[ExI] what does "bear arms" mean now and then?

Damien Broderick thespike at satx.rr.com
Sun Jul 13 03:20:14 UTC 2008


At 07:18 PM 7/12/2008 -0700, Lee quoth:

>   As you have been, and will continue to be, fully informed by
>   the Secretary of State of all transactions of a public nature,
>   which relate to, or may have an influence on the points of
>   your mission, it would be unnecessary for me to touch upon
>   any of them in this letter; was it not for the presumption, that,
>   the insurrection in the western counties of this State has
>   excited much speculation, and a variety of opinions abroad;
>   and will be represented differently according to the wishes of
>   some, and the prejudices of others, who may exhibit it as an
>   evidence of what has been predicted "that we are unable to
>   govern ourselves." Under this view of the subject, I am happy
>   in giving it to you as the general opinion that this event
>   having happened at the time it did, was fortunate, although'
>   it will be attended with considerable expense.
>
>Although this was *not* written by any literary heavyweight such
>as John Adams or Thomas Jefferson, it did come from the pen of
>one of the first presidents of the U.S.

Right, none of them had yet learned how to punctuate deftly, to 
create crisp sentences and paragraphs. (I blame the absence of word 
processors.) Even the journalism of the day was this clotted and 
concatenated. We've gone to the opposite extreme, it's true.

Damien Broderick




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