<*(((><
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The thread title tells a patriotic duty we all have of having the heart to ensure rights are kept, "My hand trembles, but my heart does not," declares Stephen Hopkin's resolve as he signed for Rhode Island the declaration of Independence.
There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head! (John Hancock, upon signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776)
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; that standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far as the circumstances and protection of the community will admit; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. (Recommended Bill of Rights from the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 27, 1778)
I always love hearing a new quote by people of historical significance, as often their words were born out of actual events and/or experiences. The way that men and women spoke in the times of our nation’s founding has great impact on myself as they were subject to the loss of liberty and freedom in their own lives before the new world. My words today do little to scratch the surface of what those men faced under both types of tyranny soft and harsh. In the spirit of free thought and speech, it is here that we can compile our great nation’s leader’s thoughts on the Second Amendment for use of reflection, teaching and encouragement.
Please share any quotes you have come across pertaining to our liberties under the Second Amendment and how they are tied hand and hand with our ability to protect our loved ones. I ask that all quotes reference the author and if possible time and place of occurrence.
One thing I also ask is that if I or anyone else has misquoted, misappropriated or taken out of context any quotes please let us know so we can attempt to have integrity in this thread’s purpose.
========================================================
"Democracy is two wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is the well-armed lamb contesting the vote." (Benjamin Franklin)
"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. Everyone who is able might have a gun." (Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778)
"I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." (George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788)
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country 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." (Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787)
"To disarm the people...s the most effectual way to enslave them." (Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759)
"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 your constant companion of your walks." (Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785)
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They 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, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776)
"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." (Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, 12/20/1787)
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? It is 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...[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, The Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788)
“Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here.” (Captain John Parker, commander of the militiamen at Lexington, Massachusetts, on siting British Troops (attributed), April 19, 1775)
It is important also to consider, that the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace. (Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)
No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders. (Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775)
One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle. (James Otis, On the Writs of Assistance, 1761)
Wisely, therefore, do they consider union and a good national government as necessary to put and keep them in such a situation as, instead of inviting war, will tend to repress and discourage it. That situation consists in the best possible state of defense, and necessarily depends on the government, the arms, and the resources of the country. (John Jay, Federalist No. 4)
The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them. (Zacharia Johnson, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 25, 1778)
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, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia. (George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778)
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. (Federal Farmer, Antifederalist Letter, No.18, January 25, 1778)
========================================
"I shall return." General Douglas MacArthur, March eleventh, nineteen fourty two.
--Provided by @Demi-human
"Sad will be the day when the American people forget their traditions and their history, and no longer remember that the country they love, the institutions they cherish, and the freedom they hope to preserve, were born from the throes of armed resistance to tyranny, and nursed in the rugged arms of fearless men." - Roger Sherman
--Provided by @Demi-human
George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment
“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.” – Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778
--Provided by @2bfree
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
--Provided by @ofitg
"It's a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun controllers. I happen to know this from personal experience."
Ronald Reagan
--Provided by @Demi-human
"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed — where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once." (Judge Kozinki)
--Provided by @DT Guy
“If it is time to bury them, it is time to dig them up and use them.” (Author Unknown)
--Provided by @J-Bar
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." ( John Adams, address to Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798)
--Provided by @Sistema1927
"The object of this clause [the right of the people to keep and bear arms] is to secure a well-armed militia.... But a militia would be useless unless the citizens were enabled to exercise themselves in the use of warlike weapons. To preserve this privilege, and to secure to the people the ability to oppose themselves in military force against the usurpations of government, as well as against enemies from without, that government is forbidden by any law or proceeding to invade or destroy the right to keep and bear arms." (John Norton Pomeroy, RIP 1828-1885, American lawyer and legal writer, Source: An Introduction to the Constitutional Law of the United States, at 152 (New York, Hurd & Houghton 3d., rev. & enl. 1875)
--Provided by @yokel
"I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. it will make you adore your own country, it’s soil, it’s climate, it’s equality, liberty, laws, people and manners. My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself. while we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in America, I will venture to say no man now living will ever see an instance of an American removing to settle in Europe and continuing there." (Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, Paris June 17, 1785)
--Provided by @<*(((><
"You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas!" (David Crockett)
--Provided by @<*(((>< (thanks @vito)
There! His Majesty can now read my name without glasses. And he can double the reward on my head! (John Hancock, upon signing the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776)
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; that standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far as the circumstances and protection of the community will admit; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. (Recommended Bill of Rights from the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 27, 1778)
I always love hearing a new quote by people of historical significance, as often their words were born out of actual events and/or experiences. The way that men and women spoke in the times of our nation’s founding has great impact on myself as they were subject to the loss of liberty and freedom in their own lives before the new world. My words today do little to scratch the surface of what those men faced under both types of tyranny soft and harsh. In the spirit of free thought and speech, it is here that we can compile our great nation’s leader’s thoughts on the Second Amendment for use of reflection, teaching and encouragement.
