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I stretched the Constitution until it cracked (Spurious Quotation)
Quotation: "I stretched the Constitution until it cracked."1
Variations: None known.
Sources consulted:
- Founders Online
- Thomas Jefferson Retirement Papers
- Google Books
- Hathi Trust
- 19th Century U.S. Newspapers database
- Access Newspaper Archive
- American Periodicals Series
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
- 1. Note: The quotation usually appears without "I;" e.g. "Thomas Jefferson said that he 'stretched the Constitution until it cracked.'"
- 2. The Avalon Project. Thomas Jefferson. Third Annual Message, October 17, 1803.
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Spurious Quotations