“The sole power of impeachment being vested in them, they have it in their power to control the representative in this democratic right; to screen from punishment, or rather from conviction, all high offenders, being their creatures, and to keep in awe all opponents to their power in high office.”

Taken from the New York Journal, Nov. 22, 1787 by CINCINNATUS It appears to have been written in answer to James Wilson’s Anti-Federalist # 12)

I come now, sir, to the most exceptionable part of the Constitution – the Senate. In this, as in every other part, you [James Wilson of Pennsylvania] are in the line of your profession Law], and on that ground assure your fellow citizens, that – perhaps there never was a charge made with less reason, than that which predicts the institution of a baneful aristocracy in the Federal Senate. Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 64 – On The Organization And Powers Of The Senate (Part 3)”

  • Twenty-eight pre-1964 silver dimes: Norm in Hawaii
  • Three books from The Winning of America series: Clayton in New York
  • Emergency coffee and a 72 hour kit: Jeno
  • Fifteen various seed packets: Darzak
  • Samick longbow: Andrew Midkiff
  • Men’s bug-out bag: Richard in Maryland
  • Midland CB Radio: Clay in California
  • Survival Seed Vault: Ruth in Pennsylvania
  • Survival Seed Vault: Swify Lomax
  • Survival Seed Vault: GrayRider
  • Trenchers shirt: Kim in Alaska
  • Lady’s bug-out bag: Patricia in Colorado

Congratulations! Thank you to all who participated, your support to From the Trenches World Report is greatly appreciated.

. . . . It is well observed by Montesquieu, that in republican governments the forms of elections are fundamental; and that it is an essential part of the social compact, to ascertain by whom, to whom, when, and in what manner, suffrages are to be given. Wherever we find the regulation of elections have not been carefully fixed by the constitution, or the principles of them, we constantly see new legislatures modifying . . . [their] own form, and changing the spirit of the government to answer partial purposes.

By the proposed plan it is fixed, that the qualifications of the electors of the federal representatives shall be the same as those of the electors of state representatives; though these vary some in the several states the electors are fixed and designated.   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 61 – Questions And Comments On The Constitutional Provisions Regarding The Election Of Congressmen”

I wonder who he intended to take to the prom.

USA Today

In a stunning development, a star center for a Canadian high school basketball team was exposed as a 30-year-old African refugee, leading to his being detained in connection with the Immigration Refugee Protection Act.   Continue reading “Canadian border officials arrest 30-year-old Sudanese refugee posing as 17-year-old basketball player”

History.com

The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, kicked off the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts. On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. Paul Revere and other riders sounded the alarm, and colonial militiamen began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoat column. A confrontation on the Lexington town green started off the fighting, and soon the British were hastily retreating under intense fire. Many more battles followed, and in 1783 the colonists formally won their independence.   Continue reading “April 19, 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord”

. . . . But the people must elect good men. Examine the system – is it practicable for them to elect fit and proper representatives where the number is so small? But the people may choose whom they please. This is an observation, I believe, made without due attention to facts and the state of the community, To explain my meaning, I will consider the descriptions of men commonly presented to the people as candidates for the offices of representatives. We may rank them in three classes.   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 57 – Will The House Of Representatives Be Genuinely Representative? (Part 3)”

“It is deceiving a people to tell them they are electors, and can choose their legislators, if they cannot, in the nature of things, choose men from among themselves, and genuinely like themselves.”

Following are four essays by THE FEDERAL FARMER

. . . . It being impracticable for the people to assemble to make laws, they must elect legislators, and assign men to the different departments of the government. In the representative branch we must expect chiefly to collect the confidence of the people, and in it to find almost entirely the force of persuasion. In forming this branch, therefore, several important considerations must be attended to. It must possess abilities to discern the situation of the people and of public affairs, a disposition to sympathize with the people, and a capacity and inclination to make laws congenial to their circumstances and condition. It must afford security against interest combinations, corruption and influence. It must possess the confidence, and have the voluntary support of the people.   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 55 – Will The House Of Representatives Be Genuinely Representative? (Part 1)”

Republic:  A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.

Democracy:  A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

The Constitution for the united States of the Americas was presented at a convention that was called for the purpose of establishing a permanent confederacy of states.  The Anti-Federalists saw the move for exactly what it was, a seizure of power and property by the elite of the day, who indeed were the former agents of King George, who were indeed responsible for the tyranny being inflicted upon the colonists, which caused the people’s armed uprising at Lexington and Concord, said armed uprising consequentially being hijacked by these same elite, presuming to form a government in the middle of an armed uprising in order that the sword be surrendered to an unelected government, rather than the people who had perpetrated the armed uprising.  No government was elected during the armed uprising, it was simply presumed by the power elite who were the Masonic Lodge and the dirty church.      Continue reading “No Elections, Just Elitists’ Selections”

“But it appeared to us a piece of superlative incongruity indeed, that the people, whilst in the full and indefeasible possession of their liberties and privileges, should be so very profuse, so very liberal in the disposal of them, as consequently to place themselves in a predicament miserable to an extreme.”

