Mark Twain Quotes
And now, here I was in a country where a right to say how the country should be governed was restricted to six in each thousand of its population. For the 994 to express dissatisfaction with the … system and propose to change it, would have made the whole 6 shudder as one man … It seemed to me that what the 994 dupes needed was a new deal.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. This is the earliest written or spoken instance of the “new deal” phrase that we have found in a political context. This was 43 years before President Franklin Delano Roosevelt adopted it as the name of his political program.
Mark Twain Writer, Founder, Anti-Imperialist League, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 1889
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
This is the negative way of stating the Seneca quotation {642436}.
1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor. The phrase was later used by FDR in his 1932 acceptance speech and became the appellation for his programs. However, this was not the first time the "new deal" phrase was used in a political context. Mark Twain used it in 1889 -- see {642436}. It is not known whether or not Roosevelt or his staff were familiar with Lloyd George's use or whether or not either of them were conscious of Twain's 1889 use in his A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.
In an irony, the first President limited by a term limit amendment pushed by Republicans remembering FDR turned out to be fellow Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- Born: November 30, 1835
- Died: April 21, 1910
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Author
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the latter often called "The Great American Novel".
