(Luther) Martin’s role as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention was to filibuster, to denounce, and ultimately to leak. On Nov. 29, 1787, in a speech to the Maryland legislature, Martin described the deliberations taking place in Philadelphia, breaking the informal code of silence that theoretically bound the conventioneers. With conspiracy-fearing rhetoric that resembled the language that precipitated the Revolution, Martin accused the Federalist faction of plotting “to abolish and annihilate all State governments, and to bring forward one general government, over this extensive continent, of a monarchical nature.�?In that speech and in subsequent essays, he warned of the wars, tyranny, and taxes that the new system would enable, as well as (on a less libertarian note) pleading for preserving the individual states�?ability to print paper money and impose trade barriers.

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As we all know, Martin lost his fight. The Constitution was ratified, and for all its flaws the document does seem rather preferable to whatever it is that governs us now. You can thank the Antifederalists for that, too. They’re the ones who ensured the covenant included a Bill of Rights. And it was their spirit—and in some cases their bodies—that animated the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791, a campaign of civil disobedience that restrained the new regime’s attempts to impose internal taxes. But if Martin was sometimes hyperbolic about the dangers of the new Constitution, his core critique holds. He certainly seems like a prophet today, when we live, in Kauffman’s words, under “a powerful central state involved in perpetual warfare around the globe, a tax-gathering apparatus with its grip on every paycheck, states and localities reduced to mere administrative units.�?Modern America looks much more like Martin’s warnings than Madison’s promises.