# Please help me source these purported Founding-Fathers' quotes

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-source-these-purported-founding-fathers-quotes/595329>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 5, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-source-these-purported-founding-fathers-quotes/595329 "2011-09-05T23:50:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-source-these-purported-founding-fathers-quotes/595329/1 "2011-09-05T23:50:26Z")

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Which I found on the website of [Californians for Electoral Reform:](http://www.cfer.org/learn/quotedump.php)

> [@](#):
>
> “[legislatures in the United States] should be an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large, as it should think, feel, reason, and act like them.” – John Adams
> 
> “… the portrait is excellent in proportion to its being a good likeness,…the legislature ought to be the most exact transcript of the whole society… the faithful echo of the voices of the people.” – James Wilson at the Constitutional Convention

But which I cannot find (not even as “Unsourced” or “Misattributed”) at [Adams’](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams) or [Wilsons’](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Wilson) Wikiquote entries. Are they authentic?

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**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-source-these-purported-founding-fathers-quotes/595329/2 "2011-09-06T00:34:33Z")

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Hi **BG** , the John Adams quote is from his “Thoughts on Government” 1776 [letter to George Wythe](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/adams/filmmore/ps_thoughts.html). (It occurs two paragraphs before the numbered list.)

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**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-source-these-purported-founding-fathers-quotes/595329/3 "2011-09-06T00:44:09Z")

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Adams seems to have written a very similar letter to other people as well.

The Adams Papers at the University of Virginia returns the following two results in a search:

> [@](#):
>
> I. To William Hooper, 27 March 1776
> 
> … principal Difficulty lies, and the greatest Care should be taken in constituting this Representative Assembly. It should be, in Miniature, an exact Portrait of the People at large. It should think, feel, reason, and act like them. That it …  
> II. To John Penn, 27 March 1776
> 
> … Persons who shall have the Privilege of choosing one. As the Representative Assembly, should be an exact Portrait, in Miniature, of the People at large, as it should think, feel, reason and act like them great Care should be …

To see the full results, you have to sign up for a 48-hour trial, or belong to a university that subscribes to the collection.

To see the results list, go [here](http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/default.xqy?keys=ADMS-info-search) and put the word “miniature” into the Text search box.

ETA:

Part of the Wilson quote can be found [here](http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_606.asp), at Yale’s Avalon Project.

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-help-me-source-these-purported-founding-fathers-quotes/595329/4 "2011-09-06T14:12:39Z")

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Thanks! 🙂