of the people to keep and bear arms ought not to be infringed, are principles not in the slightest degree encroached upon by the legislative enactment of this State prohibiting the wearing of concealed weapons.
One of the objects of the constitution was, "to provide for the common defence." To legislate upon this subject, is clearly within the constitutional charter; and that the States retain the power to legislate in relation to arms, and the mode of carrying and keeping them, provided its exercise is not repugnant to the previous grant to the Federal Government, is incontrovertible. The State Governments are charged with the police of the State. They, considering acts as having a demoralizing tendency, can prohibit them. Could Congress authorize any and every person, by express law, to carry deadly weapons concealed about his person, when not composing one of the militia, and not a part of the regulations ordained for their government? The police of a State is to be regulated by its own laws; and the Federal Government cannot interfere with it, so as to legalize any act which the State prohibits, and which is not necessary to carry out any of the great objects for which it was instituted. So long as the enactments of the General Assembly do not weaken the arm of the Federal Government, impair its power, or lessen its means to protect and sustain itself, and preserve inviolate the freedom of the States, they must be respected and enforced. But the slightest interference with the constitutional regulations and restrictions, in effecting these objects, becomes a violation of the compact between the State and Federal authorities, and ceases to be obligatory upon the citizen. The protection which a government owes to the States is political in its character: the municipal regulations to extend that protection to the citizen in his individual capacity, must be left to the State authority, and are such only as are consistent with the safety of others. Indeed, it is scarcely possible to look into the statute book, and not find written upon almost every page some restraints upon what are considered natural rights. The argument of the appellee, that men swayed by their interests, or governed by their passions, shall be permitted to wear a dirk, butcher-knife, &c., concealed as a weapon, independent of the control or authority of law, and that the General Assembly
