Essays on the Constitution of the United States Published During Its Discussion by the People 1787-1788 Edited by Paul Leicester Ford Brooklyn, N.Y. Historical Printing Club 1892 CONTENTS Introduction. The Letters Of Cassius, Written By James Sullivan. The Letters Of Agrippa, Accredited To James Winthrop. Replies To The Strictures Of A Landholder, By Elbridge Gerry. The Letters Of A Landholder, Written By Oliver Ellsworth. A Letter To The Landholder. By William Williams. The Letters Of A Countryman. Written By Roger Sherman. The Letters Of A Citizen Of New Haven, Written By Roger Sherman. The Letters Of Cato, Written By George Clinton. The Letters Of Cæsar, Written By Alexander Hamilton. The Letters Of Sydney. Written By Robert Yates. Cursory Remarks By Hugh Henry Brackenridge. Letter Of Caution, Written By Samuel Chase. Letter Of A Friend To The Constitution, Written By Daniel Carroll. The Letters Of Luther Martin. Letter Of A Plain Dealer, Accredited To Spencer Roane. Remarks On The New Plan Of Government, By Hugh Williamson. Letter Of A Steady And Open Republican, Written By Charles Pinckney. Bibliography. Index. Footnotes INTRODUCTION. In 1888 the editor selected from the pamphlet arguments published during the discussion of the Constitution of the United States, prior to its ratification by the States, a collection of fourteen tracts, and printed them in a volume under the title of _Pamphlets on the Constitution of the United States_. The reception given that collection clearly proved that these writings were only neglected because of their rarity and inaccessibility, and has induced the editor to collect another, though largely similar class of writings, which he believes of equal value and equally unknown. In the great discussion which took place in the years 1787 and 1788 of the adoption or rejection of the Constitution of the United States, one of the important methods of influencing public opinion, resorted to by the partisans and enemies of the proposed frame of government, was the contribution of essays to the press of the period. The newspapers were filled with anonymous articles on this question, usually the product of the great statesmen and writers of that period. Often of marked ability, and valuable as the personal views of the writers, the dispersion and destruction of the papers that contained them have resulted in their almost entire neglect as historical or legal writings, and the difficulty of their proper use has been further increased by their anonymous character, which largely destroyed the authority and weight they would have carried, had their true writers been known.