The Letters of Centinel - Samuel Bryan's Anti-Federalism
The Letters of Centinel were a series of Anti-Federalist Papers published by Samuel Bryan.
“(There) are aspiring despots among
yourselves prostituting the name of a Washington to cloak their designs upon your liberties.”
Samuel Bryan
Unlike most Anti-Federalist Papers, historians have a good idea who wrote the Letters of Centinel...Samuel Bryan
Byran was from a family of rebels. His father, George, was the second Governor of Pennsylvania (they called it President at the time).
Samuel always seemed to be against something, an attitude that would often hurt his political aspirations.
Pennsylvania’s Constitution Party
By the time of the Constitutional Convention, Samuel Bryan had worked as a clerk for Pennsylvania’s Council of Censors and State Assembly.
As his father grew old, Samuel took his place as a leader of the State’s Constitution Party which supported the Articles of Confederation. The Party received its name because they wanted to keep the first Pennsylvania Constitution that many politicians were talking about replacing, it has nothing to do with the US Constitution.
The Constitution Party primarily fought against the wealthy merchants and bankers of Philadelphia and had a base of western farmers.
Letters of Centinel
This was the situation when the US Constitution was published.
Bryan immediately began publishing criticisms of the new Government...totalling 93 in all!
The first 18 of these Letters of Centinel were the most important as many of their issues were directly addressed in several of the Federalist Papers.
While it is too much to cover in its entirety here, Centinel primarily focused on the Constitution’s bent toward aristocracy. Essentially, Samuel believed the Separation of Powers was a ‘red herring’ to distract from the fact that the Senate would be running the show.
It should also be noted that several of the Letters of Centinel are thought to have been written by one or more of Bryan’s colleges (such as his father or Eleazer Oswald), though it is almost unanimously agreed that Samuel was the main author.
Dissent
After Pennsylvania ratified the Constitution, Bryan wrote the ‘Dissent of the Minority’ (more on that next week) which itself became a popular Anti-Federalist Paper.
Following this, Centinel began promoting the need for a Bill of Rights, which would be a more successful endeavor than his first series of Letters.
Byran would spend the rest of his life in and out of public offices, the longest of which was a Register of Will during the last twelve years he lived.
This was the second article in my series on the Anti-Federalist Papers.
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I’ve put a lot of time into reviewing the Federalist Papers, so if you want to read more, check them out here:
