Three Pillars of Power: Luther Martin’s Anti-Federalist Warnings
By: Mike Maharrey Luther Martin warned that the Constitution would create a centralized national government with few real restraints – one that would steadily erode state sovereignty, override local control, ...
Read more.Luther Martin’s Warning: Executive Power, Unequal Representation, and the Illusion of Impeachment
By: Michael Boldin Luther Martin feared that the Constitution was not a blueprint for liberty, but rather a framework for centralized control that threatened state sovereignty. He hammered this point ...
Read more.
Luther Martin vs. Landholder: Anti-Federalist Warnings on Consolidation and Tyranny
By: Mike Maharrey In a heated war of words, Luther Martin responded to a series of essays penned by Oliver Ellsworth under the pseudonym Landholder, defending his colleague Elbridge Gerry against ...
Read more.
A Republic at Risk: Cato’s Anti-Federalist Warnings
By: Mike Maharrey “A vile and arbitrary aristocracy or a monarchy.” That’s what the anti-federalist writer Cato warned we would get under the Constitution. This was because, in his view, ...
Read more.
Limited or Absolute Power: Warnings from Anti-Federalist Agrippa
By: TJ Martinell The Anti-Federalist writer Agrippa powerfully expressed many of the same reservations about the Constitution as other opponents – that it would create a consolidated government leading ...
Read more.
Mercy Otis Warren: Constitution Would “Terminate in the Most Uncontrolled Despotism”
By: TJ Martinell Mercy Otis Warren came down firmly opposed to ratification of the Constitution, and her anonymously written pamphlet titled “Observations on the new Constitution, and on the Federal ...
Read more.
Federal Farmer: Will the Judiciary Preserve or Destroy Liberty?
By: TJ Martinell While many anti-federalists, including Patrick Henry, regarded the judicial branch of the federal government under the proposed U.S. Constitution with deep suspicion, the Federal Farmer took a more ...
Read more.
Federal Farmer: Representation Isn’t Sufficient
By: TJ Martinell When it was ratified, the U.S. Constitution set a cap on the number of representatives at no more than one per 30,000 persons. In his seventh letter dated Dec. ...
Read more.
Patrick Henry Warns of a “Great and Mighty Empire”
By: TJ Martinell On June 5, 1788, Patrick Henry gave a speech at the Virginia Ratifying Convention warning that “consolidation” – centralizing of power – would turn the United States into a dangerous ...
Read more.
Patrick Henry’s Lesson on the Need for a Bill of Rights
By: TJ Martinell On June 12, 1788, Patrick Henry spoke during the Virginia Ratifying Convention, reiterating the need for a Bill of Rights in the proposed U.S. Constitution before its adoption. ...
Read more.