> Not Jefferson.
Yes, Jefferson.
In a letter to William Stephens Smith, Nov. 13, 1787: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl64.htm
Well, then guess what? There was some plagerizin' goin' on back then. I don't know who copied whom, but two separate people don't come up with essentially the same phrase at the same time, each on their own.
“Well, then guess what? There was some plagerizin’ goin’ on back then. I don’t know who copied whom, but two separate people don’t come up with essentially the same phrase at the same time, each on their own.”
This might help you:
Jefferson’s letter to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787. “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson”.
Bertrand Barere de Vieuzac comment in a speech to the French national assembly, January 16, 1793.
While Jefferson was in France as a US ambassador, it is likely that he may have used the phrase in conversations with the revolutionaries there and it got passed on to Barere, who then used it later.