Anti-Federalist Papers

During the period from the drafting and proposal of the federal Constitution in September, 1787, to its ratification in 1789 there was an intense debate on ratification. The principal arguments in favor of it were stated in the series written by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay called the Federalist Papers, although they were not as widely read as numerous independent local speeches and articles. The arguments against ratification appeared in various forms, by various authors, most of whom used a pseudonym. Collectively, these writings have become known as the Anti-Federalist Papers. We here present some of the best and most widely read of these. They contain warnings of dangers from tyranny that weaknesses in the proposed Constitution did not adequately provide against, and while some of those weaknesses were corrected by adoption of the Bill of Rights, others remained, and some of these dangers are nowcoming to pass.

• Chronology of the pro- and anti-federalist papers and how they related to one another and to key events.
• Borden Collection — Morton Borden collected some the best of the anti-federalist papers together, editied all or parts of them into 85 sections, corresponding to the 85 Federalist Papers.
• James Wilson speech — Pro-ratification, but included here because it received wider coverage than other pro-ratification writings, such as the Federalist Papers, and many of the anti-federalist writings were in response to it.
• "Centinel" (Samuel Bryan)
• "An Old Whig"
• "Federal Farmer" (Melancton Smith? or Richard Henry Lee?)
• Objections to the Federal Constitution, Robert Yates, John Lansing
• "Brutus" (Robert Yates)
• "John DeWitt" (?)
• "Cato" (George Clinton?)
• "Pennsylvania Minority"
• "William Penn"
• Columbian Patriot, [Mercy Otis Warren], Observations on the new Constitution, and on the Federal and State Conventions, (1788)
• Patrick Henry speeches
• Melancton Smith speeches

Bibliography

• The Antifederalist Papers, edited with an Introduction by Morton Borden, Michigan State University Press, 1965 — The collection included here, without the introduction and footnotes.
• Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, edited by John P. Kaminski and others, Wisconsin Historical Society, now up to 19 volumes and growing — Promises to become a complete and definitive collection when it is finished.
• The Debate on the Constitution: Federalist and Antifederalist Speeches, Articles, and Letters During the Struggle over Ratification, edited by Bernard Bailyn, Library of America, 1993, 2 vol. — Good collection if you can't afford the Kaminski series.
• The Complete Anti-Federalist, edited by Herbert Storing and Murray Dry, University of Chicago Press, 1981, 7 vol.— Not really complete, but very extensive.
• The Anti-Federalist, edited by Herbert Storing, University of Chicago Press, 1985 — Storing's selection of the best from his "Complete" collection above.
• The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates, edited by Ralph Ketcham, Penguin, 1986 — Affordable paperback, a selection of some of the best parts, with some useful commentary connecting them. Ketcham is one of those who think the "Federal Farmer" was more likely Melancton Smith than Richard Henry Lee. We include here all the papers in this collection not in the Borden collection.