Founding Fathers Gun Quotes - Page 3

• Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Character, Gun, Games

  Quoted in Colin Jarman The Guinness Dictionary of Sports Quotations (1990).

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• I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials.

  George Mason

  Gun, People, Second Amendment

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• A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves... and include all men capable of bearing arms.

  Richard Henry Lee

  4th Of July, Men, Gun

  Richard Henry Lee, Mercy Otis Warren (1962). “An Additional number of letters from the Federal farmer to the Republican, leading to a fair examination of the system of government, proposed by the late Convention: to several essential and necessary alterations in it; and calculated to illustrate and support the principles and positions laid down in the preceding letters. Together with Oberservations on the new Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions by a Columbian patriot”

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• 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.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Gun, Rights, Second Amendment

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• 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

  Real, Gun, Differences

  Speech on the Federal Constitution, Virginia Ratifying Convention, on June 09, 1788. "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution". Book edited by Jonathan Elliot, volume 3, p. 168-169, 1836.

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• Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day. If that paper on the table [the Constitution] gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor.

  George Mason

  Class, People, Second Amendment

  "The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution", vol. 3, edited by Jonathan Elliot, 1974.

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  If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated 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 sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

  Samuel Adams

  Love, Peace, Freedom

  Samuel Adams' Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, August 1, 1776.

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• The ruling class doesn't care about public safety. Having made it very difficult for States and localities to police themselves, having left ordinary citizens with no choice but to protect themselves as best they can, they now try to take our guns away. In fact they blame us and our guns for crime. This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake.

  Malcolm Wallop

  Mistake, Gun, Class

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• The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large, will render many troops quite unecessary. They will form a powerful check upon the regular troops, and will generally be sufficient to over-awe them.

  Tench Coxe

  Powerful, People, Second Amendment

  "An American Citizen: An Examination of the Constitution of the United States IV". Publication by Tench Coxe, teachingamericanhistory.org. October 21, 1788.

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• Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a safety hazard don't see the danger of the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use this same means to eliminate portions of the Constitution they don't like.

  Alan Dershowitz

  Mean, Gun, Safety

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• Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

  Mao Zedong

  Military, Gun, Chinese Revolution

  Speech at sixth plenary session of Central Committee, Communist Party, Yan'an, China, 6 Nov. 1938

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• The balance of power is the scale of peace. The same balance would be preserved were all the world not 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 ... the weak will become prey to the strong.

  Thomas Paine

  Strong, Gun, Weak Will

  Thomas Paine (2014). “Selected Writings of Thomas Paine”, p.4, Yale University Press

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• Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.

  John Adams

  Strength, Peace, Patriotic

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• 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.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Self, People

  Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison (2018). “America's Founding Documents: The Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the Bill of Rights”, p.199, First Avenue Editions

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• Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gun, Law, Strong Arms

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• A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.

  George Washington

  Freedom, Gun, People

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral, and Religious”, p.222

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• I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people.

  George Mason

  Gun, People, Second Amendment

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• The militia is the natural defense of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpation of power by rulers. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of the republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally ... enable the people to resist and triumph over them.

  Joseph Story

  Country, Strong, People

  Joseph Story (1833). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.746

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• 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 inevitably ruined.

  Patrick Henry

  Giving Up, 4th Of July, Jealous

  Virginia's U.S. Constitution ratification convention, June 5, 1788.

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• The great object is that every man be armed.

  Patrick Henry

  Father, Gun, Men

  Patrick Henry (2007). “Patrick Henry in his speeches and writings and in the words of his contemporaries”, Warwick House Publishing

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  I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, War, Gun

  Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson (1988). “Paine and Jefferson on Liberty”, p.89, Bloomsbury Publishing USA

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• Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!

  Samuel Adams

  Gun, Hands, Security And Freedom

  Samuel Adams' Speech delivered at the State House in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, August 1, 1776.

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• The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be questioned.

  James Madison

  Bears, Defense, Citizens

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• 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

  Death, Sweet, Freedom

  Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond, Va., 23 Mar. 1775.

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• ... for it is a truth, which the experience of all ages has attested, that the people are commonly most in danger when the means of insuring their rights are in the possession of those of whom they entertain the least suspicion.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Mean, Gun, Rights

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