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Quotation: "I stretched the Constitution until it cracked."[1]
Variations: None known.
Sources consulted:
Earliest appearance in print: A. O. Wright, An Exposition of the Constitution of the United States, 7th ed., (Madison, WI: Midland Publishing Co., 1883), 238.
Earliest appearance in print, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: See above.
Comments: This statement has not been found in the writings of Thomas Jefferson. Most sources connect it to the Louisiana Purchase. Many claim that it was a comment made by Jefferson to Congress in announcing the purchase (likely referring to Jefferson's Third Annual Message to Congress), but no such comment appears in that document.[2]
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