[Some of these quotes haven't been posted in a while.  I think it
would be a good idea to read them carefully again.]


"Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself.  They
are the American people's liberty teeth and the keystone under
independence...The rifle and pistol are equally indispensable...The
very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil
interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that is good."
* George Washington *


"We, the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the
Courts - not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who
pervert the Constitution."  * Abraham Lincoln *



                           - Benjamin Franklin -
  
      "They that would give up essential liberty for a little
      temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."


Patrick Henry said:

        "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect
everyone who approaches that jewel.  Unfortunately, nothing will
preserve it but downright force.  Whenever you give up that force,
you are ruined.....The great object is that every man be
armed.....Everyone who is able may have a gun."
                          * Patrick Henry *



(Governments derive)....."their just powers from the consent of the
governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute new Government. But when a long train of abuses
and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, (absolute power or
influence of any kind) it is their right, it is their duty, to throw
off such Government, and to provide mew Guards for their future
security."   -- Declaration of Independence --



 Noah Webster had this to say:

"Another source of power in government is a military force. But
this, to be efficient, must be superior to any force that exists
among the people, or which they can command; otherwise, this force
would be annihilated on first exercise of acts of oppression. Before
a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed, as they are
in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America
cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword, because the whole body of
the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of
regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United
States."


Richard Henry Lee suggested:
 "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...

George Mason said:
"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except
for a few public servants."

Samuel Adams:
"...and that the said Constitution be never construed to infringe
the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to
prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens
from keeping their own arms..."



"The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be
converted into a crime."   -- Miller v US, 230 F 2d 486, 489.

"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."  
     -- Tacitus, Roman historian 55-117 A.D.

"In America, freedom and justice have always come from the ballot
box, the jury box, and when that fails, the cartridge box." --
Steve Symms, U.S. Senator, Idaho

Luke 11:21  "When a man, fully armed, guards his house, his
             possessions are undisturbed."

"Americans have a right and advantage of being armed -- unlike
the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid
to trust the people with arms." -- James Madison, The
Federalist Papers No. 46 at 243-244.

"The right of the people to keep and bear ... arms shall not 
infringed. A well regulated militia, composed of the people,
trained to arms, is the best and most natural defense of a
free country ..." -- James Madison, I Annuals of Congress 434
(June 8, 1789).

"The ultimate authority ... resides in the people alone." --
James Madison, The Federalist, No. 46.

  GEORGE MASON, Framer of the Declaration of Rights, Virginia,
1776, which became the basis for the U.S. Bill of Rights:

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except
for a few public officials." -- George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debates
at 425-426.

"To disarm the people (is) the best and most effective way to
enslave them ..." -- George Mason, 3 Elliot, Debate at 380.

 NOAH WEBSTER, author of contemporary pamphlets on the United
States Constitution:

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be
disarmed...The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust
laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are
armed, and constitute a force superior to any bands of regular
troops ..."

-- Noah Webster, "An Examination into the Leading Principles
of the Federal Constitution" (1787), in Pamphlets on the 
Constitution of the United States (P. Ford, 1888).


 GEORGE WASHINGTON, First President and Father of the Country:

"A free people ought ... to be armed ..." -- George
Washington,speech of January 7, 1790, in the Boston Independent
Chronicle,January 14, 1790.

"... 'the people' seems to have been a term of art employed in
select parts of the Constitution. The Preamble declares that
the Constitution is ordained, and established by 'the people of
the the U.S.' The Second Amendment protects the right of the
people to keep and bear Arms ...." U.S. v. Uerdugo-Uriquidez
(1990).

"American have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike
the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to
trust the people with arms." - James Madison

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the
freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of
those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations" -- James
Madison

"The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize
Congress... to prevent the people of the United States who are
peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams,
Debates & Proceedings in the Convention of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, pages 86-87.

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed,
as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe.  The supreme
power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because
the whole body of the people are armed and constitute a force
superior to any bands of regular troops..." - Noah Webster

"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are
left in full possession of them." - Zachariah Johnson, 3
Elliott, Debates at page 646.

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that
they be properly armed." - Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist
Papers, pages 184-188.

"Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual
discretion... in private self-defense..." - John Adams, A
defense of the Constitutions of the Government of the USA, 471
(1788).

"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..." - Richard Henry Lee writing in
"Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic"

"Every corner of this land knows firearms, and more than 99
99/100 percent of them by their silence indicate they are in
safe and sane hands." - George Washington

"When firearms go, all goes - we need them every hour" -
President George Washington

"An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its
citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and
Sparta were for many centuries well armed and free.  The Swiss
are well armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused
by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible.  It is not
reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly
one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe
among armed servants."- Machiavelli, "The Prince" (1532)

"In recent years it has been suggested that the Second Amendment
protects the "collective" right of states to maintain militias,
while it does not protect the right of "the people" to keep and
bear arms...  The phrase "the people" meant the same thing in
the Second Amendment as it did in the First, Fourth, Ninth and
Tenth Amendments -- that is, each and every free person. A
select militia defined as only the privileged class entitled to
keep and bear arms was considered an anathema to a free society,
in the same way that Americans denounced select spokesmen
approved by the government as the only class entitled to the
freedom of the press." - Stephen P. Holbrook, "That Every Man
Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right", University
of New Mexico Press, 1984, pp.  83-84.

