>    I seem to recall a quote from Thomas Jefferson that I can not find.
> Can you help?  I think it is, "If we sacrifice freedom for the sake of
> security we will soon have neither."

I believe the quote you are looking for is from Benjamin Franklin, not
Jefferson. 

I am quite sure that Franklin is the correct author and that you will
find it so attributed in Bartlett's Familar Quotations.

From Bartlett's quotations:

  "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
   safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." [2]
     -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

Note 2: This sentence was much used in the Revolutionary period. It
occurs even so early as November, 1755, in an answer to the Assembly of
Pennsylvania to the Governor, and forms the motto of Franklin's
"Historical Review," 1759, appearing also in the body of the work. -
Frothingham: Rise of the Republic of the United States, p. 413

9th edition of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.





> Thanks for the interesting web site.
>
> I recently sought the wording of a TJ quote which I dimly remembered:
>
> "Those who desire to give up Freedom in order to gain Security, will not
> have, nor do they deserve, either one." --[Thomas Jefferson?]
>
> That statement seems 100% relevant today, regarding some of the responses
> to the September 11 attacks. I wanted something like that to send to my
> Congressional representatives.
>
> I had no trouble finding the quote, in many different web sites, but never
> with a source given. I wasn't suspicious at first, but now I realize that I
> should have been. My question to you: Is it certain that this is a false
> quote? Did TJ say anything similar? I do know of the Ben Franklin statement,
> but it does seem in character for Jefferson also to have said something like
> that.

I believe the quote you are looking for is from Benjamin Franklin, not
Jefferson.  (see above)

I feel compelled to suggest that freedom and liberty are never
without limitations.  Jefferson wrote:

"Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is
unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is
unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by
the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law,'
because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates
the right of an individual." --Thomas Jefferson to Isaac H. Tiffany, 1819.

Rightful liberty, or rightful freedom, must always be limited "by the equal
rights of others," and this limitation is ordinarily effected by the law,
although as Jefferson points out, not every law is a rightful limitation.

I believe that the Benjamin Franklin quote refers to those who would give up
their inalienable rights to liberty and are willing to live under tyranny
because of the "safety" it provides, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Giving up certain "freedoms" that are nothing more than conveniences in
order to obtain some degree of safety seems like a fair exchange.  On the
other hand, giving up our inalienable rights in order to be more secure
seems like abandoning one of the things that security is supposed to
protect.  If, in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, we give up our
essential rights to be free from unlawful searches and seizures, security
means little, because we will have installed the tyranny we are trying to
defeat.

My own personal feeling is, however, that we could, with a sunset provision,
allow searches and seizures, unlimited detentions, etc., but only if
pursuant to the fight against terrorism, if such measures could NOT be used
in fighting other crimes.  That would mean that for anything else but
terrorism, the "fruit of the poisoned tree" defense would be available for
any evidence obtained through such extraordinary measures.  Just as on a
battlefield, we do not read the enemy his rights, so when the enemy walks in
our midst, I do not think it is the proper time to read him his rights.  But
such extraordinary measures should be confined strictly to this war on
terrorism.