The Antifederalists

by Main, Jackson Turner; Countryman, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780807855447
• ISBN10: 0807855448
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-03-01
• Publisher: Omohundro Inst of Early Amer

Summary

The Antifederalists come alive in this state-by-state analysis of politics during the Confederation and the debates over the enlargement of Congressional powers prior to the formation of the Constitution. On the one side were small and middle-class farmers who subscribed to a libertarian tradition founded in a distrust of power, a preference for local authority, and a concept of private rights that defined liberty against government. On the other, urban centers and commercial farming areas were mercantile and planter aristocracies disposed to qualify libertarian tenets out of a fear of majority rule, a concern for property rights, and a high regard for the positive economic and political possibilities within the power of a more centralized state. Main presents a perceptive account of the deliberations of the ratifying conventions, the local circumstances that affected decisions, the alignment of delegates, and the factors that influenced some of the delegates to change their minds.

Table of Contents

Jackson Turner Main: A Historical Life, 1917-2003	ix
Foreword: The Antifederalists, Four Decades On, by Edward Countryman	xiii
Preface	xxi
Introduction	xxiii
Chapter I. Social and Political Background	1	(20)
Chapter II. Society and Politics in the South	21	(20)
Chapter III. Society and Politics in the North	41	(31)
Chapter IV. Antifederalists vs. Nationalists: The Impost	72	(31)
Chapter V. Antifederalists vs. Nationalists: Commutation, Commerce, and the Convention	103	(16)
Chapter VI. Antifederal Objections to the Constitution, Part I	119	(24)
Chapter VII. Antifederal Objections to the Constitution, Part II	143	(25)
Chapter VIII. The Antifederal Solution	168	(19)
Chapter IX. Ratification: November to May	187	(34)
Chapter X. Ratification: The Final Defeat	221	(28)
Chapter XI. Conclusion	249	(34)
Appendix A. Separate Confederacies	283	(2)
Appendix B. The Antifederal Majority in Virginia	285	(2)
Appendix C. Authorship of Anonymous Articles	287	(1)
Appendix D. Chronology of Ratification	288	(1)
Appendix E. Occupational Tables	289	(2)
Appendix F. Socio-Economic Divisions in Maryland	291	(2)
Historiographical and Bibliographical Essay	293	(6)
Index	299