If we try to form an estimate of the entire white population, the two sides appear to have been nearly equal in numbers. Of course in 1787-88 this was of no importance: what counted then was the ratification by nine states. Since the Federalists were a minority in at least six and probably seven states, they ought surely to have been defeated. Yet they came from behind to win.

Thus wealth and position supported the Constitution. On the other hand, lower ranking army officers and men of lesser economic and social distinction tended to be Antifederal; doctors were to be found on both sides. Combining all of this personal information, a division can be made as follows: men of high social, military, or economic position voted 107 to 34 for ratification, while those of lower status voted 126 to 61 against it.

The Antifederalists asserted that the Constitution created a consolidated government, and if this were so, the members of the Philadelphia Convention had violated their instructions. The convention had acted illegally.

We may conclude that if the Antifederalists had dominated the Philadelphia Convention, the government of the nation would have continued to be a confederation of sovereign states, and that the democratic principle of local self-government would have been emphasized.

The pro-Constitution attitude of the newspapers was undoubtedly important. The number of papers which opposed ratification or even of those which presented both sides impartially was very few. This was natural, for the city people were overwhelmingly Federal, and the printers were influenced by local opinion as well as by their own convictions; moreover, it was profitable to agree with the purchasers and the advertisers.

The Federalist domination of news coverage permitted them not only to obtain more space for their own publications but to conceal or distort the facts. The objections of the Antifederalists were sometimes twisted so as to make them appear foolish; at other times it was denied that there was any opposition at all to the Constitution.

Birth of a Religion

When supernatural events and human drama,

that coincide in timing and enormity,

are witnessed by many. 

 

Memoirs of Pontius Pilate by James Mills

Pontius Pilate: "The darkening of the sky and the coincidental occurrence of the earthquake proved to be as fortuitous for the subsequent growth of Christianity as the star and the coincidences surrounding the fellow's birth. It was the events that he and his followers could not arrange that have made the stories about him so appealing to common people."

The Wonderful Teacher by Elijah Brown

Hundreds of thousands of people were in Jerusalem, who had come from everywhere to attend the Passover. It is doubtful if any other death was ever witnessed by so many people. The sky was darkened, and the sun hid his face from the awful scene. A great earthquake shook the city; the dead came out of their graves, and went into the city, appearing unto many, and the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom. No eye had been allowed to look behind the veil, except that of the high priest, and then only once a year, on the great Day of Atonement.

The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis

Jesus spread wide his arms and opened his mouth to cry, Brothers! but the soldiers seized him and hoisted him up onto the cross. Then they called the gypsies with the nails, but as the hammers were lifted and the first blow was heard, the sun hid its face; as the second was heard, the sky darkened and the stars appeared. 

The crowd was overcome with fright. The horses on which the Romans were mounted became ferocious. Rearing, they began to gallop furiously and trample the Jewry. Then earth, sky and air suddenly grew mute, as at the beginning of an earthquake.The world seemed to have fainted. Deathly pale, it was now just barely visible in the bluish darkness.

King Jesus by Robert Graves

About noon, when the soldiers had begun to prepare their dinner, a hot wind blew from the east and the sky darkened. It was not the wholesome darkness that heralds rain with the distant growl of thunder and flicker of lightning, but a smoky darkness such as terrifies those who live in the neighborhood of active volcanoes; and as the cloud spread across the sky as far as the western horizon, blotting out the sun, the earth began to heave sickeningly and a distant rumble and crash was heard as an enormous piece of masonry fell from the Temple into the valley below. A scream of terror went up and many fell on their knees and gazed upwards, believing that the Day of Wrath had come at last.

The Day Christ Died  by Jim Bishop

One of the soldiers walked around to a position in front of the cross and looked up into the agonized face of Jesus and said: " If you are the king of the Jews, then save yourself."

He looked into the sky, and others looked. There were no clouds. But the heavens had deepened from a pale azure to a deeper hue. The sky continued to darken. It was not a sudden thing; the color of the sky continued to deepen to a robin's-egg blue and then on to a darker blue.

