# Think Tank > History >  Disputed Jefferson Quote

## Mesogen

The other day there was a thread about misquotes from Lincoln. 

So today I got an article from snopes.com saying that a certain quote regularly attributed to Jefferson cannot actually be attributed to him.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/jefferson/banks.asp



> "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson, Letter 1802 to Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin


The first time I saw the quote, I was doubtful as well because of the use of the word "corporations." I'm not sure that this was a common word back then, but I don't really know.

Anyway, the end of this snopes entry is kind of off the mark, too. They say that other quotes were "antithetical" to the notion that there should be no central bank, but that's not the case.




> But while this is going on, another measure should be pressed, to recover ultimately our fight to the circulation. The States should be applied to, to transfer the right of issuing circulating paper to Congress exclusively, in perpetuum, if possible, but during the war at least, with a saving of charter rights. I believe that every State west and South of Connecticut river, except Delaware, would immediately do it; and the others would follow in time. Congress would, of course, begin by obliging unchartered banks to wind up their affairs within a short time, and the others as their charters expired, forbidding the subsequent circulation of their paper.


The letter (linked to) is actually against fiat paper currency issued by unchartered banks and for control of currency by Congress, as prescribed in the Constitution. It's actually the exact same sentiment expressed by the above disputed quote.

But, anyway, does anyone know if the disputed quote above is actually from Jefferson or not?

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## sratiug

> The first time I saw the quote, I was doubtful as well because of the use of the word "corporations." I'm not sure that this was a common word back then, but I don't really know.


Corporations were a major cause of the Revolutionary War, since they were chartered by England and given special priviledges.  That is why the word corporation does not exist in the Constitution.  There are no national corporations or multinational corporations here in the USA, only state or foreign.

Corporations were never intended to be allowed to operate other than in their own state of incorporation where they would be formed for projects of limited duration for the public good and could be dissolved at any time for bad behavior.

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## coyote_sprit

I don't know if it was common back then but I know the word dates back to the late 14th century and had plenty of time to get around especially to someone as intellectual as Jefferson.

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## gls

Here is a wiki-type page analyzing that text: 

http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki...nks_(Quotation)




> The first part of the quotation ("If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered") has not been found anywhere in Thomas Jefferson's writings, to Albert Gallatin or otherwise. It is identified in Respectfully Quoted as spurious, and the editor further points out that the words "inflation" and "deflation" did not come into use until 1864 and 1920, respectively.[3] 
> 
> The second part of the quotation ("I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies...") may well be a paraphrase of a statement Jefferson made in a letter to John Taylor in 1816. He wrote, "And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale."[4]


A section on other misattributed Jefferson quotes. 

http://www.monticello.org/library/re.../spurious.html

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## Truth Warrior

*FWIW, corporations were pretty common in and for mercantilist England in those days too. *

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## nobody's_hero

Does the letter exist? That'd be a good place to start investigating.

EDIT: nevermind, wrong letter

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## Mesogen

But did they call them corporations? I think they just called them companies (Virginia Company, Plymouth Company, Mass Bay Company, East India Compnay, etc.)

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## Truth Warrior

> But did they call them corporations? I think they just called them companies (Virginia Company, Plymouth Company, Mass Bay Company, East India Compnay, etc.)


*Origin: 
140050; late ME < LL corporātiōn- (s. of corporātiō) guild, L: physical makeup, build.*
*http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/corporation*

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