1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.
1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.
1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.
1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.
1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.
1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.
1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.
1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.

1781 GRANVILLE SHARP. On the Right to Bear Arms & Form Public Militias. Second Amendment Foundational Text.

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$850.00

Only offered at auction once since 1973, the present is a foundational text for the formation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Sharp was a pro-American Quaker and Abolitionist living in England. Writing specifically in the context of the potential infringement of overreaching governments, he saw localized, armed militias as an important safeguard. 

Recent scholarship recognizes Sharp's work as foundational to a contextual legal understanding of the intent of the Second Amendment, ratified in 1791. George Washington owned a copy. 

As recently as 2008 Judge Antonin Scalia, in his written Opinion of the Supreme Court, District of Columbia vs. Dick Anthony Heller, referenced Sharp's work as context for the Amendment's intent of allowing arms as a way of rebuffing both public and personal infringements [p.21]. Also see McDonald vs. The City of Chicago; Chicago Tribune of 3.15.2011 Does the Right to Bear Arms Imply the Right to Carry Arms?; Greenlee, The Right to Train, in the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, 2022-2023; Charles, Arms for their Defence, 2009; etc., for other examples.  

No copies on the market at the time of cataloguing and the only example we have ever handled. 

Sharp, Granville. Tracts Concerning the Ancient and Only True Legal Means of National Defence, by a Free Militia. I. The Ancient Common-Law Right of Associating with the Vicinage, in Every County, District, or Town, to Support the Civil Magistrate in Maintaining the Peace. II. A General Militia, Acting by a Well-Regulated Rotation, is the Only Safe Means of Defending a Free People. III. Remarks Concerning the Trained Bands of the City of London. IV. Hints of Some General Principles, which may be Useful to Military Associations. London. Printed in the Year 1781. 95pp.

Bound in quarter leather with marbled boards; some rubbing and light chipping, but solid and attractive. One signature forward and shaken, some scattered foxing. A good, textually well-preserved example of an important work.