« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2011, 11:19:31 AM »
sofa king (1000+ posts) Sat May-28-11 11:26 AM
Response to Reply #22
24. I guess I am wrong.
Though I still find it hard to believe, as Thomas Jefferson was using one in 1804 (though probably not to sign bills).
It would appear that previously the autopen (and Ronald Reagan's habit of having his secretary and sometimes his mother sign his documents) was only used for non-essential documents.
...But I'm still not sure about Saint Ronnie. According to one source, 80% of the signed documents supposed to be in the Reagan Presidential Library are lost or misplaced.
That's also probably an accurate gauge of how much of Reagan's work was legitimate, legal, and above the table.
I would suggest that one possible reason why so many documents are missing is because they might have been signed with an autopen. I vaguely recall a Time Magazine article from that decade which hinted at the same thing--which is why I made the apparently erroneous statement above.
Or maybe you're just full of shit like a young crow.
Logged
Then-Chief Justice John Marshall observed, “Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.”
John Adams warned in a letter, “Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet, that did not commit suicide.”
