Richard Henry Lee

To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them...

— Richard Henry Lee

No free government was ever founded, or ever preserved its liberty, without uniting the characters of the citizen and soldier in those destined for the defense of the state...such are well-regulated militia, composed of the freeholders, citizen and husbandman, who take up arms to preserve their property, as individuals, and their rights as freemen.

— Richard Henry Lee