Quotable Quotes!

John Adams - (1735 – 1826) was the first (1789–1797) Vice President of the United States, and the second President of the United States. He was a major sponsor of the American Revolutionary War in Massachusetts, and a key diplomat in the 1770s. He was a driving force for independence in 1776. As a statesman and author Adams helped define republicanism as the core American political value, meaning overthrow of monarchy and, especially, rule by the people, hatred of corruption, and devotion to civic duty. Regarded as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Emphasis added - Gene

If you love wealth more than Liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of Freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.

Resistance to sudden violence, for the preservation not only of my person, my limbs, and life, but of my property, is an indisputable right of nature which I have never surrendered to the public by the compact of society, and which perhaps, I could not surrender if I would.

"Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion in private self defense." (A defense of the Constitution of the US) Hat Tip: linman writing at Texas CHL Forum

John Quincy Adams - (1767 – 1848) was an American lawyer, diplomat, politician, and President of the United States (1825 – 1829). Adams was the son of U.S. President John Adams, and his mother was Abigail Adams.

America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She well knows that by one enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom.

(1821)

Samuel Adams - (1722 – 1803) was an American Patriot and organizer of the Boston Tea Party. He played a major role in starting the American Revolution.

"To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them." (3 Elliot, Debates at 380)
Hat Tip:  linman writing at

"Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that `if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious consideration...that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."

Speech in Boston, 1771

It doesn't require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires to people's minds.

That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of The United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms...

Debates and Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, at 86-87 (Pierce & Hale, eds., Boston, 1850).

Tench Coxe (1755– 1824) was an American political economist and a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress in 1788. At one time, he was the assistant to Alexander Hamilton when Hamilton was Secretary of the Treasury.

Tench Coxe was one of the 56 who pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to sign the U. S. Constitution. - Gene

As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.

Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1

Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birthright of an American... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state government, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.

Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb. 20, 1788.

Benjamin Franklin - (1706 – 1790) was one of the most prominent of the Founders and early political figures, inventor, and a statesmen of the United States.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!

In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns.

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

[Note: This sentence was often quoted in the Revolutionary period. It occurs as early as November, 1755, in an answer by the Assembly of Pennsylvania to the Governor, and forms the motto of Franklin's "Historical Review," 1759, appearing also in the body of the work. — Frothingham: Rise of the Republic of the United States, p. 413. ]

Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.

Albert Gallatin - Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (1761 – 1849) was a Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, politician, founder of New York University, diplomat, and United States Secretary of the Treasury.

The whole of the Bill of Rights is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals. It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.

The New York Historical
Society, October 7, 1789.

Alexander Hamilton - (1755 or 1757 – 1804) was an American politician, statesman, financier, intellectual, and founder of the Federalist Party. One of America's leading constitutional lawyers, he was an influential delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention and one of the two principal authors of the Federalist Papers, which expounded the U.S. Constitution to skeptical New Yorkers, and remains a standard source on the meaning of the document.

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.

The Federalist (#28)

...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...

Speaking of standing armies in Federalist No. 29.

Patrick Henry (1736 – 1799) was a prominent figure in the American Revolution, known and remembered primarily for his stirring oratory. Along with Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine, he was one of the most influential (and radical) advocates of the American Revolution.

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!

3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several

State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836

"Oh how far we have fallen! Is there any hope of turning from this, “Protect me from anything and everything and let me suckle at the government teat as long as possible” attitude that now so prevails? Probably not, for we reap what we sow."

We should not forget that the spark which ignited the American Revolution was caused by the British attempt to confiscate the firearms of the colonists.

Gentlemen may cry, 'peace, peace'—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Is life so precious, or peace so dear, 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!

To the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775.

Thomas Jefferson - (1743 – 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and an influential Founding Father of the United States.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed;...

To Justice John Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:45.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?

1801

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

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 the constant companion of your walks.

Encyclopedia of T. Jefferson, 318, Foley, Ed., reissued 1967.

"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." (T. Jefferson papers, 334, C.J. Boyd, Ed. 1950)
Hat Tip:  linman writing at Texas CHL Forum

"The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed."
Hat Tip:  linman writing at Texas CHL Forum

"You seem ... to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy... The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal."

Richard Henry Lee - (1732–1794) was the sixth President of the United States in Congress assembled under the Articles of Confederation (analogous to the modern-day Speaker of the US House of Representatives), holding office from November 30, 1784 to November 22, 1785.

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…

James Madison - (1751 – 1836) was the fourth (1809–1817) President of the United States. He played a leading role in the creation of the United States Constitution in 1787 and, with Alexander Hamilton, was the chief expounder of its meaning in the Federalist Papers (1788).

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose leaders are afraid to trust them with arms." (Federalist Paper #46)
Hat Tip:  linman writing at Texas CHL Forum

There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.

Americans need not fear the federal government because they enjoy the advantage of being armed, which you possess over the people of almost every other nation.

