alt.education

on Tue 26 Feb 2008 08:23:59a
buckeye posted
in news:vve8s3lm50m50jqqck9gvuta7rbac88nm8@4ax.com:

> The following Christian site is offering on ebay a picture of
> James Madsion, some thing showing the Great Seal along with a
> signature of James Madison coupled with the infamous Ten
> Commandment bogus quote attributed to Madison beginning at just
> under 495.00
>
> http://tinyurl.com/3bhdgb
>
> What a rip off.
>

The clown's Jefferson quote is bogus too.

From Monticello dot org:


The one attributed to John Quincy Adams is dubious also.

Maybe you can offer enlightenment on it.

The revisionary merchant on Ebay lists the quote as:

"So great is my veneration of the Bible,
that the earlier my children begin to read it
the more confident will be my hope
that they will prove
useful citizens of their country
and respectable members of society."

- - John Quincy Adams

Big problem when searhing for the quote's attribution on the web
though. The only place I found it footnoted and/or attributed,

it was a bit longer, and was of a different parentage, literally:

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral
and religious people. So great is my veneration
of the Bible that the earlier my children begin
to read it, the more confident will be my hope
that they will prove useful citizens of their
country and respectful members of society."

- - John Adams

The footnote reads:

Robert Ferrell,
"The Adams Family: Four Generations of Patriots",
(New York: Publius Press, 1969)

If 1969 is the first noting of this quoteation,
I find it hard to believe that even papa Adams said it.
What I know of John Quincy Adam's authorship,
makes be extremely sceptical that he wrote it.

Another cause more me to think this is a dubious quotation, is
that I also often find it with a triple ellipse inserted into it:

“Our constitution was made only for a moral
and religious people…so great is my veneration
of the Bible that the earlier my children begin
to read, the more confident will be my hope
that they will prove useful citizens in their
country and respectful members of society.”

- - John Adams

This Google book return shows it attributed
to J.Q. Adams with a dubious sourcing:



The given source being:
"compiled by Grant Jeffery"

That may be good enough for ditto-heads
who operate under blind faith pardigms,
but I ain't buying it from Grant Jeffery
without a more authoritarian citation: