"The right to own and to bear arms was regarded by our fathers as the highest privilege of a freeman"

"In a republican government the people themselves are their own best defence. Not that it is possible or desirable to convert the whole people into a body of drilled and disciplined soldiery. This would be impracticable from its expense, and absurd from its entire uselessness. But the possession of arms should be as common as the enjoyment of civil rights, and whatever there might be of military knowledge should be as equally distributed as the means of education or the right of suffrage."[Pg. 6]

"The right to own and to bear arms was regarded by our fathers as the highest privilege of a freeman . . . The idea of permanently relying on the government for a supply of arms, to enable the people to protect and defend themselves, is at war with the first principles of independence. Such a reliance would prove delusive in the hour of utmost need." [Pg. 12]  

[STATE OF NEW-YORK. No 223. IN ASSEMBLY, March 24, 1841.]