"where every one has a right to bear arms for protection and defence"

"The institutions of law, medicine, and divinity, are in a most flourishing condition, and we count more than half a hundred colleges, with an immense number of minor schools. It is a country full of inventive power, which puts every particle of mind into action. It is also remarkable for enterprise, and the people seize upon all the improvements of other nations. It has a mass of population, which have, more than any other people, sound minds in sound bodies, arising more from its moral and political character, than from any other causes. It is a country that has no national religion, but, within her borders every one worships God in his own way, if he do not disturb his neighbour; a country without grades in society fixed by law, and where and primogeniture and entailment do not exist. It is a country where every one has a right to bear arms for protection and defence, and which could muster two millions of soldiers, if they were necessary, for self-defence. It is a country increasing in population, arts, sciences, letters, and wealth, with the comforts and enjoyments of social life, faster than any other in the world. In short, it is a country that "knows her rights, and knowing, dares maintain" them.

   "Should we be content to take this heritage of ours, without being mindful what it cost our ancestors to present it to us, as it is? Or should we examine the subject most minutely, as we have time or leisure?

   "Ours is the first nation in the annals of history, that became masters of themselves at once. Freedom has, in
general, been gained slowed, and lost rapidly."

- John Howard Hinton, [THE HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. COMPRISING POLITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY; GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, ZOOLOGY, AND BOTANY; AGRICULTURE MANUFACTURES, AND COMMERCE; LAWS, MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGION; WITH A TOPOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CITIES, TOWNS, SEA-PORTS, PUBLIC EDIFICES, CANALS, &c. &c EDITED BY JOHN HOWARD HINTON, A.M. ASSISTED BY SEVERAL LITERARY GENTLEMEN IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. A NEW AND IMPROVED EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS, BY SAMUEL L. KNAPP. "Much I avail my friends by all the zeal I show the dead" ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. VOL I. BOSTON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WALKER... 1834]