Federal farmer
Encyclopedia
The Federal Farmer was an Anti-Federalist who wrote a methodical assessment of the proposed United States Constitution
that was among the more important documents of the constitutional ratification debate. The assessment appeared in the form of two pamphlets, the first published in November 1787 and the second in May 1788. The letters, which were addressed to "The Republican," were signed only with the pseudonym
"the Federal Farmer." The identity of the author is unknown, though scholars have put forward Richard Henry Lee
and Melancton Smith
as possibilities. "The Republican" was most likely New York state governor George Clinton
.
The Federal Farmer made typical Anti-Federalist arguments, claiming that the Constitution would tear down the sovereign states
in favor of a consolidated government, and that this end of the federal system would be destructive of American liberties. The letters were praised at the time for their thoughtfulness, composition, and persuasiveness, and today are among the most widely read works in the Anti-Federalist canon.
Through January, the Federal Farmer letters circulated through New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Following on the success of the first pamphlet, a second one containing thirteen new letters, dated from December 25 to January 25, appeared in early May. Also printed by Thomas Greenleaf, this pamphlet, entitled An Additional Number of Letters From the Federal Farmer to the Republican Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government Proposed by the Late Convention; To Several Essential and Necessary Alterations in It; And Calculated to Illustrate and Support the Principles and Positions Laid Down in the Preceding Letters, was first advertised in the Journal on May 2. The Additional Letters had significantly less success than the Observations.
Among the Federalists, Alexander Hamilton
(as Publius), Edward Carrington
, and Noah Webster
acknowledged the Federal Farmer as, in Hamilton's words, the "most plausible" Anti-Federalist. Only one Federalist, Timothy Pickering
, took the time to develop a complete critical response to the Federal Farmer. Though this was not published during the course of the constitutional debates, it survives in a personal letter. Pickering described the Federal Farmer as "a wolfe in sheep's cloathing" and too focused on a misplaced fear of aristocracy.
. Lee had been a member of the Continental Congress
and had served as President of the United States in Congress Assembled. He was known to be an Anti-Federalist, and as he was at New York in 1787 while serving on Virginia's Congressional delegation, he could have arranged for the initial publication of the pamphlets. A handful of contemporary sources identified Lee with the Federal Farmer pamphlets, beginning with a letter addressed to Lee that appeared in the Connecticut Courant on December 24. That letter was reprinted in a handful of Massachusetts papers as a response to the Federal Farmer. Aside from these instances, the Federal Farmer was nowhere identified in the papers as the product of Lee's pen.
Surviving private correspondence is unhelpful in answering the question of authorship. Many contemporary writers admitted the author's identity was unknown to them, including Noah Webster
, Timothy Pickering
, and Edward Carrington
, who was in New York with Lee at the time the pamphlets were composed. Lee was not the only writer accused by Federalists of producing the pamphlets—a correspondent of John Lamb
accused him of diverting money from the New York impost into the production of "the foederal farmer and other false Libels." Historian Gordon S. Wood
observes that at least in Connecticut, emphasizing the association of Lee with any Anti-Federalist production would have been a sound political move for the Federalists; the Lee family was reviled in the state due to the involvement of Arthur Lee
, Richard Henry's brother, in instigating the recall of Connecticut merchant Silas Deane
from his position as envoy to France.
The Boston Athenaeum in 1874 published a catalogue of its holdings that indicated Lee as the Federal Farmer; until just a few years prior, major catalogues had listed the pamphlets as anonymous, including the 1864 Library of Congress
catalogue and an 1868 bibliography by Joseph Sabin. After the Athenaeum's publication, the Lee attribution appeared in a new Sabin volume in 1878, an 1888 edition of the first Federal Farmer pamphlet, and other documents.
presented the first complete argument against Lee's authorship. Wood argues that the letters were almost certainly not written by Lee; nothing in Lee's papers or memoirs supported the notion that he was the author. Lee is not known ever to have written an extended piece for public consumption, and Wood concludes that the production of 181 pages of pamphlets in less than half a year was not his style.
Wood identifies differences in style and content between the Federal Farmer pamphlets and a letter from Lee to Edmund Randolph
that was published in various newspapers. While the Federal Farmer's style displays "moderation, reasonableness, and tentativeness," the letter known to be Lee's contained "exclamatory statements" and "charged phrases." The Federal Farmer makes references primarily to the New England states and New York, while Lee focuses particularly on the ways in which the proposed Constitution would be harmful to the South. Finally, Lee's letter and the Federal Farmer pamphlets recommend significantly different measures for remedying the problems with the proposed Constitution; Lee was particularly interested in limiting Congressional control over commerce while the Federal Farmer was most concerned with the threat posed to the states by excess consolidation of national power.
