The Origin Of The Second Amendment - Early Sources On America's Armed Civil Population, Part 9

Patrick Henry Marches With Hanover Volunteers Against Virginia's Governor, And Benjamin Franklin Describes All America Learning The Use Of Arms

As noted in the previous part, imports of arms and ammunition into the America Colonies were banned by the British in late 1774. And, as previously noted, British appointed governors in the Colonies were preventing laws from being passed by the people for any purpose because they would vote for armed defense by the militia, meaning by the people. Those governors were also actively trying to assure government control over all types of arms and ammunition anywhere possible.

The day after the Revolutionary War started in Massachusetts, and well before any news of that event was available to the south, Governor Dunmore of Virginia ordered the removal of gunpowder from the Williamsburg powder house. British marines used the governor's private wagon to haul the powder away before dawn on April 20, 1775, and store it on a British vessel under his control. The governor claimed this action was to prevent a slave rebellion and assured local leaders that if a rebellion occurred, he would instantly return the powder. However, the next day Dunmore threatened to free the slaves and lay waste to Williamsburg due to perceived threats to himself and the two British officers involved. 

On learning of the powder seizure, Patrick Henry sought approval from the local committee for marching the Hanover Volunteers to retrieve the powder. Such approval was denied. After news of hositilies between British forces and the people of Massachusetts at Lexington and Concord was received around April 28, 1775, the committee approved such action. Henry was offered command of the Volunteers and accepted. His forces were augmented with other volunteers joining his march to Williamsburg to retrieve the colony's powder. It was never likely that the powder could be retrieved unless the Governor gave such an order. However, Henry was able to collect full payment for the powder from the colony's receiver general. This ended possible military action, but it earning a rebel declaration for all involved, especially Henry, from Dunmore.

In Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin, having departed London as represenative of the American colonies, arrived back home in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775. From Franklin's letter to Jonathan Shipley in England regarding America when he first returned in early May:

"I found at my arrival all America from one end of the 12 united Provinces to the other, busily employed in learning the Use of Arms. The Attack upon the Country People near Boston by the Army had rous'd every Body, & exasperated the whole Continent. The Tradesmen of this City were in the Field twice a day, at 5 in the Morning, and Six in the Afternoon, disciplining with the utmost Diligence, all being Volunteers. We have now three Battalions, a troop of Light Horse, and a company of Artillery, who have made surprizing Progress. The same Spirit appears every where and the Unanimity is amazing." [Letters Of Delegates To Congress, Vol. 1, p.604]

Joseph Hewes, delegate to Congress from North Carolina, wrote Samuel Johnston on May 11, 1775 from Philadelphia:

"Nothing is heard but the sound of Drums & Fifes, all Ranks & Degrees of men are in Arms learning the Manual Exercise Evolution & the management of Artillery. They have now in this City Twenty eight Companies of Foot of 68 men each including Officers all of whom are out twice every day in Training. Several more Companies are forming, they have also two companies of Light Horse in short it is impossible to describe the Spirit of these people and the alteration they have undergone since I left them in December last. All the Quakers except a few of the old Rigid ones have taken up arms, there is not one Company without several of these people in it, and I am told one or two of the Companies are composed entirely of Quakers. The people of this Province in general are associating in Companies and employing Sarjants to teach them the exercise. I find all the Provinces are in Arms Except No. Carolina. New York has been Converted almost as instantaneously as St Paul was of old,. . ." [Delegates, Vol.1, pp.342-343]

A most interesting question here - where did all of these arms come from in Pennsylvania, the only American colony that never adopted a compulsory militia law requiring arms possession? And what was the actual deal with the Quakers and arms? How could these things happen without some law being passed to authorize it? These points will be addressed in an appropriate later post.

In Part 10, The people of Boston Are disarmed, and the Continental Congress declares such action as one of the causes and necessity of taking up arms.

