"A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed."
The Second Amendment of the United States Consitution.
"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize
Congress...to prevent the people of the United States, who are
peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms..."
Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, August 20, l789
"To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people
always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to
use them..."
RICHARD HENRY LEE writing in Letters
from the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788)
"A militia, when properly formed are in fact the people
themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms."
RICHARD HENRY (LIGHT HORSE HARRY) LEE,
Additional Letters from the Federal
Farmer (1788) at 169.
"A free people ought...to be armed...."
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Speech of January 7, l790 in the Boston
Independent Chronicle, January 14, l790
"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us
carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was
adopted, recollect the spirit manufested in the debates, and
instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text,
or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it
was passed."
THOMAS JEFFERSON,
letter to William Johnson, June 12, 1823,
The Complete Jefferson, p322
"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not
warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of
resistance? Let them take arms... The tree of Liberty must be
refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and
tyrants."
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to William S. Smith,
1787, in S. Padover (Ed.), Jefferson, On
Democracy (1939), p. 20.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right
to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect
themselves against tyranny in government."
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Proposal for a Virginia Constitution, June 1776.
1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J. Boyd, Ed. 1950)
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only
those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit
crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted
and better for the assailants; they serve rather to
encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed
man may be attacked with greater confidence than an
armed man."
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Thomas Jefferson's "Commonplace Book," 1774-1776,
quoting from On Crimes and Punishment, by
criminologist Cesare Beccaria, 1764
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of
exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to
the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the
mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature,are
too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let
your gun therefore be the constant companion of your walks."
THOMAS JEFFERSON, Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson,
318 (Foley, Ed., 1967).
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they
be properly armed."
ALEXANDER HAMILTON, of New York,
The Federalist Papers at 184-8
"If circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an
army of any magnitude, that army can never be formidable to the liberties
of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little if at
all inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready
to defend their rights and those of their fellow citizens."
ALEXANDER HAMILTON of New York,
The Federalist, No. 29
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been
recognized by the General Government; but the best security of
that right after all is, the military spirit, that taste for
martial exercises, which has always distinguished the free
citizens of these States...Such men form the best barrier to the
liberties of America."
Gazette of the United States, October 14, l789
"The whole of the Bill of Rights is a declaration of the right of the
people at large or considered as individuals...It establishes some
rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no
majority has a right to deprive them of."
ALBERT GALLATIN of the New York Historical Society,
October 7, l789
"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons.
They are left in full possession of them."
ZACHARIA JOHNSON, 3 Elliot,
Debates at 646.
"The Consititution shall never be construed...to prevent the people of
the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own
arms."
SAMUAL ADAMS,
Debates & Proceedings in the Convention
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1786-87
"The said Constitution [shall] be never construed to authorize
Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights
of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who
are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms."
SAMUEL ADAMS of Massachusetts,
Massachusetts' U.S. Constitution ratification
convention, 1788
"The right of the people to keep and bear...arms shall not be
infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the people,
trained to arms is the best and most natural defense of a free
country..."
JAMES MADISON, 1 Annals of Congress
434 (June 8, 1789).
"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess
over the people of almost every other nation... Notwithstanding the
military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which
are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments
are afraid to trust the people with arms."
JAMES MADISON, of Virginia,
Federalist Papers, #46.
"Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual
discretion...in private self-defense..."
JOHN ADAMS, A Defense of the Constitutions
of the Government of the USA, 471 (1788)
"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before
them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which
must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert
their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are
confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their
private arms."
TENCH COXE in "Remarks on the First Part of the
Amendments to the Federal Constitution." Under
the pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the
Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789.
at 2 col.1
"Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and
every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right
of an American... [T]he unlimited power of the sword is not in the
hands of either the federal or state governments, but, where I trust
in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."
TENCH COXE of Pennsylvania,
Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
"The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people
at large, will render many troops quite unnecessary. They will
form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally
be sufficient to over-awe them."
TENCH COXE of Pennsylvania,
An American Citizen, Oct. 21, 1787
"Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Congress have no
power to disarm the militia. Their swords and every other terrible
implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American....
The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either
the federal or state governments, but, where I trust in God it
will ever remain, in the hands of the people."
TENCH COXE of Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788
"As the military forces which must occasionally be raised to defend
our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow
citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article (of amendment)
in their right to keep and bear their private arms."
TENCH COXE of Pennsylvania,
Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect
everyone who approaches that jewel."
PATRICK HENRY of Virginia.
Virginia's U.S. Constitution
ratification convention
"Have we the means of resisting disciplined armies, when our only
defence, the militia, is put in the hands of Congress?"
PATRICK HENRY, 3 Elliot Debates at 48.
"Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing
degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own
defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our
possession and under our own direction, and having them under
the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of
having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more
propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?"
PATRICK HENRY, 3 Elliot Debates 168-169.
"The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able
might have a gun."
PATRICK HENRY, 3 Elliot, Debates at 386.
"...the people have a right to keep and bear arms."
PATRICK HENRY AND GEORGE MASON,
Elliot, Debates at 185
"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except
for a few public officials."
GEORGE MASON, 3 Elliot, Debates at 425-426.
"When the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great
Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man,
who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that
it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but
that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let
them sink gradually.". . . I ask, who are the militia? They
consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers."
GEORGE MASON - Virginia's U.S. Constitution
ratification convention, 1788
"That the People have a right to keep and bear Arms; that a well
regulated Militia, composed of the Body of the People, trained to
arms, is the proper, natural, and safe Defence of a free state."
GEORGE MASON - Within Mason's declaration
of "the essential and unalienable Rights of
the People," Later adopted by the Virginia
ratification convention, 1788
"A string of amendments were presented to the lower house; these
altogether respect personal liberty."
SEN. WILLIAM GRAYSON of Virginia
in a letter to Patrick Henry. June 12, 1789
referring to the introduction of what became
the Bill of Rights
"To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the
people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when
young, how to use them..."
RICHARD HENRY (LIGHT HORSE HARRY) LEE,
writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer
to the Republic (1787-1788)
"A militia when properly formed are in fact the people themselves...and
include all men capable of bearing arms...To preserve liberty it is
essential that the whole body of people always possess arms... The mind
that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly
anti-republican principle."
RICHARD HENRY (LIGHT HORSE HARRY) LEE, of
Virginia. Additional Letters From
The Federal Farmer, 1788
"The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on
the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and
plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as
property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world
destitute of arms, for all would be alike; but since some will
not, others dare not lay them aside... Horrid mischief would ensue
were one half the world deprived of the use of them..."
THOMAS PAINE, I Writings of Thomas Paine
at 56 (1894)
"Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe, and preserve
order in the world as well as property... Horrid mischief would ensue
were the law-abiding deprived of the use of them."
THOMAS PAINE, of Pennsylvania,
Thoughts On Defensive War, 1775
"What, sir, is the use of militia? It is to prevent the establishment
of a standing army, the bane of liberty... Whenever Government means
to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt
to destroy the militia, in order to raise a standing army upon its ruins."
REP. ELBRIDGE GERRY, of Massachusetts,
U.S. House of Representatives Debate,
August 17, 1789.
Also in Annals of Congress at 750 (August 17, 1789).
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as
they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in
America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole
body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to
any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in
the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress,
can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just
and constitutional; for they will possess the power."
Noah Webster of Pennsylvania
An Examination of The Leading Principles
of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787
"The rights of conscience, of bearing arms, of changing the government,
are declared to be inherent in the people."
FISHER AMES, of Massachusetts,
Letter to F.R. Minoe, June 12, 1789
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