Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) is sometimes quoted for having said:
 
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.”
 
Jefferson never said it. The words “inflation” and “deflation” wouldn’t have been used during his lifetime. The fake Jefferson quotation has been cited in print since at least 1933, when it was cited by Texas Congressman Wright Patman (1893-1976).
 
   
THe THomas Jefferson Encyclopedia (Monticello.org)
Private Banks (Quotation)
Quotation: “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered…I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
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Earliest known appearance in print: 1937
Other attributions: None known.
Status: This quotation is at least partly spurious; see comments below.
Comments: This quotation is often cited as being in an 1802 letter to Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, and/or “later published in The Debate Over the Recharter of the Bank Bill (1809).”
 
The first part of the quotation (“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered”) has not been found anywhere in Thomas Jefferson’s writings, to Albert Gallatin or otherwise. It is identified in Respectfully Quoted as spurious, and the editor further points out that the words “inflation” and “deflation” are not documented until after Jefferson’s lifetime.
 
16 January 1933, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Patman Argues for Payment in Money,” sec. 1, pg. 4, col. 6:
Thomas Jefferson said:
 
“If the American people ever allow the private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and the corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”
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WRIGHT PATMAN.
545 House Office Bldg.,
Washington, D.C.
 
22 October 1934, Manitowoc (WI) Herald-Times, “Open Forum,” pg. 4, col. 2:
Thomas Jefferson said, in 1813, “Bank paper money must be suppressed and the circulation medium restored to the nation….” He also said, “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies….” Again, “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children first by inflation and then by deflation.”
(By Arnold Sander, Sr.—ed.)
   
Google Books
Abundance for All:
A program to provide plenty for all our people through an expansion of industries brought about by the direct and widespread distribution of purchasing power:
Handbook of the American Foundation for Abundance.
By American Foundation for Abundance
Oklahoma City, OK: The Foundation
1939
Pg. 31:
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will grow up around them will deprive people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on a continent their fathers conquered.”
THOMAS JEFFERSON.
 
TomWoods.com
April 15. 2013
The Greenbackers’ Fake Quote Industry
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Then there’s this Jefferson quotation that a lot of Greenbackers use: “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.”
 
This one is a total fake. The terms “inflation” and “deflation” are anachronistic here, for one thing, not being in use in Jefferson’s time.