The people forgot for a moment the three men on the crosses, and many in the crowd pointed to the sky. Some said that a storm was coming. The crowd began to break up, and many hurried toward the gates, the women flinging shawls over their heads and running with their children to get to shelter before the storm broke.

There was no sound of thunder. There were no lightning flashes. There were no clouds. The sky darkened until the sun could be stared at with the human eye. The blue deepened until the darkness of dusk descended over all. The darkness lasted for the rest of the day.

From Jesus' lungs came the final cry: "It is finished!" The body sagged on the cross. The earth trembled and a small crack fissured the earth from the west toward the east and split the big rock of execution and went across the road and through the gate of Jerusalem and across the town and through the temple, and it split the big inner veil of the temple from the top to the bottom and went on east and rocked the big wall and split the tombs in the cemetery outside the walls and shook the Cedron and went on the Dead Sea, leaving fissures in the earth, the rocks and across the mountains.

Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace

The country filled rapidly with all kinds of temporary shelters for the pilgrims of Passover. Every part of the world was represented among them – cities upon both shores of the Mediterranean far off as the Pillars of the West, river-towns in distant India, provinces in northernmost Europe. These representatives had all the same object - celebration of the notable feast. All to behold one Nazarene die.

Every few steps he staggered as if he would fall. A stained gown badly torn hung from his shoulders over a seamless undertunic. His bare feet left red splotches upon the stones. In inscription on a board was tied to his neck. A crown of thorns had been crushed hard down upon his head, making cruel wounds from which streams of blood, now dry and blackened, had run over his face and neck.

Next in the procession stalked a figure clad all in the golden vestments of the high priest. Policemen from the Temple curtained him round about; and after him, in order, strode the Sanhedrin, and a long array of priests.

There was a space upon the top of a low knoll rounded like a skull, and dry, dusty, and without vegetation. The knoll was the old Aramaic Golgotha – in Latin, Calvaria; anglicized, Calvary; translated, The Skull. Up on the knoll stood the high priest. Up the knoll still higher was the Nazarene, stooped and suffering, but silent. The wit among the guard had complemented the crown upon his head by putting a reed in his hand for a scepter.

The guard took the Nazarene’s clothes from him; so that he stood before the millions naked. The stripes of the scouring he had received in the early morning were still bloody upon his back; yet he was laid pitilessly down, and stretched upon the cross, the arms upon the transverse beam. The spikes were sharp and with a few blows, and they were driven through the tender palms; next they drew his knees up until the soles of the feet rested flat upon the cross; then they placed one foot upon the other, and one spike fixed both of them fast. 

The workmen put their hands to the cross, and carried it, burden and all, to the place of planting. At a word, they dropped the cross into the hole; and the body of the Nazarene also dropped heavily, and hung by the bleeding hands.

Suddenly a dimness began to fill the sky and cover the earth – at first no more than a scarce perceptible fading of the day; a twilight out of time; an evening gliding in upon the splendors of noon. But it deepened, and directly drew attention; whereat the noise of the shouting and laughter fell off, and men, doubting their senses, gazed at each other curiously: then they looked to the sun again; then at the sky and the near landscape, sinking in shadow; at the hill upon which the tragedy was enacting; and from all these they gazed at each other again, and turned pale, and held their peace.

The dimness went on deepening into obscurity, and that into positive darkness, but without deterring the bolder spirits upon the knoll. The third hour came, and still the people surged round the hill. They were quieter than in the preceding hour; yet at intervals they could be heard off in the darkness shouting to each other, multitude calling unto multitude.

A tremor shook the tortured body; there was a scream of fiercest anguish, and the mission and the earthly life were over at once. The multitude was informed of the circumstance. No one repeated it aloud; there was a murmur, which spread from the knoll in every direction; a murmur that was little more than a whispering, “He is dead.”

