https://tenthamendmentcenter.com/2025/11/08/were-the-anti-federalists-right/

Were the Anti-Federalists Right?

By: Michael Boldin

A monarchy, or a corrupt, tyrannical aristocracy.

That’s what George Mason predicted we’d get under the constitution. And he was far from alone.

The Anti-Federalists repeatedly warned that the constitution wouldn’t actually create a federal union. Instead, they argued, it would result in a consolidated national government. They pointed to specific parts of the document – what they considered weapons baked into the system – that would guarantee this outcome.

What follows are five of those weapons – including taxation – straight from Mason, Cato, Elbridge Gerry, the Pennsylvania Dissent, and Luther Martin.

THREE WORDS

The Pennsylvania Dissent started right at the top. The first three words of the preamble – “We the People.” This, they warned, proved the document was intentionally creating a consolidated national system instead of a federal union.

“In short, every species of consolidation pervades the whole constitution. It begins with an annunciation that such was the intention.”

A union of states, they explained, is fundamentally different from a compact between all the people. ......