Ratification Debates News Today

Consolidation - we were warned - would guarantee a destruction of liberty. But many founders seemed to believe they could pull off a “proper” or “partial” consolidation and not get a system of “unremitted despotism.”

Federal Farmer warned that liberty under the constitution would depend primarily on the worst of all possible checks, “the prudence, wisdom and moderation of those who manage the affairs of government.”

In her widely-read and influential anti-federalist essay, Mercy Otis Warren warned that the Constitution would abandon the principles of the American Revolution and facilitate consolidation of the states under a powerful national government. In other words, it would lead to unlimited centralized power – similar to the system the colonists had fought to leave.

The Federal Farmer lays out a laundry list of reasons why the system under the constitution “will have a strong tendency to aristocracy, or the government of the few.” Predicting it would ultimately result in a consolidated government ruling by “fear and force.”

In the first of his 18 anti-federalist letters, the Federal Farmer warned against adopting a new system hastily out of fear, which has always “been the custom of tyrants and their dependents.” Instead, he urged caution - and a deeper look at what might lead to total consolidation and a destruction of liberty.

To a vast majority of the founding generation, standing armies were extremely dangerous, “the bane of liberty.” The best way to prevent them? Render them unnecessary.

During the ratification debates, Federalists repeatedly warned that adding a bill of rights would be unnecessary - and even dangerous. Learn what they had to say - where they made good points - and missed the mark too.

You see, the "Federalists" we've come to know and love or despise were in reality nationalists who sought to centralize power in the general government by hook or crook.

A *permanent* or *baneful* aristocracy - despite federalist assurances to the contrary - with senators mostly serving for life - that's what many anti-federalists warned we'd get with the structure of the federal Senate.

In a series of speeches during the Virginia Ratifying Convention, Patrick Henry laid out much of the anti-federalist case against ratification without amendments. The foundation underlying all his arguments was a consistent warning against consolidation - or centralized power - and trusting people with that power.