The Founders' Second Amendment

by Stephen P. Halbrook

  9. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 2, at 220.

  10. Ibid., vol. 2, at 338.

  11. Ibid., vol. 2, at 384.

  12. Ibid., vol. 2, at 398.

  13. Ibid., vol. 2, at 399.

  14. Ibid., vol. 2, at 402.

  15. Ibid., vol. 2, at 401.

  16. Ibid., vol. 2, at 403.

  17. Ibid., vol. 2, at 404.

  18. Ibid., vol. 2, at 397.

  19. Ibid., vol. 2, at 406.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Ibid., vol. 2, at 410.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid., vol. 2, 411–12.

  24. Ibid., vol. 2, at 413–14.

  25. Jonathan Elliot ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1836), vol. 1, at 327.

  26. Ibid., vol. 1, at 328. Also in The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, John P. Kaminski and Gaspare J. Saladino eds. (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1995), vol. 18, at 298.

  27. Jonathan Elliot ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1836), vol. 3, at 658–59.

  28. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 1, at 328.

  29. Ibid.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Ibid., vol. 1, at 329.

  33. Ibid. Also in The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 18, at 300.

  34. Elliot ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 1, at 329.

  35. Ibid., vol. 1, at 330.

  36. Ibid., vol. 1, at 331. Also in The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 18, at 305.

  37. See also the New York Journal, August 14, 1788, at 2, col. 4 (“the people will resist arbitrary power”).

  38. “From the Wilmington Centinel, To the People of North Carolina,” New York Journal, April 21, 1788, at 2, col. 2. This issue of the Wilmington Centinel is not extant. Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, John P. Kaminski et al. eds. (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2004), vol. 20, at 1185, App. of “Antifederalist Newspaper Articles.”

  39. North Carolina Declaration of Rights, XVII (1776).

  40. R. D. W. Conner, History of North Carolina: The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods, 1584–1783 (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1919), vol. 2, at 34.

  41. Ibid., vol. 2, at 33.

  42. Jonathan Elliot ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1836), vol. 4, at 9.

  43. Ibid., vol. 4, at 64.

  44. Ibid. The debates fail to specify whether the speaker was Archibald Maclaine or William Maclaine.

  45. Ibid., vol. 4, at 137.

  46. Ibid., vol. 4, at 138.

  47. Ibid., vol. 4, at 141.

  48. Ibid., vol. 4, at 142.

  49. Ibid., vol. 4, at 148.

  50. Ibid., vol. 4, at 149.

  51. The Papers of James Iredell, Don Higginbotham ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Division of Archives and History, 1976), vol. 1, at 79.

  52. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 4, at 153-54.

  53. Ibid., vol. 4, at 161.

  54. Ibid., vol. 4, at 166–67.

  55. Ibid., vol. 4, at 167–68. The debates fail to specify whether the speaker was Timothy Bloodworth or James Bloodworth.

  56. Ibid., vol. 4, at 168.

  57. Ibid., vol. 4, at 200.

  58. Ibid., vol. 4, at 185.

  59. Ibid., vol. 4, at 201–2.

  60. Ibid., vol. 4, at 203.

  61. Ibid., vol. 4, at 208.

  62. Ibid., vol. 4, at 209.

  63. Ibid., vol. 4, at 210.

  64. Ibid., vol. 4, at 216.

  65. Ibid., vol. 4, at 219.

  66. Ibid., vol. 4, at 222–23.

  67. Ibid., vol. 4, at 225.

  68. Ibid., vol. 4, at 226.

  69. Ibid., vol. 4, at 233.

  70. Ibid., vol. 4, at 240.

  71. Ibid., vol. 4, at 241.

  72. Ibid., vol. 4, at 242.

  73. Ibid., vol. 4, at 243.

  74. Ibid., vol. 4, at 244. This is identical to the Virginia provision. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 3, at 659. Also in The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 18, at 316.

  75. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 4, at 244.

  76. Ibid.

  77. Ibid., vol. 4, at 245. This, too, is identical with the Virginia proposal. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 3, at 660. Also in The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 18, at 318.

  78. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 4, at 247.

  79. Ibid., vol. 4, at 248–49.

  80. Ibid., vol. 4, at 251.

  81. The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 18, at 130.

  82. The Papers of James Madison, Robert Rutland et al. eds. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1977), vol. 11, at 297–98.

  83. Ibid., vol. II, at 307.

  84. The Papers of James Madison, Charles F. Hobson et al. eds. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1979), vol. 12, at 211.

