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RY
Enlightenment & Revolutions
Robert Yates, 'Brutus'
1738–1801 · Anti-federalism
A constitution must mean something narrower than 'necessary and proper'.
Writing as Brutus, Yates produced the most prescient anti-federalist essays, predicting that elastic clauses would let Congress legislate on anything under the general welfare, that federal courts would absorb state law, and that a standing army would end up collecting taxes at bayonet point. Every one of those predictions had to be argued against for the next two centuries.
Why it matters for freedom
He predicted that a distant consolidated power would grow by every crisis, and the prediction came true.
Who they stood against
a central government with an army and a taxing power it could use against its own states