Did the Founders Ignore their own Warnings on Consolidation?
Consolidation – we were warned – would guarantee a destruction of liberty. But many founders seemed to believe they could pull off a โproperโ or โpartialโ consolidation and not get a system of โunremitted despotism.โ Path to Liberty, Fast Friday Edition:...
Uncontrolled Despotism: Mercy Otis Warren on the Constitution
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...
The Perils of Centralization: Anti-Federalist Federal Farmer No. 2-3
The Federal Farmer lays out a laundry list of reasons why the system under the constitution โwill have a strong tendency to aristocracy, or the government of the few.โ Predicting it would ultimately result in a consolidated government ruling by โfear and force.โ Path...