The Origin Of The Second Amendment - Early Sources On America's Armed Civil Population, Part 7

John Adams On Americans Self Embodying As Effective Militia By Voluntary Associations And Private Agreements

Updated September 15, 2024

As noted in Part 1, John Adams was involved in early Second Amendment related development activity. Specifically, he wrote the seventh Revolutionary Era state declaration of rights for Massachusetts. Note all eight of them had a protection for an armed civil population. Details of Adams' contributions will appear in the future. Here, his earlier activities in the Continental Congress assuring the people capable of defending themselves against government tyranny are being addressed.

We have already noted numerous cases of people in various colonies self embodying as an effective, or "well regulated militia", or calling on the people to do so. The intent of these activities was to make certain that the civil population was capable of organized defense. There were no new American constitutions or governmental bodies until June of 1776 when George Mason wrote the earliest documents for Virginia. However, there were numerous well regulated militia associations that were formed much earlier. Some of these were done by individuals joining existing voluntary defensive associations. The earliest of those in Virginia was based upon individuals agreeing to act in concert for their own defense. George Mason and George Washington's early September 1774 activities forming the Fairfax Volunteers are an example stemming from their private meeting with Patrick Henry and two other patriots on August 30th. Government authorization was not understood as essential in order to establish an effective militia in the minds of Mason, Henry, Washington, and others.

Here is a period document from John Adams regarding this very point. It is one of his proposed resolutions for a recommendation by the Continental Congress on Sept. 30, 1774:

"Resolved that it be recommended to all the Colonies, to establish by Provincial Laws, where it can be done, a regular well furnished and disciplined Militia, and where it cannot be done by Law, by voluntary Associations, and private Agreements." [Letters of Delegates To Congress, 1, p.132]

Congress eventually passed a resolution on this subject on July 18, 1775, nearly nine months later. This was long after voluntary associations had been formed all across Virginia and many other parts of the American Colonies, and also well after open hostilities with the British began on April 19, 1775.

Note that it was the very authors and promoters of the future Second Amendment, George Mason and Patrick Henry, who implemented private and voluntary association related defensive actions in Virginia prior to Adams proposal to Congress. The reason why private agreements and voluntary associations for defense were necessary was simple. Only two colones had all government officials elected by the people, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The governors of those colones did not prevent their militia from being effective for defense. Most others were royal colonies with British appointed governors, and those were not allowing any meetings of elected representatives - specifically to prevent the people from resisting British actions. If such meetings were allowed, the people's representatives would have passed laws to immediately require all the able bodied free men to possess their own arms and to organize and train for defense. These were defensive actions private individuals and local voluntary associations were already engaging in. Local committees and provincial committees and congresses recommended defensive activities because the people who elected them wanted to defend themselves in an organized way.

In Part 8, General Gage again tries to disarm Americans, Patrick Henry gives his liberty or death speech, and the Revolutionary War begins.

The Origin Of The Second Amendment - Early Sources On America's Armed Civil Population, Part 6

 Americans Armed Up For Defense While General Gage Nearly Initiated The Revolutionary War On September 1, 1774

Updated September 6, 2024

Virginians started defensive measures much earlier than indicated in George Mason's Fairfax Country Resolves of January 17, 1775. Mason, Patrick Henry, and other patriots met with George Washington at Mount Vernon on August 30 1774, over four months earlier. Mason began forming a voluntary defensive association for Fairfax County immediately thereafter with Washington's assistance. On September 21, 1774, Mason's Fairfax Independent Company Of Volunteers was initiated. The introduction of this defensive association indicated primary reasons for its establishment as follows:

"In this Time of extreme Danger, . . . and threat'ned with the Destruction of our Civil-rights, & Liberty, and all that is dear to British Subjects & Freemen . . . sensible of the Expediency of putting the Militia of the Colony upon a more respectable Footing, & hoping to excite others by our Example" [Mason Papers, Vol. 1, p.210]

By early 1775, many others had been motivated by the example, as noted in Part 5.

By the time Mason's Fairfax Volunteers had formed, the wisdom of their defensive association was fully justified in light of General Gage's actions. He began to disarm the people of Massachusetts starting on September 1, 1774. Before dawn that date, General Gage sent troops surreptitiously out from Boston by boat to seize gunpowder from the Charlestown powder house and two cannons from Cambridge. These necessities for defense were transported to Fort William and placed under British military control. Though there were no hostilities, a rumor about casualties spread out across the countryside. As a result, massive numbers of armed inhabitants started marching towards Boston. A correction of the rumor then spread out turning around the waves of incoming militia. This event nearly ignited the Revolutionary War, and it most certainly convinced most Americans that Britain fully intended not only to disarm, but to conquer them.

Gage took other actions after learning of the extensive militia forces that had been marching towards Boston at the beginning of September. He ordered that no gunpowder be removed from Boston's powder house without his written permission. Large amounts belonging to merchants and other private individuals were stored there. He also began fortifying the only land entrance into Boston. When questioned about the latter point around September 24th, he stated it was evident that the people, who were not soldiers, were collecting arms and were intent on attacking his forces. He also indicated that the fortifications were entirely defensive, and that:

 "arms are carried out openly by every man that goes out of Boston without molestation." [American Archives, 4th Series, Vol. 1, p.807]

General Gage's September 1774 activities caused the people of Massachusetts to take precautions to prevent future such military actions. Generally, they voted for militia officers who were patriots, meaning supporters of the people's rights; they began training regularly; they appointed part of the militia to be ready to march at a moments notice (minutemen); they built more extensive communications networks for accurate information; and they planned watches of suspicious British military movements and for express riders to warn the countryside in case danger.

Reasons for the rather swift spread of voluntary militia associations and use of  free government related well regulated militia mantras by American patriots were not only Britain's claim of "a right to bind" Americans "in all cases whatsoever". Repeated British activities and resulting events made clear that the attempt to place the military in control of the civil population of Massachusetts would require conquering the people in order to disarm them. The first resolution in George Mason's Fairfax County Resolves of July 18, 1774 addressed this very topic. It specified:

"Resolved that this Colony and Dominion of Virginia can not be considered as a conquered Country; and if it was, that the present Inhabitants are the Descendants not of the Conquered, but of the Conquerors." [Mason Papers, Vol.1, p. 201]

On December 15, 1774 General Gage answered a question of Lord Dartmouth regarding disarming the New England colonies. Gage's answer was that such action would require force and being masters of the country. By this time, many Americans had already prepared to prevent disarming of the civil population by British military forces.

In Part 7, some views of John Adams will be examined relative to effective voluntary militia and the American Revolution that clarify period American historical reality.