[The following is an excerpt from a posting placed on the Newsgroup 
alt.current-events.clinton.whitewater on December 12, 2001 under the
subject, "Re: Desperate liberals claim U of Virginia doctors Jefferson
Quotes."  Posted by "Sherwood."]

> The "Coates' site" takes Jefferson remarks and statements out of
> context. For a further example of this go to the digital electronic
> text page at the University of Virginia http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-singleauthor?specfile=/web/data/jefferson/texts/jefall.o2w
> 
> http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/jefferson/texts/
> 
> Do a search on the words, "My construction of the Constitution is."
> The complete text of that statement at the Coates site has a totally
> different meaning than the Jefferson digital site. At the Coates site
> the statement is taken out of context and is as follows: "My
> construction of the Constitution is... that each department is truly
> independent of the others and has an equal right to decide for itself
> what is the meaning of the Constitution in the cases submitted to its
> actions; and especially where it is to act ultimately and without
> appeal."
> 
> The complete and correct statement by Thomas Jefferson, found nearly
> at the bottom of the paragraph and statement made by Jefferson, opens
> as: "My construction of the constitution is very different from that
> you quote."
> 
> The complete quote by Jefferson is as follows:
> 
> "In denying the right they usurp of exclusively explaining the
> constitution, I go further than you do, if understand rightly your
> quotation from the Federalist, of an opinion that "the judiciary is
> the last resort in relation to the other departments of the
> government, but not in relation to the rights of the parties to the
> compact under which the judiciary is derived." If this opinion be
> sound, then indeed is our constitution a complete felo de se. For
> intending to establish three departments, co-ordinate and independent,
> that they might check and balance one another, it has given, according
> to this opinion, to one of them alone, the right to prescribe rules
> for the government of the others, and to that one too, which is
> unelected by, and independent of the nation. For experience has
> already shown that the impeachment it has provided is not even a
> scare- crow; that such opinions as the one you combat, sent cautiously
> out, as you observe also, by detachment, not belonging to the case
> often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally the public opinion
> beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line they are to walk
> in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have excited
> animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted with
> impeachment. The constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of
> wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into
> any form they please. It should be remembered, as an axiom of eternal
> truth in politics, that whatever power in any government is
> independent, is absolute also; in theory only, at first, while the
> spirit of the people is up, but in practice, as fast as that relaxes.
> Independence can be trusted nowhere but with the people in mass. They
> are inherently independent of all but moral law. My construction of
> the constitution is very different from that you quote. It is that
> each department is truly independent of the others, and has an equal
> right to decide for itself what is the meaning of the constitution in
> the cases submitted to its action; and especially where it is to act
> ultimately and without appeal. I will explain myself by examples,
> which, having occurred while I was in office, are better known to me,
> and the principles which governed them."
> 
> The fact remains that the Coates collection is not 100% accurate, and
> much of what Coates has done with Jefferson's words, remarks, and
> statements, has been taken out of context by Coates.
> 
> "My construction of the Constitution is...," a sentence taken from the
> Coates quotes pages, has quite a different meaning than "My
> construction of the constitution is very different from that you
> quote.," which is the exact quote made by Thomas Jefferson.

The purpose of the Jefferson quotations web site at the University of Virginia 
was not to present the political writings of Thomas Jefferson in their historical 
setting, but to extract from those writings his PRINCIPLES related to politics 
and government.  To some people, extracting quotations in that manner is taking 
them "out of context," and in a very narrow sense, that is probably true.  But if 
that narrow sense is accepted, then almost every brief quotation from Jefferson 
(and most other writers) is also taken "out of context."  For example, consider 
the famous Jefferson quote, "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility 
against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."   That quote appeared
in a letter to Benjamin Rush that discussed the clergy and their opposition to 
Jefferson in the election of 1800.  A fuller extract (still not the entire letter) would 
be as follows:

"The clergy...believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will 
be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have 
sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over 
the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their 
opinion." --Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush, 1800. ME 10:173 

Shall we say that we must not use that famous sentence except that we include the 
references to the clergy and the election of 1800?  Of course not!  It is a magnificent 
quotation, and has just as much legitimacy, is just as much an expression of Jefferson 
thought, standing alone as it is in the larger context of the letter.  Similarly with the 
quotation called into question by Sherwood:

"My construction of the Constitution is... that each department is truly independent of 
the others and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the meaning of the 
Constitution in the cases submitted to its actions; and especially where it is to act 
ultimately and without appeal."

That quotation accurately expresses Jefferson view on Judicial Review, and it does so 
just as accurately standing alone as it does in the context of the particular statement 
from which it was extracted.  In no way can it be said that the statement, AS A 
PRINCIPLE, "has a totally different meaning" from the principle Jefferson was 
enunciating in the broader context of the letter.  It in no way requires the additional 
words, "My construction of the constitution is very different from that you quote."  
Those words make reference to something that is NOT a part of Jefferson's principle, 
but is in fact at variance with that principle.

There are times, of course, when a quotation is indeed taken out of context in such a 
way as to give it a totally different meaning.  Consider, for example, the following:

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions 
which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." --Thomas Jefferson: Bill 
for Religious Freedom, 1779. Papers 2:545 

There are many people who would like to take that quotation and apply it to any 
subject taught in the public schools, and in that way effectively destroy public schooling.
Obviously, that is absurd, because Jefferson was a big supporter of public schools.
The quotation is part of his Bill for the Establishment of Relgious Freedom, and it quite 
obviously was meant by him to apply to the practice of taking tax monies from all 
citizens and then giving portions of that money to an established church that will teach 
doctrines in which some of the taxpayers do not believe.  That is an example of taking a 
quotation out of context and giving it a meaning that "has a totally different meaning" 
from that which Jefferson intended.  Unless there is such an extraction of a quotation, 
and the meaning given to it separately is indeed different than the meaning it had when in 
the larger context, then the accusation that one is taking quotations "out of context" is 
just a debater's trick used in an attempt to discredit what is a perfectly legitimate idea.