Refuting Bogus James Madison Quote: "Ten Commandments of God"

A Letter to the Editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette, by Bruce Monson, March, 2005

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Dear Editor,

 

The letter from Bruce Pennington (Letters, March 19) citing James Madison as author of the quote: “We have staked the future of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” is a prime example of how disinformation gets disseminated to the masses, whether through honest error or more nefarious purposes. 

 

The quote has been known to be bogus for some time (even among “Christian Nation” activists like David Barton, who circulated it back in the late 80s and early 90s, but now admit it’s dubious).  According to the University of Virginia editors of The Papers of James Madison, nothing even “remotely like the sentiment expressed” in the quote appears anywhere in Madison’s writings, and furthermore it is “inconsistent with everything we know about Madison's views on religion and government, views which he expressed time and time again in public and in private."

 

Indeed, in Madison’s essay “Monopolies…” we read this:  “Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history…"  And there’s this one from an 1819 letter to Robert Walsh: “Whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State.”  There are dozens of such quotes, and nowhere does Madison ever subscribe our “political institutions” or government to any authority beyond “the people.”