesting to me that Jefferson seems not to have used the word “incumbent” much; plus, Jefferson, who was broke much of his life, rarely handed out financial advice, even to government.
I’d much more easily believe Ron Paul invented it, than Thomas Jefferson. What do you think? I am leery of quotes that go for so long without being tied down to a real writing of a person.
February 2, 2009 at 1:17 pm
“IT IS INCUMBENT ON EVERY GENERATION…”
http://tinyurl.com/ctbwwg for the google search. only 31 cites without repeats and seems to result recently from Ron Paul.
However, here is a 2007 source, from UVA. However, there is no specific cite [e.g., volume id, page, etc.]
[PPT]
SASFAA-Nashville February 12, 2007 An Academic Approach to …
File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint – View as HTML
“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which, if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world.” …
http://www.sasfaa.org/docs/conferences/2007/presentations/AcademicApproachtoFinancialLiteracy.ppt -
February 1, 2009 at 11:32 pm
From the Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress:
February 1, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Thanks for the link, J. A. Higginbotham!
February 1, 2009 at 11:22 pm
Over at Truthseeker, the Reasonable Citizen has commented:
February 1, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Well, here is the only one I looked up:
http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Bad_government_results_from_too_much_government
jah