AFP14 - Anti-Federalist Papers - Part 14

Centinel's Letter no. 14 is a first in that he quotes at length a firsthand witness to the Federalists' sleight-of-hand.  Luther Martin, a participant in the Constitutional Convention, is appalled at the Founding Jugglers' brazen and cynical power grab.  At great risk to himself, he sounds a detailed alarm and warns his fellow countrymen of the perfidy occurring right under their noses. Centinel's prescient warnings portend today's Federal Leviathan.

Concerns about the direct election of Senators, ultimately realized by the Seventeenth Amendment, are touched upon.  In lieu of a direct taxation upon the people, Martin proposes taxing the States only in event of delinquency, but his idea is rejected.  Simply put, the now-fledgling Congress will ultimately tax everything (and everyone) under the sun after forcibly corralling the States into one whole. Worse, Congress will be subject to virtually no checks or balances.

Read by Eric the Blacksmith.

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