apocryphal quote?

[Sam Clements]

Kristof no doubt picked it up from Safire, who used that in a 1982 column,
attibuting it to a (then) current NY preacher.

That exact quote is available in a Newspaperarchive cite from 1927, but
offered as a joke, and attributed to an 'Arkansas' person.    So, since "Ma"
was elected governor in 1924, she COULD have said it.  But I can't find a
contemporary newspaper cite linking her to it.

I CAN find a 1912 cite, again using Newspaperarchive, which offers the
origins of the sentiment(which I suggest came from "preacher" humor)

>>The at one time well known preacher among the Wesleyans, Peter Mackenzie,
in reading the third chapter of Daniel invariably abbreviated the fifth
verse, wherein are enumerated the instruments of the Babylonian band, most
of them with hard names, to the "cornet," etc., and when the names were
repeated in verses 10 and 15, said:  "The band as before."  He was a lay
preacher of the old order who was admitted on to full plan without having
read the prescribed Wesley Sermons," etc.  He boasted of his lack of "book
learning," and scornfully told a student of the new school who was learning
Latin that "English was good enough for Paul; ain't it good enough for
you?"<<

Sam Clements
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Frank" <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2004 10:38 AM
Subject: apocryphal quote?


> "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for us."
>
> I always thought that this quote was apocryphal. But in today's New York
> Times, Nicholas Kristof attributes it to Miriam "Ma" Ferguson, the first
> woman governor of Texas (see
> http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/ffe6.html).
>
> Kristof writes: "a Texas governor, Miriam 'Ma' Ferguson, barred the
> teaching of foreign languages about 80 years ago, saying, 'If English
> was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for us.'"
>
> Is Kristof right?
>
> Paul
> __________________________
> Paul Frank
> Chinese-English translation
> http://tinyurl.com/5av5h
> http://tinyurl.com/6tuvz
> paulfrank at post.harvard.edu
>