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The Essential Debate on the Constitution: Federalist and Antifederalist Speeches and Writings (paperback)

Edited by Bernard Bailyn and Robert J. Allison

Return to the nation’s founding to rediscover the dramatic original debates—on presidential power, religious liberty, foreign corruption, and more—that still shape our world today

“A vital resource for students and concerned citizens alike.”—Gordon S. Wood

Overview
Table of Contents
Contributors

Overview

News Remembering Bernard Bailyn
January 5, 2021

In the Community | News 2020 LOA in the Classroom: Students learn America’s founding principles
December 17, 2020

The threat of foreign and domestic corruption; the balance of power between the federal government and the states and the controversial role of the Supreme Court; the danger of an unrestrained president and the potential remedy of impeachment. During the contest to ratify the Constitution America’s founding generation wrestled with key questions and challenges that continue to test our nation today, and their original arguments still have much to teach us.

Here are more than sixty newspaper articles, pamphlets, speeches, and private letters from the debate by more than forty writers, including the essential Federalist essays of James Madison and Alexander Hamilton and the insightful, often prophetic Antifederalist writings of “Brutus” and the “Federal Farmer.”

Robert J. Allison is professor of history at Suffolk University in Boston and also teaches at the Harvard Extension School. He is the author of The American Revolution: A Very Short Introduction.

Bernard Bailyn (1922–2020), editor, was Adams University Professor and James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University and a Pulitzer Prize–winning author of numerous books, including The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Voyagers to the West, and Atlantic History: Concept and Contours. In 2010 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama.
Table of Contents

Preface by Bernard Bailyn
Introduction by Robert J. Allison

PART 1: THE DEBATE OPENS
Benjamin Franklin, Speech at the Conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787
Alexander Hamilton, Conjectures About the New Constitution, late September 1787
James Wilson, Speech at a Public Meeting, October 6, 1787
Brutus I, October 18, 1787
A Political Dialogue, October 24, 1787
James Madison to Thomas Jefferson, October 24, 1787
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, December 20, 1787
Cato III, October 25, 1787
Publius (Alexander Hamilton), The Federalist No. 1, October 27, 1787

PART 2: OPPOSITION ORGANIZES
Elbridge Gerry to the Massachusetts General Court, November 3, 1787
Letters from the Federal Farmer to The Republican, November 8, 1787
Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787
George Mason, Objections to the Constitution, November 22, 1787
Robert Yates and John Lansing, Jr., to Governor George Clinton, January 14, 1788

PART 3: TOWARD A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICS
Publius (James Madison), The Federalist No. 10, November 22, 1787
A Countryman (Roger Sherman) II, November 22, 1787
Brutus IV, November 29, 1787
Americanus (John Stevens, Jr.) III, November 30, 1787
Samuel Adams to Richard Henry Lee, December 3, 1787
A Landholder (Oliver Ellsworth) VII, December 17, 1787
Publius (Alexander Hamilton), The Federalist No. 23, December 18, 1787
Brutus VII, January 3, 1788
Publius (Alexander Hamilton), The Federalist No. 30, December 28, 1787

PART 4: SLAVERY AND LIBERTY
Luther Martin, The Genuine Information VIII, January 22, 1788
Giles Hickory (Noah Webster) I, December 1787
Publius (James Madison), The Federalist No. 39, January 16, 1788
On the New Constitution, January 28, 1788
Brutus XI, January 31, 1788
Civis (David Ramsay) to the Citizens of South Carolina, February 4, 1788
Publius (James Madison), The Federalist No. 54, February 12, 1788

PART 5: THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC
Publius (James Madison), The Federalist No. 51, February 6, 1788
Brutus XII, February 7 and 14, 1788
Harry Innes to John Brown, February 20, 1788
Joseph Spencer to James Madison, Enclosing John Leland’s Objections, February 28, 1788
Publius (Alexander Hamilton), The Federalist No. 70, March 15, 1788
Brutus XV, March 20, 1788
Publius (Alexander Hamilton), The Federalist No. 78, May 28, 1788
George Washington to John Armstrong, April 25, 1788

PART 6: THE STATE RATIFYING CONVENTIONS
Pennsylvania
James Wilson, Opening Address, November 24, 1787
James Wilson and John Smilie Debate the Need for a Bill of Rights, November 28, 1787
Benjamin Rush Speaks Against a Bill of Rights, November 30, 1787
James Wilson on the Slave-Trade Clause, December 3, 1787
Robert Whitehill Replies to Wilson on the Slave-Trade Clause, December 3, 1787
Dissent of the Minority of the Pennsylvania Convention, December 18, 1787
Massachusetts
Fisher Ames on Biennial Elections and the “Volcano” of Democracy, January 15, 1788
An Exchange on the Powers of Congress and Its Probable Corruption, January 17, 1788
Amos Singletary and Jonathan Smith on “Leviathan” and on the Danger of Anarchy, January 25, 1788
Daniel Shute and William Jones on Religious Tests, January 31, 1788
John Hancock Proposes Ratification with Recommended Amendments, January 31, 1788
Samuel Adams Supports Hancock’s Proposition, January 31, 1788
John Hancock’s Final Observations, “We Must All Rise or Fall Together,” February 6, 1788
The Form of the Ratification of Massachusetts, February 6, 1788
South Carolina
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Explains America’s Unique “Structure of Freedom,” May 14, 1788
Patrick Dollard Fears a Corrupt and Despotic Aristocracy, May 22, 1788
Virginia
Patrick Henry’s Opening Speech Opposing Ratification, June 4, 1788
Patrick Henry States His Main Objections, and James Madison Responds, June 12, 1788
George Mason and James Madison Debate the Slave-Trade Clause, June 17, 1788
New York
Robert R. Livingston, Melancton Smith, and John Jay Debate Aristocracy, Representation, and Corruption, June 23, 1788
Melancton Smith Fears the Federal Taxing Power, June 27, 1788
North Carolina
James Iredell on the Presidency and the Pardoning Power, July 28, 1788
James Iredell on Impeachment, July 28, 1788
Henry Abbot and James Iredell Debate Religious Tests, July 30, 1788
The Rev. David Caldwell and Samuel Spencer Debate Religious Toleration, July 30, 1788

The Constitution
Chronology, 1774–1804
Biographical Notes
Note on the Texts
Notes
Index
Contributors

Henry Abbot
Samuel Adams
Fisher Ames
“Brutus”
David Caldwell
“Cato”
Patrick Dollard
Oliver Ellsworth
“Federal Farmer”
Benjamin Franklin
Elbridge Gerry
Alexander Hamilton
John Hancock
Patrick Henry
Harry Innes
James Iredell
John Jay
Thomas Jefferson
William Jones
John Lansing, Jr.
John Leland
Robert R. Livingston
James Madison
Luther Martin
George Mason
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
David Ramsay
Benjamin Rush
Roger Sherman
Daniel Shute
Amos Singletary
John Smilie
Jonathan Smith
Melancton Smith
Isaac Snow
Joseph Spencer
Samuel Spencer
John Stevens, Jr..
Increase Sumner
Samuel Thompson
Charles Turner
George Washington
Noah Webster
Samuel West
Robert Whitehill
William Widgery
James Wilson
Robert Yates

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