Clerk Samuel Bryan, of the Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, using the penname “Centinel,” publishes the first anti-federalist essay, warning that Congress will use its standing army to collect exorbitant taxes from the Citizens of the States.  In paragraphs 10 and 12 he writes,

       … [I]t [the Constitution for the united States] is a most daring attempt to establish a despotic aristocracy among freemen, that the world has ever witnessed.

· · · · · ·

       [W]hatever taxes, duties and excises that they may deem requisite for the general welfare, may be imposed on the citizens of these states, levied by the officers of Congress, distributed through every district in America; and the collection would be enforced by the standing army, however grievous or improper they may be.  The Congress may construe every purpose for which the state legislatures now lay taxes, to be for the general welfare, and thereby seize upon every object of revenue.

       [restored 9/26/2021]

Subsequent Events:

References:

Murray Dry, The Anti-Federalist: An abridgement, from The Complete Anti-Federalist by Herbert J. Storing, ed., (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 13, 17.

“Centinel [Samuel Bryan] I,” from The Debate on the Constitution, two volumes, Bernard Bailyn, ed., (New York: Library of America, 1992), 1:52-62.

Current U.s. National Debt:

$36,167,124,467,492

Source