10 Quotes That Show How Radical The Founding Fathers Were About Gun Ownership

#10. “[I]f circumstances should at any time oblige the government to form an army of any magnitude that army can never be formidable to the liberties of the people while there is a large body of citizens, little, if at all, inferior to them in discipline and the use of arms, who stand ready to defend their own rights and those of their fellow-citizens. This appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.” -Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 29

Hamilton was being a bit of a hypocrite here, considering that later he would urge George Washington to brutally put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Still, here he argues that it was impractical to expect that the whole body of people (the yeomanry) could be expected to a part of the militia. At the time, Hamilton argued that the people could protect themselves from a standing army in the United States by having the right to bear arms.

Related posts

Leave a Comment