Federal Farmer I - Suspicious Authors of the Constitution
Federal Farmer I is an Anti-Federalist Paper that questions the motives of some of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
“Instead of being thirteen republics, under a federal head, it is clearly designed to make us one consolidated government.”
Federal Farmer I
October 8, 1787
Published just three weeks after the signing of the US Constitution, The Federal Farmer’s first Paper begins his Anti-Federalist discussions which largely focus on the consolidation of the State Governments into one National Government.
The Farmer questions why some of the Delegates to the Constitutional Convention were demanding that the new Government be ratified quickly, suggesting in no uncertain terms that their motives were suspect.
Haste
The Federal Farmers first observation begins as most Anti-Federalist Papers do...acknowledging the gravity of the situation.
He then asks why the decision to ratify is being pushed for a quick resolution.
The Farmer further points out that if people hastily adopt a new Government, “they will hastily...be led to alter or abolish it.”
This precedent will, he believed, lead quickly to despotism.
Although all the State Governments were not perfect, and there were clearly some changes that should be made at the Federal level, things were operating normally and there was no real need for urgency.
His answer for why ratification is moving along so fast? “The passions of ambitious, impatient, or disorderly men.”
Suspicion
Federal Farmer continues his paper by retracing the history of the previous year.
He notes that the Annapolis Convention in September of 1786 met and adjourned before all of the Delegates could even arrive with a call for a General Convention in May of 1787.
The General Convention, which we now know as the Constitutional Convention, was only supposed to make long-awaited corrections to the Articles of Confederation.
Because of this, several Delegates who would have prevented the creation of an entirely new government never took their seat.
Had they known the proposals on the table, the Farmer suggests, those men assuredly would have attended and halted the conversation.
Instead, those men were outnumbered by a handful of men who seized the opportunity to insert a brand new government.
He specifically points out Pennsylvania who, ‘appointed principally those men who are esteemed aristocratical.”
Furthermore, the Farmer suggests that if the true aim of the Convention was made clear, the States would not have sent representatives in the first place.
If you would like to read the original text of Federal Farmer I, click here to read it for FREE.
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