Read Hamilton’s Federalist Paper Number 15 and Patrick Henry’s Anti-Federalist speech which files are attached. After reading these two points of view, I would like you to argue which one you think is right and why. That is correct, you must choose and articulate a side. It should also be noted the public is nearly as narrowly divided today as it was then.

Mr. Chairman … I rose yesterday to ask a question which arose in my own mind. When I asked
that question, I thought the meaning of my interrogation was obvious: The fate of this question
and of America may depend on this: Have they said, we, the States? Have they made a proposal
of a compact between states? If they had, this would be a confederation: It is otherwise most
clearly a consolidated government. The question turns, Sir, on that poor little thing-the
expression, We, the people, instead of the States, of America. I need not take much pains to
show that the principles of this system are extremely pernicious, impolitic, and dangerous. Is
this a monarchy, like England-a compact between prince and people, with checks on the former
to secure the liberty of the latter? Is this a Confederacy, like Holland-an association of a number
of independent states, each of which retains its individual sovereignty? It is not a democracy,
wherein the people retain all their rights securely. Had these principles been adhered to, we
should not have been brought to this alarming transition, from a Confederacy to a consolidated
Government. We have no detail of these great consideration, which, in my opinion, ought to
have abounded before we should recur to a government of this kind. Here is a revolution as
radical as that which separated us from Great Britain. It is radical in this transition; our rights
and privileges are endangered, and the sovereignty of the states will be relinquished: And
cannot we plainly see that this is actually the case? The rights of conscience, trial by jury, liberty
of the press, all your immunities and franchises, all pretensions to human rights and privileges,
are rendered insecure, if not lost, by this change, so loudly talked of by some, and
inconsiderately by others. Is this tame relinquishment of rights worthy of freemen? Is it worthy
of that manly fortitude that ought to characterize republicans: It is said eight States have
adopted this plan. I declare that if twelve States and a half had adopted it, I would, with manly
firmness, and in spite of an erring world, reject it.
You are not to inquire how your trade may be increased, nor how you are to become a great
and powerful people, but how your liberties can be secured; for liberty ought to be the direct
end of your Government. Having premised these things, I shall, with the aid of my judgment
and information, which, I confess, are not extensive, go into the discussion of this system more
minutely. Is it necessary for your liberty that you should abandon those great rights by the
adoption of this system? Is the relinquishment of the trial by jury and the liberty of the press
necessary for your liberty? Will the abandonment of your most sacred rights tend to the
security of your liberty? Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings-give us that precious jewel,
and you may take every thing else: But I am fearful I have lived long enough to become an
fellow: Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man, may, in these refined,
enlightened days, be deemed old fashioned: If so, I am contented to be so: I say, the time has
been when every pore of my heart beat for American liberty, and which, I believe, had a
counterpart in the breast of every true American: But suspicions have gone forth-suspicions of
my integrity-publicly reported that my professions are not real. 23 years ago was I supposed a
traitor to my country; I was then said to be the bane of sedition, because I supported the rights
of my country: I may be thought suspicious when I say our privileges and rights are in danger.
But, Sir, a number of the people of this country are weak enough to think these things are too
true: I am happy to find that the Honorable Gentleman on the other side declares they are
groundless: But, Sir, suspicion is a virtue, as long as its object is the preservation of the public
good, and as long as it stays within proper bounds: Should it fall on me, I am contented:
Conscious rectitude is a powerful consolation: I trust there are many who think my professions
for the public good to be real. Let your suspicion look to both sides: There are many on the
other side, who possibly may have been persuaded of the necessity of these measures, which I
conceive to be dangerous to your liberty. Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.
Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but
downright force: Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined. I am answered by
gentlemen, that though I might speak of terrors, yet the fact was, that we were surrounded by
none of the dangers apprehended. I conceive this new Government to be one of those dangers:
It has produced those horrors which distress many of our best citizens. We are come hither to
preserve the poor commonwealth of Virginia, if it can be possibly done: Something must be
done to preserve your liberty and mine: The Confederation; this same despised Government,
merits, in my opinion, the highest encomium: It carried us through a long and dangerous war: It
rendered us victorious in that bloody conflict with a powerful nation: It has secured us a
territory greater than any European monarch possesses: And shall a Government which has
been thus strong and vigorous, be accused of imbecility and abandoned for want of energy?
