Anti-Federalism as American as Apple Pie

The idea of the Constitution was not universallly loved by all colonists.  Indeed, many expressed a fear that the proposed federal government would take over all the powers of the state and were a recipe for tyranny.  Although it didn't happen immediately, their concerns appear to have been validated in the last century or so.  Those silly anti-federalists.

In the very first Letter From A Federal Farmer we see how the objections then, mirror the objections to the form our government has taken now.

"They will urge a thousand pretences to answer their puposes on both sides.  When we want a man to change his condition, we describe it as miserable, wretched, and despised:  and draw a pleasing picture of that which we would have him assume.  And when we wish the contrary, we reverse our descriptions.  Whenever a clamor is raised, and idle men ge to work, it is highly necessary to examine facts carefully, and without unreasonably suspecting men of falsehood, to examine, and enquire attentively, under what impressions they act.  It is too often the case in political concerns, that men state facts not as they are, but as they wish them to be; and almost every man, by calling to mind past scenes, will find this to be true."

"It is natural for men, who wish to hasten the adoption of a measure, to tell us, now is the crisis -- now is the critical moment which must be seized, or all will be lost:  and to shut the door against free enquiry, whenever conscious the thing presented has defects in it, which time and investigation will probably discover.  This has been the custom of tyrants and their dependants in all ages  If it is true, what has been so often said, that the people of this country cannot change their condition for the worse, I presume it still behoves them to endeavour deliberately to change it for the better.  The fickle and ardent, in any community, are the proper tools for establishing despotic government."

The constant call that there is a crisis and that it must be done now and without debate is nothing but tyranny, and that being true, are we now a free people living in liberty, or slaves to a tyrannical regime?  I believe you know my answer to that question.