Founders & Leaders...
Abel Parker Upshur - Secretary of State, Secretary of the Navy, Virginia Delegate and Attorney
Sir, the obligations of man in this social state are two-fold; to bear arms, and to pay taxes for the support of Government. The obligation to bear arms, results from the duty which society owes him, to protect his rights of person. The society which protects me, I am bound to protect in return.
TweetAlexander Hamilton - Secretary of the Treasury, Federalist Author
If the representatives of the people betray their constituents, there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self defence, which is paramount to all positive forms of government; and which, against the usurpation of the national rulers, may be exerted with an 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 defence. The citizens must rush tumultously to arms, without concert, without system, without resource; except in their courage and despair. (pg. 146)
...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 the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens. (pg. 151)
TweetBenjamin Franklin - Author, Printer, Postmaster, Scientist, Inventor, Statesman, Diplomat , Signer of the Declaration of Independence
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Cesare Beccaria - Italian Philosopher, Jurist, Politician and Author
A principal source of errors and injustice, are false ideas of utility. For example; that legislator has false ideas of utility, who considers particular more than general conveniences; who had rather command the sentiments of mankind than excite them, and dares say to reason, "Be thou a slave;" who would sacrifice a thousand real advantages to the fear of an imaginary or trifling inconvenience; who would deprive men of the use of fire, for fear of their being burnt, and of water, for fear of their being drown'd; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it.
The laws of this nature, are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance. Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator; and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack armed than unarmed persons.
Elbridge Gerry - Vice President, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
What sir is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. Now, it must be evident, that, under this provision, together with their other powers, Congress could take such measures with respect to a militia, as to make a standing army necessary. 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.
Elisha Williams - Pastor, Rector of Yale College, Legislator, Judge, Militia Colonel
And as Reason tells us, all are born thus naturally equal, i.e. with an equal Right to their Persons; so also with an equal Right to their Preservation; and therefore to such Things as Nature affords for their Subsistence.
George Mason - "Father of the Bill of Rights," Constitutional Delegate
Forty years ago, 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 to weaken them and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia. - [Here Mr Mason quoted sundry passages to this effect.] - This was a most iniquitous project. Why should we not provide against the danger of having our militia, our real and natural strength, destroyed? *Sir William Keith
TweetGeorge Washington - President, Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined, to which end a uniform and well digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent on others for essential, particularly military, supplies.
That no man should scruple, or hesitate a moment, to use arms in defence of so valuable a blessing is clearly my opinion. Yet arms, I would beg leave to add, should be the last resource the dernier resort.
James Burgh - British Politician, Author
No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion. And though for a while, those, who have the sword in their power, abstain from doing him injury, yet by degrees he will be awed into submission to every arbitrary command.
Burgh, James, Political Disquisitions, Volume II, London: Edward & Charles Dilly, 1774. 390. Print.
TweetJames Madison - President, Federalist Author
Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.
As auxiliary to regular force and a substitute for a large one in time of peace, a disciplined militia forms an essential part of a republican system, it being certain that liberty cannot be safe with powerful standing armies, nor in danger without them; and that, without an effective militia, the danger of such armies cannot be precluded.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person.
Joel Barlow - Poet, Diplomat, Chaplain, Patriot
The danger (where there is any) from armed citizens, is only to the government, not to the society; and as long as they have nothing to revenge in the government (which they cannot have while it is in their own hands) there are many advantages in their being accustomed to the use of arms, and no possible disadvantage.
TweetJohn Adams - President, Continental Congress
Whenever the militia comes to an end, or is despised or neglected, I shall consider this union dissolved, and the liberties of North America lost forever.
To suppose arms in the hands of citizens, to be used at individual discretion, except in private self defence or by partial orders of towns, counties, 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.
