What the Anti-Federalists Were For: The Political Thought of the Opponents of the Constitution

118 Pages·1981·5.98 MB·English

by  Herbert J. Storing

What the
Anti-Federalists Were
For
-
Herbert J. Storing
With the Editorial Assistance of Murray Dry
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
This publication was made possible, in part, by grants from
the Institute for Educational Affairs, the National Endow-
ment for the Humanities, Project '87, and Natico, Inc.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1981 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 1981
Printed in the United States of America
04 03 02 0100 99 98 97 96 95 789 1011
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Storing, Herbert J., 1928-77
What the Anti-Federalists were for.
Introduction to the author's The complete Anti-Federalist.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. United States—Constitutional history.
2. United States—Politics and government—1783-1789.
3. Political science—United States—History.
I. Dry, Murray. II. Title.
JK116.S8 342.73'024 81-11395
ISBN 0-226-77574-7 (pbk.) 347.30224 AACR2
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Contents
\
Preface by Murray Dry vii
1 Introduction 3
2 Conservatives 7
3 The Small Republic 15
4 Union 24
5 The Federalist Reply 38
6 The Aristocratic Tendency of the Constitution 48
7 Complex Government 53
8 Bill of Rights 64
9 Conclusion 71
Works Frequently Cited 77
Notes 79
Appendix: Contents of The Compete Anti-Federalist 101
Index 107

Preface
In November 1963, Herbert J. Storing wrote to the University of Chicago
Press, proposing an edition of Anti-Federalist writings. In 1977, he delivered
The Complete Anti-Federalist to the Press. When Storing died, in Septem-
ber 1977, the copy editing had barely begun. In the spring of 1978 I was
asked to assist the Press in bringing my former teacher's substantially com-
pleted manuscript to publication. I agreed to fill in all the cross references,
check all the quotations and source citations, and read the proofs.
The aim of Storing's monumental work was, in his words, "to make
available for the first time all of the substantial Anti-Federal writings in their
complete original form and in an accurate text, together with appropriate
annotation." In comprehensiveness and scholarly thoroughness it is un-
likely ever to be superseded. (For contents, see below, pp. 101-6.)
What the Anti-Federalists Were For is Storing's introduction to the writ-
ings and appears in volume one of the full edition. Because it stands on its
own as a splendid exposition of their thought, it was decided to issue it also
as a separate paperback. Storing presents enough of the Federalist argument
to explain precisely what the Anti-Federalists—the opponents of the
Constitution—were/or, and to make clear in what sense they too deserve to
be counted among the Founding Fathers. He concludes that the Anti-
Federalists lost the debate because they had the weaker argument; yet he
also argues that their concerns and principles continue to play an important
part in the dialogue over the life of the American polity.
Anti-Federalists are cited in the notes (pp. 79-100) by a three-part
number, the first denoting the volume of The Complete Anti-Federalist in
which the respective writing appears, the second the position of the essay or
series within that volume, and the third the paragraph.
Murray Dry
Middlebury, Vermont
1981
vii

What the Anti-Federalists Were For
\

I
Introduction
\
The Constitution of the United States was viewed by the founding genera-
tion as distinctive, even unique, in the extent to which it was the product of
deliberation. Most previous foundings seemed to have been the result of
chance or the edict of one all-powerful man. But the United States Con-
stitution was framed by a numerous and diverse body of statesmen, sitting
for over three months; it was widely, fully, and vigorously debated in the
country at large; and it was adopted by (all things considered) a remarkably
open and representative procedure. Viewed in this light, those who opposed
the Constitution must be seen as playing an indispensable if subordinate part
in the founding process. They contributed to the dialogue of the American
founding. To take only the most obvious case, the Constitution that came
out of the deliberations of 1787 and 1788 was not the same Constitution that
went in; for it was accepted subject to the understanding that it would be
amended immediately to provide for a bill of rights. Moreover, the founding
of a nation does not end with the making of a constitution. The Constitution
did settle many questions, and it established a lasting structure of rules and
principles—we do not adopt the current cant that fundamental law is
shapeless stuff to be formed at will by future generations. But it did not
settle everything; it did not finish the task of making the American polity.
The political life of the community continues to be a dialogue, in which the
Anti-Federalist concerns and principles still play an important part.
The Anti-Federalists are entitled, then, to be counted among the Found-
ing Fathers, in what is admittedly a somewhat paradoxical sense, and to
share in the honor and the study devoted to the founding. In general,
however, they have not enjoyed such a position. Champions of a negative
and losing cause, they have found only a cramped place in the shadow of the
great constitutional accomplishment of 1787. They have often been pre-
sented as narrow-minded local politicians, unwilling to face the utter in-
adequacy of the Articles of Confederation or incapable of seeing beyond the
boundaries of their own states or localities. They have been described as
men without principle, willing to use any argument to drag down the Con-
stitution, yet willing, many of them, when the Constitution was adopted, to
change their colors and become enthusiastic Federalists.1 It is true that with
the rise of the Beardian critique of the Constitution and its framers, the
Anti-Federalists have been viewed with a more friendly eye. Merrill Jensen
3