Some of these may be duplicates from above. I have collected them from all over my travels.
Thanks,
Richard
"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, quoting Cesare Beccaria.
The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly
armed." -Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8.
"The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people
of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms." -Samuel Adams, debates & Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 86-87.
"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).
"...the people have a right to keep and bear arms." -Patrick Henry and George Mason, Elliot, Debates at 185.
"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them." -Zachariah Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646.
"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, 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 col. 1.
"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, 1789.
"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed." -Thomas Jefferson.
"They that can give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as they are injurious to others." -Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1785).
"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson, Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778).
"... God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all,
and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the
importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is
lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." --Richard Henry Lee, Senator, First Congress, Additional Letters from the Federal Farmer (1788) at 169.
"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 preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms..."
--Richard Henry Lee, 1788, Member of the First U.S. Senate.
"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference -- they
deserve a place of honor with all that is good." -George Washington
"The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat, Sir, let it come!" --Patrick Henry, in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775.
"It is in vain, Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace! But there is no peace.
The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that Gentlemen want? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" --Patrick Henry, in his famous "The War Inevitable" speech, March, 1775.
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this
gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence 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 walk." --Encyclopedia of Thomas Jefferson, 318 (Foley, Ed., reissued 1967)
"Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is a force, like fire: a dangerous servant and a
terrible master". --George Washington
"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." --Daniel Webster
"Whenever people ... entrust the defense of their country to a regular, standing army, composed of
mercenaries, the power of that country will remain under the direction of the most wealthy
citizens..." --"A Framer", in the Independent Gazetteer, 1791
"... if raised, whether they could subdue a Nation of freemen, who know how to prize liberty, and
who have arms in their hands?" --Delegate Sedgewick, during the Massachusetts Convention, rhetorically asking if an oppressive standing army could prevail ... Johnathon Elliot, ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, Vol. 2 at 97 (2d ed., 1888).
"The Constitution preserves, besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... nothwithstanding 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, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist Paper No. 46, at 243-244.
"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. The same balance would be preserved were all the world destitute of arms, for all the world would be alike; but since some will not, others dare not lay them aside...Horrid mischief
would ensue were one half the world deprived the use of them..." --Thomas Paine, I Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1894).
"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 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.
"The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone." --James Madison, author of the Bill of Rights, in Federalist Paper No. 46.
"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 the right to deprive them of." --Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789.
"Enlighten people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil
spirits at the dawn of day." --Thomas Jefferson
"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, proposed Virginia constitution, June 1776. Thomas Jefferson
Papers, 334 (C. J. Boyd, Ed., 1950)
When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny --Thomas Jefferson
"Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life, secondly to liberty, thirdly to property; together with the right to defend them in the best manner they can." --Samuel Adams
"The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are
peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." --Samuel Adams, During the Massachusetts U.S.
Constitution ratification convention, 1788
"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest
of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick
the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye
were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams, 1776
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither
Liberty nor Safety." --Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania Assembly to the
governor, November 11, 1755 <<later, motto of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, c. 1759>>
"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
and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." Richard Henry Lee, Initiator of the
Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights.
Additional Letters From the Federal Farmer 53, 1788
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel.
Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you
are ruined. The great object is that every man be armed. Every man who is able may have a gun."
--Patrick Henry, During Virginia's ratification convention, 1788
"I ask sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most
effectual way to enslave them." --George Mason, during Virginia's ratification convention, 1788
"A free people ought to be armed. When firearms go, all goes, we need them by the hour. Firearms stand next to importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence." --George Washington, Boston Independence Chronicle, January 14, 1790
"To ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable. The very
atmosphere of firearms everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with
all that is good." --George Washington, The Federalist No. 53
"The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. A well regulated militia,
composed of the body of people, trained in arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free
country." --James Madison, I Annuals of Congress 434 (June 8, 1789)
"..the great body of yeomanry and of the other classes of citizens to be under arms for the purpose of going through military exercises and evolutions, as often as might be necessary to acquire the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the character of a well regulated militia." (Federalists #29, 184-185)
"Last Monday a string of amendments were presented to the lower house; these
altogether respect personal liberty ..." - Senator William Grayson of Virginia in a letter to
Patrick Henry
"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of
them." - Zachariah Johnson, 3 Elliot, Debates at 646
"A free people ought ... to be armed ..." - George Washington, speech of January 7, 1790 in the
Boston Independent Chronicle, January 14, 1790
"What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army,
the bane of liberty." - Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress at 750
(August 17, 1789)
"That the people have a Right to mass and to bear arms; that a well regulated militia
composed of the Body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper natural and safe
defense of a free State..." - George Mason
"...who are the militia, if they be not the people of this country...? I ask, who are the
militia? They consist of now of the whole people, except a few public officers." - George Mason
"No free government was ever founded or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting
the characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state....
Such are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman,
who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen."