The following essay was signed by Consider Arms, Malichi Maynard, and Samuel Field. It was taken from The Hampshire Gazette of April 9, 1788.

We the subscribers being of the number, who did not assent to the ratification of the federal constitution, under consideration in the late state convention, held at Boston, to which we were called by the suffrages of the corporations to which we respectively belong – beg leave, through the channel of your paper, to lay before the public in general, and our constituents in particular, the reasons of our dissent, and the principles which governed us in our decision of this important question.   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 52 – On The Guarantee Of Congressional Biennial Elections”

Plebes need to know their place…and it’s not at the ballot box.

This satire is from a pamphlet of “ARISTOCROTIS,” The Government of Nature Delineated; Or An Exact Picture of the New Federal Constitution (Carlisle, PA, 1788)

The present is an active period. Europe is in a ferment breaking their constitutions; America is in a similar state, making a constitution. For this valuable purpose a convention was appointed, consisting of such as excelled in wisdom and knowledge, who met in Philadelphia last May. For my own part, I was so smitten with the character of the members, that I had assented to their production, while it was yet in embryo. Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 51 – Do Checks And Balances Really Secure The Rights Of The People?”

“The great and the wise and the mighty will be in possession of places and offices; they will oppose all changes in favor of liberty; they will steadily pursue the acquisition of more and more power to themselves and their adherents. . . .”

The following essay is in two parts: the first is by “MASSACHUSETTENSIS,” and is reprinted from The Massachusetts Gazette of January 29, 1788; the second part was written by “AN OLD WHIG,” and is taken from The New-York Journal of November 27, 1787.   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 49 – On Constitutional Conventions (Part 1)”

“When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty.” (I have a pen and a phone?)

This essay is taken from “CENTINEL’s,” letters in The Independent Gazetteer, October 5 and 24, 1787

I am fearful that the principles of government inculcated in Mr. [John] Adams’ treatise [Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America], and enforced in the numerous essays and paragraphs in the newspapers, have misled some well designing members of the late Convention. But it will appear in the sequel, that the construction of the proposed plan of government is infinitely more extravagant.   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 47 – “Balance” Of Departments Not Achieved Under New Constitution”

This essay by “AN OLD WHIG” appeared in the Maryland Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser on Nov. 2, 1788. (see also Nos. 18-20, 49, 50, and 70)

Let us look to the first article of the proposed new constitution, which treats of the legislative powers of Congress; and to the eighth section, which pretends to define those powers. We find here that the Congress in its legislative capacity, shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, and excises; to borrow money; to regulate commerce; to fix the rule for naturalization and the laws of bankruptcy; to coin money; to punish counterfeiters; to establish post offices and post roads; to secure copy rights to authors; to constitute tribunals; to define and punish piracies; to declare war; to raise and support armies; to provide and support a navy; to call forth the militia; to organize, arm and discipline the militia; to exercise absolute power over a district ten miles square, independent of all the State legislatures, and to be alike absolute over all forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings thereunto belonging. This is a short abstract of the powers given to Congress. These powers are very extensive, but I shall not stay at present to inquire whether these express powers were necessary to be given to Congress? Whether they are too great or too small?   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 46 – “WHERE THEN IS THE RESTRAINT?””

Robert Yates, a delegate to the 1787 convention from New York, left on July 10, 1787. He became an Anti-Federalist leader. Under the nome de plume “Sydney” he wrote in the New York Daily Patriotic Register, June 13 and 14, 1788.

TO THE CITIZENS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

Although a variety of objections to the proposed new constitution for the government of the United States have been laid before the public by men of the best abilities, I am led to believe that representing it in a point of view which has escaped their observation may be of use, that is, by comparing it with the constitution of the State of New York.   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 45 – Powers Of National Government Dangerous To State Governments; New York As An Example”

In the present state of mankind, and of conducting war, the government of every nation must have power to raise and keep up regular troops. The question is, how shall this power be lodged? In an entire government, as in Great Britain, where the people assemble by their representatives in one legislature, there is no difficulty; it is of course properly lodged in that legislature. But in a confederated republic, where the organization consists of a federal head, and local governments, there is no one part in which it can be solely, and safely lodged. By Art. 1. , Sect. 8. , “congress shall have power to raise and support armies,” etc. By Art. I. , Sect. 10. , “no state, without the consent of congress, shall keep troops, or ships of war, in time of peace. ” It seems fit the union should direct the raising of troops, and the union may do it in two ways: by requisitions on the states, or by direct taxes. The first is most conformable to the federal plan, and safest; and it may be improved, by giving the union power, by its own laws and officers, to raise the state’s quota that may neglect, and to charge it with the expense; and by giving a fixed quorum of the state legislatures power to disapprove the requisition. There would be less danger in this power to raise troops, could the state governments keep a proper control over the purse and over the militia.   Continue reading “Anti-Federalist Paper No. 41-43B – “The Quantity Of Power The Union Must Possess Is One Thing; The Mode Of Exercising The Powers Given Is Quite A Different Consideration””