  85. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 1, at 333.

  CHAPTER 12

  1. Robert Allen Rutland, The Birth of the Bill of Rights (New York: Collier Books, 1962), 196.

  2. James Monroe Papers, New York Public Library, Miscellaneous Papers and Undated Letters.

  3. Robert Allen Rutland, James Madison: The Founding Father (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 59–60.

  4. Madison, Notes for Speech in Congress, June 8, 1789, The Papers of James Madison, Charles F. Hobson et al. eds. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1979), vol. 12, at 193.

  5. Ibid., vol. 12, at 193–94.

  6. An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, 1 W. & M., Sess. 2, cl. 2 (1689).

  7. Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, Charlene Bangs Bickford ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), vol. 4, at 9–10.

  8. Ibid., vol. 4, at 10.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, John P. Kaminski and Gaspare J. Saladino eds. (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1984), vol. 15, at 318.

  13. Bickford ed., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 4, at 11.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Ibid., vol. 4, at 12.

  17. Russell L. Caplan, “The History and Meaning of the Ninth Amendment,” in The Rights Retained By the People: The History and Meaning of the Ninth Amendment, Randy E. Barnett ed. (Lanham, Md.: University Publishing Associates, Inc., 1989), 278–79 and n.142, observes:

  Madison’s distinction between powers and rights assumed a sharply definable boundary between governmental and individual discretion. For Madison, a power was a delegated capacity allowing the government to perform certain kinds of acts . . . . It is Madison’s consistent usage. which eliminated the ambiguous concept of state rights as referring to both governmental and personal rights, replacing it with the clearer power/right dichotomy, that was adopted with the Bill of Rights.

  18. Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, Charlene Bangs Bickfor
d et al. eds. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), vol. 11, at 819–20.

  19. Ibid., vol. 11, at 821.

  20. Ibid., vol. 11, at 822. Also in Annals of Congress (Washington, D.C.: Gales and Seaton, 1834), vol. 1, at 436–37.

  21. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 828. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 442.

  22. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 824. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 438.

  23. Jonathan Elliot ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1836), vol. 3, at 660 (Virginia); vol. 4, at 245 (North Carolina); vol. 2, at 545–46 (Harrisburg). See also Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, Merrill Jensen ed. (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976), vol. 2, at 624 (Pennsylvania “Dissent of Minority”).

  24. Ames to Thomas Dwight, June 11, 1789, Works of Fisher Ames, Seth Ames ed. (New York 1854), vol. 1, at 52–53.

  25. Ames to F. R. Minoe, June 12, 1789, ibid., vol. 1, at 53–54.

  26. Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress, Helen E. Veit et al. eds. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), 249.

  27. Ibid., 253. Also in Hobson et al. eds., The Papers of James Madison, vol. 12, at 258.

  28. Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789, at 2, col. 1. Madison’s proposals had been published two days before in the same paper. Federal Gazette, June 16, 1789, at 2, cols. 2–3.

  29. Coxe to Madison, June 18, 1789, Hobson et al. eds., The Papers of James Madison, vol. 12, at 239–40.

  30. Madison to Coxe, June 24, 1789, ibid., vol. 12, at 257.

  31. New York Packet, June 23, 1789 at 2, cols. 1–2.

  32. Madison to Coxe, June 24, 1789, Hobson et al. eds., The Papers of James Madison, vol. 12, at 257.

  33. Massachusetts Centinel (Boston), July 4, 1789, at 1, col. 2.

  34. Jack N. Rakove, The Second Amendment: The Highest Stage of Originalism, 76 Chi.–Kent L. Rev., 103, 115 n.30, 123 n.48 (2000).

  35. Federal Gazette, June 30, 1789, at 2, cols. 1–2.

  36. Federal Gazette, July 2, 1789, at 2, col. 1.

  37. Veit et al. eds., Creating the Bill of Rights, 260–61. Spelling and punctuation corrected. For Nasson’s earlier correspondence with Thatcher, see ibid., 251.

  38. Ibid., 261. Spelling and punctuation corrected.

  39. Ibid., 241.

  40. Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, John P. Kaminski and Gas pare J. Saladino eds. (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 2000, 2001), vol. 6, at 1490; vol. 7, at 1583–84, 1597–98.

  41. Hobson et al. eds., The Papers of James Madison, vol. 12, at 363–64.

  42. Thomas Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jeffirson, Julian P. Boyd etal. eds. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1951), vol. 1, at 344–45.

  43. The other members included Abraham Baldwin, Aedanus Burke, Nicolas Gilman, George Clymer, Egbert Benson, Benjamin Goodhue, Elias Boudinot, and George Gale. Bickford ed., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 4, at 4. See also Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), vol. 11, at 1157–63 (debate on motion to commit to committee).

  44. James C. Hutson, “The Bill of Rights: The Roger Sherman Draft,” This Constitution, no. 18, at 36 (Spring/Summer 1988). The draft was discovered in 1987.

  45. Ibid.

  46. Letter dated August 8, 1789. Veit et al. eds., Creating the Bill of Rights, 272.

  47. Pennsylvania Packet, December 21, 1790, in Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, William Charles DiGiacomantonio et al. eds. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), vol. 14, at 92–93.

  48. Bickford ed., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 4, at 28.

  49. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 3, at 658–59 (Virginia); vol. 4, at 244 (North Carolina).

  50. Bickford ed., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 4, at 10–11, 28–29.

  51. Ibid., vol. 4, at 28.

  52. Ibid., vol. 4, at 29.

  53. Independent Chronicle, August 6, 1789, in Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 6, at 1453. Reprinted in “From the Boston Independent Chronicle,” Independent Gazetteer, August 20, 1789, at 2, col. 2.

  54. The Writings of Samuel Adams, Harry Alonzo Cushing ed. (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1908), vol. 4, at 334.

  55. Letter dated April 22, 1789, ibid., vol. 4, at 326–27.

  56. Veit et al. eds., Creating the Bill of Rights, 272–73.

  57. Hutson, “The Bill of Rights,” This Constitution, no. 18, at 36 (Spring/Summer 1988).

  58. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1221–22.

  59. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1230.

  60. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1240. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 717–18.

  61. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1242.

  62. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1253–54.

  63. Jonathan Elliot ed., The Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution in the Convention Held at Philadelphia . . . Vol. V. Supplementary to Elliot’s Debates (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1845), 538.

  64. Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1261. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 729–30.

  65. Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1261. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 730.

  66. Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1262.

  67. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1263.

  68. Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 6, at 1337. Also in Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 2, at 97.

  69. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1270.

  70. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1280.

  71. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1285–86. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 749–50.

  72. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1286. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 750.

  73. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1286.

  74. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1286–87.

  75. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1287.

  76. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1287–88. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 750–51.

  77. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1288. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 751.

  78. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1288. Also in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 752.

  79. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1288–91.

  80. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1291–2.

  81. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1292–93.

  82. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1300–1.

  83. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1297.

  84. Muhlenberg to Rush, August 18, 1789, in Veit et al. eds., Creating the Bill of Rights, 280.

  85. Ibid., 309.

  86. Ibid., 280.

  87. Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution
, Merrill Jensen ed. (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976), vol. 2, 623–24.

  88. Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1308.

  89. Letter of August 24, 1789, in Hobson et al. eds., The Papers of James Madison, vol. 12, at 352.

  90. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1309. See also version in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 766–67.

  91. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1309. See also version in Annals of Congress, vol. 1, at 767.

  92. Bickford et al. eds., Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, vol. 11, at 1310.

  93. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1319.

  94. Ibid., vol. 11, at 1319–23.

  95. Hobson et al. eds., The Papers of James Madison, vol. 12, at 348.

  96. Edmund Randolph to James Madison, August 18, 1789, ibid., vol. 12, at 345.

  97. Veit et al. eds., Creating the Bill of Rights, 289.

  98. Richard Henry Lee to Charles Lee, August 28, 1789, Letters of Richard Henry Lee (New York: Macmillan, 1914), vol. 2, at 499.

  99. “Political Maxims,” New York Daily Advertiser, August 15, 1789, at 2, col. 1.

  100. Independent Gazetteer (Philadelphia), August 18, 1789, at 3, col. 1.

  101. Centinel Revived, no. xxix, Independent Gazetteer, September 9, 1789, at 2, col. 2.

  102. Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 2, at 617.

  103. Elliot ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, vol. 3, at 660 (Virginia); vol. 4, at 245 (North Carolina); vol. 2, at 545–46 (Harrisburg convention). See also Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, vol. 2, at 624 (Pennsylvania Dissent of Minority).

  104. Veit et al. eds., Creating the Bill of Rights, 300.

  105. The Diary of William Maclay and Other Notes on Senate Debates: 4 March 1189–3 March 1791, Kenneth R. Bowling and Helen E. Veit eds. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988), 133.

  106. Journal of the First Session of the Senate of the United States of America (Washington, D.C.: Gales & Seaton, 1820), 70.