While they stood there staring at each other, the ground commenced to shake; each man took hold of his neighbor to support himself; in a twinkling the darkness disappeared, and the sun came out; and everybody, as with the same glance, beheld the crosses upon the hill all reeling drunken-like in the earthquake. They started to run; they ran with all their might; on horseback, and camels, and in chariots they ran, as well as on foot; but then, as if it were mad at them for what they had done, and had taken up the cause of the unoffending and friendless dead, the earthquake pursued them, and tossed them about, and flung them down, and terrified them yet more by the horrible noise of great rocks grinding and rending beneath them. They beat their breasts and shrieked with fear.

Kubark Manual Applied in Iraq

Iraq::Vietnam as  AbuGrabi::ConSonPrison

Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley, 1958

Ivan Pavlov observed that, when subjected to prolonged physical or psychic stress, laboratory animals exhibit all the symptoms of a nervous breakdown. Refusing to cope any longer with the intolerable situation, their brains go on strike, so to speak, and either stop working altogether [the dog loses consciousness], or else resort to slowdowns and sabotage. Some animals are more resistant to stress than others. But even the most stoical dog is unable to resist indefinitely.

Pavlov’s findings were confirmed in the most distressing manner, and on a very large scale, during the two World Wars. As the result of a single catastrophic experience, or of a succession of terrors less appalling but frequently repeated, soldiers develop a number of disabling psychophysical symptoms. Temporary unconsciousness, extreme agitation, lethargy, functional blindness or paralysis, completely unrealistic responses to the challenge of events, strange reversals of lifelong patterns of behavior – all symptoms, which Pavlov observed in his dogs, reappeared among the victims of what in the First World War was called “shell shock,” in the Second, “battle fatigue.” Every man, like every dog, has his own individual limit of endurance. Most men reach their limit after about thirty days or more or les continuous stress under the conditions of modern combat. The more than averagely susceptible succumb in only fifteen days. The more than averagely tough can resist for forty-five or even fifty days. Strong or weak, in the long run all of them break down. All, that is to say, of those who are initially sane. For, ironically enough, the only people who can hold up indefinitely under the stress of modern war are psychotics. Individual insanity is immune to the consequences of collective insanity.

The fact that every individual has his breaking point has been known and, in a crude unscientific way, exploited from time immemorial. Physical torture and other forms of stress were inflicted by lawyers in order to loosen the tongues of reluctant witnesses; by clergymen in order to punish the unorthodox and induce them to change their opinions; by the secret police to extract confessions from persons suspected of being hostile to the government.

The Convention which assembled in Philadelphia in the late spring of 1787 contained only a handful of men who were opposed to a strong government and none who spoke out clearly for democracy. The Antifederalists who attended did not represent the rank and file of the party, but the propertied minority.

The struggle over the ratification of the Constitution was primarily a contest between the commercial and non-commercial elements in the population. This is the most significant fact, to which all else is elaboration, amplification, or exception. The Federalists included the merchants and the other town dwellers, farmers depending on the major cities, and those who produced a surplus for export. The Antifederalists were primarily those who were not so concerned with, or who did not recognize a dependence upon, the mercantile community and foreign markets.

As the delegates made clear the intent to establish a strong national government, the Antifederalists, one by one, drew back. The Constitution did not represent the views of the moderate Antifederalists. While the Antifederalists within the Convention were being gradually disillusioned, those outside viewed the assemblage with mingled optimism and apprehension

About half of all the delegates to the convention had seen some military service during the war, almost all of them as officers, but of the Antifederalists only one had held a rank higher than captain, whereas among the Federalists there were at least sixteen field officers. The ten members of the convention who belonged to the Society of Cincinnati were Federalists. Such facts as these imply that the Federalists came from higher social strata. This is suggested also by their superior education, for all of the college men in the ratifying convention were Federalists. The professions of the members also indicate the differences between parties. The great majority of the merchants, large manufacturers, lawyers, judges, and those with extensive holdings in land voted for the Constitution. Moreover [as George Bryant put it] “monied men, and particularly the stockholders in the bank were in favor of it.” Clearly the businessmen and creditors were Federal.

