Anti Federalists Dbq Analysis

Anti-Federalism, an 18th century political movement led primarily by Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, opposed the ratification of the new United States Constitution for multiple reasons. [B] The new U.S. Constitution was written by a group of delegates selected for the 1787 Constitutional Convention which took place in Philadelphia. A chief reason Anti-Federalists were highly concerned with this document was the amount of power it would give the federal government. They worried that the implementation of a strong centralized government could only be possible at the expense of individual states rights and freedoms. Anti-Federalists were also concerned that smaller states, who had previously held as much weight in national affairs as larger states, may be ignored or trampled upon in regards to passing interstate laws and amending federal documents. Another concern of the Anti-Federalists was the absence of a Bill of Rights, a specific list of personal rights possessed by American citizens, in the Constitution. They feared that without this bill of stated rights, there would be no guarantee that the American government, under the Constitution, would not pass tyrannical laws resembling those implemented by the British just prior to the American Revolution. [A]

Antifederalists, in the other hand, feared strong central government, tyranny, and dictatorship, and wanted strong state governments, individual liberties and opposed ratification of the Constitution (until a bill of rights was added). Federalists’ supporters were merchants, skilled workers, laborers, cities and small states. Antifederalists’ supporters were large states and rural areas. Both sides believed in the principles of limited government but had different ways of how to limit the government. Antifederalists feared that the national government would take away all the powers of the state government so that is why they wanted the powers of national government to be limited and specified. They also claimed that the bill of rights should be added to the Constitution to limit government’s powers over

The Anti-Federalist put up a long and hard fight, however, they were not as organized as the Federalists. While the Anti- Federalist had great concerns about the Constitution and National government, the Federalist had good responses to combat these concerns. The Federalist were and for the Constitution and feel the Article of Confederation were not worth ratifying, these should be scrapped altogether. They felt that the Articles limited the power of congress, because congress had to request cooperation from the states. Unlike the Anti-Federalist, the Federalist organized quickly, had ratifying conventions, and wrote the Federalist papers to rebut the Anti- Federalist arguments.

Anti-Federalists and Federalists were opinionated groups who tried to sway Americans about the Constitution. Anti-Federalists opposed developing a federal government, and they did not want to ratify the Constitution. Instead, they wanted the state governments to keep the power. The Federalists disagreed because they wanted a government that was stronger on the national level and that had the Constitution to manage tensions and debts from the Revolution. They both differed in many ways, but one way that they were similar was because they had an impact on the way the Constitution was written.

The Constitution was created in 1781 to solve the problems that the Articles of Confederation had created within the national government. There were two different reactions to the creation of the new government, Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Federalists were the colonists who agreed with the Constitution and believed that we needed a strong national government, while the Anti-Federalists were against the new government and instead wanted to keep the separate state governments. During this time, Anti-Federalists were mostly made up of farmers, while Federalists were wealthy merchants who had more experience with government ideas. The Anti-Federalists believed that there were certain issues in the Constitution that could not be ignored, but

Moving towards the other side of the argument, during the period of debate over the ratification of the Constitution, famous revolutionary figures such as Patrick Henry, Samuel Bryan, George Clinton, and Robert Yates came out publicly against the Constitution. They became known as the Anti-Federalists. The Anti-Federalists were concerned about the amount of power the Constitution would grant the national government, they were apprehensive about representation at the national level, and they were disturbed over the lack of safeguards for citizens’ rights. Phrases in the Constitution led the Anti-Federalists to believe that the power of the national government would be virtually unlimited, which is why they considered extensive national power

The major reason why Anti-federalists opposed the ratification of the new constitution was because they feared that it gave too much power to the national government. In an article called ‘Ratifying the constitution- Anti-federalists’ it states, “Having just succeeded in rejecting what they saw as the tyranny of British power, such threats were seen as a very real part of political life. To Anti-federalists the proposed Constitution threatened to lead

Not long after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the American citizens began to disagree about how the United States should operate. They were conflicted about how much power the federal government should possess, as stated in Chapter 10 of History in the Making, which says that “at heart, Federalists and Republicans disagreed about how much power to vest in the central government or, conversely, about how capable the people were in governing themselves” (Locks). Additionally, the citizens had differing opinions about who should be allowed to hold political power, whether manufacturing and trade or farming should be the central source of revenue, and how strictly the Constitution should be interpreted. These disputes led to the formation

While the Federalists did not believe it was necessary to include the Bill or Rights in the Constitution, the Anti-Federalists felt otherwise. The Anti-Federalist believed the Constitution would cause the federal government to have too much power. They did not want to have the possibility of losing

The Federalists believed that central government involvement should be kept at a distance from the American people. They were also dissatisfied with the Articles of Confederation. They wanted a republican form of government and their most vocal supporters included people such as Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay who wrote the Federalists papers in 1787 and 1788. The Federalists believed that the Articles of Confederation should be replaced with a Constitution that would allow the central government more power. The Anti-Federalist strongly opposed a central government. They also did not support ratification for a new constitution. One of the Anti-Federalists primary supporters George Mason also believed that government should, “know and sympathize with every part of the community” (Borowiak 2007 p. 1009). The Anti-Federalists feared that a central government could lead to corruption among politicians. Although the Federalists were successful in creating a Constitution that gave the federal government more centralized power, the Anti-Federalist were correct in their beliefs that this happened at the expense of the states and the people.

The Anti-Federalist: wanted more power at the state level than the federal, thought the lack of a Bill of Rights was a threat to liberties, and they did not support the Constitution.

Some concerns of the Anti-Federalist party was that the constitution gave too much power to the federal government while taking too much power away from the state and local government. Many thought that the federal government would be too far removed to represent the average citizen. They thought the nation was too large for the national government to respond to the concern of people on a state and local basis. Also, the constitution didn’t contain a bill of rights. They wanted guaranteed protection for certain basic liberties, such as freedom of speech and trial by jury.

The anti-federalists were a group that had many issues concerning the ratification of the Constitution. They had a large number of diverse authors who all had similar ideas on the ways the government should be. Those against the 85 Federalist Papers, wrote down all their issues and their side of things that soon became known as the Anti-Federalists Papers.

The Federalists were the supporters of the Constitution, while the Anti-Federalists were not. The Anti-Federalists believed that the Constitution granted too much power to the central government causing the weakening of the self-government of local communities and states. The Federalists believed in a central government, which would give less power to the communities and states and more to the government. These idea split the two groups. Although at first many states were Anti-Federalist at first, they all ended up converting to being Federalist. For example states like New York, Virginia, and North Carolina had many Anti-Federalist supporters and were a few of the last states to commit. The Federalists won though, because they promised to

Anti-Federalist believed with the creation of the constitution, there was too much power given to one person, and not enough rights given to the citizens. The Constitution also lacked a bill of rights which did not sit