The "Liberty Teeth" Speech by "George Washington"
--
"Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.
They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under
independence. The church, the plow, the prarie wagon, and
citizen's firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the
Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and
tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness,
the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable. Every corner
of this land knows firearms, and more than 99 99/100 percent of
them by their silence indicate they are in safe and sane hands.
The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains
evil interference; they deserve a place with all that's good.
When firearms, go all goes; we need them every hour."
--falsely attributed to George Washington, address to the
second session of the first U.S. Congress
This quotation, sometimes called the "liberty teeth" quote,
appears nowhere in Washington's papers or speeches, and contains
several historical anachronisms: the reference to "prarie wagon"
in an America which had yet to even begin settling the Great Plains
(which were owned by France at the time), the reference to "the
Pilgrims" which implies a modern historical perspective, and
particularly the attempt by "Washington" to defend the utility
of firearms (by_use_of_statistics!) to an audience which would
have used firearms in their daily lives to obtain food, defend
against hostile Indians, and which had only recently won a war
for independence. The "99 99/100 percent" is also an odd phrase
for 18th century America, which tended not to use fractional
percentages. It's clear that "Washington" is addressing "gun
control" arguments which wouldn't exist for another couple
of centuries, not to mention doing so in a style that is
uncharacteristic of the period, and uncharacteristic of
Washington's addresses to Congress, both of which exhibited a
high degree of formality. This is a false quote, but bits and
pieces of it still continue to crop up from time to time.
Most recently, this quote has been seen circulated on flyers
at gun shows attributed to Neil Knox's Firearms Coalition,
but Knox isn't the original source of this "speech," and even
national publications, such as_Playboy_magazine, have been
snared by it. ("Playboy_published the "quote" in December 1995
as part of an article entitled "Once and for All: What the
Founding Fathers Said About Guns". After consulting with an
assistant editor of the George Washington Papers at the University
of Virginia,"Playboy_published a lengthy correction in March 1996.)