The Federalists dominated the towns and the rich valleys, they included most of the public and private creditors, great landowners, lawyers and judges, manufacturers and ship-owners, high ranking civil and military officials, and college graduates. Antifederalists rank and file were men of moderate means, with little social prestige, farmers often in debt, obscure men for the most part.

The Federalists held far more property, which is to be expected in view of the east versus west, rural versus urban nature of the division. In the convention were twelve men of wealth, of whom ten were Federalists; another half-dozen were well-to-do, of whom all but one were Federalists. The remainder, which included almost all the Antifederalists, had only moderate property.

In the Antifederal ranks at the convention were at least twenty-nine delegates who had actively participated in Shay’s Rebellion and several others who had attended county conventions. Indeed, a map showing the towns sympathetic with the Rebellion is almost identical with the one outlining the Antifederal area.

Of the delegates to the convention, very few Antifederalists were well-to-do, whereas many Federalists were men of wealth. Almost all of the public securities were held by Federalists. Merchants, shipowners, bankers, manufactuurers, lawyers, and judges were Federalists by a very large majority, as were generals, naval captains, and members of the Cincinnati; most college men were Federalists, and most ministers.

That attempts had been and would be made to establish an aristocracy was shared by a large number of people, and it became a fundamental assumption of the Antifederalists. The Antifederalists were well aware that there were many men that were skeptical of the common man’s judgment to have any faith in a democratic system. They preferred an aristocracy – that is, government by the better sort of people, meaning themselves. If the new government favored the well-to-do, as some Antifederalists maintained, this was hardly an objection to those who were of the “better sort” themselves. The well-to-do might dislike an aristocracy in theory, but in practice, rule by the educated, well-bred, wellborn few was appealing.

New York Daily Advertiser: “Of all the evils which attend the republican form of government, there are none that seem to have more pernicious effects that the insolence which liberty implants into the lower orders of society.”

The trouble was that, in John Lloyd’s words: “Gentlemen of property” too frequently lost electoral contests to men from the “lower classes”; moreover things were getting worse rather than better as these lower classes demanded economic and political concessions. Shay’s Rebellion frightened the gentlemen badly.

The attempt to strengthen the central government was identical with the attempt to solidify upper class rule, and this they opposed. Antifederalists viewed a strong national government as a threat to liberty. From this standpoint a vital part of the proposed structure of power to be erected by the Constitution was section eight of the first Article, which endowed Congress with the powers once held by the state. This section was studded with such ominous words as “taxes,” “general welfare,” “commerce,” “Armies,” “necessary and proper.” Of them all, it was the first which attracted the most attention.

French Minister to the United States, Louis Otto, observed that the people were aware that an increase of power in the central government would mean a “regular collection of taxes, a strict administration of justice, extraordinary duties on imports, and rigorous executions against debtors – in short, a marked preponderance of rich men and of large proprietors.”

What they feared was not just the abstract transfer of authority from state to national government but the concrete transfer of power from the people to the well born. They were convinced that governments were usually run by an aristocracy, and that this government in particular was so constructed as to be certainly controlled by the few. Therefore they wanted power to be widely distributed among the states. Power concentrated led to aristocracy; power diffused, to democratic rule.

The time might come when Congress would oppress the people; and if anyone dared to defend the people, Congress, pretending to act for the general welfare, could construe their action as sedition. The President had been given too much power. He was, they asserted, an elective king, a prince under a republican cloak, vested with power dangerous to a free people.

The major political controversy during the 1780’s concerned the payment of public and private debts. Even more important was the question as to what taxes should be levied to support the domestic debt of the state. Critics asserted that the mass of the people were being taxed to benefit the few, money was taken from the poor and given to the rich – at a time of economic depression. It is not surprising that the less well-to-do were resentful, and that many demanded some other mode of paying the debt.

The states were having trouble supplying their troops and meeting their financial obligations and were unable to pay Congress’s requisitions. Congress urgently needed money to pay the army and the interest on debt. Americans did not have to be reminded that control over taxation was the key to power, and that it had in the past and might now again result in despotism.

