2-21-1878: "...the right to bear arms . . . All the rights above enumerated, though, perhaps, they do not confer any special powers or attributes upon the Government as a governing power, are nevertheless parts of the Constitution..."

The National Republican, Washington, D.C., “Among other rights of this class may be mentioned the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus; the prohibition against expost facto laws, and against unequal taxation; freedom of speech and of the press; the right to bear arms . . . All the rights above enumerated, though, perhaps, they do not confer any special powers or attributes upon the Government as a governing power, are nevertheless parts of the Constitution–that sacred deposit of the collective will of the whole people and are each and every one of them equally protected by the supremacy of that Constitution. . . . Why? Simply because it is the supreme law even in his own State….”, Feb. 21, 1878