Right Words, Wrong Man
In the November/December issue of Liberty magazine on page 31 you use a quotation and attribute it to James Madison, making the same mistake made by Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe columnist, in his June 1, 2000, article entitled “The ACLU and the G-word.” I hope if you have not already printed a retraction and an apology, you will do so. (I have not yet seen the January/February issue because for some reason it is not at my library.)
Your error is quite interesting in light of the letter by Everette Hatcher III concerning the “Questionable Quotes” on page 28.
Madison did not say: “We have staked the whole future of the American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of Mankind for self government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
Information about the evolution of this fake quote is at the James Madison University web site about James Madison. See http://www.jmu.edu/madison and http://www.jmu.edu/ madison/ quote.htm
According to Robert S. Alley, that quote has been falsely attributed to Madison.
“Memorial and Remonstrance” is a good source of Madison’s writing against government establishment of religion. You will find it here: http://www.jmu.edu/ madison/ remon.html.
CAROL SMITH
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
There is always the danger of using one of a surprisingly large number of unsubstantiated quotations attributed to figures of history. Without entering the arena of debate over the merits of individual documentation, I do apologize for using a quote that may obscure the point being made. In reality the issues are large and clear–not dependent on the veracity of one or more supporting quotes. Editor.
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