the anti-federalist · brutus, centinel, federal farmer

The essays written against ratification in 1787 and 1788 under names like Brutus, Centinel and the Federal Farmer argued that a republic must be small, that the new government's powers were unlimited in practice, and that without a bill of rights liberty would be lost. They lost the argument and won the Bill of Rights, and their warnings about consolidation and the judiciary are still cited.

Read Brutus II, Centinel I and Federal Farmer I and IV in the Roots of American Order summer seminar, June 2026.