The Original Counter-Argument — The Founders' Case Against the Ratification of the Constitution, Adapted for the 21st Century

The Founders warned about placing too much power in the hands of too few people.
This book explains the warnings of the Antifederalists, in their own words, simplified into modern English.

In its pages you will read some of the most important writings from America's Founders--important but forgotten. It is the greatest case of to the victor go the spoils in American history. The advocates of the United States Constitution won, narrowly, and the counter-argument of the opponents became the losing argument and up until now the lost argument, much to our loss.

Why would anyone be opposed to the Constitution, and who were they? A couple of the names of those opponents will be familiar: George Mason for his namesake university's winning basketball team and Patrick Henry for saying "Give me liberty or give me death!" But how many people know that these Founders were opposed to the U.S. Constitution? Does anyone know their reasons for opposing it? They will after reading this book!

Included here are some of the most widely read, most significant, and most famous essays, speeches, and letters from the opponents of the Constitution at the time.

These writings deserve a much wider audience. They help us know the intended direction for a federated republican government and warn us about the risk of a national government growing out of control. Knowing how we got here requires knowing where we have been. The U.S. as it stands today would certainly be unrecognizable to the Founders in 1787 not just because the U.S. today has 78 times as many people as it did then, but because the federal government probably has much more power than what even the fiercest nationalist at the time could have imagined. In these pages, you will get an idea of just how bitterly the Founders fought over giving power to the new national government. How much more bitterly would they have fought had they known where we would end up today?

I had heard that the three most important documents in America's history are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. So after reading the first two, I dutifully grabbed a copy of the Federalist Papers (a free copy downloaded to my iPhone) and started reading. I got through about the third paragraph and gave up. This was not reading, after all, it was a laborious translation process. Those guys 225 years ago sure had a way with words! Fortunately, I came across some versions of the Federalist Papers that had been rephrased for the 21st century. Making these pro-Constitution essays much easier to read was a great idea. But the Federalist Papers only tell one side of the story. Another very important side to it was completely missing. I immediately set out to tell that other side. This is their story...

Marking the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution on September 17, 1787, this book reveals the most influential writings and speeches of those Founders who spoke out against the new Constitution of the United States and warned of the big government that would follow. Find out why George Mason, Patrick Henry, and many other prominent Founders opposed the U.S. Constitution! Here are their reasons, translated into modern English. This book includes essays from George Mason, Patrick Henry, Luther Martin, Elbridge Gerry, Edmund Randolph, Mercy Otis Warren, Melancton Smith, Richard Henry Lee, Agrippa, Brutus, Cato, Centinel, Cincinnatus, Federal Farmer, John DeWitt, An Old Whig, and many more. An Essays RePhrased production.

My hope is that I have made these important works readable, enjoyable, and informative. They contain valuable lessons that we today should unlock once again for the good of "We, the People," or as Patrick Henry says in his speech, "We, the States."