In his last major speech during the Virginia Ratifying Convention, Patrick Henry warned against the potential for “ten thousand implied powers,” and called for a number of amendments prior to ratification.
The post Ten Thousand Implied Powers: Patrick Henry’s Final Antifederalist Speech first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.
Focusing on the debate over enumerated powers, this article challenges the unfounded assumptions of Federalist objectivity and Anti-Federalist irrelevance and models the historical method necessary to interpret the ratification debates rigorously.
The post Andrew Coan & David Schwartz: Interpreting Ratification first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.
Unlimited power. Robbery. Consolidation. Anti-federalists repeatedly warned that a federal power of direct taxation would destroy liberty.
The post Taxation: Anti-Federalist Warnings Ignored first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.
The founders considered consolidation one of the greatest threats to liberty. Both federalist and anti-federalist alike agreed on this political maxim, at least publicly. Their debate was mostly over whether the proposed constitution was creating such a centralized government - including warnings that a tendency towards it would lead to that result in the long run.
The post Destroyer of Liberty: Consolidation first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.
In a series of speeches during the Virginia Ratifying Convention, Patrick Henry warned that despite arguments to the contrary, the federal government wouldn’t act like its powers were only those delegated to it. Instead, it would act like all others before it - all powers are granted except those expressly reserved.
The post Implied vs Expressly Reserved: Patrick Henry’s Anti-Federalist Speeches 5-7 first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.
During the debates over ratification of the Constitution, Anti-Federalists repeatedly warned about the dangers of too much power. One of their prominent arguments centered around the maxim that once power expands, people with power never seem to voluntarily give it back.
The post Anti-Federalist Warnings: Government Power is Forever first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.