All the terrible instruments of war are the Natural Birth Right of the American citizen.
Attributed to Thomas Jefferson
[Awesome quote!
I received this in email recently and it looked just a little too good to be true. I went searching for it and was only able to find one instance of it. This instance does not appear to be supported by any reference to any of Jefferson’s writings or speeches. I did extensive searches on http://www.monticello.org which I have found to be a good source for Jefferson quotes in the past.
I must conclude this is not correctly attributed to Jefferson.
While searching I did discover two other quotes I had attributed to Jefferson are probably bogus as well. I have update my posts here and here.—Joe]
You might be thinking this one (emphasis added):
— Tenche Coxe
Found it here.
Archer got there before me. In addition to the online sources for Tenche Cox, I checked the written source I trust. Philip Mulivor wrote a book, “Proclaiming Liberty: What patriots and heroes really said about the right to keep and bear arms.”
http://www.amazon.com/Proclaiming-Liberty-Patriots-Heroes-Really/dp/098300370X
He did the primary source research to verify the individual quotes. This Tenche Cox quote is on page 24.
Wasn’t it Sam Goldwyn who said something to the effect that, “I never said all those things I said?”
Clayton Cramer has a good quote from Abraham Lincoln he posted on January 6, 2011:
“The problem with Internet quotations is that many are not genuine.” – Abraham Lincoln
Archer, that may be because these quotes are selected for authority as well as for being on point, and who but a historian or constitutional scholar has even heard of Tenche Coxe. As an amateur in both fields I have heard of him, but until now couldn’t tell you a thing about him or what he said.
“strength of authority” !!!