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comes inadequate. ‘‘This, sir, is the language of democracy: that a majority of the community have the right to alter their government when
found to be oppressive. But how different is the genius of your new Constitution from this.’’
The Constitution Confers Too Much Power
No less disturbing to these critics of the Constitution were specific provisions which seemed to be inconsistent with the ideals of limited constitutional government. Elbridge Gerry, a delegate to the Federal Convention from Massachusetts who refused to sign the Constitution, spoke for
most Anti-Federalists when he challenged the Constitution’s broad delegations of power. In addition to the problems of representation and
Congressional control of elections, ‘‘some of the powers of the Legislature are ambiguous, and others indefinite and dangerous.’’ The President
‘‘is balanced with and will have undue influence over the Legislature.’’
The Federal Judiciary ‘‘will be oppressive.’’ And, Gerry argued, ‘‘the system is without the security of a bill of rights.’’
An Imperial Congress
Among the powers delegated to Congress, those authorizing the national
legislature to provide for the general welfare, levy taxes, regulate the
States’ militia, regulate interstate commerce, and make all laws necessary
and proper, gave the Anti-Federalists their deepest misgivings. ‘‘Brutus,’’
writing in the New York Journal, offered one of the most perceptive and farreaching examinations of Congressional power from the Anti-Federalist
perspective. The ‘‘most natural and grammatical’’ construction of the
General Welfare Clause in Article I, he observed, is that it authorizes the
Congress ‘‘to do anything which in their judgment will tend to provide
for the general welfare, and this amounts to the same thing as general
and unlimited powers of legislation in all cases. . . .’’ The tax power is
fundamentally unsound because ‘‘there is no limitation on this power’’
and Congress could levy any amount that it pleases, for any purpose,
leaving the States no source of revenue. ‘‘This power therefore is neither