Mercy Otis Warren on Ratification of the Constitution

Letter from Mercy O. Warren to Catharine Macaulay regarding the signing of the Constitution

28 September 1787

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Sent from Milton, Massachusetts, on 28 September 1787, this document is a letter written by the political writer and propagandist, Mercy Otis Warren (1728–1814), to the historian, Catharine Macaulay (1731–1791). In this letter, Otis Warren writes to Macaulay discussing the ratification of the proposed Constitution, a legal document which will delineate the frame of government in the United States.

A historian, poet, playwright and patriot, Mercy Otis Warren was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts and married the President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, James Warren, in 1754. Despite receiving no formal education, she became an influential woman of letters and her political connections allowed her to correspond with some of the leading political figures of her day, including John and Abigail Adams.

Otis Warren is regarded as being among the most influential writers of the Revolutionary War, and her work provides insightful commentary on both contemporary public affairs and personalities. Some of her best-known works include The Adulateur: A Tragedy (1772), a satirical play that attacks Britain’s treatment of America, and The Group (1775), a satire speculating what would happen if the then British king, George III, repealed the Massachusetts charter of rights. By writing such texts, Otis Warren was most likely influenced by her father, James Otis, Sr. (1702–1778), a prominent lawyer in the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was an outspoken opponent of British rule.

During the Revolutionary War, Otis Warren corresponded with most of the major American leaders about what form the new national government should take. A staunch anti-federalist, she protested the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1788, believing that political powers should be decentralized and rest with the then thirteen founding states of the United States. More than 80 anti-federalist pamphlets were produced to persuade state legislatures to block the new Constitution and Otis Warren was the only female contributor to this cause. Written under the pseudonym "A Columbian Patriot", Otis Warren published a pamphlet entitled, Observations on the new Constitution (1788), which gave 18 reasons as to why a centralized government was dangerous. They ranged from the lack of a bill of rights, which would deny freedom of the press and the rights of individuals, to the alleged undemocratic method of electing the president. Although her words failed to prevent the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, Otis Warren’s ideas of civic liberty and political freedom are often considered to have played a significant role in the design and adoption of what eventually became known as the Bill of Rights (ratified in 1791). It was a remarkable achievement, given that politics during this period was a world traditionally reserved for men.

Mercy Otis Warren was one of the most politically active women of her generation, and her significance in American history is evidenced by the number of memorials and sites dedicated to her name. In 1943, for instance, the United States Navy named a World War II Liberty ship The SS Mercy Warren in her honor, and in 2002 she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.