Anti-Federalists Strike Back: Two Responses to James Wilson’s State House Speech
On September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention, finished drafting the U.S. Constitution. The Anti-Federalists wasted no time in denouncing the document. The first stand-alone counterattack against the anti-federalists took place in Philadelphia on October 6, 1787,...
The First Salvo in the Ratification Debates: James Wilson’s State House Speech
While most people today think of the Federalist Papers as the leading defense of the Constitution’s original meaning, it was actually a speech by James Wilson that had a far greater impact on ratification. On September 17, 1787, the Philadelphia Convention,...
10th Amendment Essentials: Sovereignty and Resistance
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Before the Tenth Amendment was even drafted or considered, supporters of the Constitution told the...