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  • 2022-11-28 (xsd:date)
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  • Did Thomas Jefferson Say 'Two Enemies of the People are Criminals and Government'? (en)
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  • A quote about the U.S. Constitution's role in limiting the power of government has been attributed to Thomas Jefferson since at least the early 2000s: Among others, the American Enterprise Institute previously asserted that Jefferson authored the statement prior to issuing a correction. A memed version of the statement is often shared on social media. According to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, though, no records exist to support the claim that Jefferson authored this statement. The phrase appears, instead, to conflate at least two sources. First, Jefferson did use the phrase chains of the constitution in a draft of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, which was a defense of civil liberties and states' rights condemning the Alien and Sedition Acts. In an early draft of that resolution, Jefferson wrote: As the Thomas Jefferson Foundation additionally notes, the spurious quote appears to be a close paraphrase of a portion of an essay, Man's Rights, published by Ayn Rand in 1964: For these reasons, the claim that Jefferson made a statement about both criminals and government being enemies of the people is False. (en)
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