Jefferson on Democracy

[snopes]

Comment: Any confirmation on the following quote being attributed to
Thomas Jefferson?

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the
people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."

Seems very uncharacteristic of the man that placed so much faith in the
innate wisdom of the common man.

[Steve]

The Washington Post doesn't think so.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...401703_pf.html

Perhaps proving this very cow-herdedness, however, many have tried to suggest our system of government is all mobbed up by brandishing a Thomas Jefferson quote: "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."

Sorry, guys. The esteemed founder never said it. The folks at Monticello's research library witheringly say that old saw has been dogging him for years.

The quote sound rather federalist. If it sounds like anyone's opinon, it sounds like the sort of think Hamilton would have said.(assuming it was said by any founder)