At about the same time as Wood, Herbert Storing
, who was working on his collection The Complete Anti-Federalist
, came to the same conclusion that the case for Lee's authorship was weak, the only original evidence being the Courant article. Storing, however, argues that the case against Lee's authorship is also weak. Work produced since Wood's paper has been mixed in its attribution of the pamphlets, with some writers not naming an author and others citing the work as Lee's. Authors who have taken the time to comment on the debate generally concur with Wood, and no scholar has attempted a substantial refutation of Wood's paper. Walter Bennett, editor of a 1979 edition of the Federal Farmer, disagrees with Wood on many points but concludes that the evidence for Lee is not "sufficient to justify continuing this attribution." The editors of The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution declare Wood's challenge to Lee's authorship to be "effective."
Accepting that Lee did not write the pamphlet raises the question of who did. Wood asserts that the authorship of the pamphlets is a mystery that will likely never be solved, though he believes it probable that they were produced by a New York resident. Robert Webking argues that Melancton Smith
was likely the author. Webking finds deep similarities between Smith's speeches at the New York ratifying convention and the Federal Farmer. Smith, a New York lawyer, was one of the Anti-Federalist leaders at the New York convention, though he eventually voted for the Constitution. Webking speculates that Smith might have kept his authorship of the Federal Farmer pamphlets a close secret so as not to jeopardize his future as a politician in heavily Federalist New York.
system and seeming to be so in some respects, will in the end annihilate the states by consolidating them into one national government. This concern over consolidation was among the most important of the Anti-Federalist objections to the Constitution; they saw the destruction of state sovereignty as inimical to freedom. Honest federalists, in the view of the Federal Farmer, wished for the substantial preservation of the state governments, but sought a federal government that was more than merely advisory. The letters indicate that the Federal Farmer ascribed to the compact theory
of federalism.
The threat to federal government constituted a menace to republicanism. Without federalism, a republic the size of the United States would have grave difficulty giving fair representation to the varied interests of the people in the different states. Representatives in the national capital would have to be kept responsible to their constituents at home; the Federal Farmer believed that a large number of representatives was required to ensure a high ratio of representatives to constituents and guarantee that all classes would be fairly represented.
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
that was among the more important documents of the constitutional ratification debate. The assessment appeared in the form of two pamphlets, the first published in November 1787 and the second in May 1788. The letters, which were addressed to "The Republican," were signed only with the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"the Federal Farmer." The identity of the author is unknown, though scholars have put forward Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee was an American statesman from Virginia best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and his famous resolution of June 1776 led to the United States...
and Melancton Smith
Melancton Smith
Melancton Smith was a New York Delegate to the Continental Congress. His first name is sometimes spelled "Melanchthon"; it derives from Philipp Melanchthon, the leader in the Reformation....
as possibilities. "The Republican" was most likely New York state governor George Clinton
George Clinton (vice president)
George Clinton was an American soldier and politician, considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was the first Governor of New York, and then the fourth Vice President of the United States , serving under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He and John C...
.
The Federal Farmer made typical Anti-Federalist arguments, claiming that the Constitution would tear down the sovereign states
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
in favor of a consolidated government, and that this end of the federal system would be destructive of American liberties. The letters were praised at the time for their thoughtfulness, composition, and persuasiveness, and today are among the most widely read works in the Anti-Federalist canon.
Publication and contemporary reaction
On November 8, 1787, the New York Journal began to advertise a new pamphlet entitled Observations Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government Proposed by the Late Convention; and to Several Essential and Necessary Alterations in It. In a Number of Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican. This pamphlet contained the first five Federal Farmer letters, dated October 8 to October 13. The first edition was replete with errors and a second, corrected printing appeared within a week. The letters also began to appear in newspapers; on November 14 the Poughkeepsie County Journal started publishing the series, finishing on January 2. The first two editions of the pamphlet were likely produced by Thomas Greenleaf, who printed the New York Journal. At least two further editions were released by other printers.Through January, the Federal Farmer letters circulated through New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Following on the success of the first pamphlet, a second one containing thirteen new letters, dated from December 25 to January 25, appeared in early May. Also printed by Thomas Greenleaf, this pamphlet, entitled An Additional Number of Letters From the Federal Farmer to the Republican Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government Proposed by the Late Convention; To Several Essential and Necessary Alterations in It; And Calculated to Illustrate and Support the Principles and Positions Laid Down in the Preceding Letters, was first advertised in the Journal on May 2. The Additional Letters had significantly less success than the Observations.
