Gary Galles writing for the Mises Institute here argues that “The Antifederalists Were Right,” a view shared by many on the right. Unfortunately, his argument is only half the story. It is easy to cherry pick quotations from the Antifederalist criticisms of the Constitution and compare them to the actual growth in power of the national government. What is difficult is to show that the world without the Constitution would have been better.
The nostalgic view of the states as the great protectors of liberty is false. Before the Constitution states were erecting tariffs and debasing their money. Warfare erupted between economic haves and have-nots in Massachusetts. Religious liberty and tolerance were not universal.
It is likely that the states would not be able to maintain the unification under the Articles of Confederation and would have broken into individual states or into three or more regional confederations. It is also likely that the foreign powers of the day (France, Spain and England) would have formed alliances with these confederations drawing us into the wars in Europe to be fought in America much like the French and Indian War. It is likely that slavery would have persisted longer in a southern confederation formed in 1789.
In other words, it is likely that the states without the Constitution would engage in economic and actual warfare sapping the strength of the country. Civil and economic liberty would have declined.
What critics also fail to recognize is the degree of success of the Constitution for the more than 100 years when the Supreme Court actually followed the Constitution. It was only the success of Progressive ideology that brought an end to limited government in the US.
