SOME OF OUR FOUNDERS WERE A BIT MORE SKEPTICAL OF THE STATES AND THE PEOPLE

Unlike the Baggers, several of our Founders were pessimistic about the rights of the people as expressed in the states.  This is from Forrest McDonald's excellent States' Rights and the Union, pp. 17-18:

"The evils we experience," said Samuel Adams's erstwhile protégé Elbridge Gerry, "flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue; but are the dupes of pretended patriots." Edmund Randolph of Virginia declared that the origin of the evils was to be found "in the turbulence and follies of democracy: that some check therefore was to be sought agst. this tendency of our Governments." And they were not alone in having these sentiments.

The most radical proposal for restraining the states came from Charles Pinckney of South Carolina and James Madison. During the second week of the convention, Pinckney moved that the national legislature be empowered to veto state laws that it judged to be "improper." Madison seconded the motion, declaring it to be imperative. "This prerogative of the General Govt. is the great pervading principle that must control the centrifugal tendency of the States; which, without it, will continually fly out of their proper orbits and destroy the order & harmony of the political system." After discussion, Madison conceded that the power might be entrusted to the upper house, in order that "the more numerous & expensive branch therefore might not be obliged to sit constantly." The motion was overwhelmingly rejected, three state delegations being in favor, one divided, and seven against. The question came up again on July 17 and August 23 and was rejected both times. Yet, even after the convention had ended, Madison remained convinced that the absence of a negative on state laws was a flaw that might prove fatal to the Constitution.