March 23, 2005
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.We've both searched a few Jefferson sites, but come up empty. The Jefferson Digital Archive is run by the University of Virginia (which TJ founded), so you'd think it would be comprehensive. But a search for that quote yields no results.
i maintain a Missourian's attitude towards the Virginian's quote. Unless i know where it came from, i am not willing to believe that TJ actually said it. It sounds like something someone made up and attributed to Jefferson to give the quote more weight.
Now i know there are some Jefferson scholars in my audience. What do you folks think?
Update: Wow, that was fast!
Publicola found the source, which is an 1809 letter from TJ to Maryland Republicans. The quote can be found at page 359 of volume 16 in the 20 volume set, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (ME) Memorial Edition (Lipscomb and Bergh, editors), Washington, D.C., 1903-04.
The legend of Publicola continues...
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Posted by: Publicola at March 24, 2005 03:13 AM (DQj8i)
Posted by: annika at March 24, 2005 06:45 AM (p7T88)
Posted by: Ontario Emperor at March 24, 2005 12:37 PM (v9NCH)
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