[mrsmith]

Perhaps we have lived under a powerful federal government so long that people today have a very hard time imagining the attitude towards the federal government that prevailed at the time of our Founding. People then truly thought of their state as their "country".
The new government that was offered to the people by the Constitution was first met with great and broad suspicion. It was new, and it was much more powerful than the old Confederation.
The Anti-federalists were not a fringe group. Though the Constitution's undoubted merits came to be accepted by many people, the Anti-federalist argument that this new government must be limited by a Bill of Rights, as many state governments were, was accepted by the people and the proponents of the Constitution finally had to agree to add a Bill of Rights to limit the new government.
If they hadn't the Constitution would have been rewritten at a new conventin or rejected outright.

Anyway, here's the grand old orator. Not at the height of his power perhaps, but still carrying the day quite nicely.

[Lunatic Fringe]

I tend to agree with James Madison, who opposed a Bill of Rights. He claimed that once rights were defined, the government would then attack them.

[RAY]

Where are leaders and thinkers now, such as they bygone - we need them!

[RISU]

Tonight I got a call from an man in India regarding my American Express bill. When he had concluded his business, he asked me to "update" my "employment" data with him on the telephone.

So, at that point I politely declined to disuss it, and I hung up.

I feel very uncomfortable discussing my private business with any AMEX contractor living and working in India. What do I know about his respect for my personal information or privacy? Regardless of AMEX's guarantees, that person lives under a different giovernment and different laws.

I know nothing abnout Indian Law or rights.

So, I am thinking I may send this card back to them now and get an American based debit card instead. I do not want my personal information going out to India.

Thank you.

[Publius]

Take the time to pick up a copy of the Anti-Federalist Papers. Sidney Yates, Melancton Smith, Patrick Henry and others sound off on problems that plague us today.

The Anti-Federalist Papers were published concurrently with the Federalist Papers, and each individual paper was intended to answer points raised by the other. My copy of the Anti-Federalist Papers has a chronology of publication for both sets of documents, and the best way to read them both is to follow strict chronology. This way you can see how one paper answers a point raised by the opponent in the last paper, and you can see the thrust and parry, the point and counterpoint, of the debate over ratification.

[PatrickHenry]

Bump.

[edwin hubble]

uh...I thought you should see this one.

[Mulder]

bump for later read

[PatrickHenryinVA]

I always love it when I'm scanning FR and run across a referene to my old friend Patrick Henry. I was just last night performing as Mr. Henry, and giving excepts from the same ratification debate as reproduced by you above, to an Elderhostel group at a hotel here in Richmond, VA. I have been interpreting Patrick Henry for the last 11 years, and I have been including more and more of the anti-ratification arguments in my presentation. I love this part:

"But I am fearful that I have lived long enough to become an old-fashioned fellow. Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man, may, in these refined enlightened days be deemed old fashioned: if so, I am contented to be so.

"If I shall be in the minority, I shall have those painful sensations, which arise from a conviction of being overpowered in a good cause. Yet, I will be a peaceable citizen! My head, my hand, and my heart shall be at liberty to retrieve the loss of liberty and remove the defects of the system, in a constitutional way."

I was reading "The Anti-Federalist Papers" a few nights ago, and would recommend them as required reading to anyone trying to get the whole picture of the American Experiment.

If you know of a group, convention or school that would enjoy a visit from Patrick Henry, please visit our website at:

http:/www.virginiapatriots.com


Regards,

Michael Wells
Virginia Patriots, Inc.

[zeugma]

Bump for later excellent read when I'm not so darned tired.

Is there a bump list for these posts?