Center for the Study of the American Constitution
Department of History

Serial Essays Related to the Creation and Ratification of the Bill of Rights

Essays by “An American Citizen” (4 June–31 December 1788)

Essays by “Centinel” (5 October 1787–9 September 1789)

Between 5 October 1787 and 9 September 1789 twenty-eight Antifederalist essays signed “Centinel” were published in Philadelphia Originally, his essays centered primarily on criticizing the Constitution during the ratification debates. Later, “Centinel” would turn his ire toward the need for a bill of rights. The Independent Gazetteer printed all of the essays with some exceptions. Contemporaries attributed the “Centinel” essays to George Bryan (1731-1791), a justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and one of the leaders of the state Constitutionalist Party.

The “Centinel” essays analyzed the nature and provisions of the Constitution and the motives and methods of its framers and supporters. “Centinel’s” language was blunt, provocative, and vituperative. Perhaps the essence of the essays is in a statement found in the fourth essay: “The evil genius of darkness presided at its [the Constitution’s] birth, it came forth under the veil of mystery, its true features being carefully concealed, and every deceptive art has been and is practising to have this spurious brat received as the genuine offspring of heaven-born liberty.”

In the use of personal invective, “Centinel” was perhaps unequalled among both Antifederalists and Federalists. Centinel’s” personal invective extended even to George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. He declared that Washington had been duped in the Convention and that Franklin was too old to know what he had been doing (No. I).

Pennsylvania Federalists reacted sharply to “Centinel,” who had come to symbolize those individuals unequivocally opposed to the Constitution. To attack him was to attack all Antifederalists. In particular, they expressed outrage over his comments on Washington and Franklin and they denied that the Constitution endangered the rights and liberties of the people. They also attacked “Centinel” because they believed him to be the influential George Bryan. “Gomez” referred to Bryan (i.e., “Centinel”) as “a poisoned rat,” while “X” called him “the indefatigable Monster.”

Essays by “Foreign Spectator” (21 October 1788–16 February 1789)

There were twenty-eight numbered essays signed “Foreign Spectator” that appeared in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette between 21 October 1788 and 16 February 1789 arguing that the Constitution did not need amendments. An earlier series of twenty-nine unnumbered essays by “Foreign Spectator” appeared in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer between 6 August and 2 October 1787. In a letter to Matthias Hultgren on 29 March 1788 Nicholas Collin admitted that he was the author of the first series of “Foreign Spectator” essays.

The Federal Gazette, 10 March 1789, identified Collin as the author of the second series of “ingenious” essays by “Foreign Spectator” which showed “the folly and danger of alterations (for no one real amendment has yet been suggested) in the constitution of the United States.”

Essays by “Honestus” (30 October–6 November 1788)

Essays by “Moderatus” (28 December 1789–25 January 1790)

Essays by “Solon” (28 August–30 October 1788)