Resistance to sudden violence, for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I never surrendered to the public by the compact of society, and which, perhaps, I could not surrender if I would. Nor is there anything in the common law of England, (for which Mr. X supposes I have so great a fondness,) inconsistent with that right. *From the Boston Gazette, 5 September, 1763
The pretence of an absolute, irresistible, despotic power, existing in every government somewhere, is incompatible with the first principle of natural right. Take for example the right to life. The moment an infant is born, it has a right to the life which it has received from the Creator. Amiable and benevolent moralists have sometimes denied that this right can be forfeited to human laws, even by the commission of crime. Without concurring in that sentiment, we may safely affirm, that no human being, no combination of human beings, has the power, I say not the physical, but the moral power, to take a life not so forfeited, unless in self-defence or by the laws of war.
Joseph Story - Supreme Court Justice (1811-1845)
The next amendment is: "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 importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them. And yet, though this truth would seem so clear, and the importance of a well regulated militia would seem so undeniable, it cannot be disguised, that among the American people there is a growing indifference to any system of militia discipline, and a strong disposition, from a sense of its burthens, to be rid of all regulations. How it is practicable to keep the people duly armed without some organization, it is difficult to see. There is certainly no small danger, that indifference may lead to disgust, and disgust to contempt; and thus gradually undermine all the protection intended by this clause of our national bill of rights.
The next amendment is, "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." One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offence to keep arms, and by substituting a regular army in the stead of a resort to the militia. The friends of a free government cannot be too watchful, to overcome the dangerous tendency of the public mind to sacrifice, for the sake of mere private convenience, this powerful check upon the designs of ambitious men.
TweetJosiah Quincy Jr. - Mayor of Boston, Author
Such are a well regulated militia composed of the freeholders, citizens, and husbandmen, who take up arms to preserve their property as individuals, and their rights as freemen.
TweetMarcus Tullius Cicero - Roman Politician, Lawyer, and Consul of the Roman Republic
There exists a law, not written down anywhere, but inborn in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading but by derivation and absorption and adoption from nature itself; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice, not by instruction but by natural intuition. I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right. When weapons reduce themselves to silence, the laws no longer expect one to await their pronouncements. For people who decide to wait for these will have to wait for justice too - and meanwhile they must suffer injustice first. Indeed, even the wisdom of the law itself, by a sort of tacit implication, permits self defence. Because it does not actually forbid men to kill; what it does, instead, is to forbid the bearing of a weapon with the intention to kill. When, therefore, an inquiry passes beyond the mere question of the weapon and starts to consider the motive, a man who has used arms in self defence is not regarded as having carried them with a homicidal aim.
Cicero, Translated by M. Grant, Selected Political Speeches, p.222, 1969.
New Hampshire Constitutional Convention Delegation
Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.
Noah Webster - "Father of American Scholarship and Education"
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 pretense, 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.
TweetPatrick Henry - Virginia Constituional Delegate, Attorney
Oh sir, we would have fine times indeed, if to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people. Your arms wherewith you defend yourselves are gone; and you have no longer an aristocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you ever read of any in any nation, brought about by the punishment of those in power, inflicted by those who had no power at all? You read of a riot act in a country which is called one of the freest in the world, where a few neighbours cannot assemble without the risk of being shot by a hired soldiery, the engines of despotism. We may see such an act in America. A standing army we shall have also to execute the execrable commands of tyranny: and how are you to punish them? (pg. 47)
The great object is, that every man be armed ... Every one who is able may have a gun. (pg. 275)
Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defence? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defence 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? (pg. 127)
Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately. nothing will preserve it, but downright force. Whenever you give up that force you are inevitably ruined.
