At a Fourth of July celebration at Monticello (Jefferson’s home) President Bush misquoted Jefferson. Here’s what Bush said:

On the 50th anniversary of America’s independence, Thomas Jefferson passed away. But before leaving this world, he explained that the principles of the Declaration of Independence were universal. In one of the final letters of his life, he wrote, “May it be to the world, what I believe it will be — to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all — the signal of arousing men to burst the chains, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.”

But what Jefferson actually wrote contains an anti-religious statement:

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

It is ironic that Bush, who edited Jefferson, so actively promotes “monkish ignorance and superstition”.