The Federal Farmer

Signed with the anonymous title "The Federal Farmer," a series of eighteen letters critical of the Constitution are often attributed to Richard Henry Lee. Richard Henry Lee was a prominent Virginia critic of the Constitution. As a delegate to the Continental Congress from Virginia, he felt it was improper for himself to accept a position on the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention. Attributing these eighteen letters, which were written from October 8, 1787, until January 25, 1788, and then collected in two widely read pamphlets, to Lee is primarily supported by two arguments. First, a letter hostile to the Federal Farmer's first letter was published in the Connecticut Courant, which identified Lee as the Federal Farmer. Second, many of the ideas in these letters reflect Lee's primary criticisms of the Constitution, which he made public in the Continental...