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TJE Original Title: 
An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people (Quotation)

Quotation: "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people."

Variations: None known.

Sources consulted:

  1. Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Digital Edition
  2. Retirement Papers
  3. Lipscomb-Bergh Edition (via Google Books)
  4. Ford edition
  5. Quotable Jefferson, ed. Kaminski (index under "education")

Earliest known appearance in print: No known appearances in print.

Other attributions: None known.

Status: This quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson.

Comments: This quotation seems to have originated in a web article on PicktheBusiness.com, "5. An Educated Citizenry Is A Vital Requisite For Our Survival As A Free People."[1] It is an accurate paraphrase of Jefferson's views on education, but the exact phrasing seems to belong to the author of the article, and not Jefferson. The article title appears to have been mistaken by others as a direct quotation of Jefferson's 1816 letter to Joel Yancey (mentioned in the article), but the quotation does not appear in that letter or in any other Jefferson writings of which we are aware.

Footnotes

  1. PicktheBusiness.com, "5. An Educated Citizenry Is A Vital Requisite For Our Survival As A Free People."

See Also