Tench Coxe quote: “The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large”

“I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day.”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

June 16
Addresses to the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)
Context: Mr. Chairman — A worthy member has asked, who are the militia, if they be not the people, of this country, and if we are not to be protected from the fate of the Germans, Prussians, &c. by our representation? I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day. If that paper on the table gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor; but may be confined to the lower and middle classes of the people, granting exclusion to the higher classes of the people. If we should ever see that day, the most ignominious punishments and heavy fines may be expected. Under the present government all ranks of people are subject to militia duty.

“For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well organized and armed militia is their best security.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Thomas Jefferson's Eighth State of the Union Address (8 November 1808)
1800s, Second Presidential Administration (1805-1809)

“The thing about collaborators is that you don’t know you are one whereas as a member of the resistance, you do. [In WWII, ] the worst cases of collaboration weren’t among the real collaborators, that official militia, but among the people at large, who were collaborators without knowing it, by a sort of laxity, an apathy.”

Paul Virilio (1932–2018) French philosopher

Pure War (2008), p. 183

“Humboldt relates the interesting fact, that after the annihilation of a large part of the inhabitants of Cumana, by an earthquake in 1766,”

Charles Lyell book Principles of Geology

Chpt.2, p. 9
Principles of Geology (1832), Vol. 1
Context: Humboldt relates the interesting fact, that after the annihilation of a large part of the inhabitants of Cumana, by an earthquake in 1766, a season of extraordinary fertility ensued, in consequence of the great rains which accompanied the subterranean convulsions 'The Indians,' he says, 'celebrated, after the ideas of an antique superstition, by festivals and dancing, the destruction of the world and the approaching epoch of its regeneration.

“The sad fact about the mosque is the people who are building that mosque are part of the Sufi fringe moderate part of their religion. That's the good part. That's the liberal part. Those are the Hippies of the Islamic world.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Larry King Live interview (2010)
Context: The sad fact about the mosque is the people who are building that mosque are part of the Sufi fringe moderate part of their religion. That's the good part. That's the liberal part. Those are the Hippies of the Islamic world. We should encourage them. The people who want to build that mosque, those are the people we should be courting. Bush used that guy. Bush — that administration sent him overseas. Yes, that's the way to fight terrorism. That's the way to win the war, is to get those people on our side, not to alienate them. … I mean, the biggest population of Muslims in the world is Indonesia. They're not crazy. The second biggest is India. There's 150 million Muslims in India. They're not crazy. …But Saudi Arabia, they're crazy. The Taliban in Afghanistan, they're crazy. Parts of Pakistan are crazy. Hamas is crazy. There's enough of them to worry about.

“Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people who are in fact Arabs and who were historically part of the Arab community.”

Newt Gingrich (1943) Professor, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

"Palestinians are an invented people, says Newt Gingrich" http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/10/palestinians-invented-people-newt-gingrich
2010s

“It is, of course, clear that a country with a large foreign population must endeavour, through its schools, to assimilate the children of immigrants. It is, however, unfortunate that a large part of this process should be effected by means of a somewhat blatant nationalism.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Source: 1930s, In Praise of Idleness and Other Essays (1935), Ch. 10: Modern Homogeneity

“Under the present government all ranks of people are subject to militia duty.”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

June 16
Addresses to the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)
Context: Mr. Chairman — A worthy member has asked, who are the militia, if they be not the people, of this country, and if we are not to be protected from the fate of the Germans, Prussians, &c. by our representation? I ask who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people, except a few public officers. But I cannot say who will be the militia of the future day. If that paper on the table gets no alteration, the militia of the future day may not consist of all classes, high and low, and rich and poor; but may be confined to the lower and middle classes of the people, granting exclusion to the higher classes of the people. If we should ever see that day, the most ignominious punishments and heavy fines may be expected. Under the present government all ranks of people are subject to militia duty.

“Indeed, India has become notorious as a country in which a very large part of the working population is laboring in effective debt peonage to a landlord or other creditor.”

David Graeber (1961) American anthropologist and anarchist

Source: Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Chapter Ten, "The Middle Ages", p. 256

“We must confront the privileged elite who have destroyed a large part of the world”

Hugo Chávez (1954–2013) 48th President of Venezuela

Hugo Chávez http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2231001.stm
2002

“The militia, who are in fact the effective part of the people at large”

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Tench Coxe 4

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