- "... but if circumstances should at any time oblige
the government to form an army of any magnitude, that army can never be
formidable to the liberties of the people, while there is a large body
of citizens, little if at all inferior to them in discipline and use of
arms, who stand ready to defend their rights..."
-
-
- -- Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) Source: Federalist,
No. 29 http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Alexander.Hamilton.Quote.B32F
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-
- "The highest number to which a standing army can
be carried in any country does not exceed one hundredth part of the souls,
or one twenty-fifth part of the number able to bear arms. This portion
would not yield, in the United States, an army of more than twenty-five
or thirty thousand men. To these would be opposed a militia amounting to
near half a million citizens with arms in their hands, officered by men
chosen from among themselves, fighting for their common liberties and united
and conducted by governments possessing their affections and confidence.
It may well be doubted whether a militia thus circumstanced could ever
be conquered by such a proportion of regular troops. Besides the advantage
of being armed, it forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition,
more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can
admit of. The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people with
arms. If they did, the people would surely shake off the yoke of tyranny,
as America did. Let us not insult the free and gallant citizens of America
with the suspicion that they would be less able to defend the rights of
which they would be in actual possession than the debased subjects of arbitrary
power would be to rescue theirs from the hands of their oppressors."
-
-
- -- James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution
for the USA, 4th US President http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/James.Madison.Quote.C88A
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-
- "What, Sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent
the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. ... 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."
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-
- -- Rep. Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814) of Massachusetts,
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and Member of the Constitutional
Convention Source: spoken during floor debate over the Second Amendment,
I Annals of Congress at 750, August 17, 1789 http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Elbridge.Gerry.Quote.71B0
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