Analysis Of George Clinton's Attack On The Constitution

Clinton’s Attack on The Constitution

Not all American people were a fan of the Constitution. There were many flaws with the proposed Constitution that turned people off of the document. George Clinton was one of the people who disliked the Constitution immensely. Clinton wrote a paper, under a pseudonym, entitled “An Attack on the Proposed Federal Constitution”, in which he further explained his beliefs. Clinton, dubbed an “antifederalist”, believed the country would fail with one government controlling all of the power. James Madison took his paper seriously enough to write his own in response to Clinton. George Clinton mainly focused on the suggested republican government and quoting philosophers to make his paper sound more legitimate,

He thinks a republican form of government would devastate the colonies. One government controlling all of the colonies without allowing the colonies themselves to decide how they want to run things makes Clinton nervous. He believes the colonies are too large and too different to be overseen by one “superintendent” and that they need more “vigorous ones”. He is scared of not having the power of the people being listened to and the effects that has had in the past. He gives example to Massachusetts when they were on the brink of losing Maine as part of their colony. Maine wanted to govern itself and not be dependent on Massachusetts, which led to Shay’s Rebellion. The example Clinton provides is not a very sound one as it is not in reference to an entire country, which is what he tries to compare Massachusetts to. He wants each colony to have its own government, but never explains the benefits or repercussions. If he truly believed this was the best course of action would he not have fully explained his idea? Can it even be called an idea, as he never explicitly states he wanted to have

At the time, that was a broad idea that got tossed around quite frequently and presented itself in the Articles of Confederation. The Articles did not work for exactly the opposite reason the Constitution would fail in Clinton’s point of view. The Articles of Confederation did not give enough power to the national government. Each state had its own economy and transferring money colony to colony was extremely inconvenient. The colonies were not united by having self governance, they were further separated. Clinton should have made a plan for his own form of government and included it with his attack on the proposed Federal Constitution. He should have meticulously planned it out with all of the pros and cons in his head. To quote Hamilton, a musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton, “They don’t have a plan, they just hate mine.”. This applies to Clinton rather well as he only bashes someone else’s plan and never provides a new solution. It is of no use to try and get rid of something if there is nothing to replace the hole when it is