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__//**"Z"**//__

ANTIFEDERALIST

Z represented the cry of the Anti-Federalists in Philadelphia. At the time, Philadelphia was very much a Federalist city. Pennsylvania was a state with vast areas for farming, mainly populated by Germans, Swiss, and Swedish. Based upon the Quaker ideology, the colony was very much peaceful with Indians, and had very few slaves.

Z is a character of whom much is unknown. All that is known about him is that he wrote various letters to the //Freeman's Journal// in Philadelphia, nine days prior to the Constitutional Convention, and one to the //Boston Gazette,// in response to the printing of Benjamin Franklin's speech to the Constitutional Convention. In these letters, he agreed to the idea of the Article of Confederation being rewritten, but greatly questioned the idea of the necessity for a total rewrite. In his letters he displays a purely Anti-Federalist point of view, calling for a list of unalienable rights (the future Bill of Rights) and the idea that a large central government would alienate state rights.

It is, of course, unknown whether or not Z's alter-ego was in fact part of either the Constitutional Convention or the State's Ratifying Convention. Z's true identity is unknown to this day.

Bibliography

 Bender, David L. //The Creation Of The Constitution//. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1995. 40-190. Print.

"Z," Boston //Independent Chronicle,// December 6, 1787

"Z," //Freeman's Journal,// May 16, 1787