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Could you imagine Thomas Jefferson paying money to the government for the right to conceal his weapon on his person?

I am unaware of any evidence from the 18th Century that there was ever any claimed right for people to carry concealed armaments. However, in today's world, the right to carry arms, combined with the fact that open carry will usually result in harassment, would imply a right to carry concealed.

I am unaware of any evidence from the 18th Century that there was ever any claimed right for people to carry concealed armaments.

You are absolutely right. The right was not claimed; it was assumed. In the 18th Century, with people walking around with swords on their belts, the right to carry weapons was not controversial.

Actually, it was common place for a man to carry his pistol under his coat at the end of the 18th century. Also, at the time, before lawyers started unraveling our constitution and reinterpreting plain English, bear simply meant bear (to carry). Outside of your coat or inside of your coat, had our founding fathers not intended for us to bear concealed arms, I believe they would have said so. They were foolish enough, however, to actually believe people beyond their years would take their simple English at its meaning (their only mistake). Now we have the problems we have today with multiple interpretations of the second amendment.

However, in today's world, the right to carry arms, combined with the fact that open carry will usually result in harassment, would imply a right to carry concealed.

Harassment by whom? If the right to bear arms were affirmed and the second amendment held to apply to state and local governments as well, the police would be sured, or worse, for deprivation of civil rights, or worse, if they harassed law abiding citizens exercising that right.

Now if it is fellow citizens (or illegal aliens for that matter" that are harassing you for openly bearing arms, well there are lots of remedies for that. The final one being the use of those arms to protect your person.

There is a long history of regulating the bearing of concealed weapons, that AFAIK, goes back to colonial times and continued right through the period of ratification of the Second Amendment, along with its counterparts in state constitutions. Pretty much the same argument that was used in "Miller", that the military or the militia don't bear arms concealed, that is the practice of highwaymen and other ner do wells. Of course the rulings in state courts that upheld those laws, there being no such federal law even today, were in states whose RKBA provision differed from that in the second amendment in various ways. Some had "for the common defense" or words to that effect, which by the "only criminals need to carry concealed" reasoning combined with the "not common defense" argument allowed for such rulings. In fact the federal Supreme Court cited one such ruling in the "Miller" decision, even though there is no such "common defense" limitation in the Second Amendment.

But I agree that a prohibition, or the requirement for a permit, to bear arms concealed is an infringement of the individual right to bear arms.

'tis true that historically the concealed carry of arms was (generally speaking, yes there were exceptions) considered an act indicating ill intent.

That was then, this is now.

Today open carry is flatly prohibited in many jurisdictions, with concealed carry the only legal means. As such, concealed carry should be accepted as a right in light of cultural norms.