Federal Farmer: A Confederated Republic or Consolidation?
By: TJ Martinell During the Constitution’s ratification process, there was little to no debate about the type of government desired. Whether antifederalist or federalist, both sides fundamentally advocated for a federal ...
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Federal Farmer Makes his Case for the Tenth Amendment
By: TJ Martinell Given the power various officers in the federal government would wield, the Federal Farmer believed that there needed to be a better mechanism to appoint them and remove ...
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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 ...
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Federal Farmer: Is There a “Right Person” for Office?
By: TJ Martinell The Federal Farmer believed it was important to get the right people in office, yet he warned that a lack of more stringent requirements for officeholders would have ...
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Federal Farmer: Politicians and Bureaucrats must be “Recallable”
By: TJ Martinell Given the power various officers in the federal government would wield, the Federal Farmer believed that there needed to be a better mechanism to appoint them and remove ...
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Federal Farmer: Senate Will be “Source of the Greatest Evils”
By: TJ Martinell While the anti-federalist Federal Farmer was critical of the proposed House of Representatives for having too few members, he was even more harsh toward the proposed Senate. Ironically, he ...
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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. ...
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Federal Farmer: Amendments are Essential and Necessary
By: TJ Martinell In his sixth letter dated Dec. 25, 1787, the Federal Farmer wrote of the “essential and necessary” inclusion of meaningful amendments to the Constitution prior to its ratification. Though ...
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Federal Farmer: Constitution creates “a strong tendency to aristocracy”
By: TJ Martinell In his third letter dated Oct. 10, 1787, the anti-federalist writer Federal Farmer wrote skeptically of the proposed new federal government for fear it would bring about a “tendency toward ...
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The Federal Farmer: The Constitution Would Lead to a Complete Consolidation
By: TJ Martinell During the debates over ratification of the Constitution, one of the most influential and important series of papers were written by the Federal Farmer, an anti-federalist who forcefully ...
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