Francis Marion  - (1732 - 1795) was a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and later Brigadier General in the South Carolina Militia during the American Revolutionary War. He became known as the "Swamp Fox" for his ability to use decoy and ambush tactics to disrupt enemy communications, capture supplies, and free prisoners.  Marion is considered one of the fathers of modern guerilla warfare, and is credited in the lineage of the United States Army Rangers.

I have seen an American general and his officers, without pay, and almost without clothes, living on roots and drinking water; and all for LIBERTY! What chance have we against such men!

Young British officer to Colonel Watson describing the American militia rebels in Georgetown, SC [Source: 'Marion, The Life of Gen. Francis Marion' by M. L. Weems, Ch.18]

To have no proud monarch driving over me with his gilt coaches; nor his host of excise-men and tax-gatherers insulting and robbing me; but to be my own master, my own prince and sovereign, gloriously preserving my national dignity, and pursuing my true happiness; planting my vineyards, and eating their luscious fruits; and sowing my fields, and reaping the golden grain: and seeing millions of brothers all around me, equally free and happy as myself. This, sir, is what I long for.

American War of Independence, Georgetown, SC [Source: 'Marion, The Life of Gen. Francis Marion' by M. L. Weems, Ch.18]

George Mason - (1725 – 1792) was a US patriot, statesman, and delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. He has been called the "Father of the Bill of Rights".  Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which detailed specific rights of citizens. He was later a leader of those who pressed for the addition of explicitly stated individual rights as part of the U.S. Constitution, and did not sign the document mainly because it did not contain such a statement. His efforts eventually succeeded in convincing the Federalists to modify the Constitution and add the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments of the Constitution). The Bill of Rights is based on Mason's earlier Virginia Declaration of Rights.

[The American Colonies were] all democratic governments, where the power is in the hands of the people and where there is not the least difficulty or jealousy about putting arms into the hands of every man in the country. [European countries should not] be ignorant of the strength and the force of such a form of government and how strenuously and almost wonderfully people living under one have sometimes exerted themselves in defence of their rights and liberties and how fatally it has ended with many a man and many a state who have entered into quarrels, wars and contests with them.

"Remarks on Annual Elections for the Fairfax Independent Company" in The Papers of George Mason, 1725-1792, ed Robert A. Rutland (Chapel Hill, 1970).

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.

During Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788)

Thomas Paine - (1737 – 1809) was an intellectual, scholar, revolutionary, deist and idealist. A radical pamphleteer, Paine anticipated and helped foment the American Revolution through his powerful writings.

The supposed quietude of a good mans allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order in the world as well as property. The same balance would be preserved were all the world 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...

Writings of Thomas Paine at 56 (1894).

These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women.

The Crisis, Intro. (Dec. 1776).

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.

Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins ... Society is in every state a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

Pete Shields - Founder of Handgun Control, Inc.

We'll take one step at a time, and the first is necessarily - given the political realities - very modest. We'll have to start working again to strengthen the law, and then again to strengthen the next law and again and again. Our ultimate goal, total control of handguns, is going to take time. The first problem is to slow down production and sales. Next is to get registration. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and ammunition (with a few exceptions) totally illegal.

Founder of Handgun Control, Inc., New Yorker Magazine, June 26, 1976, pg. 53

St. George Tucker - (1752–1827) was a lawyer and professor of law at the College of William and Mary. Born near Port Royal, Bermuda, he traveled to Virginia to study law at the College of William and Mary in 1772 and was approved for the bar on 4 April 1774. From 1788 to 1804, he was professor of law and policy at the College of William and Mary.

The congress of the United States possesses no power to regulate, or interfere with the domestic concerns, or police of any state: it belongs not to them to establish any rules respecting the rights of property; nor will the constitution permit any prohibition of arms to the people; or of peaceable assemblies by them, for any purposes whatsoever, and in any number, whenever they may see occasion.

St. George Tucker's Blackstone

"It¹ has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential for our defence, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical Governments." March 2, 1836

¹  The tyrannical government in question was Mexico under dictator Generalissimo Antonio de Padua Maria Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (1794 - 1876) - Gene

Unknown - I have no idea who is to blame for each of these statements.

"Really, what gods we must be in our own eyes, to think we have the right to decide when a law-abiding person is allowed to defend himself against an assailant."

George Washington (1732 – 1799) was the Commander in Chief of American forces in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and, later, the first President of the United States, an office he held from 1789 to 1797. Because of his central role in the founding of the United States, Washington is often called the "Father of his Country". Scholars rank him among the greatest of United States presidents.

A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government.

Religion and morality are the twin pillars of freedom.

"A free people ought to be armed." (Jan 14 1790, Boston Independent Chronicle.)
Hat Tip:  linman writing at Texas CHL Forum

Noah Webster - (1758 – 1843) An American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer, political writer, word enthusiast, and editor. He has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education". His Blue-backed Speller books taught five generations of children in the United States how to spell and read, and (in the U.S.) his name became synonymous with "dictionary", especially the modern Merriam-Webster dictionary that was first published in 1828 as An American Dictionary of the English Language.

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are in almost every country in Europe." (1787, Pamphlets on the Constitution of the US)
Hat Tip:  linman writing at Texas CHL Forum