Antifederalists
Tax Battle! Henry vs Hamilton on the Requisition System
In a huge change from the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution eliminated “requisitions,” what many saw as a primary reason for the new system of taxation. Rejecting Alexander Hamilton and other Federalists in this debate were Patrick Henry and the...
General Welfare Warnings
Supporters of the monster state want you to believe that the “general Welfare clause” empowers the government to pretty much do whatever it wants. And while that couldn’t be further from how things are supposed to be, many leading Anti-Federalists...
Anti-Federalist Warnings: Government Power is Forever
During the debates over ratification of the Constitution, Anti-Federalists repeatedly warned about the dangers of too much power. One of their prominent arguments centered around the maxim that once power expands, people with power never seem to voluntarily give it...
George Mason’s Warnings on Power and Consolidation
Many anti-federalists warned us about the dangers of centralized power. And George Mason was one of the most prominent, warning that a consolidated government “is totally subversive of every principle which has hitherto governed us,” and that it “is one of the worst...