Through study over the years I’ve found a correlation that I do not think I’ve seen discussed before. There will be exceptions of course, but it seems to be beyond coincidence that the so called federalists were by and large influenced by European enlightenment thinking and are considered deists or humanists. While the anti-federalists were the more unabashed Christians who grew up out of the “great awakening” influenced by presbyterian principles of resistance. Does anyone concur, and know of any writings on this line of thinking?
Its funny, I just got Gary North’s “Tools of Dominion” in the mail and the first place I opened, I saw the page heading “SELLING THE BIRTHRIGHT: THE RATIFICATION OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION” as appendix H and thought, wow, thats an interesting title… It ended up covering this line of thinking a little bit. I guess if I don’t stir up anything here I’ll start digging in his direction more.
I think that this generalization is probably a bit off the mark. I could name you several prominent Enlightenment-influenced Antifederalists and no few Calvinist Federalists.
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