Replies

(Tench Coxe's Letter to James Madison During Adoption of the Bill of Rights in United States Congress. 1779)

"The power of the sword is in the hands of Congress? My friends and countrymen, it is not so;.... for the powers of the sword are in the hands of you many 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?.... They are not ourselves as politicians and lawmakers.... They are those who have elected us into our positions and entrusted us with the power of preserving and carrying out their wishes..... Congress has no power 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 State governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."

(On the Militia....'Justice Joseph Story', United States Supreme Court, 1811 - 1845)

"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..... .... 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 usurpation and arbitrary power of the rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."