"and cannot impair the right of the people to keep and bear arms"

"...Thus, an enrolment seems the extent of organization, the distribution of arms in quotas to the States, and a system of discipline adopted by Congress, in the enforcement of which the training is specially reserved to the States, is the extent of the authority indisputably conceded in the Constitution to the General Government, while, at the same time, the United States shall guaranty to every State in the Union a Republican form of Government, and cannot impair the right of the people to keep and bear arms, nor exercise any power to call forth the militia, unless to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasions."--Mr KEIM, from the Committee on the Militia, submitted the following Report--House of Representatives, June 6, 1840. [Pg. 6] [Volume of Speeches Delivered in Congress, 1840: REPORT ON THE MILITIA]

   "The Constitution guaranties equally to the people of the United States the right of trial by jury and the right to keep and bear arms; and lest the people should neglect to exercise these inestimable privileges, on which their liberties as individuals and as a nation, in a great measure depend, the law has, from the commencement of the Government, provided that they shall do their duty to themselves and to their country in these essential particulars. The General Government aids the States to arm their citizens but its constant policy has been that every freeman in America should be armed and equipped, in order that he may, at all times, be prepared to defend his country and his liberty."--J.R. POINSETT, Esq. Secretary of War, Washington. June 5, 1840. [Volume of Speeches Delivered in Congress, 1840: INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE. Pg. 7]