A group calling itself “Patriotic Moms” claims to quote Thomas Jefferson:
Thomas Jefferson said a lot, and kept careful records of about 15,000 letters — but did he ever say a country without a border is not a country? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“A country with no Border is not a country.”
I can’t find that in Jefferson’s writings. Anybody know if Jefferson said or wrote anything like that? Got a citation?
Is this another fake Jefferson quote?
Update: My determination is that no, Jefferson did not say it at all.
More, reference:
- Quote of the moment: Jefferson, on reason in a republic (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- ‘Historian’ David Barton’s book on Thomas Jefferson pulled from stores (rawstory.com)
- Recalling Revisionist History (kennysideshow.blogspot.com)
- Kansas congressional candidate changes name to Thomas Jefferson (kansascity.com)
- “Misquoting Jefferson,” at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
- “Fake quotes in prize-winning essays,” at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
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Rosemary, turns out it wasn’t Reagan, either. It was an obscure Congressman from Indiana, a guy named Mike Pence.
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Reagan was probably a writer for Jefferson — in Reagan’s mind, anyway.
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“A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.” ~~ Ronald Reagan. The difference is control. (Maybe Jefferson stole it from Reagan??? lol)
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[…] Way back in 2012 I wrote this: […]
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First off, higgens, you’re quite right..it’s hard to prove a negative.
Which is why if one can’t prove that Jefferson did say the quote it’s safe to assume he didn’t.
But judging from several right wing blogs that claim that Reagan said “A nation without borders is not a nation.” I would suspect that the quote is really Reagan’s and not Jefferson’s.
It wouldn’t exactly be the first time someone on the right side of the spectrum falsely attributed a sentence to Jefferson. *coughs* David Barton *coughs*
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Mike Pence, congressman from Indiana? That’s a long, long way from Jefferson. No connection.
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Who the heck is Pence?
But finding the quote from Pence also takes us a step farther away from attributing it to Jefferson.
In serious history study, we don’t make claims based on speculation. If we can’t find a clear reference with good citations, we do not cite the quote to Jefferson. To do otherwise is known in academic circles as “lying like a rug.”
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http://presidential2008.blogspot.com/2005/12/nation-without-borders-is-not-nation.html
has this quote attributed to pence
which of course does not mean jefferson did not say it
it is always hard to prove a negative
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