"The right of the people to keep and bear ... arms shall not be
infringed.  A well-regulated militia, composed of the body of
the people, trained to arms, is the best and most natural
defense of a free country....." -- James Madison

"Who are the militia?  Are they not ourselves?  Is it feared,
then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own
bosom?  Congress shall have no power to disarm the militia.
Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier,
are the birth-right of an American ... The unlimited power of
the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state
governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in
the hands of the people." -- Tench Coxe

"No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people.
The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and
a slave.  He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to
another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and
needs no arms.  But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has
what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself,
and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at
discretion." -- James Burgh "Political Disquisitions: Or, an
Enquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses" [London,
1774-1775]




The current office-holders say things like this:

          "[The United States] can't be so fixed on our desire to preserve
          the rights of ordinary Americans..." --- President Bill Clinton
          March 1, 1993 during a press conference in Piscataway, NJ

I don't think Bill studied much history.

Message number 16132 in "AEN NEWS"
Date: 10-10-93  17:20
From: Steve Bellows
To:   Mike O'brian
Subj: Bill Clinton, the U.S. Go

MSGID: 9:2300/0 85CB0755
MO>Well stated Steve.  The only problem I have with the checks and balances,
is
MO>the "appointment" of the Supreme Court Justices by the Executive Branch. 
It
MO>never more obvious, then in the last 50 years or so, how this can be used
to
MO>"stack" the Exec. and the Judiciary, against the Congress, AND the
Citizens!
MO>But what can be the difference?  Can we allow them (the Justices) to be
MO>elected?  I do not believe the "confirmation hearings" to be an adequet
defe
MO>against the possibility of a serious "imbalance."  Do you?

   Hello Mike:

   Well, you are keeping pretty good company.

   "It has long...been my opinion, and I have never shrunk from its
   expression, ...that the germ of dissolution of our federal government
   is in the constitution of our federal juciciary; an irresponsible
   body (for impeachment is scarcely a scarecrow), working by gravity by
   night and day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and
   advancing its noiseless footstep like a thief over the field of
   jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped from the states, and the
   government of all be consolidated into one.
                                        -Thomas Jefferson

   He had a lot more to say along the same line but this makes the
   point.

   Keep in mind that the President and the Congress are elected, which
   doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in elections.  These are the
   people who select and approve judicial appointments, so the buck
   comes right back to us.

   If we want a better class of public officials, we need to be a better
   class of citizens who elect people of integrity and character.  To do
   that, we need more of it ourselves

   Steve

 * OLX 2.1 TD * Live free or die.   -N.H. state motto.


--- WM v3.10/92-0010
 * Origin: The Rising Storm BBS in Ca. 408-739-8693  (9:2300/22  (9:2300/0)

Message number 16198 in "AEN NEWS"
Date: 10-11-93  19:59
From: Thomas Kryston
To:   Steve Erickson
Subj: Re: Constitution Ignoranc

 -=> Quoting Steve Erickson to Thomas Kryston <=-

 TK>          ------------------------------------------------
 TK>          *  WHAT TODAY'S AMERICANS DON'T  UNDERSTAND  *
 TK>          ------------------------------------------------
 TK>          By Charley Reese, Syndicated Columnist
 
 TK>    There  are  three things every American ought to  read:  the
 TK>    DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE,  the  CONSTITUTION,  and  the
 TK>    FEDERALIST PAPERS.  None of them is difficult reading.  They
 TK>    are  not obscure dissertations written by pedants to impress
 TK>    pedants.  All three were written for the average person  and
 TK>    widely published.

 SE> (delete)
 
 TK>    Clearly,  freedom demands a better class of human  beings  -
 TK>    human  beings who value freedom more than wealth or personal
 TK>    security  and  who  don't need the  approval  of  others  to
 TK>    bolster their weak egos.

 SE> BRAVO ! (Much applause)  I haven't seen common sense wisdom like
 SE> that since Will Rogers.


And the best thing was, this article was published in mainstream
newspapers!  

But, to be honest with you, I'm very discouraged.  The average American
(at least on the east coast) seems to have lost their zeal for freedom.

IMO, they LOVE the debit money system, they LOVE their goodies, their
conveniences.  The words "liberty" "freedom" are archaic.  They're
slaves, but fat and happy ones.

Steve, I'll leave you with a quote:

        "We must pity the poor wretched, timid soul who is too 
        faint hearted to resist his  oppressors.  He sings the 
        song of the damned:
              
              'I can't fight back'
              'I have toomuch to lose'
              'I own too much property'
              'I have worked too hard to get what I have'
              'They will put me out of business if I resist'
              'I might go to jail'
              'I have my family to think about'

        Such poor miserable creatures have misplaced values and 
        are  hiding  their  cowardice  behind  pretended family 
        responsibility,  blindly  refusing to see that the most 
        glorious  legacy  that one can bequeath to posterity is 
        LIBERTY;  and that the onlly true security is liberty."
                               -Marvin Cooley





--- Blue Wave/QBBS v2.10 [NR]
 * Origin: Gun Control = Criminals & Police vs. the Unarmed. (1:231/110.0)