Consider what you are about to do before you part with this Government. Take longer time in
reckoning things: Revolutions like this have happened in almost every country in Europe:
Similar examples are to be found in ancient Greece and ancient Rome: Instances of the people
losing their liberty by their carelessness and the ambition of a few

Excerpt from Federalist 15 by Alexander Hamilton
IN THE course of the preceding papers, I have endeavored, my fellow-citizens, to place
before you, in a clear and convincing light, the importance of Union to your political safety and
happiness. I have unfolded to you a complication of dangers to which you would be exposed,
should you permit that sacred knot which binds the people of America together be severed or
dissolved by ambition or by avarice, by jealousy or by misrepresentation. In the sequel of the
inquiry through which I propose to accompany you, the truths intended to be inculcated will
receive further confirmation from facts and arguments hitherto unnoticed. If the road over
which you will still have to pass should in some places appear to you tedious or irksome, you
will recollect that you are in quest of information on a subject the most momentous which can
engage the attention of a free people, that the field through which you have to travel is in itself
spacious, and that the difficulties of the journey have been unnecessarily increased by the
mazes with which sophistry has beset the way. It will be my aim to remove the obstacles from
your progress in as compendious a manner as it can be done, without sacrificing utility to
despatch.
In pursuance of the plan which I have laid down for the discussion of the subject, the point
next in order to be examined is the “insufficiency of the present Confederation to the
preservation of the Union.” It may perhaps be asked what need there is of reasoning or proof
to illustrate a position which is not either controverted or doubted, to which the
understandings and feelings of all classes of men assent, and which in substance is admitted by
the opponents as well as by the friends of the new Constitution. It must in truth be
acknowledged that, however these may differ in other respects, they in general appear to
harmonize in this sentiment, at least, that there are material imperfections in our national
system, and that something is necessary to be done to rescue us from impending anarchy. The
facts that support this opinion are no longer objects of speculation. They have forced
themselves upon the sensibility of the people at large, and have at length extorted from those,
whose mistaken policy has had the principal share in precipitating the extremity at which we
are arrived, a reluctant confession of the reality of those defects in the scheme of our federal
government, which have been long pointed out and regretted by the intelligent friends of the
Union.
We may indeed with propriety be said to have reached almost the last stage of national
humiliation. There is scarcely anything that can wound the pride or degrade the character of an
independent nation which we do not experience. Are there engagements to the performance
of which we are held by every tie respectable among men? These are the subjects of constant
and unblushing violation. Do we owe debts to foreigners and to our own citizens contracted in
a time of imminent peril for the preservation of our political existence? These remain without
any proper or satisfactory provision for their discharge. Have we valuable territories and
important posts in the possession of a foreign power which, by express stipulations, ought long
since to have been surrendered? These are still retained, to the prejudice of our interests, not
less than of our rights. Are we in a condition to resent or to repel the aggression? We have
neither troops, nor treasury, nor government. Are we even in a condition to remonstrate with
dignity? The just imputations on our own faith, in respect to the same treaty, ought first to be
removed. Are we entitled by nature and compact to a free participation in the navigation of the
Mississippi? Spain excludes us from it. Is public credit an indispensable resource in time of
public danger? We seem to have abandoned its cause as desperate and irretrievable. Is
commerce of importance to national wealth? Ours is at the lowest point of declension. Is
respectability in the eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign encroachments? The
imbecility of our government even forbids them to treat with us. Our ambassadors abroad are
the mere pageants of mimic sovereignty. Is a violent and unnatural decrease in the value of
land a symptom of national distress? The price of improved land in most parts of the country is
much lower than can be accounted for by the quantity of waste land at market, and can only be
fully explained by that want of private and public confidence, which are so alarmingly prevalent
among all ranks, and which have a direct tendency to depreciate property of every kind. Is
private credit the friend and patron of industry? That most useful kind which relates to
borrowing and lending is reduced within the narrowest limits, and this still more from an
opinion of insecurity than from the scarcity of money. To shorten an enumeration of particulars
which can afford neither pleasure nor instruction, it may in general be demanded, what
indication is there of national disorder, poverty, and insignificance that could befall a
community so peculiarly blessed with natural advantages as we are, which does not form a part
of the dark catalogue of our public misfortunes?
This is the melancholy situation to which we have been brought by those very maxims and
councils which would now deter us from adopting the proposed Constitution; and which, not
content with having conducted us to the brink of a precipice, seem resolved to plunge us into
the abyss that awaits us below. Here, my countrymen, impelled by every motive that ought to
influence an enlightened people, let us make a firm stand for our safety, our tranquility, our
dignity, our reputation. Let us at last break the fatal charm which has too long seduced us from
the paths of felicity and prosperity.