“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.”
Repealing the 17th Amendment has become a rallying cry for those seeking to restore federalism. But the Anti-Federalists warned during the ratification debates that structural flaws in the Senate run much deeper than merely the method of election. Corruption,...
The structure of the Senate was a serious point of contention for many Anti-Federalists, who warned it would quickly become a permanent or baneful aristocracy, with most senators serving for life. Tench Coxe was a leading voice on the Federalist side rejecting these...
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...
While the anti-federalist Federal Farmer was critical of the proposed House of Representatives for having too few members, he was even more harsh toward the proposed Senate. Ironically, he wrote in his tenth letter dated January 12, 1788, that the Senate “as an...
In his third letter dated Oct. 10, 1787, the anti-federalist writer Federal Farmer wrote skeptically of the proposed new federal government for fear it would bring about a “tendency toward aristocracy,” similar to those which could be found in European nations. ...