Free Republic

The first objection from Anti-Federalists was that the extensive territory of 1780s America could not support republican government. Citing a widely respected Charles De Montesquieu, republican government requires the consent of the governed across a small territory with a relatively homogeneous population. James Winthrop of Massachusetts expressed a common belief when he said, “The idea of an uncompounded republic [the size of the United States,] containing six million inhabitants all reduced to the same standard of morals, of habits, and of laws, is in itself an absurdity, and contrary to the whole experience of mankind.” Liberty under a single code...

There is a parallel conservatism shared by the framing era Anti-Federalists and today’s Article V opponents. Conservatism in this sense is the tendency to hold on to what is known and to resist change.We may take it for granted, but thirteen heterogeneous societies joining in common defense was not inevitable. By 1787, both Federalists and Anti-Federalists foresaw approaching dissolution of the union under the Articles of Confederation (AC). A decade of experience with state constitutions had revealed their defects and induced among many Americans an inclination toward change. Either the independent republics must join in a more perfect union, or...

IntroductionFew ideas were more widely accepted in early America than that of the danger of peacetime standing armies.[1] This anti-standing army sentiment motivated colonial opposition to post-French and Indian War British policies, intensified after the Boston Massacre, influenced the writings of most founding fathers, and remained politically relevant well after the Revolutionary War ended. This sentiment remained largely unchallenged until the introduction of the U.S. Constitution to the public for ratification. The Constitution’s “army clause,” which allowed the U.S. Congress to raise and support armies with biennial funds, sparked a nation-wide debate that pitted tradition against innovation, precedent against necessity,...

In something a flashback from the Eagle’s Super Bowl victory, riot and mayhem also welcomed the draft Constitution when it made the Philadelphia newspapers. Advocates of the new plan held a majority in the Pennsylvania legislature, then in the last days of its regular session, and they attempted to ram through a statute calling for a ratification convention. To prevent a quorum, some of the Constitution’s opponents, the Anti-Federalists, made themselves scarce. The Assembly sent the sergeant-at-arms to seize enough absent members to establish a quorum, and forcibly kept them on the floor of the chamber. It is difficult today...

There is a parallel conservatism shared by the framing era Anti-Federalists and today’s Article V opponents. Conservativism in this sense is the tendency to hold on to what is known and to resist change. We take it for granted, but thirteen heterogeneous societies joining in common defense was not inevitable. By 1787, both Federalists and Anti-Federalists foresaw approaching dissolution of the union under the Articles of Confederation (AC). A decade of experience with state constitutions had revealed their defects or weaknesses, and induced among many Americans an inclination toward change. Either the independent republics must join in a more perfect...

Symbolism doesn't get much more chilling than this. Serious efforts are underway to abrogate the First and Second Amendments, in the name of "campaign finance reform" and "commonsense gun safety" - both euphemisms masking the tyrannical impulses of the left. At such a time, to demolish the site where the Bill of Rights were first proposed is unnerving, to say the least. But government incompetence, rather than some sinister plot, seems to be at the root of it. Phyllis Zimmerman of The Sentinel of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania reports: On Jan. 6, workers began demolishing a two-story stone house at 7086...

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 The Anti-federalists on our Financial Crisis by Patrick Deneen Taking a longer view, we can find some instructive thoughts on the current financial crisis from a number of the original opponents to the Constitution. Many will recall we last heard from these so-called "Anti-federalists" nearly 220 years ago, when they expressed what were then thought to be overheated concerns about "consolidation" that would be effected gradually under the proposed Constitution. "Consolidation pervades the whole constitution" wrote Pennsylvania's opposition in the ratification debates. Over and over, its opponents saw the grant of powers that promised eventual consolidation...

The history of the American political system has been one of a perpetual conflict between Federalism and the Anti-Federalists. We owe the First 10 Amendments to the constitution and much of our personal freedom to the Anti-Federalists who, led by Thomas Jefferson, refused ratify the Constitution without them. The essence of the conflict is whether we the people are best served by a centralized, distant, all powerful government or by a more local, responsive, and hands off government; whether we individually or collectively are best equipped to govern and serve ourselves. Compromise is required because each system can perform certain...

The Democrat Party died yesterday in Hartford, Connecticut. Present when this venerable institution breathed its last were a minority of the Democrats in the Nutmeg State. The Party was the child of the Republican-Democrat Party, and the Anti-Federalist Party. It leaves no known descendants. However, political parties sometimes spawn children many years after their deaths. Is that verdict too harsh? The leaders of the Democrat Party in Washington, New York, and elsewhere, are not admitting even to a serious illness. It’s difficult to conduct a proper Irish wake when on-lookers insist on prodding the deceased to sing and dance. These...

Dateline, 17 September, 2005, National Capitol It is self-evident that this new constitution is fatally flawed. It is unlikely to be ratified. And even if it is, it will fail in practice. Begin with ratification. One province is so opposed that it refused to take part in the drafting. The governors of two provinces refused to sign the document and are committed to its defeat. There is a hotbed of opposition in another province. One of the leaders there walked out of the drafting, and returned home to lead the effort to defeat the constitution, taking a majority of his...

Antifederalist Nos. 78-79 THE POWER OF THE JUDICIARY (PART 1) Part one is taken from the first part of the "Brutus's" 15th essay of The New-York Journal on March 20, 1788; Part two is part one of his 16th of the New York Journal of April 10, 1788. The supreme court under this constitution would be exalted above all other power in the government, and subject to no control. The business of this paper will be to illustrate this, and to show the danger that will result from it. I question whether the world ever saw, in any period of...

FELLOW FREEPERS, PLEASE FIRST READ MY COMMENTS BELOW AS A PREFACE Rarely does scholarship anticipate the most dramatic events of the moment. In this timely work Gary Hart does just that, arguing for the restoration of republican virtues and for homeland security as an important first step. The American democratic republic has from its founding been a paradoxical success. Simultaneously attached to state and national power, citizens' rights and citizens' duties, American democracy has uniquely turned its reliance on consent from the governed into a powerful governing of the consenting. In a remarkable political feat, America's founders combined mixed government,...