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Defending the Constitution
Such changes were legitimate, he suggested, if they were ‘‘calculated to
accomplish the views and happiness of the people of America’’ and were
approved by them.
Liberty also depended upon republicanism, said the Anti-Federalists,
which in turn depended upon maintaining the primacy of the States. History and political theory persuaded the Anti-Federalists that free republican governments could extend only over small territories with homogeneous populations. Small republics were stable and orderly because they
were public-spirited, enjoyed voluntary obedience to the laws, and were
closely controlled by the people. Many Anti-Federalists preferred the
simplicity of agrarian life to the complexity of a strife-ridden industrial
society, and most agreed with Brutus that ‘‘in a republic, the manners,
sentiments, and interests of the people should be similar. If this is not the
case, there will be a constant clashing of opinions; and the representatives of one part will be continually striving against those of the other.’’
But the Federalists envisioned a different kind of America, and vigorously challenged this view. Homogeneous republics were possible only
under the primitive conditions of pre-commercial society. ‘‘In every community whose industry is encouraged,’’ said Hamilton, ‘‘there will be a
division of it into the few and the many.’’ And when this occurs, the innocence of agricultural life is lost. The Anti-Federalists criticized the man
of commerce as rootless and greedy—‘‘immersed in schemes of wealth’’
and ‘‘the last to take alarm when public liberty is threatened’’; but they
could not deny that America was already committed to a commercial
order, and that the landed interests were fundamentally part of, and dependent upon, the commercial life of the nation. As Herbert Storing has
observed, ‘‘The basic problem of the Anti-Federalists was that they accepted the need and desirability of the modern commercial world, while
attempting to resist certain of its tendencies with rather half-hearted appeals to civic virtue. But such restraints, the Federalists replied, have
never worked and will never work.’’
The solution, argued Madison in Federalist 10, was the extended commercial republic proposed by the Constitution. A loosely knit confederation of small republics was neither desirable nor possible. Small republics might even pose a threat to liberty because they were governed by
single-minded majority factions that are difficult to control. Such factions