The Federalist Papers
Patrick Henry lectured against it in the Virginia State House for three weeks, criticizing the Constitution, warning that it had been written “as if good men will take office!”[2]
The structure of the US government was changed with the Constitutional Amendment 17[3]
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law on December 23, 1913.[4]
Followed by the rise of the Welfare State.[5] John Adams said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Morality and virtue are the foundation of our republic and necessary for a society to be free.
Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The collection was commonly known as The Federalist until the name The Federalist Papers emerged in the twentieth century.
Full Text of The Federalist Papers or,
The Federalist Papers Avalon project Yale or
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison Gutenberg
Anti-Federalist Papers
Anti-Federalist Papers is the collective name given to the works written by the Founding Fathers who were opposed to or concerned with the merits of the United States Constitution of 1787.
- Brutus, no. 1, 18 Oct. 1787
- Brutus, no. 3, 15 Nov. 1787
- Brutus, no. 4, 29 Nov. 1787
- Brutus, no. 5, 13 Dec. 1787
- Brutus, no. 6, 27 Dec. 1787
- Brutus, no. 7, 3 Jan. 1788
- Brutus, no. 8, 10 Jan. 1788
- Brutus, no. 9, 17 Jan. 1788
- Brutus, no. 10, 24 Jan. 1788
- Brutus, no. 11, 31 Jan. 1788
- Brutus, no. 12, 7 Feb. 1788
- Brutus, no. 13, 21 Feb. 1788
- Brutus, no. 14, 28 Feb- 6 Mar. 1788
- Brutus, no. 15, 20 Mar. 1788
- Brutus, no. 16, 10 Apr. 1788
- Cato, no. 1, 27 Sept. 1787
- Cato, no. 2, 10 Dec. 1787
- Cato, no. 3, Fall 1787
- Cato, no. 4, 8 Nov. 1787
- Cato, no. 5, Fall 1787
- Melancton Smith, Objections to the Constitution in the New York Ratifying Convention, New York Ratifying Convention 20–21 June 1788
- Melancton Smith, New Hampshire Ratifying Convention Proposed Admendments New York Ratifying Convention 21 June 1788
- Melancton Smith, Proposed Amendment, New York Ratifies 30-27 with 31, New York Ratifying Convention 2 July 1788
- Melancton Smith’s Notes, 26 Sept.
Opposition
Many people opposed the constitution and wrote about their objections like Elbridge Gerry, Luther Martin, and Melancton Smith. The leading Virginia antifederalists were George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and Patrick Henry.
The following is from the book Contracts, Covenants, and Constitutions chapter "Not a party".
- “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those powers than by violent and sudden usurpations.”[6]
Today, many consider the constitution as sacred - but not those who had won a great freedom through a century of sacrifice and hardship. They feared and opposed this Constitution of the United States. And that generation who had secured their free dominion against an unwarranted usurpation and tyranny opposed those “great words” and its compact. They did not war against it because it was not a compact with them nor did it have much influence over them or their lives at that time.
- “Just as the revolutionary Adams opposed the Constitution in Massachusetts, so did Patrick Henry in Virginia, and the contest in that most important State of all was prolonged and bitter. He who in Stamp Act days had proclaimed that there should be no Virginians or New Yorkers, but only Americans, now declaimed as violently against the preamble of the Constitution because it began, ‘We the People of the United States’ instead of ‘We, the State’. Like many, he feared a ‘consolidated’ government, and the loss of states rights. Not only Henry but much abler men, such as Mason, Benjamin Harrison, Munroe, R.H. Lee, were also opposed and debated... others in what was the most acute discussion carried on anywhere...”
- “Owing to the way in which the conventions were held, the great opposition manifested everywhere, and the management required to secure the barest majorities for ratification, it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the greater part of the people were opposed to the Constitution.”
- “It was not submitted to the people directly, and in those days of generally limited suffrage, even those who vote for delegates to the State conventions were mostly of a propertied class, although the amount of property called for may have been slight.”[7]
[https://www.perlego.com/book/1975091/the-complete-antifederalist-pdf The Complete Anti-Federalist Herbert J. Storing]
Footnotes
- ↑ See list of Constitutional Articles. We recommend you read the book Contracts, Covenants, and Constitutions to fully understand the Constitution and its effects.
- ↑ In 1787, when the Constitution was ready to be submitted to the Governors of the states for ratification, Patrick asked “what they would do when evil men took office!”.
"The President will lead in the treason."
"Your militia will leave you and fight against you."
"What will you do when evil men take office?"
"When evil men take office the whole gang will be in collusion."
"They will keep the people in utter ignorance and steal their liberty by ambuscade."
"When Government removes your armaments, you will have no power, but government will have all power." Patrick Henry. - ↑ “Direct Election of Senators” Amendment Seventeen to the Constitution was ratified on April 8, 1913. It overrides the previous Constitution's provisions on the election of senators, changing it so that they are elected directly by the voting public during elections. There were reason for the original method of election prescribed in the Debate on Method of Electing Senators and the Debate on Representation where Elbridge Gerry, signed both the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation but refused to sign the Constitution because originally it did not include a Bill of Rights, argues, "The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots. In Massachusetts it had been fully confirmed by experience that they are daily misled into the most baneful measures and opinions by the false reports circulated by designing men, and which no one on the spot can refute."
- ↑ This replaced just weights and measures and allowed for excessive borrowing under the guise of "legal charity" which always "degenerates" the "social bonds" of the "masses" who then had only "one purse" to say nothing of changing lawful title to a mere taxable legal title.
- ↑ FDR would usher in a corvee system of statutory bondage and suretyship of the citizenry with LBJ increasing the appetite of the masses for the dainties of rulers. This was all contrary to the morality of Americans in Congress in the 1830s.
- ↑ James Madison political philosopher, fourth President of the United States.
- ↑ History of the United States by J.T. Adams V.I 258-259.