Ratification Debates
Federal Farmer: Politicians and Bureaucrats must be “Recallable”
Given the power various officers in the federal government would wield, the Federal Farmer believed that there needed to be a better mechanism to appoint them and remove them from power when necessary. The Constitution delegated the power to appoint various officers...
The ideas that formed the Constitution: Cicero Continued
Theย previous installmentย in this series outlined the life and career of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. It described how John Adams relied on Ciceroโs work in the preface to the first volume of his survey of republican constitutions. Although Adams was in...
Federal Farmer: Representation Isn’t Sufficient
When it was ratified, the U.S. Constitution set a cap on the number of representatives at no more than one per 30,000 persons. In his seventh letter dated Dec. 31, 1787, the Federal Farmer argues that this constituted too few representatives to accurately reflect the...
Federal Farmer: Amendments are Essential and Necessary
In his sixth letter dated Dec. 25, 1787, the Federal Farmer wrote of the โessential and necessaryโ inclusion of meaningful amendments to the Constitution prior to its ratification. Though some federalists like James Madison would later support proposed amendments at...