10月6日, James Wilson delivered his “speech in the statehouse yard” to “a very great concourse of people,解释和捍卫拟议的宪法. 立即印刷并在各殖民地分发, 这是一次令人印象深刻的博览会, 被联邦党人广泛用于证明他们的观点. It also provoked opponents of the Constitution to wield their pens under a variety of pseudonyms, 包括 布鲁特斯, 卡托, 联邦农民.
10月17日 宾夕法尼亚州的先驱 印了一份"对威尔逊演讲的答复 民主党联邦党人, first taking issue with Wilson’s contention that the proposed national government could exercise only those powers given to it. Noting that the Articles of Confederation expressly provides that “each State retains its sovereignty, 自由和独立, 每一种力量, jurisdiction 和 right which is not by the Confederation expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled,他问, “for what purpose” was that provision omitted in the Constitution?
根据条款, 作者继续说道, 国会“仅仅是一个执行机构,没有权力筹集资金，也没有司法权威. 与此形成鲜明对比的是, the Constitution vests the federal government with legislative, 执行, judicial powers 和 declares “their laws to be paramount to the laws of the different States.“他们应该”假装对人民施行暴政吗, 他们的常备军会压制民众的一切努力. Mr. 威尔逊的荣誉将被遗忘, 否认或解释, 人民的自由将不复存在.”
威尔逊认为常备军是必要的, the 民主联邦 referred to James Burgh’s “Political Disquisitions,——大卫·休谟, 苏格兰启蒙运动哲学家, 以及其他对“这个陈腐话题”发表评论的人.他们反对常备军，认为这是对自由的威胁. 是常备军赢得了列克星敦战役吗, 和邦克山, 带走了命运多舛的伯戈因?“ 民主联邦 要求. “Is not a well-regulated militia sufficient to every purpose of internal defense? And which of you is afraid of any invasion from foreign powers that our brave militia would not be able immediately to repel?”
The author closed by noting he had “only traced the outlines of the subject,” having “written this in haste” 和 hoping that “some able h和 will second my honest endeavors.他的愿望很快就实现了. 10月24日 弗里曼的杂志 published a lengthy vitriolic attack on the drafters of the Constitution as well as the Constitution itself. 称自己为 Centinel (后来被确认为塞缪尔·布莱恩), 宾夕法尼亚州议会的前当选书记员), he began by extolling freedom of the press 和 asserting that “abolition of that gr和 palladium of freedom in the proposed plan of government” is a “striking exemplification” of the history of “men of an aspiring 和 tyrannical disposition.” Freedom of the press, he asserted, was in serious jeopardy under the Constitution.
就像 民主联邦, Centinel focused on the lack of a bill of rights 和 the Constitution’s explicit provision that the Constitution would be “the supreme law of the l和.” As such, it “would be paramount to all State authorities,” he warned. Emphasizing themes that will dominate Antifederalist arguments in the months to come, 森蒂内尔听从了约翰·狄金森的建议 一位宾夕法尼亚农民的来信, a series of 文章s written from 1767 to 1768 instrumental in uniting the colonies against the oppressive Townshend Acts. 反对英国征收国内税, 狄金森曾断言，如果允许这些税继续存在, “the several colonial legislatures would soon become contemptible, 不久就被废弃了. “没什么，”他说 农民],森蒂内尔继续说, 将留给他们去做, higher than to frame bye-laws for the impounding of cattle or the yoking of hogs.” That Dickinson recently represented Pennsylvania in the Constitutional Convention 和 supported the Constitution was conveniently omitted in Centinel的 文章.
Centinel的 “Reply to Wilson’s Speech” will be followed by twenty-two additional critical 文章s published through the next year. Assailing the “necessary 和 proper” 和 “general welfare” clauses as the foundation for unlimited federal power; the power of Congress to tax (which “will drain your pockets of every penny”); 和 unfair representation in the Senate (designed to become a “永久的贵族”), 尽管如此，森蒂内尔还是愿意, 给予更多的时间, to consider debating 和 even revising or “correcting“ Constitution.
与此同时, 然而, 他的言辞依然尖刻。, concluding his first 文章 with a warning to his “fellow citizens.”“是吗?. W-----, many of his coadjutors in the late C----- the disinterested patriots they would have us believe?他问道。. “Is their conduct any recommendation of their plan of government?“看着他们阻止”调查和讨论,” 和 “in the most despotic manner endeavor to compel“ Constitution’s adoption as to “preclude the possibility of a due consideration - 和 they say whether the motives of these men can be pure.“终于, 他的结论是, “such false detestable patriots in every nation have led their blind confiding country, 大声鼓掌, 进入虎口 专制 和 毁了. May the wisdom 和 virtue of the people of America save them from the usual fate of nations.”
其他人回复威尔逊. 亚瑟•李, 医生, 外交官, 反对奴隶制, 给威尔逊写了六篇文章, 使用名称 执政官, warning against those “smooth words, with which the most dreadful designs may be glossed over.——威廉·芬德利, 宾夕法尼亚州立法机关中反联邦主义者的领袖, 我选择用笔名 后期大陆军军官 在写几篇反驳威尔逊的文章时. Like Findley, George Bryan (a justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court 和 father of Samuel Bryan/Centinel)出生于爱尔兰. 以名字书写 老辉格党, his major opposition to the Constitution was its creation of a bicameral legislature.
“笔之战”正在如火如荼地进行. 纽约的冲突也开始升级, where Governor George Clinton 和 New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Yates will be pitted against Federalist leaders Alex和er Hamilton 和 James Madison.