What our founders said.

[2ndAmendment]

"Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic.
We cannot be too careful to exclude its influence." -- Alexander Hamilton (Pacificus, No. 6, 7/17/1793) Reference: Alexander Hamilton: American, Brookhiser (116); original Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Syrett et al., eds., vol. 15 (106)

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[2ndAmendment]

"How many observe Christ's birth-day! How few, his precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments." -- Benjamin Franklin (Poor Richards Almanack, 1743) Reference: Poor Richard: The Almanacks, for the Years, 1733-1758, Intro by Van Wyck Brooks (111)

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[2ndAmendment]

"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy." -- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Thomas Cooper, 29 November 1802)

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[2ndAmendment]

"If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people, whose creature it is, must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify." -- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 33, 3 January 1788)

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[2ndAmendment]

"That wise Men have in all Ages thought Government necessary for the Good of Mankind; and, that wise Governments have always thought Religion necessary for the well ordering and well-being of Society, and accordingly have been ever careful to encourage and protect the Ministers of it, paying them the highest publick Honours, that their Doctrines might thereby meet with the greater Respect among the common People." -- Benjamin Franklin (On that Odd Letter of the Drum, April 1730) Reference: Franklin Collected Writings, Lemay, ed., 148.

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[2ndAmendment]

"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave." -- John Adams (Rights of the Colonists, 1772)

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[2ndAmendment]

"Citizens by birth or choice of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations." -- George Washington (Farewell Address, 19 September 1796) Reference: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (515)

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[2ndAmendment]

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
-- Thomas Jefferson, "Commonplace Book" (1774-1776), quoting from "On Crimes and Punishment," by criminologist Cesare Beccaria (1764)

The complete quote from "On Crimes and Punishment," by criminologist Cesare Beccaria (1764) is :

False is the idea of utility that sacrifices a thousand real advantages for one imaginary or trifling inconvenience; that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it; that has no remedy for evils, except destruction. The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature. They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, the most important of the code, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity, and which, if strictly obeyed, would put an end to personal liberty � so dear to men, so dear to the enlightened legislator � and subject innocent persons to all the vexations that the guilty alone ought to suffer? Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve to rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. They ought to be designated as laws not preventative but fearful of crimes, produced by the tumultuous impression of a few isolated facts, and not by thoughtful consideration of the inconveniences and advantages of a universal decree.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were both big fans of Beccaria and his 1764 treatise On Crimes and Punishments. Adams quoted Beccaria during his arguments in the 1770 Boston Massacre trial.
Thomas Jefferson admired On Crimes and Punishments so much that he carefully copied many lengthy passages into his "Commonplace Book" of favorite sayings. As Garry Wills notes in Inventing America, Jefferson used Becarria as "his principal modern authority for revising the laws of Virginia." Among the passages the Jefferson copied was the above passage about firearms.

 

[2ndAmendment]

"Nothing then is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man." -- Thomas Jefferson (Letter to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824) Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America (1494)

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[2ndAmendment]

"It is a principle incorporated into the settled policy of America, that as peace is better than war, war is better than tribute." -- James Madison (letter to the Dey of Algiers, August 1816) Reference: Madison <sources.htm>, III, page 17

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[2ndAmendment]

"The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed. " -- James Madison (proposed amendment to the Constitution, given in a speech in the House of Representatives, 1789) Reference: Madison: Writings, Rakove, ed., Library of America (442)

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[2ndAmendment]

"Since private and publick Vices, are in Reality, though not always apparently, so nearly connected, of how much Importance, how necessary is it, that the utmost Pains be taken by the Publick, to have the Principles of Virtue early inculcated on the Minds even of children, and the moral Sense kept alive, and that the wise institutions of our Ancestors for these great Purposes be encouraged by the Government. For no people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders." -- Samuel Adams (letter to James Warren, 4 November 1775) Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 261.

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[2ndAmendment]

"Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than could be done by dividing all your estates among them." -- Benjamin Franklin (letter to Collinson, 9 May 1753) Reference: Vindicating the Founders, West, 145.

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[2ndAmendment]

"Statesmen my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for Liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. They will only exchange Tyrants and Tyrannies."

-- John Adams (letter to Zabdiel Adams, 21 June 1776)

Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, pg. 371.

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[2ndAmendment]

"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence."

-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)

Reference: Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 718.

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[2ndAmendment]

Patriotism is as much a virtue as justice, and is as necessary for the support of societies as natural affection is for the support of families.
Reference: Letters of Benjamin Rush, Butterfield, ed., vol. 1 (83)

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[2ndAmendment]

"You give me a credit to which I have no claim in calling me "the writer of the Constitution of the United States." This was not, like the fabled Goddess of Wisdom, the offspring of a single brain. It ought to be regarded as the work of many heads and many hands."
-- James Madison (letter to William Cogswell, 10 March 1834) Reference: Original Intent, Barton (204); original The Letters and other Writings of James Madison, Madison, vol. 4 (341-42)

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[2ndAmendment]

"This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and excellent father has requested that I would address to you something which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have to run; and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that course. Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world, every action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 21 February 1825) Reference: Our Sacred Honor, Bennett, 413.

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[2ndAmendment]

"The propriety of a law, in a constitutional light, must always be deteremined by the nature of the powers upon which it is founded."
-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 33, 3 January 1788)
Reference: The Federalist

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[2ndAmendment]

"And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need its assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this Truth, that God governs in the Affairs of Men. And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without his Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without his Aid?"
-- Benjamin Franklin (Motion for Prayers in the Constitutional Convention, 28 June 1787)

Reference: Franklin Collected Works, Lemay, ed., 1138.

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