| The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. |
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| NUMBER: | 30903 |
| QUOTATION: | The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), U.S. president. Letter, January 16, 1787, to Edward Carrington. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 11, p. 49, ed. Julian P. Boyd, et al. (1950). |
| BIOGRAPHY: | Columbia Encyclopedia. |
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| | | The Columbia World of Quotations. Copyright © 1996 Columbia University Press. |
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