"The doctrine is the application to the state of the individual's right of self defence"

"For more than a century the Americans had claimed that by their charters they were empowered to protect themselves--an idea out of which evolved the political doctrine set forth in the declarations of rights, that the natural and safe defence of a free state is its militia, composed of the body of its people trained to arms. The doctrine is the application to the state of the individual's right of self defence."

- Francis Newton Thorpe, [A CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY FRANCIS NEWTON THORPE Illustrated with Maps IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME ONE NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1898. Pg. 52] (Mr. Thorpe, (1857 - 1926), was an American legal scholar, historian, political scientist,and Professor of Constitutional History at the University of Penn.)