Key Anti-Federalist Writings (relevant to 1-36)

Question 1

Brutus I

Answer 1

• the people are the fountain of power
• sentiments, manners, and interests of the people should be similar in a republic
• no standing army in a free republic
• new constitution isn’t perfect consolidation, but its momentum is in this direction

Question 2

Brutus IV

Answer 2

• representatives should have same feelings and aims as the people they represent
• the wealthy are more likely to be elected

Question 3

Brutus V

Answer 3

• Congress will have too much power

- states will have no power

Question 4

Brutus XII

Answer 4

• judiciary would make its own standards of interpretation, making it too powerful
• the states will lose their judicial and legislative autonomy

Question 5

Federal Farmer I

Answer 5

• acknowledges problems of current system like debts and monetary policy
• maintains it’s better to reform system with good administration
• hasty process of adoption of Constitution is custom of tyrants
• convention did not have authority to create a new consolidated system

Question 6

Federal Farmer II

Answer 6

• states far from the center would suffer while wealth collects in center
• rights are the basis of every constitution; derived from British system
• every type of man must be represented, not just those of one class

Question 7

Federal Farmer XVII

Answer 7

• consolidation puts purse and sword in same hands

Question 8

Centinel I

Answer 8

• attacks Franklin and Washington

Question 9

Agrippa IV

Answer 9

• we are already prospering and recovering, and this new government will be useless and burdensome
• Everything’s great! What crisis? There’s no crisis!

Question 10

Melancton Smith, 20 June 1788

Answer 10

• Biblical references: golden image, the beast, Israel’s desire for a king
• states secure liberties of the people better than Congress because they are more representative
• it’s natural for there to be post-war chaos
• 3/5 Compromise gives wicked slave-holders extra power
• Federalists have stirred up crisis so they could use it to blame the Articles

Question 11

Minority Address of the PA Ratifying Convention

Answer 11

• so wide a territory can only be governed by despotism
• new Congress will have unlimited power over purse and sword
• new government is consolidated, destroys state governments

Question 12

Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 4-5, 1788

Answer 12

• Either the states are sovereign, or the people are.
• If the people => consolidated government
• If the states => confederate government
• Argues in favor of trials by jury (except for Josiah Philips, who isn’t deserving)