The Anti-Federalist Writings of the Melancton Smith Circle

The Anti-Federalist Writings of theMelancton Smith Circle makesavailable for the first time a one-volume collection of Anti-Federalistwritings that are commensurate in scope, significance, political brilliance,and depth with The Federalist. Included in this volume as an appendix isa computational and contextual analysis that addresses the question of theauthorship of two of the most well-known pseudonymous Anti-Federalist writings,namely, Essays of a Federal Farmer and Essays of Brutus. Alsoincluded are the records of Smiths important speeches at the New York RatifyingConvention, some shorter writings of Smiths from the ratification debate, anda set of private letters Smith wrote on constitutional subjects at the time ofthe ratification struggle.

Michael Zuckert is Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor and Chair of the Departmentof Political Science at the University of Notre Dame.

Derek A. Webb is a Fellow at Stanford Law Schools Center forConstitutional Law.