AMOS SINGLETARY
This quotation is very important because it illustrates in the first of our great national political debates, the same views held by extreme, right wing anti-government, and Tea Party adherents regarding government in general and taxation in particular. Singletary turned out to have been absolutely right about the inadequacy of import duties as a federal revenue source although it took many decades and a changing world to make that come to pass. Note also that there was then, as there is today among the extreme right, a deep suspicion and antipathy toward intellectuals—“men of learning” as well as the elites. Some saw the Constitution as a plot of the elite to capture control of the government to the exclusion of the poor and average man. That has always been a problem but these roots are deep in American history. See {634235} and {634238} for more of his arguments at the Ratification Convention.
See {634234} and {634238} for more of his arguments at the Ratification Convention.
This quotation is very important because it illustrates in the first of our great national political debates, the same views held by extreme, right wing anti-government, and Tea Party adherents regarding government in general and taxation in particular. See {634235} and {634234} for more of his arguments at the Ratification Convention.
Amos Singletary was an American gristmill operator and justice of the peace from Sutton, Massachusetts, who served in both houses of the Massachusetts General Court (state legislature). An Anti-Federalist, he voted against the U.S. Constitution as a delegate to the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention. He was angered by perceived Federalist arrogance surrounding the adoption of the Constitution and thought that it provided too much power to the national government. He supported the American Revolution and wanted to limit wealthy Bostonians' sway over state politics.
