This book is included in the US Government: Educational, Informational & Motivational section.
Introduction
IN
1888 the editor selected from the pamphlet
arguments published during the discussion of the Constitution of the
United States, prior to its ratification by the States, a collection of
fourteen tracts, and printed them in a volume under the title of
Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States.
The reception given that collection clearly proved that these writings
were only neglected because of their rarity and inaccessibility, and has
induced the editor to collect another, though largely similar class of
writings, which he believes of equal value and equally unknown.
In the great discussion which took place in the years 1787 and 1788 of
the adoption or rejection of the Constitution of the United States, one
of the important methods of influencing public opinion, resorted to by
the partisans and enemies of the proposed frame of government, was the
contribution of essays to the press of the period. The newspapers were
filled with anonymous articles on this question, usually the product of
the great statesmen and writers of that period. Often of marked ability,
and valuable as the personal views of the writers, the dispersion and
destruction of the papers that contained them have resulted in their
almost entire neglect as historical or legal writings, and the
difficulty of their proper use has been further increased by their
anonymous character, which largely destroyed the authority and weight
they would have carried, had their true writers been known.
From an examination of over forty files of newspapers and many thousand
separate issues, scattered in various public and private libraries, from
Boston to Charleston, the editor has selected a series of these essays,
and reprinted them in this volume. From various sources he has obtained
the name of the writer of each. All here reprinted are the work of
well-known men. Five of the writers were signers of the Declaration of
Independence; seven were members of the Federal Convention; many were
members of the State conventions, and there discussed the Constitution.
All had had a wide experience in law and government. Their arguments are
valuable, not merely for their reasoning, but from their statement of
facts. New light is thrown upon the proceedings in the Federal
Convention, so large a part of which is yet veiled in mystery; and
personal motives, and state interests, are mercilessly laid bare,
furnishing clues of both the support of and opposition to the
Constitution. Subsequently most of the writers were prominent in
administering this Constitution or opposing its development, and were
largely responsible for the resulting tendencies of our government.
Paul Leicester Ford
Brooklyn, N.Y., April, 1892
CONTENTS
Sullivan, James.
The Letters of "Cassius"
Winthrop, James. The Letters of
"Agrippa"
Gerry, Elbridge.
Replies to "A
Landholder"
Ellsworth, Oliver. Letters of "A
Landholder"
Williams, William.
A Letter to "A
Landholder"
Sherman, Roger. The Letters of "A
Countryman"
Sherman, Roger. The Letters of "A
Citizen of New Haven"
Clinton, George. The Letters of "Cato"
Hamilton,
Alexander. The Letters of "Caesar"
Yates,
Robert. The Letters of "Sydney"
Brackenridge,
Hugh Henry. Cursory Remarks on the
Constitution
Chase,
Samuel. A
Letter of "Caution"
Carroll,
Daniel. A Letter of "A Friend to the
Constitution"
Martin,
Luther. Letters of
Roane,
Spencer. A
Letter of "A Plain Dealer"
Williamson,
Hugh. Remarks on the Constitution
Pinckney,
Charles. A
Letter of "A Steady and Open Republican"
Bibliography
Index
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