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What the Founding Fathers
Meant by the
"Militia"
Tenche Coxe:
"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 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."
Tenche
Coxe, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
Tench Coxe: "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.", Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.
Tench Coxe: "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." 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.
Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "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." (spoken during floor debate over the Second
Amendment, I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789.)
Rep. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: "What, sir, is the
use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army,
the bane of liberty." Rep. of Massachusetts, I Annals of Congress at 750
(August 17, 1789).
Alexander Hamilton: "...that standing army can never be formidable
(threatening) to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body of citizens,
little if at all inferior to them in the use of arms." (Federalist Paper #29)
Alexander Hamilton: "Little more can be aimed at with respect to the people at large than to have them
properly armed and equipped." (Id) {responding to the claim that the militia itself
could threaten liberty}" There is something so far-fetched, and so extravagant in the
idea of danger of liberty from the militia that one is at a loss whether to treat it with
gravity or raillery (mockery). (Id)
Alexander Hamilton:
"The project of disciplining all the
militia of the United States is as futile as it would be injurious, if
it were capable of being carried into execution. A tolerable expertness
in military movements is a business that requires time and practice. It
is not a day, or even a week, that will suffice for the attainment of
it. To oblige the great body of the yeomanry, and of the other classes
of the 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, would be a real grievance to the
people, and a serious public inconvenience and loss. It would form an
annual deduction from the productive labor of the country, to an amount
which, calculating upon the present numbers of the people, would not
fall far short of the whole expense of the civil establishments of all
the States. To attempt a thing which would abridge the mass of labor and
industry to so considerable an extent, would be unwise: and the
experiment, if made, could not succeed, because it would not long be
endured. Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the
people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped"
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No.2
Patrick Henry: "The people have a right to keep and bear arms."
(Elliott, Debates at 185)
Patrick Henry: "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?, 3 Elliot Debates 168-169.
Patrick Henry: "The great object is that every man be armed.
Everyone who is able might have a gun." 3 Elliot, Debates at 386.
Thomas Jefferson: "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.", letter to William S.
Smith, 1787, in S. Padover (Ed.), Jefferson, On Democracy (1939), p. 20.
Thomas Jefferson In his Commonplace Book, Jefferson quotes Cesare
Beccaria from his seminal work, On Crimes and Punishment: 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: "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." Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318 (Foley, Ed., 1967).
Thomas Jefferson: "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of
arms.", Proposal for a Virginia Constitution, 1 T. Jefferson Papers, 334 (C.J.
Boyd, Ed. 1950)
Richard Henry Lee: "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..." (LIGHT HORSE HARRY) LEE,
writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788)
Richard Henry Lee:
"A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people
themselves...and include all men capable of bearing arms." (Additional
letters from the Federal Farmer, at 169, 1788)
President James Madison: "...to support the Constitution,
which is the cement of the Union, as well in its limitations as in its
authorities; to respect the rights and authorities reserved to the
States and to the people as equally incorporated with and essential to
the success of the general system;... to keep within the requisite
limits a standing military force, always remembering that an armed and
trained militia is the firmest bulwark of republics
that without
standing armies their liberty can never be in danger, nor with large
ones safe;..."
President James Madison, First Inaugural
address, Saturday, March 4, 1809.
James Madison: "A WELL REGULATED militia, composed of the people, trained
to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a free country." (1st Annals of
Congress, at 434, June 8th 1789, emphasis added.
James Madison: "As the greatest
danger to liberty is from large standing armies, it is best to prevent
them by an effectual provision for a good militia." (notes of debates in
the 1787 Federal Convention)
George Mason:
"I ask you sir, who are the
militia? They consist now of the whole people." (Elliott, Debates, 425-426)
Thomas Paine: "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..." I Writings of Thomas
Paine at 56 (1894)
William Rawle: "In the second article, it is declared,
that a well regulated militia is necessary to a free state; a
proposition from which few will dissent. Although in actual war, in the
services of regular troops are confessedly more valuable; yet while
peace prevails, and in the commencement of a war before a regular force
can be raised, the militia form the palladium of the country. They are
ready to repel invasion, to suppress insurrection, and preserve the good
order and peace of government. That they should be well regulated, is
judiciously added. A disorderly militia is disgraceful to itself, and
dangerous not to the enemy, but to its own country. The duty of the
state government is, to adopt such regulation as will tend to make good
soldiers with the least interruptions of the ordinary and useful
occupations of civil life. In this all the Union has a strong and
visible interest."
William Rawle, "A View of the
Constitution of the United States of America" (1829)
Joseph Story: "The
militia is the natural defense 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."
Joseph Story. Commentaries on the
Constitution of the United States. 3 vols. Boston, 1833.
Joseph Story (Supreme Court Justice): The right of the
citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the
palladium of the liberties of a republic...
Sir George Tucker: "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 possible limits...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."
Sir George Tucker, Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court and U.S. District
Court of Virginia in I Blackstone COMMENTARIES Sir George Tucker Ed.,
1803, pg. 300 (App.)
George Washington: "A free people ought not only to be armed
and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to
maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse
them, which would include their own government."
IMPORTANT NOTE: Back in the 18th century, a "regular" army meant an
army that had standard military equipment. So a "well regulated" army was simply
one that was "well equipped" and organized. It does not refer to a professional army. The 17th
century folks used the term "standing army" or "regulars" to describe a professional army.
Therefore, "a well regulated militia" only means a well equipped militia
that was organized and maintained internal discipline. It does not imply the
modern meaning of "regulated," which means controlled or administered by some
superior entity. Federal control over the militia comes from other parts of the
Constitution, but not from the Second Amendment. |
