COMMENTARIES, 12 DECEMBER 1787

misstated, yet it is proper that the people (who are intended to be
misled) should also be made acquainted with them. The report, if false,
ought certainly to be contradicted:-this appears to be the more nec-
essary, since it is now industriously circulating by Antifederalists, as a
truth which Mr Jay will not deny.2
I have been induced to offer this hint, in consequence of a conver-
sation I entered into this morning with a gentleman of some consid-
eration, who loves his country, and is warmly attached to the New Gov-
ernment. This honest American candidly acknowledged, that he would
distrust and abandon the good opinion he had formed of the Federal
System, if it was reprobated in such terms by Mr. Jay; whom he consid-
ered as a gentleman learned in the science of legislation, and much
conversant with modern politics:-an American too, of tried integrity,
who aimed at the real happiness, aggrandizement and glory of his
country.
Monday.
1. The reference is to an item that appeared in the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer
on 24 November and that was reprinted in the Daily Advertiser on 29 November. See "John
Jay and the Constitution," 24 November-7 December (above).
2. On 7 December the Philadelphia Independent Gazetteer printed Jay's 1 December letter
to John Vaughan, in which Jay indicated that he supported the Constitution. The Daily
Advertiser reprinted Jay's letter on 13 December. See 'John Jay and the Constitution," 24
November-7 December (above).
Publius: The Federalist 21 (Alexander Hamilton)
New York Independent Journal, 12 December 1787
Confederation Congress lacks powers of enforcement and taxation. For text,
see CC:341. For reprintings, see Appendix IV, below.
One of the Nobility
New York Journal, 12 December 17871
MR. GREENLEAF, I request you to publish the following political creed
of every patriotic Foederalist. Every person that peruses it, must instan-
taneously acknowledge its liberality, reasonableness, and regard for the
rights of the people. I have the vanity to think, that, like an axiom, it
must no sooner be read, than agreed to-and that it is, in itself, suf-
ficient to overthrow all the objections alledged against our new liberal
constitution, by Brutus, Cato, the Centinel, Old Whig, and other rag-
amuffin, reprobate, impudent, and rascally quill-driving scribblers. Con-
tractedness in sentiment, is reprehensible in an individual, and highly
disgraceful to a people. My fellow citizens, consequently, cannot shew

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