Massachusetts. The People Speak. Summary and Analysis

Bowen backs up and revisits the Massachusetts ratification convention. Massachusetts is considered mainly Antifederalist, being used to a town-meeting type of direct government that rejects delegated authority. The convention includes some of the men who had fought with Shays during the insurgence. They opposed the Constitution simply because the "wellborn" classes supported it, Bowen claims (p. 283).

The farmers from the rural parts of the state for the most part fear that the national government aims to take everything from them, including their property and freedom. They claim that the wealthier residents of the towns support the plan because they stand to gain positions in the new government.

Madison watches events unfold in Massachusetts carefully. In late January, he writes to Washington that things begin to be "very ominous" (p. 288). Massachusetts Governor John Hancock has stayed...