"or the right of the people to bear arm[s]"

XXXIVth CONGRESS.
FIRST SESSION.

SENATE....Washington, June 30, 1856.

  The bill authorizing the issue of an additional number of arms for the use of California passed.
  Mr. DOUGLAS, from the Committee on Territories, to which was referred the various bills relative to affairs in Kansas made a voluminous report on the subject. It contains an elaborate argument in favor of the new bill accompanying the report, which provides for the apppointment of five Commissioners, to be selected [by the President] from different sections of the Union, to represent fairly all political portions [parties?] They shall take a census of all the voters in the Territory, and make a fair apportionment of Delegates, to be elected by each county, to form a Constitution and institute a state of government. When the apportionment shall be made the Commisioners are to remain in session every day except Sunday at the place most convenient for the inhabitants of said territory, to hear all complaints, examine witnesses and correct all errors in said list of voters which list shall be previously printed and generally circulated through the Territory, and posted in at least three of the most public places of each election district; and so soon as all the errors have been thus corrected in said lists, the Commissions are requested to cause a corrected list of the legal voters to be printed and copies furnished to each Judge of election, to be put up at the places of voting, and circulated in every county in the Territory before the day of election--no person to be allowed to vote whose name does not appear on the list as a legal voter; the election for Delegates to take place on the day of the Presidential election, and the Convention to assemble on the first Monday in December to decide first, whether it be expedient for Kansas to come into the Union at that time, and if so decided to proceed to form a constitution and State Government which shall be of republican form, Kansas then to be admitted under such constitution on an equal footing with the original States. The bill provides further that no law shall be enforced in the Territory infringing the liberty of speech or of the press, or the right of the people to bear arm[s], &c. It also provides punishment for illegal voting or fraud and violence at elections....

- New-York Daily Tribune, New-York, Thursday, July 1, 1856. Vol. XVI.......No. 4743. Pg. 5.

   There are two distinct periods in American history, after the Revolution. When the press had covered the right to keep and bear arms - nation wide. The first concerned the troubles in Kansas in 1856, referenced in a couple of the recent posts here on this site. The matter had even become part of the Republican Party Platform of 1856. The other was when the Philippines were being made a territory of the United States. And when their constitution was being formed, the right to keep and bear arms. As well as the right to trial by jury, were purposefully omitted. The news was so widely covered, that it was obvious that the news media were deeply concerned about our right to arms. WHAT HAPPENED? Why has the news media done a complete about-face on the subject? And now seem intent on promoting the DESTRUCTION of the right?