Literary Criticism (1400-1800)

The Federalist Papers | Christopher M. Duncan (essay date 1995)

Christopher M. Duncan (essay date 1995)

SOURCE: Duncan, Christopher M. “The Faith of the Federalists.” In The Anti-Federalists and Early American Political Thought, pp. 99-122. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1995.

[In the following excerpt, Duncan offers a highly critical view of The Federalist Papers, maintaining that its politics are underwritten with a cynical, Hobbesian view of human nature and a strong tendency toward elitism.]

we were under a necessity of either returning to the house, and by our presence enabling them to call a convention before our constituents could have the means of information, or time to deliberate on the subject, or by absenting ourselves from the house, prevent the measure taking place. … Thus circumstanced and thus influenced, we determined the next morning, again to absent ourselves from the house, when James M'Calmount, esquire, a member from Franklin, and...

[The entire page is 10432 words long]

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