Books and Manuscripts

The Leading Anti-Federalist Attack on the United States Constitution, in Contemporary Wrappers 

Observations Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government, Proposed by the Late Convention...
(New York: Thomas Greenleaf), 1787. First edition, second issue (with correct year on title-page). 8vo. 40 pp. Contemporary blue wrappers; edges untrimmed; in quarter red morocco fall-down-back box. Evans 20454; Howes L-216; Sabin 39784; Streeter II: 1043; Reese, The Federal Hundred 17

A scarce and handsome copy of this leading Anti-Federalist pamphlet, "a fundamentally important early critique of the newly-drafted Constitution" (Reese), often attributed to Founding Father from Virginia, Richard Henry Lee.

Published early during the contentious state ratification debates that would decide whether the newly drafted Constitution would go into effect, the anonymous author argues against its adoption, fearing that "the proposed government would degenerate into a bureaucracy, eventually into an aristocracy." He instead, "favored the individual states occupying the status of practically independent republics, loosely joined for such conveniences as foreign affairs, defense and coinage." (Howes). The antithesis of The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, this pamphlet comprises five letters (of an eventual 15) written by an opponent to the Constitution--"The Federal Farmer"--and addressed to "The Republican." "Though sometimes discursive and repetitious, the letters, skillfully written, moderate in tone, and thoughtful, were perhaps the most eloquent and persuasive anti-federalist writings" (Ralph Ketcham, The Anti-Federalist Papers, 2003, p. 266). The Farmer, unlike others Anti-Federalists who outright opposed the Constitution as a whole, held a more moderate view, and believed that through alterations and amendments, an adequate federal system could be created.

Although once attributed as the work of Richard Henry Lee, his authorship is contested and now doubtful. It was first disputed in the 1970s by American historian Gordon S. Wood (see "The Authorship of the Letters from the Federal Farmer" in The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 31, 1974, pp. 299-308), and later, in the 1980s, by Robert H. Webking, who attributed the work as probably by New York Anti-Federalist, Melancton Smith (see "Melancton Smith and the Letters from the Federal Farmer" in The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 44, 1987, pp. 510-528). Ketcham, in his previously quoted compendium of Anti-Federalist writings, states that "The author, long thought to be Richard Henry Lee, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress then sitting in New York, was in fact almost certainly not Lee, but more probably the New York anti-federalist Melancton Smith." (p. 266). Other candidates have been suggested including the publisher, Thomas Greenleaf, as well as Anti-Federalists George Mason from Virginia and Elbridge Gerry from Massachusetts.

A fine copy.