The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates by Ralph Ketcham

Author:Ralph Ketcham [Ketcham, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101651346
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2003-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

Amendments Proposed by the Anti-federalists

As the debate over the new Constitution progressed, anti-federalist objections to the powers granted the federal government began to crystallize in specific proposals for amendments that would limit those powers. In some state conventions, especially where sentiment was closely divided, proposals were made for amendments to be insisted upon prior to ratification, while others were offered in hopes that a second convention might consider them for inclusion in a revised constitution. The Massachusetts convention, which narrowly ratified the Constitution in February 1788, proposed a relatively short list of amendments, while Virginia in June 1788 put forth a much longer list, in large measure duplicated by the North Carolina and New York conventions later in the year. Some of the proposals were similar to those later included in the federal Bill of Rights and thus were matters largely agreed to by both sides, while other amendments would have greatly altered the powers of the new government. The proposals, widely reprinted and circulated in 1788, are reprinted here from Documentary History of the Constitution (Washington, DC, 1894), pp. 93-96, and from Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates of the Several State Conventions…(5 vols., Philadelphia, 2nd ed., 1896), III, pp. 657-663. A further, even more radical list of amendments was proposed by a Rhode Island convention on March 6, 1790, before that state ratified the Constitution. Some of these proposed amendments are reprinted here from an original broadside at the John Carter Brown Library, with the kind permission of the library.

Amendments Proposed by the Massachusetts Convention (February 7, 1788)

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