VANITY: Looking for a Founding Father quote

[Tandem]

I recall a quote to the effect that society is doomed when the majority realizes that they can vote themselves riches from the public coffers. The context is our current situation, where the bottom 50% of taxpayers currently pay only 4% of the taxes. The only thing that may be saving those of us who pay our fair share (or more) is that proportionately fewer of the bottom 50% actually vote! I am looking for who made the statement, when and the specific wording. I plan to use this to stimulate my congress-critters and to club a few libs the next time they whine about taxcuts for "the rich". Any help would be appreciated!

[untenured]

Nope. I Googled it. There were 127 results, but every last one of them references only this quote and one more, often fused together. There was almost no reference to the book's history, its significance, nothing,as one would expect at least some historian somewhere to have done if it were a real book. This is a classic symptom of a bogus quote. In addition, neither the Worldcat catalogue of libraries worldwide nor the Ohiolink catalogue of nearly every university library in Ohio even lists the book in their records, a near-impossibility if the book exists.

I have no idea of its authority, but this site pronounces it discredited.

[Oztrich Boy]

You seem to be right

THE Encyclopedia knows not of it

Nor does Significant Scots

[richardmathews]

Here is an article that explains why the attribution should be discredited.

[sargon]

Alexis de Tocqville.

Correct! De Tocqueville saw the Tyrannical and Unsustainable risks of unrestrained Democracy, before the misguided and deluded Karl Marx wrote the abomination known as his Communist Manifesto. I highly recommend reading at least some excerpts from de Tocqueville's magnificent writing called Democracy in America...

[untenured]

Thanks. I hope you didn't sign up and then do ten months of research just for that. :)