Analysis by Gillian Brockell Washington Post July 20th 2023
Former police chief turned yoga instructor turned Jan. 6 defendant Alan Hostetter had a quote to share with the court during closing arguments in his federal trial, for which he defended himself.
“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny,” Hostetter said, attributing it to Thomas Jefferson. This, he said, explained his bursting into the Capitol with weapons on that fateful day in 2021.
One problem: There’s no evidence Jefferson said that, according to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which maintains the third president’s Monticello estate.
Misquoting Einstein, Jefferson and Gandhi: Study finds members of Congress can’t resist
Hostetter’s views on the 2020 election might be on the far right, but when it comes to historical misquotes, he’s got plenty of bipartisan company. Presidents, Congress members, candidates — many are guilty of putting spurious words into the mouths of figures they admire.
Take, for example, rapper and former presidential candidate Kanye West — now known as Ye. In 2018, he told TMZ that “400 years of slavery” was a “choice,” later citing Harriet Tubman as saying, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” There’s no evidence Tubman said this, according to Tubman scholar Kate Clifford Larson. It appears to have emerged in the late 20th century “when white and black conservatives frequently used it to scold young black men,” she wrote in Vox.
It isn’t just the “College Dropout” rapper who has invoked the fake Tubman quote; Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), an Ivy Leaguer, tweeted it in 2016.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former president Donald Trump and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton have at least one thing in common: All have misattributed his quote — “First, they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Indian leader Mohandas K. Gandhi is not known to have said this, despite myriad social media memesclaiming such. It appears to have originated with Nicholas Klein, a union organizer speaking in 1918: “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you,” he said. “And that is what is going to happen to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.”
Not every popular American Founder quote is fake, though many have more complicated sourcing than is often acknowledged.
Benjamin Franklin’s “A republic, if you can keep it” was invoked countless times in 2019 as members of the House debated impeachment charges against Trump. As the legend goes, while leaving Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, someone asked Franklin, “What have we got? A republic or a monarchy?” to which Franklin said, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
The quote doesn’t appear in the public record until 1906, but historians have found contemporaneous notes and letters indicating Franklin may have actually said it, though in a different setting — in the home of society lady Elizabeth Powel.
Did Ben Franklin really say ‘A republic if you can keep it?’
And, of course, there’s Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death,” supposedly shouted at the Second Virginia Convention in 1775. Little mentioned is that Henry was probably quoting from the play “Cato, a Tragedy,” which was popular among Americans in the 1700s. In Act II, Cato says, “It is not now a time to talk of aught/But chains or conquest, liberty or death.”
According to the Journal of the American Revolution, Nathan Hale’s famous “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country” was probably a paraphrase of Cato’s line, “How beautiful is death when earned by virtue?/Who would not be that youth? What pity is it/That we can die but once to serve our country!”
Jefferson is a frequent victim of spurious attribution. Other quotes for which there’s no evidence he actually said?
“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”
“That government is best which governs least.”
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
Jefferson’s powerful last public letter reminds us what Independence Day is all about
In any case, the false Jefferson quote cited by Hostetter does not appear to have worked as intended. He was convicted Thursday of conspiring to obstruct and obstructing an official proceeding, and trespassing and engaging in disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon.
Just remember, folks: The definition of insanity is not doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. It’s falsely attributing that definition to Albert Einstein without double-checking to see if it’s true.21CommentsGift this articleGift Article
By Gillian BrockellGillian Brockell is a staff writer for The Washington Post’s history blog, Retropolis. She has been at The Post since 2013 and previously worked as a video editor.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/07/14/quotes-thomas-jefferson-january-6/