Defending People

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Jefferson on the Wisdom of the People

As one of America’s foremost scholars of Imaginary History, I am compelled to correct the record on Sarah Palin’s slightly erroneous fictional Jefferson misquote (Americablog). What Imaginary History tells us Jefferson in fact said is, “One cannot underestimate the wisdom of the people.“

Fantastohistorical academia is riven over the issue of whether this was intended by Mr. Jefferson as an observation or an admonishment.

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This entry was posted by Mark Bennett on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Fictional History, Thomas Jefferson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About The Author

Mark Bennett
Mark Bennett got his letter of marque from the Supreme Court of Texas in May 1995. He is famous for having no sense of humor when it comes to totalitarianism.

Comments

4 Responses to “Jefferson on the Wisdom of the People”

  1. Mary Mayer says:
    6 October 2008 at 3:34 pm

    Mark,
    The page you linked also showed this Jefferson quote, which is closer to Palin’s paraphrase:

    “I am satisfied the good sense of the people is the strongest army our government can ever have, and that it will not fail them.” -Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 1786. ME 6:31 (Source: http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/…)
    This seems to clear up your doubt about his intent. He doesn’t seem to be the elitest you’d like him to be.

    Reply
  2. Mark Bennett says:
    6 October 2008 at 4:34 pm

    Palin’s quote is nowhere near a paraphrase of that (waaayyyy out-of-context) quote.

    I don’t know if he was the elitest, but he was pretty darn elite — large landowner, educated man, lawyer, inventor, diplomat world traveler — and a Philadelphia insider.

    If he’d trusted fully the wisdom of the people, he could have dispensed with two branches of the government and one house of the legislature and left us to be governed by our elected Representatives as they saw fit.

    Reply
  3. Edintally says:
    6 October 2008 at 5:06 pm

    So you would include elected/appointed officials within the grouping of “wisdom of the people”?

    Reply
  4. Jamie says:
    7 October 2008 at 7:21 am

    I believe the (only partially fake) presidential quote she was referring to here is “Never misunderestimate the wisdom of the people”…

    Reply

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