Send a Quote Enter a brief message. SendOk2 “[W]hen the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British Parliament was advised by an artful man, who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people; that it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them; but that they should not do it openly, but weaken them, and let them sink gradually, by totally disusing and neglecting the militia.” ~ George Mason (1725-1792), drafted the Virgina Declaration of Rights, ally of James Madison and George WashingtonSource: from debates during the Virginia state ratifying convention (June 14, 1788), quoted in Elliot’s Debates