Quotes about State Militia

Michael A. Bellesiles

In 1803 only three states had riﬂe companies.

The image of early America where the new nation’s men were all skilled marksmen with a rifle was a myth as this quotation shows. It took much more skill to maintain and use a rifle as opposed to a musket. There were few gun makers in America at the time, and it was very difficult to rifle a steel barrel. As a result, rifles were quite expensive and few could afford them.

Alexander Hamilton

This [a state militia system] appears to me the only substitute that can be devised for a standing army, and the best possible security against it, if it should exist.

New York State

The governor shall continue in office three years, and shall, by virtue of his office, be general and commander-in-chief of all the militia, and admiral of the navy of this State

In the early days of the republic, states not only had their own militias but some had their own navy. Texas today still has the right to have its own navy.

James Monroe

By the last returns to the Department of War the militia force of the several States may be estimated at 800,000 men - infantry, artillery, and cavalry.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Historically, the new government had no money to pay for an army, so they relied on the state militias. And the states required men to have certain weapons and they specified in the law what weapons these people had to keep in their home so that when they were called to do service as militiamen, they would have them. That was the entire purpose of the Second Amendment.

Henry A. Kissinger

The Western concept of democracy is based on the idea that the loser of an election has the possibility next time round of being the winner. But in the case of an ethnically or religiously divided country, in which minorities don't live peacefully together, this necessary balance can't be properly guaranteed by democracy. When each ethnic group arms itself, it is not surprising that the army of a new state is viewed by part of the population as an ideological militia.

Charles A. Beard

The president is commander-in-chief of the army and navy and of the state militia when called into the service of the United States. He holds this power in time of peace as well as in time of war.

Saul Cornell

A well-regulated militia was not just a groups of citizens who took up arms. The militia was regulated and controlled by the states …. Militias were used to suppress rebellions, not to foment them.

The professor was addressing a theory of some gun rights advocates that the framers of the constitution intended the 2nd Amendment as a check on a dictatorial Federal Government. The history of the militias shows that they have been used by states never to foment rebellion but often called out to suppress rebellions of citizens who thought that their rights had been infringed such as Shays Rebellion, the Whisky Rebellion and the repeated use of state militias to enforce laws and quell riots and labor disputes.

State Militia Quotes