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- "Whereas civil-rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may
attempt to tyrannize, and as 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
- "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, Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788)
- "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly
armed." -- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-188
- "No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson,
Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776
- "If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no
recourse left but in the exertion of that original right of self-defense which is
paramount to all positive forms of government, and which against the usurpations of the
national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against
those of the rulers of an individual State. In a single State, if the persons intrusted
with supreme power become usurpers, the different parcels, subdivisions, or districts of
which it consists, having no distinct government in each, can take no regular measures for
defences.
- The citizens must rush tumultuously to arms, without concert, without system, without
resource; except in their courage and despair. -- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 29
- "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 . . ." -- Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from
the Federal Farmer 53 (1788)
- "That the said Constitution shall never be 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, Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale, eds., Boston, 1850)
- "[The Constitution preserves] the advantage of being armed which Americans possess
over the people of almost every other nation...(where) the governments are afraid to trust
the people with arms." --James Madison,The Federalist Papers, No. 46
- "To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion,
except in private self-defense, or by partial orders of towns, countries or districts of a
state, is to demolish every constitution, and lay the laws prostrate, so that liberty can
be enjoyed by no man; it is a dissolution of the government. The fundamental law of the
militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the
support of the laws." --John Adams, A Defence of the Constitutions of the United
States 475 (1787-1788)
- "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, and jealousy will
instantly inspire the inclination, to resist the execution of a law which appears to them
unjust and oppressive." --Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of
the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia 1787).
- "Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall
turn our arms each man gainst his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia.
Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright 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." --Tenche Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
- "Whereas, 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; nor does
it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion.
The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican
principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can
prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it." --Richard
Henry Lee, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
- "And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from
time to time that the people preserve the spirit of resistance? -- Thomas Jefferson to
James Madison, Dec. 20, 1787, in Papers of Jefferson, ed. Boyd et al.
- "No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson,
Proposal Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334,[C.J. Boyd, Ed., 1950]
- "The right of the people to keep and bear ... arms shall not be infringed. A well
regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the best and
most natural defense of a free country ..." -- James Madison, I Annals of Congress
434, June 8, 1978
- "A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves ... and include
all men capable of bearing arms." -- Richard Henry Lee, Additional Letters from the
Federal Farmer (1788) at 169
- "What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a
standing army, the bane of liberty .... Whenever Governments mean to invade the rights and
liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an
army upon their ruins." -- Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, spoken during floor
debate over the Second Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789
- " ... to disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave
them." -- George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates at 380
- " ... but 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 use
of arms, who stand ready to defend their rights ..." -- Alexander Hamilton speaking
of standing armies in Federalist 29
- "Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we
cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our
arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of
Congress? If our defense be the real object of 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 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed.
Philadelphia, 1836
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