"Federal Farmer" (Richard Henry Lee) - President of the Continental Congress, Anti-Federalist
... 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;
In the state governments the great body of the people, the yeomanry, &c, of the country, are represented: It is true they will chuse the members of congress, and may now and then chuse a man of their own way of thinking; but it is not impossible for forty, or thirty thousand people in this country, one time in ten to find a man who can possess similar feelings, views, and interests with themselves: Powers to lay and collect taxes and to raise armies are of the greatest moment; for carrying them into effect, laws need not be frequently made, and the yeomanry, &c. of the country ought substantially to have a check upon the passing of these laws; this check ought to be placed in the legislatures, or at least, in the few men the common people of the country, will, probably, have in congress, in the true sense of the word, "from among themselves." It is true, the yeomanry of the country possess the lands, the weight of property, possess arms, and are too strong a body of men to be openly offended - and, therefore, it is urged, they will take care of themselves, that men who shall govern will not dare pay any disrespect to their opinions. It is easily perceived, that if they have not their proper negative upon passing laws in congress, or on the passage of laws relative to taxes and armies, they may in twenty or thirty years be by means imperceptible to them, totally deprived of that boasted weight and strength:
TweetRobert Whitehill - PA Constitutional Convention Delegate approving Declaration of Independence, PA Representative & Senator, US Representative
That the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and their own State, or the United States, or for the purpose of killing game; and no law shall be passed for disarming the people or any of them, unless for crimes committed, or real danger of public injury from individuals; and as standing armies in the time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military shall be kept under strict subordination to and be governed by the civil power.
Samuel Adams - Governor of Massachusetts, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
And that the said Constitution 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; or to raise standing armies, unless when necessary for the defence of the United States or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the Federal Legislature for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers, or possessions.
Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First, a right to life. Second, to liberty. Thirdly, to property: together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.
St. George Tucker - US District Court Judge for Virginia , Professor of Law at College of William and Mary, Author of American Edition of Blackstone's Commentaries
The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Amendments to C. U. S. Art. 4, and this without any qualification as to their condition or degree, as is the case in the British government.
This <the Second Amendment> may be considered as the true palladium of liberty…. The right of self defence is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.
Tench Coxe - Pennsylvania Delegate to Continental Congress, Economist
The following additional facts and observations respecting the United States of America have been furnished by Tench Coxe, Esq. … With the momentary exceptions of these coloured races, circumstanced as we see they are at this time, constitutional liberty is extended to all the people of the United States. An equality of rights is universally enjoyed, except in the cases of paupers and of certain elections; such as those of the governors of some of the states. The rights to own and bear arms, to fish and to hunt in waters and on land which do not belong to others, to erect schools and places of divine worship, to pursue every occupation and profession to manufacture, deal in and export all things, to hold and elect to office, belong to all.
TweetThomas Jefferson - President, Signer of the Declaration of Independence
What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.
... the militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it, able to bear arms;
... one loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.
A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives a 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.
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security.
Cobbett's Political Register, Volume XIV, London: Cox and Baylis, 1808. 1009. Print.
No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands].
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it always to be kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.
Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of every one has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree, and in our states in a great one. 3. Under governments of force: as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not clear in my mind, that the 1st. condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has it's evils too: the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem. Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.
Latin Translation: "I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude."
Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, ed., Memoirs, Correspondence and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, London: Colburn and Bentley, 1829. 86-87. Print.
The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of the press.
Thomas M. Cooley - Chairman, Interstate Commerce Commission; Chief Justice, Michigan Supreme Court
Section IV. - The Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
The Constitution. - By the second amendment to the Constitution it is declared that, “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 amendment, like most other provisions in the Constitution, has a history. It was adopted with some modification and enlargement from the English Bill of Rights of 1688, where it stood as a protest against arbitrary action of the overturned dynasty in disarming the people, and as a pledge of the new rulers that this tyrannical action should cease. The right declared was meant to be a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers, and as a necessary and efficient means of regaining rights when temporarily overturned by usurpation.
The Right is General. - It might be supposed from the phraseology of this provision that the right to keep and bear arms was only guaranteed to the militia; but this would be an interpretation not warranted by the intent. The militia, as has been elsewhere, explained consists of those persons who, under the law, are liable to the performance of military duty, and are officered and enrolled for service when called upon. But the law may make provision for the enrolment of all who are fit to perform military duty, or of a small number only, or it may wholly omit to make any provision at all; and if the right were limited to those enrolled, the purpose of this guaranty might be defeated altogether by the action or neglect to act of the government it was meant to hold in check. The meaning of the provision undoubtedly is, that the people, from whom the militia must be taken, shall have the right to keep and bear arms; and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose. But this enables the government to have a well-regulated militia; for to bear arms implies something more than the mere keeping; it implies the learning to handle and use them in a way that makes those who keep them ready for their efficient use; in other words, it implies the right to meet for voluntary discipline in arms, observing in doing so the laws of public order.