On one side were those counties with a high concentration of property, in which the creditor group was strong, and where the suffrage was unusually restricted. On the other side were areas in which the middle class was more powerful and the debtors more numerous. The merchant-lawyer eastern group, generally creditors, supported all measures to strengthen the Congress; the western farming group, generally debtors and termed Radical, supported few, if any, such measures.

Impost: To determine customs duties on, according to the kind of imports. A tax.

Congress first recommended the impost in the early spring of 1781. The impost was to continue indefinitely until the debt had been paid. Many feared that since Congress would continue to contract debts, the grant would be perpetual.

For the impost was not just an economic, but a political, measure. Congress, for the first time, would be granted the power over taxation. The result might prove fatal to liberty. One observer warned that the money raised by the impost might “pay our debts” but that the power it created “might destroy our liberties.” The fear of what might result from a change of government continued to be important throughout the decade.

The impost failed primarily because it offended those who feared a consolidation of power in the central government. Since the impost would enable Congress to pay its debts, it was certain to have a differential effect upon the interests of individuals and particular groups. Federal creditors were the most obvious beneficiaries. It was rejected by those persons who were to become Antifederalists, and the arguments they developed in opposition to the impost were soon to be employed in a greater debate.

In 1786-87, unrest exploded in the famous Shay’s Rebellion [Massachusetts] that divided the state. The area in sympathy with the protest movement corresponded closely to that already defined as being “western.”

Upon the outbreak of Shay’s Rebellion, the almost universal reaction among men of means was to crush it. There might be indeed a few genuine grievances, but essentially they thought, or said they thought, that it was an uprising of the poor against the rich, made possible by the absence of an army, and designed to control the government and to annihilate all debts. The aid of Congress was promptly sought, and Congress responded by calling for troops, ostensibly because of an Indian threat. The disguise was not a very good on and was easily pierced.

Shay’s Rebellion and the Constitution by Mary Hull, 2000, Edited Excerpts

Shays' Rebellion - Conditions after the Revolutionary War

Shays' Rebellion - Yeomen vs Merchants

Shays' Rebellion - Debt and Taxes

Shays' Rebellion - Violence Ensues

Shays' Rebellion - Legislative Acts

Shays' Rebellion - Lighthorsemen and Regulators

Shays' Rebellion - Springfield Arsenal

Shays' Rebellion - Regulators Defeated and Reforms Passed

Shays' Rebellion - Constitution Ratified in Aftermath

Constitution Series

The Anti-Federalists by Jackson Main, 1961, Edited Excerpts

They are called the Antifederalists, but it should be made clear at once that they were not antifederal at all. In reality, they were determined to preserve the Confederation, and the name was imposed upon them by their opponents, the so-called “Federalists.” The attachment to them of a word which denotes the reverse of their true beliefs, and which moreover implies that they were mere obstructionists, without any positive plan to offer, was part of the penalty of defeat. The victors took what name they chose, and fastened on the losers one which condemned them. Since the victory was a lasting one, the name and the stigma have endured.

As the year 1781 drew to a close, the people were increasingly able to turn their attention away from the war and consider who was to rule the country in peace. Each state witnessed a struggle between various sections and classes for political power, and the outcome had significant economic and social consequences. The Revolution had been fought primarily over the issue of taxation.

In order to guard against the tyranny of power and preserve popular rule, the men entrusted with power had to be kept responsive to public opinion. The Revolutionary generation needed only to recall events out of their own experiences: the behavior of the royal governors or of officials appointed by them; the failure of councilors and elective officers to heed the people’s will.

Independence was enthusiastically supported by the artisans and western farmers under the leadership of new men who aggressively seized the initiative. It followed that where property was widely distributed and an excessive concentration of wealth was avoided, a democratic or popular government was most agreeable. 

Today democracy is a sacred word, but in the Revolutionary era it aroused different emotions in different individuals. Rarely indeed did any nationalist, and Federalist, refer to it approvingly. Typically, what it represented was condemned. On the Antifederalists side, the word was almost always used with approval.