A group calling itself “Patriotic Moms” claims to quote Thomas Jefferson:
Thomas Jefferson said a lot, and kept careful records of about 15,000 letters — but did he ever say a country without a border is not a country? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“A country with no Border is not a country.”
I can’t find that in Jefferson’s writings. Anybody know if Jefferson said or wrote anything like that? Got a citation?
Is this another fake Jefferson quote?
Update: My determination is that no, Jefferson did not say it at all.
More, reference:
- Quote of the moment: Jefferson, on reason in a republic (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
- ‘Historian’ David Barton’s book on Thomas Jefferson pulled from stores (rawstory.com)
- Recalling Revisionist History (kennysideshow.blogspot.com)
- Kansas congressional candidate changes name to Thomas Jefferson (kansascity.com)
- “Misquoting Jefferson,” at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
- “Fake quotes in prize-winning essays,” at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
I’m familiar with Trader Joe. Who is Trader Obama?
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Donald and William, are you relatives of Poe?
Why the exact same grammar errors, and reasoning errors, from two different people?
Are you part of the Deep Misstate?
What did you guys do with the body of hermanborg?
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All you left wing fake news expert probably think Trader Obama came up with the Quote ! You probably know very well that what you can’t prove , probably didn’t happen . the left wing Democrats are still causing President Trump of thing that they have nothing but false lies and fake news to back it up. Having a falsely elected president doesn’t change the facks that you are nothing but far left, socialist, Communists ! Have your 15 min. Of glory gloating. The right is ready to stop anything you try to do for the next 4 years and beyond !!! Have a miserable day buttercups !
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All you left wing fake news expert probably think Trader Obama came up with the Quote ! You probably know very well that what you can’t prove , probably didn’t happen . the left wing Democrats are still causing President Trump of thing that they have nothing but false lies and fake news to back it up. Having a falsely elected president doesn’t change the facks that you are nothing but far left, socialist, Communists ! Have your 15 min. Of glory gloating. The right is ready to stop anything you try to do for the next 4 years and beyond !!! Have a miserable day buttercups !
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“A country with a liar for a president is worse than a country with no borders.”
– Ed Darrell, February 15, 2019, in response to President Trump’s border emergency hoax.
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Rosemary, turns out it wasn’t Reagan, either. It was an obscure Congressman from Indiana, a guy named Mike Pence.
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Reagan was probably a writer for Jefferson — in Reagan’s mind, anyway.
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“A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.” ~~ Ronald Reagan. The difference is control. (Maybe Jefferson stole it from Reagan??? lol)
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[…] Way back in 2012 I wrote this: […]
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First off, higgens, you’re quite right..it’s hard to prove a negative.
Which is why if one can’t prove that Jefferson did say the quote it’s safe to assume he didn’t.
But judging from several right wing blogs that claim that Reagan said “A nation without borders is not a nation.” I would suspect that the quote is really Reagan’s and not Jefferson’s.
It wouldn’t exactly be the first time someone on the right side of the spectrum falsely attributed a sentence to Jefferson. *coughs* David Barton *coughs*
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Mike Pence, congressman from Indiana? That’s a long, long way from Jefferson. No connection.
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Who the heck is Pence?
But finding the quote from Pence also takes us a step farther away from attributing it to Jefferson.
In serious history study, we don’t make claims based on speculation. If we can’t find a clear reference with good citations, we do not cite the quote to Jefferson. To do otherwise is known in academic circles as “lying like a rug.”
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http://presidential2008.blogspot.com/2005/12/nation-without-borders-is-not-nation.html
has this quote attributed to pence
which of course does not mean jefferson did not say it
it is always hard to prove a negative
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