The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, "Luther Martin: Genuine Information", Dec. 28, 1787

"...that all men, considered in a state of nature, before any government is formed, are equally free and independent, no one having any right or authority to exercise power over another, and this without any regard to difference in personal strength, understanding, or wealth. That, when such individuals enter into government, they have each a right to an equal voice in its first formation, and afterwards have each a right to an equal vote in every matter which relates to their government...."
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"...Having thus established these principles, with respect to the rights of individuals in a state of nature..."
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"...By the principles of the American revolution, arbitrary power may and ought to be resisted, even by arms if necessary...."
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Read whole article here.

Wayne Fincher Docket Posted....

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Thanks to David @ The War on Guns

ALERT!

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org
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Wednesday, December 20, 2006
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Imagine this scenario. It's June of 2007, and the House of Representatives is getting ready to vote on renewing the semi-autogun ban which sunset three years before.
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You've called your Congressman and asked him to oppose the gun ban. He assures you that he is with you, and in fact, he carries throughwith his promise and votes "no." But the ban still passes narrowly.
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The reason this scenario could occur during the next two years --whether it's the semi-auto ban or the Brady expansion act or a gunshow ban -- is because the REAL VOTE for killing gun control willoccur on January 4, 2007.
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On that day, the House of Representatives will vote for Speaker of the House. On that day, your Congressman will help determine whichbills get pushed to the floor for a vote and, likewise, which billswill die in committee. That is the power of the House Speaker. That is the power that Nancy Pelosi will have, should she be elected tothe top post in the House.
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And that's why Gun Owners of America is telling every Representativein Congress that GOA will be rating the vote for Speaker on January4. A vote in favor of Nancy Pelosi will be counted as an ANTI-GUNvote. A vote for Pelosi will be considered as a vote for guncontrol.
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The democratic congresswoman from California is rabidly anti-gun. She is an avowed socialist who is F- rated by Gun Owners of America. Consider that Pelosi was one of only 99 Representatives who voted IN FAVOR of gun confiscation in July. That vote saw more than 300 congressmen cast their ballots to prohibit federal agents from stealing firearms from law-abiding citizens. It was truly an overwhelming majority who supported the Second Amendment rights of Americans. But in that July vote, Nancy Pelosi joined the hard core left in Congress to SUPPORT gun confiscation. She actually voted to let government agents burst into your home and steal your firearms! That's the woman who will be determining which bills will be voted on next year in the House of Representatives. Yes, there still may be a majority of congressmen who oppose the outright gun confiscation of gun owners' guns. But in Nancy Pelosi's new Congress, a bill to prohibit such gun confiscation will never see the light of day! She will decide what gun bills come to the floor.
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And that's why we need your help. Gun Owners will be telling each Congressman that the vote for the Speaker of the House is a "ratings vote." A vote for a gun grabber like Pelosi will be considered an anti-Second Amendment vote.
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But we need you to back us up on this. Tell them that you agree with this strategy. We're not asking that Democrats vote for a Republican for Speaker. To quote a common proverb, "Hell will freeze over before that happens." All we're asking is that the House does not elevate a committed supporter of gun confiscation to the top leadership spot in that chamber.
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This vote will be especially tough for some of the newly elected, so-called Blue Dog Democrats who campaigned as pro-gun before the recent election. But that's okay. Let's find out how pro-gun these new congressmen really are.
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ACTION: Please ask your Representative to vote NO on choosing NancyPelosi for the Speaker of the House. You can visit the Gun OwnersLegislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your Representatives a pre-written e-mail message. And, you can call your Representatives toll-free at 1-877-762-8762.
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-----Pre-written letter-----
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Dear Representative:
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As a supporter of the Second Amendment, I am asking you to vote for a gun rights supporter in early January, when you cast your ballot for the Speaker of the House.
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And just to be clear... Rep. Nancy Pelosi is not a supporter of the Second Amendment.