Standing Army. - A further purpose of this amendment is, to preclude any necessity or reasonable excuse for keeping up a standing army. A standing army is condemned by the traditions and sentiments of the people, as being as dangerous to the liberties of the people as the general preparation of the people for the defence of their institutions with arms is preservative of them.
What Arms may be kept. - The arms intended by the Constitution are such as are suitable for the general defence of the community against invasion or oppression, and the secret carrying of those suited merely to deadly individual encounters may be prohibited.
TweetThomas Paine - Patriot, Secretary of the Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs
The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property.
Sir William Blackstone - First Vinerian Professor of English Law, Solicitor General, Member of Parliament, Commentaries on the Laws of England Author
And we have seen that these rights consist, primarily, in the free enjoyment of personal security, of personal liberty, and of private property. So long as these remain inviolate, the subject is perfectly free; for every species of compulsive tyranny and oppression must act in opposition to one or other of these rights, having no other object upon which it can possibly be employed. To preserve these from violation, it is necessary that the constitution of parliaments be supported in it's full vigor; and limits certainly known, be set to the royal prerogative. And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated or attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and lastly to the right of having and using arms for self preservation and defence. And all these rights and liberties it is our birthright to enjoy entire; unless where the laws of our country have laid them under necessary restraints. Restraints in themselves so gentle and moderate, as will appear upon farther enquiry, that no man of sense or probity would wish to see them slackened. For all of us have it in our choice to do every thing that a good man would desire to do; and are restrained from nothing, but what would be pernicious either to ourselves or our fellow citizens.
William H. Sumner - Attorney, Legislator and Adjutant General of Massachusetts
The history of all ages proves that large armies are dangerous to civil liberty. Militia, however large, never can be; for it is composed of citizens only, armed for the preservation of their own privileges. (pg. 7-8)
Here every house is a castle, and every man a soldier. Arms are in every hand, confidence in every mind, courage in every heart. (pg. 21-22)
... the present system, where all able bodied men, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, are enrolled and train together; the father with his son, the master with his apprentice, and the guardian with his ward. The companies are composed of persons of the same neighbourhood, where the vicious propensities of those who are enrolled, are known and restrained by the influence of the elder and moral part of it. (pg. 38)
It is true, that it is better that the arms should be kept by the men themselves, at their own dwellings, than in the public arsenals. They thus learn to take care of them, at least; and as opportunities for hunting and practical shooting offer, they improve as marksmen. But few boys would learn their catechisms, if the books which contained them, were to be found in the public libraries, only; and but few men would be familiar with the use of arms, which were not kept in their own possession. (pg. 39)
The militia is an institution which unites, in itself, the power effectually to preserve the public peace, the public order, and the public liberty, without endangering either. It is one of the great characteristics which distinguishes us. There is not, and there never was, an institution, among the nations of the earth, so well calculated, as this is, to give to freemen a perfect consciousness of their liberty, and of their capacity to preserve it. (pg. 63)
The possession of muskets by all the able bodied men of a country, gives to them that perfect sense of their own freedom, which causes each, in his own castle, to stand, like a sentinel, watching his liberty. (Vol. II, pg. 280)
TweetWilliam Rawle - US District Atty for PA, President PA Abolitionist Society, Founder PA Historical Society, Trustee University of Pennsylvania
The prohibition [the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed] is general. No clause in the Constitution could by any rule of construction be conceived to give to congress a power to disarm the people.
Zachariah Johnson - Militia Captain, Virginia Constitutional Convention Delegate
The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them. … The govemment will depend on the assistance of the people in the day of distress.
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