Apart from the states ratifying conventions, the debates also took the form of a public discussion, mainly through newspaper editorials, with federalists on one side supporting the constitution, and anti- Federalists objecting to the Constitution. Writers from both sides tried to convince the public that precious liberty and self-government, hard-earned during the late Revolution, were at stake in the question.
Anti-federalists such as Centinel, the Federal Farmer, and Brutus argued that the new Constitution will ultimately lead to the dissolution of the state governments, the consolidation of the Union into “one great republic” under an unchecked national government, and as a result the loss of a free, self-government. Brutus particularly alleged that in such an extensive and diverse nation, nothing short of despotism “could bind so great a country under one