evidence: While we're on the subject of writings that are frequently decontextualized in order to suit partisan opportunistic gains, many of the "quotes" frequently attributed to Thomas Jefferson — a guy who had a hand in the Constitution — are total nonsense. [...] There is no evidence that Jefferson ever said this. Frederick Douglass, James Buchanan, and William Henry Harrison all did say it, though. [...] Yeah, no, Jefferson probably never said this. It was a tertiary anecdote from the Reverend Ethan Allen, essentially the email forwards of the 19th century. Its authenticity is highly questionable.