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Robert Yates
Robert Yates was a well-educated attorney who was a member of the New York delegation to the Constitutional
Convention. He opposed the new government, believing it would steal powers properly reserved for the states.
Other anti-Federalists argued that the new Constitution would be used by the elite classes to collect
political power and wealth in a few hands. Yates and other anti-Federalists were also alarmed by the lack
of a bill of rights in the new Constitution, apparently abandoning the issues raised in the Declaration
of Independence. They did not accept Federalist promises that state protections would be sufficient, that
the good and ethical men in the new national government would never attack individual liberties, or that
the heralded separation of powers made attacks impossible. As "Brutus," Yates voices these concerns
about the new Constitution. Do you find his concerns and arguments valid? Are the Federalist responses
reassuring? What groups would embrace his ideas today, and would they be correct?
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