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> We have discussed this "quote before." Here it is > again with a source attributed. > > "I believe that banking institutions are more > dangerous to our liberties than > standing armies . . . 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 > [the banks] . . . will deprive > the people of all property until their children > wake-up homeless on the > continent their fathers conquered . . . The > issuing power should be taken from > the banks and restored to the people, to whom it > properly belongs." -- > Thomas Jefferson -- The Debate Over The Recharter > Of The Bank Bill, (1809) > > a)Is the soure on your site? No, it is not. I do not recognize the cited source, but that does not mean it does not exist. It does not appear to be in the Memorial Edition of Jefferson's Writings. > b)Can you verify the "quote?" I'm sorry, but I cannot. I am suspicious of it, because the first sentence sounds like the following authentic quote: "I sincerely believe... 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." --Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, 1816. ME 15:23 It is entirely possible, of course, that Jefferson was just repeating in the above letter a thought previously expressed. On the other hand, it is possible that someone combined a genuine quote with one not so. I have seen that kind of combination on at least two occasions. As I probably explained before, the use of the terms, inflation and deflation of the currency, was not, I do not believe, a part of the conceptual framework in the first decade of the 19th century. It may be that an economist can address that question with more authority. Having the name of the document and the date, it should be possible to verify whether the document indeed does exist. Unfortunately, I do not have the resources available to me to do that. Sorry I cannot be of more help than that.