Like any period in American History, national debates often do not always remain an exercise in reasoned discourse. The ratification debates were no exception. The deliberations were philosophical at times considering the nature of the union. At other times Federalists and Antifederalists, the debates were reasoned discourse over provisions of the Constitution. Still another facet of the ratifications debates was the use of ad hominem attacks.
Antifederalist essayist Philadelphiensis, consistently masterful in art of verbal attacks, claimed Federalists were doing the bidding of the “prince of darkness” urging good citizens to “quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”
Not to be outdone, Federalists also engaged in demonizing the critics of the Constitution. Cassius boldly asserted that one Massachusetts Antifederalist’s writings were a “degradation to reason, incoherent, nonsensical, absurd, ignorant, and knavish” adding citizens should not be led astray by “designing numbheads.”
We have selected some samples from the hundreds of examples from The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution illustrating how both sides of the debate were not immune from descending into hyperbole and ad hominem attacks of their opponents.
Ad Hominem Attacks on Antifederalists
- New York Daily Advertiser, 24 September 1787
- Juvenis, New Hampshire Spy, 20 October 1787
- Cassius I, Massachusetts Gazette, 16 November 1787
- Monitor, Hampshire Gazette, 21 November 1787
- Letters from Charleston, 3, 4 December 1787
- Lansingburgh Northern Centinel, 1 January 1788
- Honorius, Boston Independent Chronicle, 3 January 1788
- Junius, Massachusetts Gazette, 25 January 1788
- Valerius, Maryland Gazette, 1 February 1788
- Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 2 February 1788
- Fabius, Albany Journal, 18 February 1788 (excerpt)
- A Citizen of America, New York Daily Advertiser, 19 February 1788
- A Real Federalist, Maryland Journal, 21 March 1788
- New Hampshire Gazette, 29 May 1788
- Senex, New Hampshire Gazette, 19 June 1788
- William Stuart to Griffith Evans, New York, 11 July 1788
Ad Hominem Attacks on Federalists
- An Officer of the Late Continental Army, Independent Gazetteer, 6 November 1787
- Philadelphiensis I, Philadelphia Freeman’s Journal, 7 November 1787
- A Federalist, Boston Gazette, 26 November 1787
- Centinel IV, Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 30 November 1787
- Centinel V, Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 4 December 1787
- Philadelphiensis III, Philadelphia Freeman’s Journal, 5 December 1787
- Centinel VIII, Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 2 January 1788
- Helvidius Priscus II, Boston Independent Chronicle, 10 January 1788
- Centinel XIII, Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 30 January 1788
- Helvidius Priscus IV, Massachusetts Gazette, 5 February 1788
- Philadelphiensis IX, Philadelphia Freeman’s Journal, 6 February 1788
- An Old American, Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 11 February 1788
- Centinel XV, Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 22 February 1788
- Philadelphiensis XI, Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer, 8 March 1788
- A Friend to Law and Order, Philadelphia Freeman’s Journal, 2 April 1788
- Newport Herald, 29 May 1788