Chamblee54

During the discussion about the US government collecting “metadata only”, a quote has come up. The facebook comment read “The only comment I have on government spying on its own citizens is from Ben Franklin: “Those who can give up essential liberties to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.” Apparently metadata only does not include checking on the veracity of eighteenth century quotes. Fortunately, the internet can be helpful.
Before we move onto that, lets check the more current record. These days, when a public figure says anything, it is quoted verbatim. This does not stop mistakes, but it helps. The Washington Post printed a transcript of a press conference from those bouncing bipartisans Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss. The following two comments are from the Georgia lame duck.
“That’s been very clear all along through the years of this program. It is proved meritorious, because we have gathered significant information on bad guys, but only on bad guys, over the years. … The information that they’re really looking for is on the other end of the call. It’s: Are they in contact, is somebody in contact with somebody that we know to be a known terrorist? And that’s why it’s metadata only and it’s what we call minimized. All these numbers are basically ferreted out by computer, but if there’s a number that matches a terrorist number that has been dialed by a U.S. number or dialed from a terrorist to a U.S. number, then that may be flagged. And they may or may not seek a court order to go further on that particular instance. But that’s the only time that this information is ever used in any kind of substantive way.”
It should be noted that this is not a surprise to many of us. PG gave up during the Reagan administration. On the one hand, the government was conducting a war on drugs, with rights of citizens taken away to reduce demand for substances less dangerous than alcohol. On the other hand, drug importers were used to transport weapons to terrorists in Central America. It was really strange on the other side of the looking glass. It has only gotten worse in the last twenty six years.
Getting back to Ben Franklin, it seems that the quote may be, sort of, legitimate. This is more than can be said for some of Mr. Franklin’s children. Wikiquotes says: They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. This was written by Franklin, within quotation marks but is generally accepted as his original thought, sometime shortly before February 17, 1775 as part of his notes for a proposition at the Pennsylvania Assembly, as published in Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin.
The quote is on page 270 of the memoirs. There was a discussion in the Pennsylvania Assembly on ways to solve the problems with England without a war. The quote is, indeed, a quote. While it is possible that Mr. Franklin said it, it does not appear to be in his writings. The line before the famous quote: “The Massachusetts must suffer all the hazards and mischiefs of war, rather than admit the alteration of their charters and laws by parliament”.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.