In 1787, as a debate over ratification of the Constitution evoke a lot of controversy, American citizens were advised not to rely on anyone’s opinions and to trust their own judgment. Additionally, Philadelphian Samuel Bryan published his first essay under the name “Centinel,” claiming that it would “not be difficult to prove” that only an authoritarianism could “bind so great a country under one government,” and that whatever structure men could formulate to oversee conclusively would develop into a dictatorship. The chosen officials of the government would be “devoid of all responsibility or accountability to the great body of the people, and that so far from being a regular balanced government, it would be in practice a permanent ARISTOCRACY.”