Wow, I didn’t know you guys did this. What amazing work - I’m going to dig in!
BTW, ever think of putting it all together in a PDF and publishing it, at least online?
Also, i’s still hard to even find a basic AFP book in bookstores. Most people don’t even know the AFP exist, let alone that there was a fight over them by the Founders.
Personally, I lean AFP with a firm foot in the FP camp for one very real-world reason: I simply do not believe America would have survived attacks (of whatever kind) from the European powers if it had remained a Confederacy. Unified, national strength was required for that, and a compact between completely sovereign States would never have held together.
So as usual in this world, I don’t believe it was white versus black - I believe the true problem was not whether to have a federal government, but HOW to make a federal government that preserved, to the maximum extent, the freedoms of State sovereignty at the same time. And the solution of the Constitution we ended up with, though far from perfect, did plant itself firmly on the foundation of natural rights, and has proven brilliant for 225 years against literally a constant onslaught of attacks from within and without.
Of course, the Founders could not think of everything - but that doesn’t mean that what they thought of is now irrelevent. The problem is far more subtle than that, and it involves the character of the people. Even then, though, Franklin famously said, “a Republic, if you can keep it.”
Billthedrill and I are working on turning it into a book.
I’m inclined the same way. When somebody asks me, “who do you think was right, the Federalists or the Anti-Federalists?” I usually answer, “Both. Unfortunately for the country.”