Enlightenment & Revolutions
Mercy Otis Warren
1728–1814 · Anti-federalism
The historian who warned the revolution had made a new king.
Warren wrote biting political satire before independence was declared, then a three-volume history of the Revolution that held its leaders to their own principles. She opposed the Constitution as a surrender of local and individual authority and warned that distant revenue officers, a standing army and appointed courts would produce government no citizen could reach. Her letters insist the revolution was unfinished work.
Why it matters for freedom
She wrote the revolution's history while it was still being decided, arguing that power must answer to the governed.
Who they stood against
the British governors of Massachusetts and the historians who flattered them