CHAPTER TWo • FoRGiNG A NEW GovERNmENT: THE CoNsTiTuTioN 37
that the Constitution would cre-
ate an overbearing and over-
burdening central government
hostile to personal liberty. (The
Constitution said nothing about
freedom of the press, freedom of
religion, or any other individual
liberty.) They wanted to include
a list of guaranteed liberties, or
a bill of rights. Finally, the Anti-
Federalists decried the weakened
power of the states.^13
The Anti-Federalists can-
not be dismissed as unpatriotic
extremists. They included such
patriots as Patrick Henry and
Samuel Adams. They were arguing
what had been the most prevalent
view in that era. This view derived
from the French political phi-
losopher Baron de Montesquieu
(1689–1755), an influential politi-
cal theorist. Montesquieu believed
that a republic was possible only in
a relatively small society governed
by direct democracy or by a large legislature with small districts. The Madisonian view favor-
ing a large republic, particularly as expressed in Federalist Papers No. 10 and No. 51 (see
Appendix C), was actually an exceptional view in those years. Indeed, some researchers
believe it was mainly the bitter experiences with the Articles of Confederation, rather than
Madison’s arguments, that persuaded the state conventions to ratify the Constitution.The march to the Finish
The struggle for ratification continued. Strong majorities were procured in Connecticut,
Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. After a bitter struggle in Massachusetts,
that state ratified the Constitution by a narrow margin on February 6, 1788. By the spring,
Maryland and South Carolina had ratified by sizable majorities. Then on June 21 of that
year, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution. Although the
Constitution was formally in effect, this meant little without Virginia and New York.
Virginia ratified it a few days later, but New York did not join in for another month.The Bill of Rights
The U.S. Constitution would not have been ratified in several important states if the
Federalists had not assured the states that amendments to the Constitution would be
passed to protect individual liberties against incursions by the national government. Many- Herbert J. Storing edited seven volumes of Anti-Federalist writings and released them in 1981 as
The Complete Anti-Federalist. Political science professor Murray Dry has prepared a more man-
ageable, one-volume version of this collection: Herbert J. Storing, ed., The Anti-Federalist: An
Abridgment of The Complete Anti-Federalist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
Patrick Henry (1736–1799) addresses the Virginia Assembly. Why were Anti-
Federalists such as Henry opposed to the Constitution? (Kean Collection/Getty Images)Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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