The Second Amendment and Founding Era Arms Mantras

The People Are Not To Be Disarmed Of Their Weapons

Updated 
Arms mantras from the period when ratification of the new U.S. Constitution was underway were statements based upon the necessity of an armed population offered in support of, or opposition to, the new government's adoption. Of the previous seven posts immediately below, the first three present Federalist arms mantras from supporters of ratification (Noah Webster, Tench Coxe, and Zachariah Johnson), and the last three are arms mantras from Antifederalists (Federal Farmer, A Landholder, and George Mason), who opposed ratification for two main reasons - lack of a bill of rights in the Constitution and the new government's extensive military powers, which would lead to tyranny.

Federalists argued that the extensive military powers of the new government could not lead to tyranny and oppression because the people were armed and able to prevent that from happening. They routinely argued that the people or militia could not be disarmed, statements that were answers to contrary claims by their opponents. It was Federalists who argued against any amendments of the new Constitution, whether bill of rights proposals or other amendments to alter specific delegated powers. They adamantly opposed any alterations of the Article 1, Section 8 powers of Congress and never accepted a single one, especially after they gained control of the First Congress in 1789.

A bill of rights was not included within the Constitution because the Federal Convention of 1787 had unanimously voted down a bill of rights committee. Thus, since most Americans strongly supported a Federal Bill of Rights to limit government powers, Federalists were in the unenviable position of arguing against the need for one. Their arms mantras indicate that the Constitution's supporters based their entire polity on an armed population capable of controlling any forces that the government might raise to coerce the people. Note, however, Federalist arms mantras were not presented in support of protections like the Second Amendment to the Constitution since Federalists opposed all amendments (except when politically forced to accept them by their opponents).

Antifederalists completely agreed with their opponents that an armed population existed and that the people being armed was a necessity in the future to assure a free country. They feared that this essential situation would not continue to exist if the Constitution was ratified because the proposed Federal Government's powers were unrestrained, especially the military powers. Opponents of ratification argued these powers would allow the government to disarm the people in various ways, thus negating the essential control of the people over government raised forces. The Antifederalist arms mantra was generally used to argue for alteration of military powers. Proposals for limits on a standing army, guards against a select militia, and assurances that the states could organize, arm, and discipline their militia were all accompanied by Antifederalist arms mantras. 

The six Founding Era arms mantras presented below, and numerous others collected in The Origin of the Second Amendment, clarify why Federalist leaders and the overwhelmingly Federalist First Congress were willing to accept Antifederalist supported and developed Bill of Rights protections for individual rights taken directly from state bills of rights, like the Second Amendment's protection for an armed populace, which all understood as essential to free government, but they were unwilling to change the Federal Government's military powers one iota. These arms mantras also help us understand the fundamental purpose of the Second Amendment - constitutional level protection for the people's control over government employed forces that might be used for future oppression of the the people. 
[Further information on Founding Era arms mantras and the context of their use can be found in The Founders' View of the Right to Bear Arms, pp. 92-111. The next post will explore the fundamental purpose and full context of Second Amendment predecessors found in Mason Triads.]

Second Amendment History Online - A Landholder's Antifederalist Arms Mantra

They May Arm or Disarm All or Any Part of the Freemen of the United States

[A Landholder requested republication of a Boston newspaper essay in the Philadelphia Freeman's Journal of January 16, 1788. The reprinted version was altered from the original by more strongly emphasizing the Antifederalist arms mantra presented. This text shows how period authors understood the militia to be the freemen, and that those opposed to the new Constitution feared the new government would disarm the people, thus enabling enforcement of tyranny by a standing army. The concept of an armed populace capable of preventing tyranny was presented as a well regulated militia - common, and well understood, period terminology.]

"It is asserted by the most respectable writers upon government, that a well regulated militia, composed of the yeomanry of the country, have ever been considered as the bulwark of a free people. Tyrants have never placed any confidence on a militia composed of freemen. Experience has taught them that a standing body of regular forces, whenever they can be completely introduced, are always efficacious in enforcing their edicts, however arbitrary; . . . No, my fellow citizens, this plainly shows they do not mean to depend upon the citizens of the States alone to enforce their powers; they mean to lean upon something more substantial and summary. They have left the appointment of [militia] officers in the breasts of the several States; but this appears to me an insult rather than a privilege, for what avails this right, if they at their pleasure may arm or disarm all or any part of the freemen of the United States, so that when their army is sufficiently numerous, they may put it out of the power of the freemen militia of America to assert and defend their liberties, however they might be encroached upon by Congress. Does any, after reading this provision for a regular standing army, suppose that they intended to apply to the militia in all cases, and to pay particular attention to making them the bulwark of this continent." [The Origin of the Second Amendment, pp. 211-212]

Second Amendment History Online - Federal Farmer's Antifederalist Arms Mantra

It is Essential that the Whole Body of the People Always Possess Arms
[Federal Farmer wrote two pseudonymous series of Letters to the Republican, published as two books, the first appearing in November of 1787, the second in May of 1788, the letters being consecutively numbered throughout the series. They consist of detailed discussions of problems with the proposed U.S. Constitution, such as the need for a bill of rights, the dangers from the new government's military powers, and solutions to such problems. This particular arms mantra was linked to misuse of the proposed government's militia powers resulting in the people being unable to defend themselves against government raised forces. Mention of a select militia was a response to suggestions in support of government selected corps of militia that consisted of only a small part of the able-bodied free men. The first quote is from his earlier series in Letter III. The second from the end of Letter XVIII, the final one of the series. It is Federal Farmer's closing advice on a solution to guard liberty against the numerous problems he discussed throughout the entire series.]

"It is true, the yeomanry of the country possess the lands, the weight of property, possess arms, and are too strong a body of men to be openly offended - and, therefore, it is urged, they will take care of themselves, that men who shall govern will not dare pay any disrespect to their opinions. It is easily perceived, that if they have not their proper negative upon passing laws in congress, or on the passage of laws relative to taxes and armies, they may in twenty of thirty years be by means imperceptible to them, totally deprived of that boasted weight and strength: This may be done in a great measure by congress, if disposed to do it, by modelling the militia. Should one fifth, or one eight part of the men capable of bearing arms, be made a select militia, as has been proposed, and those the young and ardent part of the community, possessed of but little or no property, and all the others put upon a plan that will render them of no importance, the former will answer all the purposes of an army, while the latter will be defenceless." [The Origin of the Second Amendment, p. 91]

"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" [The Origin of the Second Amendment, p.355]