The Anti-Federalist Writings of the Melancton Smith Circle

by Melancton Smith, Michael Zuckert, Derek A. Webb

Overview

There was intense debate on ratification during the period from the drafting and proposal of the federal Constitution in September 1787 to its ratification in 1789. The principal arguments in favor of ratification were documented by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay in The Federalist. 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.

The Anti-Federalist Writings of the Melancton Smith Circle makes available for the first time a one-volume collection of Anti-Federalist writings that are commensurate in scope, significance, political brilliance, and depth with those in The Federalist. Included in this volume as an appendix is a computational and contextual analysis that addresses the question of the authorship of two of the most well-known pseudonymous Anti-Federalist writings, namely, Essays of a Federal Farmer and Essays of Brutus. Also included are the records of Smith’s important speeches at the New York Ratifying Convention, some shorter writings of Smith’s from the ratification debate, and a set of private letters Smith wrote on constitutional subjects at the time of the ratification struggle.

Michael Zuckert is Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame.

Derek A. Webb received his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame and is currently a student at Georgetown Law School.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780865977570
Publisher:	Liberty Fund Inc.
Publication date:	10/30/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	483
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . xi
A Note on the Texts . . . . . xxxiii
Acknowledgments . . . . . xxxv

PART ONE: BEFORE THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION

ESSAYS
Pamphlet on Rutgers v. Waddington, 1784. . . . . 3

LETTERS
To ?, 1767 . . . . . 13
To Henry Livingston, 1771 . . . . . 14

PART TWO: THE RATIFICATION STRUGGLE

PSEUDONYMOUS ESSAYS
Letters from the Federal Farmer . . . . . 19
Essays of Brutus . . . . . 168
Address by a Plebeian to the People of the State of New York, 1788 . . . . . 267

SPEECHES
Speeches of Melancton Smith at the New York Ratifying Convention, 1788
     June 20, 1788 . . . . . 289
     June 21, 1788 . . . . . 296
     June 23, 1788 . . . . . 303
     June 24, 1788 . . . . . 305
     June 25, 1788 . . . . . 306
     June 26, 1788 . . . . . 312
     June 27, 1788 . . . . . 313
     July 1, 1788 . . . . . 318
     July 2, 1788 . . . . . 321
Smith's Speech of July 15, 1788 . . . . . 323
Smith's Notes for a Speech on Ratification, July 17, 1788. . . . . 324
Report on Smith's Speech of July 23, 1788. . . . . 326
Smith's Proposed Amendments at the New York Ratifying Convention
     July 2, 1788 . . . . . 328
     July 4, 1788 . . . . . 329
     July 5, 1788 . . . . . 329
     July 7, 1788 . . . . . 329

LETTERS
To Andrew Craigie, October 4, 1787 . . . . . 331
To Abraham Yates, January 23, 1788 . . . . . 332
To Abraham Yates, January 28, 1788 . . . . . 334
To Cornelius Schoonmaker, April 6, 1788 . . . . . 336
To Nathan Dane, June 28, 1788. . . . .337
To Nathan Dane, July 15, 1788. . . . . 339

MINUTES, DRAFTS, AND NOTES
Proposed Amendments to the Constitution, July 1788 . . . . .341
Proposed Amendments to Articles 1-3 of the Constitution . . . . .  346
Proposed Amendments to Article 2 of the Constitution  . . . . .  348
Preliminary Draft of Proposed Mode of Adoption of Constitution,
     July 1788 . . . . . 349
Draft of Circular Letter . . . . . 352

PART THREE: AFTER THE CONVENTION

PSEUDONYMOUS ESSAYS
Essays of a Federal Republican
     November 27, 1788 . . . . . 357
     December 11, 1788 . . . . .359
     January 1, 1789 . . . . . 362
Essays of Lucius
     November 24, 1792. . . . . 367
     November 28, 1792 . . . . . 371

LETTERS WRITTEN BY SMITH ON BEHALF OF FEDERAL REPUBLICANS
Letter from New York City Committee of Federal Republicans to New York, November 4, 1788 . . . . . 377
Letter from Federal Republicans to Several States, November 4, 1788 . . . . . 380

LETTERS
To John Smith, December 28, 1788 . . . . .  383
To Gilbert Livingston, January 1, 1789 . . . . . 386
To John Smith, January 10, 1789 . . . . . 388
To Theodore Sedgwick, January 30, 1791 . . . . . 391
To James Madison and James Monroe, from Melancton Smith and M. Willett, September 30, 1792 . . . . . 393
To James Monroe, August 6, 1795 . . . . . 395

APPENDIX I The Authorship of Two Sets of Anti-Federalist Papers: A Computational Approach, by John Burrows . . . . . 397

APPENDIX 2 Dates of Appearances of the Federalist Papers, the Federal Farmer, and Brutus . . . . . 420

Bibliography . . . . . 425

Index . . . . . 427

Editorial Reviews

Zuckert and Webb have produceda volume that deserves a wide and thankful readership . . . . Zuckert and Webb help students and scholars of American politics rediscover that the framers do not pronounce their wisdom in one coherent and seamless voice. The founding of the United States took the unique form of a political debate, and arguments on multiple sides of that debate are responsible for the nation that grew out of it. As this volume so clearly demonstrates, the most eloquent arguments for the Bill of Rights, and the clearest recognitions of American political institutions' dependency on a vibrant and robust civic culture, were often advanced by the same framers who harbored the most serious misgivings about the Constitution.

Jonathan L. Silver, Georgetown University
Publius: The Journal of Federalism
October 2010

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