Among the Federalists, Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...
(as Publius), Edward Carrington
Edward Carrington
Edward Carrington was an American soldier and statesman from Virginia. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army, serving as Quartermaster to General Nathanael Greene’s Southern campaign...
, and Noah Webster
Noah Webster
Noah Webster was an American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author...
acknowledged the Federal Farmer as, in Hamilton's words, the "most plausible" Anti-Federalist. Only one Federalist, Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering was a politician from Massachusetts who served in a variety of roles, most notably as the third United States Secretary of State, serving in that office from 1795 to 1800 under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.-Early years:Pickering was born in Salem, Massachusetts to...
, took the time to develop a complete critical response to the Federal Farmer. Though this was not published during the course of the constitutional debates, it survives in a personal letter. Pickering described the Federal Farmer as "a wolfe in sheep's cloathing" and too focused on a misplaced fear of aristocracy.
Richard Henry Lee
The authorship of the Federal Farmer letters is uncertain. Until the latter part of the 20th century, the letters were generally accepted to be the work of Richard Henry LeeRichard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee was an American statesman from Virginia best known for the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation and his famous resolution of June 1776 led to the United States...
. Lee had been a member of the Continental Congress
Continental Congress
The Continental Congress was a convention of delegates called together from the Thirteen Colonies that became the governing body of the United States during the American Revolution....
and had served as President of the United States in Congress Assembled. He was known to be an Anti-Federalist, and as he was at New York in 1787 while serving on Virginia's Congressional delegation, he could have arranged for the initial publication of the pamphlets. A handful of contemporary sources identified Lee with the Federal Farmer pamphlets, beginning with a letter addressed to Lee that appeared in the Connecticut Courant on December 24. That letter was reprinted in a handful of Massachusetts papers as a response to the Federal Farmer. Aside from these instances, the Federal Farmer was nowhere identified in the papers as the product of Lee's pen.
Surviving private correspondence is unhelpful in answering the question of authorship. Many contemporary writers admitted the author's identity was unknown to them, including Noah Webster
Noah Webster
Noah Webster was an American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author...
, Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering
Timothy Pickering was a politician from Massachusetts who served in a variety of roles, most notably as the third United States Secretary of State, serving in that office from 1795 to 1800 under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.-Early years:Pickering was born in Salem, Massachusetts to...
, and Edward Carrington
Edward Carrington
Edward Carrington was an American soldier and statesman from Virginia. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army, serving as Quartermaster to General Nathanael Greene’s Southern campaign...
, who was in New York with Lee at the time the pamphlets were composed. Lee was not the only writer accused by Federalists of producing the pamphlets—a correspondent of John Lamb
John Lamb (general)
John Lamb was an American soldier, politician, and Anti-Federalist organizer.-Career:He was born January 1, 1735 in New York City. He was the son of Anthony Lamb. His father was a convicted burglar who was transported to the colonies in the 1720s...
accused him of diverting money from the New York impost into the production of "the foederal farmer and other false Libels." Historian Gordon S. Wood
Gordon S. Wood
Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution. His book The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 won a 1970 Bancroft Prize...
observes that at least in Connecticut, emphasizing the association of Lee with any Anti-Federalist production would have been a sound political move for the Federalists; the Lee family was reviled in the state due to the involvement of Arthur Lee
Arthur Lee (diplomat)
Dr. Arthur Lee was an American diplomat during the American Revolutionary War. He was the son of Hon. Thomas Lee and Hannah Harrison Ludwell...
, Richard Henry's brother, in instigating the recall of Connecticut merchant Silas Deane
Silas Deane
Silas Deane was an American merchant, politician and diplomat. Originally a supporter of American independence Deane served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and then as the United States' first foreign diplomat when he travelled to France to lobby the French government for aid...
from his position as envoy to France.
The Boston Athenaeum in 1874 published a catalogue of its holdings that indicated Lee as the Federal Farmer; until just a few years prior, major catalogues had listed the pamphlets as anonymous, including the 1864 Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
catalogue and an 1868 bibliography by Joseph Sabin. After the Athenaeum's publication, the Lee attribution appeared in a new Sabin volume in 1878, an 1888 edition of the first Federal Farmer pamphlet, and other documents.
