Copying and pasting quotes is as great a thing as the Internet. After we look up the relavant recorded quotes, we copy and paste them so as not to get the quote wrong.
Sure, they said it. But at this point we're often times left with a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking about what the person may have really meant. In relation to even the last 100 years, we unfortunately have precious little info about most of the Founding Fathers & what they really thought.
Cutting & pasting quotes left & right does little to educate and often times mis-educates because they are often taken so badly out of context & it paints a woefully inadequate picture.
It also doesn't allow for evidence that a person may have later changed their mind or evidence that politicians then -- just like now -- say one thing & do another.
I mean, if recordkeeping, etc in 2003 was the same as it was 200+ years ago, people in the year 2203 might be left with the impression that Arnold Schwarzenegger was a conservative
Agreed...but Monday morning quarterbacking does not change the wording of the quote. If taken literally, as worded, and not subject to interpretation, the wording of the quote must stand, as is, on it's own.
Mondy morning quarterbacking of the Constitution has given us people who BELIEVE that the Constitution is an evolving document.
No one's going to believe Arnie's a conservative as long as that quote about being ashamed of being Republican during the impeachment trial goes down in history.