ion, and to this day they remain the best exposition of the
Constitution ever written.
The objections raised by the Anti-Federalists were many. In the first
place, it was of course objected that it gave to the central government
too much power; that state government and State liberty would be crushed
out. The State was then as dear to the citizen as is the National
Government to us to-day. Patriotism was then devotion to the State. The
colonists had suffered so much from control over their state governments
by an outside strong government, that they were fearful of again putting
themselves under a strong national government though of their own
making. In warning terms it was declared it would be a government
founded upon the destruction of the governments of the several States.
They said, "Congress may monopolize every source of revenue, and thus
indirectly demolish the State governments, for without funds they cannot
exist." These elements of State love and jealousy of the Federal power
are of the utmost importance in studying our history. We see them
running through all our life as the main causes of division between
political parties. (See later chapter on "Introduction to History of
Political Parties.")
Another objection was, that the Constitution contained no definite "bill
of rights" recognizing and guaranteeing fundamental personal liberties,
such as freedom of speech, liberty of the press, assurance against
unjust arrest, the right to bear arms, and trial by jury in civil cases,
etc. This class of objections was satisfied by the adoption of the first
ten constitutional amendments. It was also claimed by those opposed to
the ratification, that inasmuch as the Constitution placed no limit to
the number of terms which a President might serve, one man might become
so powerful as to obtain a life-tenure of office, and thus the
government would degenerate into a monarchy. To show how exaggerated
were the fears during this critical period of our history, we have the
report that it was actually claimed and believed by many at that time
that the Federalists had the secret intention of inviting over to our
country some European prince who should rule as king. Patrick Henry
cried, "We shall have a king; the army will salute him monarch." Though
not fixed by the Constitution, it has been since the time of Washington
the invariable rule that no man shall be elected for more than two
terms. The friends of President Grant a
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