I recently saw a video discussing the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and the guest on the program cited Thomas Jefferson as to the importance of an educated electorate for the preservation of democracy. The problem is, the quote cited by the gentleman is not actually in any of Jefferson’s extant writings (though it does seem to summarize his thoughts about public education).
The great irony is that those citing Jefferson on the importance of education are actually misinformed concerning the quote they are citing. One article I found says:
Speaking of which, have a think about this familiar quote: “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.” This quote is often attributed to Thomas Jefferson. However, there is no evidence he ever said it. Why is this important? The meaning of the quote is very powerful and is said to nicely summarize Jefferson’s views on education. But, he never actually said it. We know this because of historical records kept by libraries and archives. They provide us not only with a future to explore, but also a past to discover.
While researching the veracity of the quote, I even came across an essay competition, where the winning essay used the supposed Jefferson quote as the launchpad for the author’s entire argument.
The Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia also verifies that this quote is spurious, with its earliest know appearance in print coming in 2013, 187 years after Jefferson’s death.
It Doesn’t Stop With Jefferson
If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, before shopping at home had its own dedicated cable channels, you may recall the TV ads for Ginsu knives and other products famous for their “But wait, there’s more…” enticements to get you to call before midnight to place your order. I feel a little like one of those commercials right now, because there are more Founding Fathers being quoted online as saying things they never said.
One of those in particular is Patrick Henry, best known for his declaration, “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Here’s the quote I’ve seen several people share recently:
But once again, this is not found in any of Henry’s own writings, or historical documents about him from his lifetime, even though there is plenty of evidence that Henry was himself a devout Christian.
The quote appears to have had a resurgence in popularity after Josh Hawley, U.S. Senator from Missouri, posted it to Twitter on July 4, 2023. According to Thomas Kidd, currently research professor of church history at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and formerly associate professor of history at Baylor University, “The quotation apparently came from a magazine commentary on Henry's faith in 1956, which later writers took as a quotation from Henry himself.”
The quote even made it into a song in the 1990s, when contemporary Christian music artist Carman recorded “America Again.” The supposed statement by Henry appears within the first sixty seconds of the song. (The song also mentions that Thomas Jefferson called the Bible “the cornerstone for American liberty,” but conveniently overlooks the fact that Jefferson pared down the Scriptures to make his own version that eliminated all the supernatural and miraculous, and only left the ethical teachings of Jesus.)
In our zeal to defend faith and morality, let us not fall headlong into confirmation bias and simply pass things along because they appear to support our beliefs. If it turns out we are sharing false information in our defense of the truth, are we really defending the truth?
I’ll close with this humorous reminder:
