Quote
By Thomas Jefferson
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
- Source
- Letter to Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787 · The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 11, pp. 48-50
- Read at
- Founders Online, National Archives
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A letter written from Paris, January 16, 1787, to Edward Carrington, after disturbances in America. Jefferson adds right after this sentence that he would mean that every man should receive those papers. Jefferson often began sentences with a lowercase letter and wrote & for and, and the Papers keep that.