Publication and Contemporary Reaction
On November 8, 1787, the New York Journal began to advertise a new pamphlet entitled Observations Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government Proposed by the Late Convention; and to Several Essential and Necessary Alterations in It. In a Number of Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republican. This pamphlet contained the first five Federal Farmer letters, dated October 8 to October 13. The first edition was replete with errors and a second, corrected printing appeared within a week. The letters also began to appear in newspapers; on November 14 the Poughkeepsie County Journal started publishing the series, finishing on January 2. The first two editions of the pamphlet were likely produced by Thomas Greenleaf, who printed the New York Journal. At least two further editions were released by other printers.
Through January, the Federal Farmer letters circulated through New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Following on the success of the first pamphlet, a second one containing thirteen new letters, dated from December 25 to January 25, appeared in early May. Also printed by Thomas Greenleaf, this pamphlet, entitled An Additional Number of Letters From the Federal Farmer to the Republican Leading to a Fair Examination of the System of Government Proposed by the Late Convention; To Several Essential and Necessary Alterations in It; And Calculated to Illustrate and Support the Principles and Positions Laid Down in the Preceding Letters, was first advertised in the Journal on May 2. The Additional Letters had significantly less success than the Observations.
Among the Federalists, Alexander Hamilton (as Publius), Edward Carrington, and Noah Webster acknowledged the Federal Farmer as, in Hamilton's words, the "most plausible" Anti-Federalist. Only one Federalist, Timothy Pickering, took the time to develop a complete critical response to the Federal Farmer. Though this was not published during the course of the constitutional debates, it survives in a personal letter. Pickering described the Federal Farmer as "a wolfe in sheep's cloathing" and too focused on a misplaced fear of aristocracy.
Read more about this topic: Federal Farmer
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