Thus, I will consider a vote for Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker to be an anti-gun vote. Gun Owners of America has told me that they will be rating this vote, and I agree with them. Pelosi is a supporter of gun confiscation, as evidenced by her vote against HR 5013 last year, when she voted to let government agents burst into my home and steal my firearms in the wake of a natural disaster.
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More than 300 Congressmen -- an overwhelming majority --voted right on this bill. But Pelosi was part of the small minority that actually voted in favor of gun confiscation. She has truly earned her F- rating with the Gun Owners of America. She will prevent constitutional bills from coming to the floor and will do her best to push the most extreme versions of gun control.Given all of the above, I urge you to vote AGAINST Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House in early January.
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Sincerely,

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To subscribe to free, low-volume GOA alerts, go tohttp://www.gunowners.org/ean.htm on the web. Change of e-mail address may also be made at that location.
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Problems, questions or comments? The main GOA e-mail address goamail@gunowners.org is at your disposal. Please do not add that address to distribution lists sending more than ten messages per week or lists associated with issues other than gun rights.

ANDREW JOHNSON, Washington, December 4, 1865....

"To form a more perfect Union," by an ordinance of the people of the United States, is the declared purpose of the Constitution. The hand of Divine Providence was never more plainly visible in the affairs of men than in the framing and the adopting of that instrument. It is, beyond comparison, the greatest event in American history; and indeed is it not, of all events in modern times, the most pregnant with consequences for every people of the earth? ..."

"...In case of the usurpation of the government of a State by one man, or an oligarchy, it becomes a duty of the United States to make good the guarantee to that State of a republican form of government, and so to maintain the homogeneousness of all...."

"...The parting advice of the Father of his Country, while yet President, to the people of the United States, was, that "the free Constitution, which was the work of their hands, might be sacredly maintained;" and the inaugural words of President Jefferson held up "the preservation of the general government, in its constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad." The Constitution is the work of "the people of the United States," and it should be as indestructible as the people...."

"...It is not strange that the framers of the Constitution, which had no model in the past, should not have fully comprehended the excellence of their own work. Fresh from a struggle against arbitrary power...."

"...The largest liberty is to be maintained in the discussion of the acts of the federal government; but there is no appeal from its laws, except to the various branches of that government itself, or to the people, who grant to the members of the legislative and of the executive departments no tenure but a limited one, and in that manner always retain the powers of redress...."

"...Certainly the government of the United States is a limited government; and so is every State government a limited government. With us this idea of limitation spreads through every form of administration, general, State, and municipal, and rests on the great distinguishing principle of the recognition of the rights of man. The ancient republics absorbed the individual in the State, prescribed his religion, and controlled his activity. The American system rests on the assertion of the equal right of every man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; to freedom of conscience; to the culture and exercise of all his faculties. As a consequence the State government is limited, as to the general government in the interest of union, as to the individual citizen in the interest of freedom...."

"...When the vast extent of our country is considered, it is plain that every obstacle to the free circulation of commerce between the States ought to be sternly guarded against by appropriate legislation within the limits of the Constitution...."

"...The throngs of emigrants that crowd to our shores are witnesses of the confidence of all peoples in our permanence. Here is the great land of free labor, where industry is blessed with unexampled rewards, and the bread of the workingman is sweetened by the consciousness that the cause of the country "is his own cause, his own safety, his own dignity." Here every one enjoys the free use of his faculties and the choice of activity as a natural right...."

- Journal of the Senate of the United States

Journals of the Continental Congress, OCTOBER 3, 1775;

...One of the Delegates for Rhode Island laid before the Congress a part of the Instructions given them by the House of Magistrates, Aug.26,1775, in these words, viz:--

Whereas notwithstanding the humble and dutiful petition of the last Congress to the King, and other wise and pacific measures taken for obtaining a happy reconciliation between Great Britain and the Colonies, the ministry lost to every sentiment of justice, liberty and humanity continue to send troops and ships of war into America, which destroy our trade, plunder and burn our towns and murder the good people of these colonies. Resolved, That this Colony most ardently wishes to see the former friendship, harmony and intercourse between Britain and these Colonies restored, and a happy and lasting connection established between both countries upon terms of just and equal liberty and will concur with the other colonies in all proper measures for obtaining those desirable blessings; and as every principle divine and human requires us to obey that great and fundamental law of nature, self reservation, until peace shall be restored upon constitutional principles; this colony will most heartily exert the whole power of government in conjunction with the other colonies for carrying on this just and necessary war, and bringing the same to a happy issue, and amongst other measures for obtaining this most desirable purpose, this Assembly is persunded, that the building and equipping an American fleet, as soon as possible, would greatly and essentially conduce to the preservation of the lives, liberty and property of the good people of these Colonies and therefore instruct their delegates to use their whole influence at the ensuing congress for building at the Continental expence a fleet of sufficient force for the protection of these colonies, and for employing them in such manner and places as will most effectually annoy our enemies, and contribute to the common defence of these colonies, and they are also instructed to use all their influence for carrying on the war in the most vigorous manner, until peace, liberty and safety are restored and secured to these Colonies upon an equitable and permanent basis.

