Empire and Nation: Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania; Letters from the Federal Farmer

Two series of letters described as "the wellsprings of nearly all ensuing debate on the limits of governmental power in the United States" address the whole remarkable range of issues provoked by the crisis of British policies in North America out of which a new nation emerged from an overreaching empire.

Forrest McDonald is Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Alabama and author of States' Rights and the Union.