Copyright 1955 by the Old South Association.Reproduction permitted to all who give creditto the Association.
Copyright 1955 by the Old South Association.Reproduction permitted to all who give creditto the Association.
Thispamphlet, first printed in Boston shortly after Massachusetts ratified the Federal Constitution on February 6, 1788, achieved its largest circulation in New York where it was issued both in pamphlet form and in a newspaper series during the spring of that year.[1]At the time of publication the Anti-Federalist cause still seemed hopeful, for despite the fact that Massachusetts was the sixth state to ratify (in the two previous months, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut had voted affirmatively), the approval of three more states was required before the Constitution would become operative. Even when Maryland, South Carolina, and New Hampshire would make the total nine (between April 26 and June 21), no continental government could be effective without Virginia and New York, where strong opposition existed (they ratified June 25th and July 26th, respectively).
The objections to the new Constitution expressed in theObservationsare typical of Anti-Federalist thought from New England to Georgia.[2]Many of the details seem querulous today; many were met, as far as the author was concerned, by the Bill of Rights.[3]Still, the underlying questions asked are as vital now as they were then. Essentially, the problem facing that generation was how to organize political power so that it could be placed safely in the hands of men. Government had to be made strong enough to survive, yet it had to be kept properly tender about individual life, liberty, and property. As might be expected, the problem was seen in terms of rightsagainstgovernment rather than in terms of the citizen’s responsibilitytogovernment, but in the twentieth century’s era of absolutism it is useful to be reminded, in Mrs. Warren’s words, “that man is born free and possessed of certain unalienable rights....”
For many years this pamphlet was attributed to a leading Anti-Federalist, Elbridge Gerry. However, the publication of Mercy Otis Warren’s statement of authorship in a letter of May, 1788, and evidence within the work that she was its author and Gerry was not, would seem to indicate that she should be given the honors.[4]
The reproduction of theObservationshere made is from the original in the Massachusetts Historical Society with the kind permission of Mr. Stephen T. Riley. The first four and one-third pages have been omitted.