Upon motion, Resolved, That the Congress will on Friday next take the above into consideration.1
[Note 1: 1 These words in the "corrected Journal" are in the writing of Samuel Adams.]....

Journals of the Continental Congress, "...and that Liberty which renders the enjoyment of them secure...", July 8, 1775

The Twelve United Colonies, by their Delegates in Congress, to the Inhabitants of Great Britain.

"...but when the Friendship is violated by the grossest Injuries; when the Pride of Ancestry becomes our Reproach, and we are no otherwise allied than as Tyrants and Slaves..."

"...To confirm this Assertion, let us recal your attention to the Affairs of America, since our last Address. Let us combat the Calumnies of our Enemies; and let us warn you of the dangers that threaten you in our destruction. Many of your Fellow-Subjects, whose situation deprived them of other Support, drew their Maintenance from the Sea; but the deprivation of our Liberty being insufficient to satisfy the resentment of our Enemies, the horrors of Famine were superadded, and a British Parliament, who, in better times, were the Protectors of Innocence and the Patrons of Humanity, have, without distinction of Age or Sex, robbed thousands of the Food which they were accustomed to draw from that inexhaustible Source, placed in their neighbourhood by the benevolent Creator."

"Another Act of your Legislature shuts our Ports, and prohibits our Trade with any but those States from whom the great Law of selfpreservation renders it absolutely necessary we should at present withhold our Commerce. But this Act (whatever may have been its design) we consider rather as injurious to your Opulence than our Interest. All our Commerce terminates with you; and the Wealth we procure from other Nations, is soon exchanged for your Superfluities. Our remittances must then cease with our trade; and our refinements with our Affluence. We trust, however, that Laws which deprive as of every Blessing but a Soil that teems with the necessaries of Life, and that Liberty which renders the enjoyment of them secure, will not relax our Vigour in their Defence."

"We might here observe on the Cruelty and Inconsistency of those, who, while they publicly Brand us with reproachful and unworthy Epithets, endeavour to deprive us of the means of defence, by their Interposition with foreign Powers, and to deliver us to the lawless Ravages of a merciless Soldiery. But happily we are not without Resources; and though the timid and humiliating Applications of a British Ministry should prevail with foreign Nations, yet Industry, prompted by necessity, will not leave us without the necessary Supplies...."

Letters of Delegates to Congress, "...before a Recourse to Arms can be Justified...", Dec. 29, 1774

James Duane to Thomas Johnson

"...If they pursue a Middle path, assume a Resolution to maintain their Rights with Fortitude and at the same time hold up a plan of Accommodation & Union, they must tread upon Thorns, expose themselves to Suspicion & Distrust & perhaps yield up points which their Sister Colonies will not approve...."
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"...The people here however misrepresented are sincerely devoted to the Cause of Liberty. And tho' they are ungenerously condemned in other colonies [. . .] they will not suffer the press to be restraind, nor a decent Freedom of speech to be controled. These Indulgences in part proceed from a proper sense of Liberty. Under this advantage It is not difficult for a Man of Observation to discern the General Opinion on important & popular subjects. It seems to be agreed here that every pacific & persuasive Expedient ought to be tried before a Recourse to Arms can be Justified..."

The Debates in the Federal Convention, "a power to regulate the militia", Aug. 18, 1787;

...Mr. MASON introduced the subject of regulating the militia. He thought such a power necessary to be given to the general government. He hoped there would be no standing army in time of peace, unless it might be for a few garrisons. The militia ought, therefore, to be the more effectually prepared for the public defence. Thirteen states will never concur in any one system, if the disciplining of the militia be left in their hands. If they will not give up the power over the whole, they probably will over a part, as a select militia. He moved, as an addition to the propositions just referred to the committee of detail, and to be referred in like manner, "a power to regulate the militia."
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Mr. GERRY remarked, that some provision ought to be made in favor of public securities, and something inserted concerning letters of marque, which he thought not included in the power of war. He proposed that these subjects should also go to a committee.
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Full article can be read here.