The Origin Of The Second Amendment - Early Sources On America's Armed Civil Population, Part 8

General Gage Attempts Cannon Seizure At Salem, Patrick Henry Gives His Liberty Or Death Speech In Virginia, And The Revolutionary War Begins At Lexington

Updated September 24, 2024

Note that Britain banned imports of arms and ammunition into the American Colonies by November of 1774. Even fancy, expensive fowling pieces arriving in New York were seized by customs officers. Needles to say, none of this sat well with most Americans.

General Gage ordered a second action to disarm the people of Massachusetts on February 28, 1775. British troops sailed for Marblehead on a mission to Salem to avoid detection. The object was seizure of cannons and military supplies stored there. Quick action by the townspeople delayed the troops from entering by simply lifting Salem's drawbridge, all the while pelting the redcoats with insults and laughter. The delay allowed for relocation of the sought items making the British mission impossible to complete. However, the alarm bells went off early on, and there were companies of minutemen from surrounding towns arriving at Salem as British troops departed in failure.

Down in Virginia, Patrick Henry gave his famous "give me liberty, or give me death" speech on March 23, 1775, at the colony's convention. This speech was in support of his proposed resolution recommending the militia of the colony be put into a state of defense. The introduction stated:

"Resolved, That a well regulated militia, composed of the gentlemen and yeomen, is the natural strength and only security of a free government; that such militia in this colony would for ever render it unnecessary for the mother country to keep among us, for the purpose of our defence, any standing army of mercenary soldiers, always subversive of the quiet, and dangerous to the liberties of the people, and would obviate the pretext of taxing us for their support."

By this time, well regulated militia language had become a common American motto or maxim of the Revolutionary Era based upon repeated earlier usage. It was very similar to language in George Mason's earlier Fairfax County Committee of Safety resolution copying Maryland's language regarding a well regulated militia, quoted in Part 5. Henry's resolution went on to note necessary laws for defense could not be passed "to secure our inestimable rights and liberties, from those further violations with which they are threatened." The threat was from the royal governor, who was blocking legislative meetings under the colony's charter, and planning to seize the colony's powder supply to more easily compel obedience by armed government force.

The relevant period sources indicate that our ancestors understood well regulated militia references to relate to the body of the people, meaning an armed civil population capable of defending their country and rights, as well as keeping the government's armed forces under control. Well regulated simply meant that the people were capable of organized defense, something impossible without widespread arms possession and use. As noted in the previous part, the people could simply self embody by voluntary associations or private agreements if the law making apparatus was denied them, and the government was violating their rights as well as attempting to rule by force.

Back up in Massachusetts, General Gage sent out a third expedition to seize arms and supplies, this time to Concord well before dawn on April 19, 1775. Vigilant patriots noted military activity and express riders went out to spread the alarm. Some were seized by disguised British officers on the road, but they escaped and eventually the alarm was spread. The British were also trying to capture John Adams and John Hancock, who just happened to be at Lexington that night.

At Lexington's green, where the minutemen of town were assembled by dawn, the officer of the lead British column of troops rushed forward and ordered the minutemen standing at attention to throw down their arms several times. They did not. That officer later told people in Boston that a firearm misfired behind one of the rock walls around Lexington's green. His troops began firing on the militiamen without orders to do so. A number of militia were killed and injured, and the others fled the field faced with the much larger British force suddenly attacking them. Each side blamed the other for initiating hostilities.

The British troops then marched on to Concord and began burning military stores found there. The local militia observed their actions from a nearby hilltop, marching down to prevent the destruction of their town when smoke started rising from behind the buildings. They engaged the redcoats and routed them back towards Boston as reinforcements from all surrounding towns arrived in the area. The British were constantly fired at from behind stone walls by incensed farmers on their march back to Boston. The militia stopped pursuit at Charlestown, allowing for British wounded to be tended by the townspeople. Once inside Boston, British troops were confined there by a mass of militia preventing their march out anywhere into Massachusetts again.

In Part 9, Patrick Henry leads the Hanover Volunteers to retrieve powder clandestinely removed from the Williamsburg powder house in the night by British marines under orders of Virginia's governor.

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.