The Phony Quotations Strike Again

I used to call them "David Barton's phony quotations." He did write an article that half-assed attempts to correct the record [I linked to the newest version of the article which I just read and which attacks Dr. Gregg Frazer whose work I have followed closely for years]. I'm not going to pin them on him anymore, however.

I've been doing this for over a decade now and it seems these quotations aren't going away. Here is the latest use from WordNetDaily head honcho Joseph Farah:

Too many Americans have become convinced that we can, as a nation, have it both ways – denying God and still somehow hanging on to our liberty, prosperity and security. It just doesn’t work that way.

A quote from James Madison is very relevant here: “We have staked the whole future of the American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future … upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

He chose his words carefully, and they were accurate and to the point.

The problem is Madison never said it. It's a fake quote. America's Founders -- notably the Founders who played leading roles like James Madison -- did engage in God talk and spoke of "blessings" and "Providence" and so on. However, they tended to be much more general in how they described God.