The National Congress lacks:
Confidence, Respect, and Affection
of the People
•Brutus No. 1:
“A free republic . . . must depend upon
the support of its citizens. But when a government is to
receive its support from the aid of the citizens, it must be
so constructed as to have the confidence, respect, and
affection of the people.”
•Brutus No. 1:
“ . . . the government must rest for its
support upon the confidence and respect which the people
have for their government and laws.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
A Republic can only exist in small territory: Fact
• Brutus No. 1: “ . . . the people will not be likely to
have such confidence in their rulers, in a republic so
extensive as the United States, as necessary for these
purposes. The confidence which the people have in their
rulers, in a free republic, arises from their knowing
them, from their being responsible to them for their
conduct, and from the power they have of displacing
them when they misbehave: but in a republic of the
extent of this continent, the people in general would be
acquainted with very few of their rulers; the people at
large would know little of their proceedings, and it
would be extremely difficult to change them.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Brutus No. 1: “The different parts of so extensive
a country could not possibly be made acquainted
with the conduct of their representatives, nor be
informed of the reasons upon which measures were
founded. The consequence will be, they will have no
confidence in their legislature, suspect them of
ambitious views, be jealous of every measure they
adopt, and will not support the laws they pass.
Hence the government will be nerveless and
inefficient, . . .”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Brutus No. 1: “In so extensive a republic, the
great officers of government would soon become
above the controul of the people, and abuse their
power to the purpose of aggrandizing themselves,
and oppressing them. . . . They will use the power,
when they have acquired it, to the purposes of
gratifying their own interest and ambition, and it is
scarcely possible, in a very large republic, to call
them to account for their misconduct, or to prevent
their abuse of power.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Cato No. 3: “But whoever seriously considers the immense
extent of territory comprehended within the limits of the United
States, together with the variety of its climates, productions, and
commerce, the difference of extent, and number of inhabitants in
all; the dissimilitude of interest, morals, and policies, in almost
every one, will receive it as an intuitive truth, that a consolidated
republican form of government therein, can never form a perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the
general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to you and your
posterity, for to these objects it must be directed: this unkindred
legislature therefore, composed of interests opposite and dissimilar
in their nature, will in its exercise, emphatically be, like a house
divided against itself.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
The culprit?
Federalist No. 10
The ruse?
“New Science of Politics”
The scheme?
• Extended Republic
• Hierarchical Elections
•Lengthy Terms of Office
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
The result?
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
What the Antifederalists Oppose
The proposed constitution is not sufficiently
democratic or representative
How so?
(1)
65 men, with lengthy terms of office, could not possibly
represent the multiplicity of interests spread throughout
so extensive a country.
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Brutus No. 1:
“ . . . a legislature,
formed of representatives from the
respective parts, would not only be too
numerous to act with any care or decision,
but would be composed of such
heterogenous and discordant principles, as
would constantly be contending with each
other.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Federal Farmer No. 11: “we must, after all,
trust a vast deal to a few men, who, far removed
from their constituents, will administer the federal
government; there is but little danger these men
will feel too great a degree of dependance: the
necessary and important object to be attended to,
is to make them feel dependant enough. Men
elected for several years, several hundred miles
distant from their states, possessed of very
extensive powers, and the means of paying
themselves, will not, probably, be oppressed with a
sense of dependance and responsibility.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Federal Farmer No. 11:
“But
in
a
government consisting of but a few
members, elected for long periods, and far
removed from the observation of the
people, but few changes in the ordinary
course of elections take place among the
members; they become in some measure a
fixed body, and often inattentive to the
public good, callous, selfish, and the
fountain of corruption.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Federal Farmer No. 7: “ . . . a small representation can
never be well informed as to the circumstances of the
people, the members of it must be too far removed from
the people, in general, to sympathize with them, and too
few to communicate with them: a representation must be
extremely imperfect where the representatives are not
circumstanced to make the proper communications to
their constituents, and where the constituents in turn
cannot, with tolerable convenience, make known their
wants, circumstances, and opinions, to their
representatives; . . .”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
What the Antifederalists Oppose
The proposed constitution is not sufficiently
democratic or representative
How so?
(2)
Those most likely to be unrepresented would be the
“middling” elements of society, and, instead, congress
will be filled with aristocrats – consequently, those of the
middle class would never run for congress, and if they
did run, would be defeated for office.
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Federal Farmer No. 9: “The true idea is, so to
open and enlarge the representation as to let in
due proportion of the third class with those of the
first. Now, my opinion is, that the representation
proposed is so small as that ordinarily very few or
none of them can be elected; and, therefore, after
all the parade of words and forms the
government must possess the soul of aristocracy,
or something worse, the spirit of popular
leaders.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Melancton Smith:
“The great easily form associations; the poor
and middling class form them with difficulty. . . . A substantial yeoman of
sense and discernment, will hardly ever be chosen. From these remarks it
appears that the government will fall into the hands of the few and the great.
This will be a government of oppression. . . . the substantial yeomanry of the
country are more temperate, of better morals and less ambition than the great.
