George Washington: “A free people ought to be armed.” (Jan 14 1790, Boston Independent Chronicle.)
George Mason: “To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.” (3 Elliot, Debates at 380)
Noah Webster: “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)
James Madison: “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed, unlike the people of other countries, whose rulers are afraid to trust them with arms.” (Federalist Paper #46)
Patrick Henry: “The people have a right to keep and bear arms.” (Elliott, Debates at 185)
Richard Henry Lee: “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…” (Richard Henry Lee writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic, 1787-1788).
Alexander Hamilton: “The best we can help for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed” (The Federalist Papers at 184-8)
