Federalist Farmer 2

Federalist Farmer #2, October 9, 1787

Building Context: The author criticized the suggested Constitution in this anonymously published (likely Melancton Smith or Richard Henry Lee) Anti-Federalist essay. One major concern focused on a centralized and consolidated federal government that would remove power from the states. In addition, the size and scope of the judiciary and legislature and a lack of a bill of rights would remove protections and personal connections necessary for individual freedoms.

Source: Link to Full Source

 

Text	Notes
The representation cannot be equal, or the situation of the people proper for one government only if the extreme parts of the society cannot be represented as fully as the central. It is apparently impracticable that this should be the case in this extensive country it would be impossible to collect a representation of the parts of the country five, six, and seven hundred miles from the seat of government.
Under one general government alone, there could be but one judiciary, one supreme and a proper number of inferior courts. I think it would be totally impracticable in this case to preserve a due administration of justice,
I am not for bringing justice so near to individuals as to afford them any temptation to engage in law suits; though I think it one of the greatest benefits in a good government, that each citizen should find a court of justice within a reasonable distance, perhaps, within a day’s travel of his home;
If it were possible to consolidate the states, and preserve the features of a free government, still it is evident that the middle states, the parts of the union, about the seat of government, would enjoy great advantages, while the remote states would experience the many inconveniences of remote provinces. Wealth, offices, and the benefits of government would collect in the centre: and the extreme states and their principal towns, become much less important.
There are certain unalienable and fundamental rights, which in forming the social compact, ought to be explicitly ascertained and fixed a free and enlightened people, in forming this compact, will not resign all their rights to those who govern, and they will fix limits to their legislators and rulers, which will soon be plainly seen by those who are governed, as well as by those who govern: and the latter will know they cannot be passed unperceived by the former, and without giving a general alarm. These rights should be made the basis of every constitution:
There is more reason to believe, that the general government, far removed from the people, and none of its members elected oftener than once in two years, will be forgot or neglected, and its laws in many cases disregarded, unless a multitude of officers and military force be continually kept in view, and employed to enforce the execution of the laws, and to make the government feared and respected. No position can be truer than this, That in this country either neglected laws, or a military execution of them, must lead to a revolution, and to the destruction of freedom.