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I'll ask you to cite a sources for these quotes; neither sounds at all like Jefferson's writing style - especially the latter one - and the vocabulary seems to

by Gormo 14y ago

I'll ask you to cite a sources for these quotes; neither sounds at all like Jefferson's writing style - especially the latter one - and the vocabulary seems to indicate a much more recent origin. (The term "corporation" wouldn't have been used in quite its modern sense during his lifetime.) There is a similar quote by Jefferson that speaks about banking establishments being more dangerous than standing armies, but the term "establishment" there isn't a synonym for "institution" - think about what "establishment" meant with respect to religion in his era - and the position that I interpret here was one that could be described as somewhat aligned with his position on religion: that there ought to be a sort of "wall of separation" between the financial economy and the state in parallel to the wall between church and state. In other words, Jefferson is arguing against the politicization of banking, not banks themselves, which seems a strongly free-market position, and somewhat contrary to what you appear to imply.

nessus42 14y ago
I've found the exact quote for the first one. It wasn't exact, but close enough. It was in a personal letter from Jefferson to William Giles in 1825: > a vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of '76, now look to a single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and monied incorporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures, commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry. Source: monticello.org: http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/end-democracyquotation http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/end-... As for the second quote, monticello.org claims that that wording is a retroquote first published in some 1937 Congressional documents and that the actual quote is: > 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. I stand corrected.

by Gormo 14y ago

nessus42 14y ago

I've found the exact quote for the first one. It wasn't exact, but close enough. It was in a personal letter from Jefferson to William Giles in 1825: > a vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of '76, now look to a single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and monied incorporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures, commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry. Source: monticello.org: http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/end-democracyquotation http://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/end-... As for the second quote, monticello.org claims that that wording is a retroquote first published in some 1937 Congressional documents and that the actual quote is: > 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. I stand corrected.