Please share any quotes you have come across pertaining to our liberties under the Second Amendment and how they are tied hand and hand with our ability to protect our loved ones. I ask that all quotes reference the author and if possible time and place of occurrence.
One thing I also ask is that if I or anyone else has misquoted, misappropriated or taken out of context any quotes please let us know so we can attempt to have integrity in this thread’s purpose.
========================================================
"Democracy is two wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is the well-armed lamb contesting the vote." (Benjamin Franklin)
"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. Everyone who is able might have a gun." (Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778)
"I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers." (George Mason, Address to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4, 1788)
"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country 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." (Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787)
"To disarm the people...s the most effectual way to enslave them." (Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759)
"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 your constant companion of your walks." (Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785)
"The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They 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, Commonplace Book (quoting 18th century criminologist Cesare Beccaria), 1774-1776)
"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." (Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, 12/20/1787)
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? It is 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...[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, The Pennsylvania Gazette, February 20, 1788)
“Don't fire unless fired upon. But if they want a war let it begin here.” (Captain John Parker, commander of the militiamen at Lexington, Massachusetts, on siting British Troops (attributed), April 19, 1775)
It is important also to consider, that the surest means of avoiding war is to be prepared for it in peace. (Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)
No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders. (Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren, November 4, 1775)
One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one's house. A man's house is his castle. (James Otis, On the Writs of Assistance, 1761)
Wisely, therefore, do they consider union and a good national government as necessary to put and keep them in such a situation as, instead of inviting war, will tend to repress and discourage it. That situation consists in the best possible state of defense, and necessarily depends on the government, the arms, and the resources of the country. (John Jay, Federalist No. 4)
The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them. (Zacharia Johnson, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 25, 1778)
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, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia. (George Mason, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778)
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. (Federal Farmer, Antifederalist Letter, No.18, January 25, 1778)
========================================
"I shall return." General Douglas MacArthur, March eleventh, nineteen fourty two.
--Provided by @Demi-human
"Sad will be the day when the American people forget their traditions and their history, and no longer remember that the country they love, the institutions they cherish, and the freedom they hope to preserve, were born from the throes of armed resistance to tyranny, and nursed in the rugged arms of fearless men." - Roger Sherman
--Provided by @Demi-human
George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment
“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.” – Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 14, 1778
--Provided by @2bfree
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
--Provided by @ofitg
"It's a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun controllers. I happen to know this from personal experience."
Ronald Reagan
--Provided by @Demi-human
"The Second Amendment is a doomsday provision, one designed for those exceptionally rare circumstances where all other rights have failed — where the government refuses to stand for reelection and silences those who protest; where courts have lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one to enforce their decrees. However improbable these contingencies may seem today, facing them unprepared is a mistake a free people get to make only once." (Judge Kozinki)
--Provided by @DT Guy
“If it is time to bury them, it is time to dig them up and use them.” (Author Unknown)
--Provided by @J-Bar
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." ( John Adams, address to Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798)
--Provided by @Sistema1927
"The object of this clause [the right of the people to keep and bear arms] is to secure a well-armed militia.... But a militia would be useless unless the citizens were enabled to exercise themselves in the use of warlike weapons. To preserve this privilege, and to secure to the people the ability to oppose themselves in military force against the usurpations of government, as well as against enemies from without, that government is forbidden by any law or proceeding to invade or destroy the right to keep and bear arms." (John Norton Pomeroy, RIP 1828-1885, American lawyer and legal writer, Source: An Introduction to the Constitutional Law of the United States, at 152 (New York, Hurd & Houghton 3d., rev. & enl. 1875)
--Provided by @yokel
"I sincerely wish you may find it convenient to come here. the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect, but the utility greater. it will make you adore your own country, it’s soil, it’s climate, it’s equality, liberty, laws, people and manners. My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself. while we shall see multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in America, I will venture to say no man now living will ever see an instance of an American removing to settle in Europe and continuing there." (Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, Paris June 17, 1785)
--Provided by @<*(((><
"You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas!" (David Crockett)
--Provided by @<*(((>< (thanks @vito)
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