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SPURIOUS JEFFERSON QUOTES
> Thank you for putting Mr. Jefferson in the net. Just one suggestion: > every quote ought to have a citation. I have chased down enough spurious > TJ quotes (eg, "homeless in the land their fathers made") to insist on > this. If it cant be looked up and verified, it never happened. Thank you for your interest in my Jefferson quotes website. As you will note, each and every quotation on that website has a citation for either the name of the document it is extracted from or the name of the person the letter was written to, plus the year. With that basic data, any person with access to the standard collections of Jefferson's writings can, with little difficulty, find the source document. You will also note that spurious or suspected spurious quotes, such as "homeless in the land their fathers made," *never* have that basic bibliographic information. (With one exception: one spurious quote claims to be from Jefferson's letter to the Danforth Baptists, but anyone looking at that document can see that the claim is false.) I agree, however, that more specific bibliographic data for the quotes should be included with the excerpts, and I have made a start at including such references to the "Papers of Thomas Jefferson," which itself is in progress and only about half completed. When finished, it will be the most complete and authoritative collection in existence. In the meantime, anyone having problems finding the source of any quotation on my website can email me and immediately get as much bibliographic data on the quote as needed. I guarantee absolutely the authenticity of every one of the 1800+ excerpts -- that is, assuming that the inquirer accepts the authenticity of the Ford, Washington, and Memorial editions -- and I challenge anyone to point to a single spurious quote. Best wishes, Eyler Coates