Brutus No. 1

Brutus was the pen name of an Anti-Federalist in a series of essays designed to encourage New Yorkers to reject the proposed Constitution. His series of arguments paralleled and confronted The Federalist Papers during the ratification fight over the Constitution. Brutus published 16 essays in the New-York Journal and the Weekly Register, beginning shortly before The Federalist Papers started appearing in New York newspapers.

Brutus argues that a free republic cannot exist in such a large territory as the United States. He uses the examples of the Greek and Roman republics that became tyrannical as their territory grew. He states that a true free republic comes from the people, not representatives of the people. Although Brutus No. 1 and the arguments of the Anti-Federalists did not win the battle at the Constitutional Convention, their ideas are a strong current in American political ideology and are widely embraced in contemporary conservative political thought. The fights that began between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists (crystallized in the writing of Brutus No. 1) have continued throughout American political history.