- State Gazette (Charleston), September 8, 1788
"While the people have property, arms in their hands, and only a spark of noble spirit,
the most corrupt Congress must be mad to form any project of tyranny." - Rev. Nicholas Collin, Fayetteville Gazette (N.C.), October 12, 1789
"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, An American Citizen IV, October 21, 1787
"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 necessary for the defense 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 possesions." - Samuel Adams, Debates of the Massachusetts Convention of 1788
"... of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press;
of the trail by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of
habeas corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and
secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate
into tyranny." - James Monroe
"... the loyalists in the beginning of the late war, who objected to associating, arming and
fighting, in defense of our liberties, because these measures were not constitutional. A
free people should always be left... with every possible power to promote their own
happiness." - Pennsylvania Gazette, April 23, 1788
"No free man shall be debarred the use of arms within his own land." -Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia Constitution of 1776
"The powers of the sword, say the minority of Pennsylvania, is in the hands of Congress. My
friends and countrymen, it is not so, for the powers of the sward are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress have no right to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American.... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or the state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people." -Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788
"Another source of power in government is a military force. But this, to be efficient, must be superior to any force that axists among the people, or which they can command; for otherwise this force would be annihilated, on the first exercise of acts of oppression. 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." - Noah Webster An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787
The principle circumstances which render liberty secure are a spirit of liberty among the people--a
general diffusion of knowledge--a general distribution of property--a militia of freemen--and a fair representation in the supreme legislature ... It is a capital circumstance in favor of our liberty that the people themselves are the military power of our country. The Republican. January 7, 1788; Newspaper Article: Hartford Connecticut Couran
[T]he number of people employed in agriculture, is at least nine parts in ten of the inhabitants of
America, that therefore the planters and farmers form the body of the militia, the bulwark of the
nation--that the value of property occupied by agriculture, is manifold greater than that of the
property employed in every other way-- "An American" [Tench Coxe]. December 28, 1787;
Newspaper Article: Philadelphia "Independent Gazetteer"
In countries under arbitrary government, the people oppressed and dispirited neither possess arms nor know how to use them. Tyrants never feel secure until they have disarmed the people. They can rely upon nothing but standing armies of mercenary troops for the support of their power. But the people of this country have arms in their hands; they are not destitute of military knowledge; every citizen is required by law to be a soldier; we are all marshaled into companies, regiments, and brigades for the defense of our country. This is a circumstance which increases the power and consequence of the people; and enables them to defend their rights and privileges against every invader. The Republican; January 7, 1788 Newspaper Article: Hartford "Connecticut Courant"
a well-regulated militia composed of the body of the people trained to arms is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free state; therefore, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Virginia State Constitution
I am thus far a Quaker, that I would gladly argue with all the world to lay aside the use of arms and settle matters by negotiation, but unless the whole will, the matter ends, and I take up my musket and thank Heaven He has put it in my power." -- Writings of Thomas Paine 56 (M. Conway ed. 1894)
To trust the arms in the hands of the people at large has in Europe been believed, and so far as I
am informed universally, to be an experiment fraught only with danger. Here by a long trial it has
been proved to perfectly harmless: neither public nor private evils having ever flowed from this
source, except in instances of too little moment to deserve any serious regard. ... The difficulty
here has been to persuade the citizens to keep arms, not to prevent them from being employed for
violent purposes. --Timothy Dwight (1795)
Patrick Henry added the final point. The power to arm implied the power
to disarm. If the traditional common law requirement for militiamen to find their own weapons
were abandoned in favor of the use of federally- supplied ones, the result would be dangerous to
the states. "Of what service would militia be to you, when, most probably, you will not have a
single musket in the state?" asked Henry, "for, as arms are to be provided by Congress, they may
or may not furnish them."
The right of self-defense is the first law of nature ... and when the right of the people to keep and
bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated,
is on the brink of destruction. - St. George Tucker, in his edition of Blackstone's "Commentaries"
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's
purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty
by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of
zeal, well-meaning but without understanding. Dissenting, Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 479 (1928) Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"No free government was ever founded or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting the
characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state.... Such
are a well regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who
take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen." - State Gazette (Charleston), September 8, 1788
"... of the liberty of conscience in matters of religious faith, of speech and of the press; of
the trail by jury of the vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas
corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well defined, and secured
against encroachment, it is impossible that government should ever degenerate into
tyranny."- James Monroe
"... the loyalists in the beginning of the late war, who objected to associating, arming and
fighting, in defense of our liberties, because these measures were not constitutional. A free
people should always be left... with every possible power to promote their own happiness." - Pennsylvania Gazette, April 23, 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." --
Additional Letters From The Federal Farmer, 1788 Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia:
Here every private person is authorized to arm himself, and on the strength of this
authority, I do not deny the inhabitants had a right to arm themselves at that time, for
their defense, not for offence, that distinction is material and must be attended to. [
L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel, ed., Legal Papers of John Adams ,
(Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press: 1965), 3:248.]
"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
have never surrendered to the public by the compact of society, and which
perhaps, I could not surrender if I would."
--- John Adams, Boston Gazette, Sept. 5, 1763,reprinted in 3 The Works of
John Adams 438 (Charles F. Adams ed., 1851).
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...is a dissolution of
the government.
--- John Adams, A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United
States of America 475 (1787-1788).
This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty... The right of
self-defense 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.
Whenever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and
bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not
already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction. - Tucker, Blackstones commentaries. 1803
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves. -William Pitt (Pitt the Younger) Speech to the House of Commons, 18 November, 1783