The Anti-Federalist Writings of the
Melancton Smith Circle makes
available for the first time a one-volume collection of Anti-Federalist
writings that are commensurate in scope, significance, political brilliance,
and depth with The Federalist. Included in this volume as an appendix is
a computational and contextual analysis that addresses the question of the
authorship of two of the most well-known pseudonymous Anti-Federalist writings,
namely, Essays of a Federal Farmer and Essays of Brutus. Also
included are the records of Smith’s important speeches at the New York Ratifying
Convention, some shorter writings of Smith’s from the ratification debate, and
a set of private letters Smith wrote on constitutional subjects at the time of
the ratification struggle.
Michael Zuckert is Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor and Chair of the Department
of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame.
Derek A. Webb is a Fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for
Constitutional Law.