The latter do not feel for the poor and middling class; . . . . They feel not the
inconveniences arising from the payment of small sums. The great consider
themselves above the common people--entitled to more respect--do not associate
with them--they fancy themselves to have a right of pre-eminence in every
thing. . . . We ought to guard against the government being placed in the hands
of this class--They cannot have that sympathy with their constituents which is
necessary to connect them closely to their interest: Being in the habit of profuse
living, they will be profuse in the public expences. They find no difficulty in
paying their taxes, and therefore do not feel public burthens: . . .”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
Average net worth of U. S. Senator:
$8.9 million
Median personal income of all
individuals above age of 18:
$25,149
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
What the Antifederalists Support
Democratic and Representative Government
Federal Farmer No. 7: “In the representative branch we
must expect chiefly to collect the confidence of the people, and
in it to find almost entirely the force of persuasion. In forming
this branch, therefore, several important considerations must
be attended to. It must possess abilities to discern the situation
of the people and of public affairs, a disposition to sympathize
with the people, and a capacity and inclination to make laws
congenial to their circumstances and condition: it must afford
security against interested combinations, corruption and
influence; it must possess the confidence, and have the
voluntary support of the people.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
Melancton Smith: “ . . . when we speak of
representatives is, that they resemble those they
represent; they should be a true picture of the people;
possess the knowledge of their circumstances and their
wants; sympathize in all their distresses, and be
disposed to seek their true interests. . . . it should also
comprehend that kind of acquaintance with the
common concerns and occupations of the people,
which men of the middling class of life are in general
much better competent to, than those of a superior
class. . . . It calls for a knowledge of the circumstances
and ability of the people in general, a discernment how
the burdens imposed will bear upon the different
classes.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
What the Antifederalists Support
Democratic and Representative Government
(1)
Representatives sharing same interests
as the people they represent
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
Brutus No. 1: “If the people are to give their assent to
the laws, by persons chosen and appointed by them,
the manner of the choice and the number chosen,
must be such, as to possess, be disposed, and
consequently qualified to declare the sentiments of the
people; for if they do not know, or are not disposed to
speak the sentiments of the people, the people do not
govern, but the sovereignty is in a few. Now, in a large
extended country, it is impossible to have a
representation, possessing the sentiments, and of
integrity, to declare the minds of the people, without
having it so numerous and unwieldly, as to be subject
in great measure to the inconveniency of a democratic
government.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
Brutus No. 1: “In a republic, the manners,
sentiments, and interests of the people should be
similar. If this be not the case, there will be a constant
clashing of opinions; and the representatives of one
part will be continually striving, against those of the
other. This will retard the operations of government,
and prevent such conclusions as will promote the
public good.”
Federal Farmer No. 2:
“a
full
and
equal
representation, is that which possesses the same
interests, feelings, opinions, and views the people
themselves would were they all assembled”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
What the Antifederalists Support
Democratic and Representative Government
(2)
Frequent elections to ensure
rotation in office
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Federal Farmer No. 11:
“It will generally be expedient for a man
who has served four years in congress to return home, mix with the
people, and reside some time with them: this will tend to reinstate him in
the interests, feelings, and views similar to theirs, and thereby confirm in
him the essential qualifications of a legislator. Even in point of
information, it may be observed, the useful information of legislators is
not acquired merely in studies in offices, and in meeting to make laws
from day to day; they must learn the actual situation of the people, by
being among them, and when they have made laws, return home, and
observe how they operate. Thus occasionally to be among the people, is
not only necessary to prevent or banish the callous habits and self
interested views of office in legislators, but to afford them necessary
information, and to render them useful: another valuable end is
answered by it, sympathy, and the means of communication between
them and their constituents, is substantially promoted; so that on every
principle legislators, at certain periods, ought to live among their
constituents.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Federal Farmer No. 11: “Even good men in
office, in time, imperceptibly lose sight of the
people, and gradually fall into measures
prejudicial to them.”
•Federal Farmer No. 11: “ . . . the knowledge,
generally, necessary for men who make laws, is a
knowledge of the common concerns, and
particular circumstances of the people. . . . and
surely none ought to consider them as places of
profit and permanent support.
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
What the Antifederalists Support
Democratic and Representative Government
(3)
Recall
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
Federal Farmer, in No. 11, agreed with
Federalist No. 10 that “it is interested
combinations and factions we are particularly to
guard against in the federal government,” but
Madison in Federalist No. 10 wants us to be
removed from our representatives in order to
stave off faction and secure the general good –
but the Antifederalists proposed a far more
efficient and effective recourse for doing this:
recall their corrupt, ambitious, cheating, lazy,
unrepresentative, aristocratic, etc. asses!
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
What the Antifederalists Support
Democratic and Representative Government
(4)
Large number of representatives
and small districts
•Federal Farmer No. 7: “. . . a fair and equal
representation is that in which the interests, feelings,
opinions and views of the people are collected, in such
manner as they would be were the people all
assembled.”
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
What the Antifederalists Support
Democratic and Representative Government
(5)
Actual Representation
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•George Mason:
“To make representation
real and actual, the number of Representatives
ought to be adequate; they ought to mix with the
people, think as they think, feel as they feel,
ought to be perfectly amenable to them, and
thoroughly acquainted with their interest and
condition . . . .”
Federalist No. 10 argues against actual representation
It instead promotes virtual representation
– and we fought a revolution against such an odious and
unworkable concept.
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Opposed to virtual representation as espoused by
Parliament during the Revolutionary period, and as
by Hamilton in Federalist No. 35, in which he
argues that there is a natural tendency for those of
the lower social standing to defer to, and to rely
upon, those of higher social standing – but the Age
of Deference ended long ago, A[ss] H[ole]!
Hamilton also argues that the feelings of the
people are apt to be ones of inadequacy, inferiority,
and incompetence
Antifederalists on Representation and Republican Government
•Basic fear of the Antifederalists: the loss of personal,
direct contact with and knowledge of their representatives
•They sensed quite accurately that an enlargement of the
area of republican government would lead to a more
impersonal system, and that the immediate, individual
influence of each voter over his representative would be
lessened.
•The result would be that the central government will lack
the confidence, respect, and affections of the people, and
the government will instead become aristocratic, corrupt,
inefficient, deadlocked, mysterious, callous, self-interested,
distant, removed, and unrepresentative – in the end, no
longer a free republic.