Questioning Lee's authorship
In 1974, historian Gordon S. WoodGordon S. Wood
Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University and the recipient of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Radicalism of the American Revolution. His book The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 won a 1970 Bancroft Prize...
presented the first complete argument against Lee's authorship. Wood argues that the letters were almost certainly not written by Lee; nothing in Lee's papers or memoirs supported the notion that he was the author. Lee is not known ever to have written an extended piece for public consumption, and Wood concludes that the production of 181 pages of pamphlets in less than half a year was not his style.
Wood identifies differences in style and content between the Federal Farmer pamphlets and a letter from Lee to Edmund Randolph
Edmund Randolph
Edmund Jennings Randolph was an American attorney, the seventh Governor of Virginia, the second Secretary of State, and the first United States Attorney General.-Biography:...
that was published in various newspapers. While the Federal Farmer's style displays "moderation, reasonableness, and tentativeness," the letter known to be Lee's contained "exclamatory statements" and "charged phrases." The Federal Farmer makes references primarily to the New England states and New York, while Lee focuses particularly on the ways in which the proposed Constitution would be harmful to the South. Finally, Lee's letter and the Federal Farmer pamphlets recommend significantly different measures for remedying the problems with the proposed Constitution; Lee was particularly interested in limiting Congressional control over commerce while the Federal Farmer was most concerned with the threat posed to the states by excess consolidation of national power.
At about the same time as Wood, Herbert Storing
Herbert Storing
Herbert J. Storing was a professor of Constitutional History and Law, the Federalist Papers, and, most notably, the Anti-Federalists. Prior to his death at the age of 49 he had completed most of his annotated seven volume collection of Anti-Federalist writings, The Complete Anti-Federalist, which...
, who was working on his collection The Complete Anti-Federalist
The Complete Anti-Federalist
The Complete Anti-Federalist is a seven-volume collection of the scattered Anti-Federalist Papers compiled by Professor Herbert Storing and his former student Murray Dry of the University of Chicago, who oversaw the completion of the project after Storing's death...
, came to the same conclusion that the case for Lee's authorship was weak, the only original evidence being the Courant article. Storing, however, argues that the case against Lee's authorship is also weak. Work produced since Wood's paper has been mixed in its attribution of the pamphlets, with some writers not naming an author and others citing the work as Lee's. Authors who have taken the time to comment on the debate generally concur with Wood, and no scholar has attempted a substantial refutation of Wood's paper. Walter Bennett, editor of a 1979 edition of the Federal Farmer, disagrees with Wood on many points but concludes that the evidence for Lee is not "sufficient to justify continuing this attribution." The editors of The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution declare Wood's challenge to Lee's authorship to be "effective."
Accepting that Lee did not write the pamphlet raises the question of who did. Wood asserts that the authorship of the pamphlets is a mystery that will likely never be solved, though he believes it probable that they were produced by a New York resident. Robert Webking argues that Melancton Smith
Melancton Smith
Melancton Smith was a New York Delegate to the Continental Congress. His first name is sometimes spelled "Melanchthon"; it derives from Philipp Melanchthon, the leader in the Reformation....
was likely the author. Webking finds deep similarities between Smith's speeches at the New York ratifying convention and the Federal Farmer. Smith, a New York lawyer, was one of the Anti-Federalist leaders at the New York convention, though he eventually voted for the Constitution. Webking speculates that Smith might have kept his authorship of the Federal Farmer pamphlets a close secret so as not to jeopardize his future as a politician in heavily Federalist New York.
Argument
The Federal Farmer argues that the plan of the Constitution, while claimed to be a federalFederal republic
A federal republic is a federation of states with a republican form of government. A federation is the central government. The states in a federation also maintain the federation...
system and seeming to be so in some respects, will in the end annihilate the states by consolidating them into one national government. This concern over consolidation was among the most important of the Anti-Federalist objections to the Constitution; they saw the destruction of state sovereignty as inimical to freedom. Honest federalists, in the view of the Federal Farmer, wished for the substantial preservation of the state governments, but sought a federal government that was more than merely advisory. The letters indicate that the Federal Farmer ascribed to the compact theory
Compact theory
Compact theory is a theory relating to the development of some federal constitutions.-Compact theory in the United States:Regarding the Constitution of the United States, the compact theory holds that the nation was formed through a compact agreed upon by all the states, and that the federal...
of federalism.
The threat to federal government constituted a menace to republicanism. Without federalism, a republic the size of the United States would have grave difficulty giving fair representation to the varied interests of the people in the different states. Representatives in the national capital would have to be kept responsible to their constituents at home; the Federal Farmer believed that a large number of representatives was required to ensure a high ratio of representatives to constituents and guarantee that all classes would be fairly represented.