The report of this decision, moreover, records the following statement by Justice Chase, a former
Antifederalist, during oral argument:
In the ratification process, Sherman answered
Antifederalist critics bewailing the absence of a bill of rights by insisting that a paper guarantee was of no real use.
In the Virginia ratifying convention, George Mason observed that, "[t]o make representation real and actual, the number of representatives ought to be adequate; they ought to mix with the people, think as they think, feel as they feel,--ought to be perfectly amenable to them, and thoroughly acquainted with their interest and condition." Similarly, the
Antifederalist Brutus (likely Robert Yates) observed that, because the people must assent to the laws by which they are governed, their representatives must be the sort of men who would "possess, be disposed, and consequently be qualified to declare the sentiments of the people." If the representatives lack this connection with the people, Brutus continued, "the people do not govern, but the sovereignty is in a few."
antitrust system as the product of a contest between the federalist preference for more direct and substantial federal oversight of corporations and the
antifederalist preference for less direct and encompassing federal intervention, which shaped conceptions about how the antitrust system should function.
at 598 ("During the 1788 ratification debates, the fear that the federal government would disarm the people in order to impose rule through a standing army or select militia was pervasive in
Antifederalist rhetoric.").
This is a biography of Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814), whose anonymously-penned plays in support of the American Revolution satirized British and American Loyalists and led John Adams to consider her the "most accomplished woman in America" and whose three-volume The History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution offered an
Antifederalist interpretation of the Revolution.
And it is certainly true that the Bill of Rights was promised and proposed to mollify these
Antifederalist opponents, though more importantly it was meant to assuage those in the middle who were moved by the
Antifederalists' objection that the Constitution lacked a bill of rights and who were persuaded to support the Constitution after the Federalists promised to adopt a bill of rights.
(58) The term gerrymander first appeared as an amalgam of the name of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry and the "salamander-like" odd outline of an election district Gerry was credited with forming to protect the
Antifederalist party political advantages.
During the debate over whether to ratify the Constitution, New Yorker Melancton Smith, like Husband an
Antifederalist, echoed his claim that enlarging legislative districts tended to increase the relative strength of the well-to-do.
Laracey sheds welcome light on how the nineteenth-century presidency was powerfully shaped by a mass, decentralized party system molded by
antifederalist principles.
By placing the Federalist Papers within their proper historical context, the author demonstrates at best tenuous support for the "limited norm" against presidents "going public." He concludes the chapter with a survey of how elements of the
Antifederalist and Federalist philosophies evolved into the Democratic and Republican beliefs of the nineteenth century.