Federal Farmer

Benjamin Martin: "May I sit with you?"
Charlotte Selton: "It's a free country. Or at least it will be."
--The Patriot

Two hundred and seventy nine years ago today, Richard Henry Lee was born. It was Lee's motion in June 1776 that called for the colonies' independence from Great Britain that led to the Declaration of Independence.

Lee was a Virginian. Virginians were not bashful in voicing their suspicions of central government. During the ratification process, Lee sided with the Anti-Federalists, those who wanted to limit the authority of the federal government even more so than the Constitution as drafted did.

He expressed his views under the pen name Federal Farmer. Like many Anti-Fed writings, the work of Federal Farmer appeared in both in newpapers and in pamphlet form.

Two select quotes from FF:

"We must consider this constitution, when adopted, as the supreme act of the people, and in construing it hereafter, we and our posterity must strictly adhere to the letter and spirit of it, and in no instance depart from them."

"The powers delegated to the central government must be precisely defined...and clearly be of the extent that, by no reasonable construction, they can be made to invade the rights and prerogatives intended to be left in the people."

Today's big government proponents often claim that the founders left the Constitution vague and unprincipled so that it could evolve with the times. These claims find little basis in historical fact.

Federal Farmer's writings are but one drop in an ocean of evidence suggesting that the founding intent of the United States was to strictly and explicitly limit central government authority, and that the intent behind these restraints was binding into posterity.