George Washington: Concerning Arms in the hands of the People....

Here is just a sample of the qotes found;

"...I cannot, by all the enquiries I have been able to make, learn, what number of arms have been taken from the Tories, where they lay, or how they are to be got at.

"The Committee of Safety for this Colony have assured me that no exertions of theirs shall be wanting to procure Arms; but our sufferings in the meanwhile may prove fatal, as Men without are in a manner useless.

"I have therefore thought of Imploying an Agent, whose sole business it shall be, to ride through the middle and interior parts of these Governments for the purpose of buying up such Arms as the Inhabitants may Incline to sell, and are fit for use."

(More quotes from Washington here).