"the subversion of the rights of citizens of certain States to keep or to bear arms"

"He recited the usurpations already by the Administration. The quartering troops in private houses without the of consent of their owners--the censorship of the telegraph--the subversion of the rights of citizens of certain States to keep or to bear arms;--and said the next step--and it was but a narrow one--would he the violation of the freedom the press, and of prayer--the sacred right of petition was even now tottering under the assaults upon it."

- Mr. Clement L. Vallandigham, JULY 10, 1861, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

"The amendments to the Constitution, which constitute the Bill of Rights, declare that "a well regulated militia being necessary to security of a free State, the right of the to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Our people are denied this right secured them in their own Constitution and the Constitution of the United States; yet we hear no complaints here of violations of the Constitution in this respect. We ask the Government to interpose to secure us this constitutional right."- Senator Andrew Johnson, July 27, 1861,SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. (Andrew Johnson, (Dec. 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875), was a Tennessee Representative, Senator, and [military] Governor. He was elected to both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Johnson was sworn in as Abraham Lincoln's vice President in March 1865. And upon the death of Lincoln six weeks later, became the 17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869.)