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To: Alter Kaker
Thomas Jefferson didn't say that either.

He said it in different words.

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."

104 posted on 09/29/2014 12:04:10 PM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: JimRed
He said it in different words. "If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."

He didn't say that either.

112 posted on 09/29/2014 12:11:04 PM PDT by Alter Kaker (Gravitation is a theory, not a fact. It should be approached with an open mind...)
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To: JimRed

Not so.

http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/if-law-unjustquotation

If a law is unjust...(Quotation)

Quotation: “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”

Variations: None known.

Sources checked:

Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Digital Edition
Thomas Jefferson retirement papers
Thomas Jefferson: Papers and Biographies collections in Hathi Trust Digital Library
Other attributions: None known.

Earliest appearance in print: undetermined

Comments: This quotation has not been found in Thomas Jefferson’s papers. It has been suggested that it is a paraphrase of Jefferson’s statement in the Declaration of Independence, “...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...,” although such a paraphrase would seem to be taking some radical liberties with the original version. The quotation bears a much closer resemblance to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s comment in his famous letter from Birmingham Jail: “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”[1]


118 posted on 09/29/2014 12:16:41 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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