"A well-informed people, understanding their rights, with arms in their hands, cannot be subdued."

   "The country will be safe from any enemy within or without. The government would have nothing to fear from a standing army, or from an ambitious military chief. A well-informed people, understanding their rights, with arms in their hands, cannot be subdued. They are invulnerable. And being the real sovereigns of the country, government has nothing to fear from them; because government is, and will be, at all times, what they please to make it.

   "Reference was had, as an illustration of the efficacy of an armed people, to the capture of Burgoyne, by the people of New-England, and to the other acts of bravery of the revolution. Give the people but arms, said they, and the Republic is safe...."

"...With respect to that part of the bill, which went to arming the militia, it was stated to be unnecessary for the eastern states, as the militia were already well armed, and that young men when they arrived at the age of eighteen, would provide themselves with arms, as their fathers had done before them..."

- THE WEEKLY REGISTER. Vol. 1. BALTIMORE, SATURDAY, February 15, 1812 No. 24. Printed and published by H. Niles. Water-street, near the Merchants' Coffee House, at $5. per annum:  Pg. 435