Why Did The Anti-Federalists Want The Constitution?

The Anti-Federalists argued that their form of government was more effective. They argued many points that were reasonable. Brutus wrote that he feared that our government would be controlled by a group of elites, and he thought that these elites would abuse the people’s rights by just doing what would only benefit them. Brutus thought once the elites started running our country, that they would be in power for a long time and no one could change their minds on certain views. (Brutus 1).

- The Anti-Federalist thought the opposite, “Anti-Federalist wanted power in the states and a small central government because they just fought for

The Federalists supported the ratification of the Constitution while the Anti Federalists were against it. This boiled down to simple beliefs held by both groups. Anti Federalists believed that the Constitution gave too much power to the central government and left state governments powerless. Anti Federalists were in favor of a weaker central governments and stronger local state governments. They believed that central government was too far removed from the people, and that the nation was too large, for it to serve them on a local state basis. This resulted in the fear that people’s voices would be taken away; this fear of oppression was only increased by the fact that the Constitution didn’t include a Bill of Rights. However, Federalists believed that a strong central government, accompanied by the Constitution, was needed after the Article of Confederation failed or the nation wouldn’t survive. In the eyes of the Federalists, a Bill of Rights was not needed because the Constitution did not put any limits on the rights of the citizens; however

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.

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

After the American Revolution our nation was in major debt and suffering from an ecumenic depression throughout the colonies. The debt and other fiscal issues our nation was facing made some of the founding political members to want a more focused federal power. The opinions of two groups known as the Federalists and Anti-Federalists were divided about the new proposed Constitution. The founding members known as the Federalists wanted a strong central government and weak state governments were in favor of keeping the newly proposed Constitution,whereas the opposing group of men were known as the Anti-Federalists were opposed to it. The Anti-Federalists had believed that the power should belong to the states and not the central government, and that the nation should keep the Articles of Confederation despite the fact that it had failed. In the time period of 1787-1788 the views and ideas of the Federalists would have been better than those of the Anti-Federalists for more than one reason.

While the anti-Federalists believed the Constitution and formation of a National Government would lead to a monarchy or aristocracy, the Federalists vision of the country supported the belief that a National Government based on the Articles of the Confederation was inadequate to support an ever growing and expanding nation.

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 Bill of Rights, written by Antifederalists, shows us how some Americans were fearful of a strong central government, how they wanted a limited government so it wasn’t too powerful, and how they protected basic individual rights. The Anti-federalists begged and argued for a new list that secured the rights they believed the original Constitution did not provide. There was a constant debate between whether or not to add the Bill of Rights, because some people thought that if they created it, all other rights were insignificant. Many Americans were fearful that the government was going to have too much power because of the Constitution, but they felt secure if they made a list of their official rights. Most of the people who wanted the Bill of Rights, were poor people, who felt they needed a say in the government.

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 federalists believed that the US needed a strong central government in order to become one nation. They felt that having 13 small governments was a weakness to the country. Alexander Hamilton, a very well-known federalist and one of the authors of the Federalist papers, believed that having 13 governments was chaotic and could be fixed by having only one strong central government. The federalists saw one central government as a need in order to restore peace unto the states. They felt that the economy was unstable and could only be fixed if the states came together as a nation under one government. Anti-federalists feared that having one central government would mean that they'd be stripped of their basic civil liberties. Many of the anti-federalists

Their concerns about the potential abuses of power were not delusions, they were based in the reality that the Constitution allowed a few, generally rich, men to control the lives of the majority. The Anti-Federalists claimed that the new Constitution will not secure a popular form of government, rather, it “will commence in a moderate aristocracy… produce a monarchy, or a corrupt oppressive aristocracy (),” is supported by evidence in the document

The Antifederalists were obviously opposed to the Constitution, and they were in full support of the Articles of Confederation. The Antifederalists leaders, like Patrick Henry, believed the Constitution challenged individual’s liberty. The Antifederalists acted in factions. As the Federalists believed in a strong central government, the Antifederalists thought this would get in the way of state sovereignty. Furthermore, other factions within the Antifederalists believed a strong, central government would reflect the government of Great Britain, in which they were trying to get away from. Patrick Henry publicly spoke out against the Constitution claiming it would give the States very limited power. The Constitution was to contain a president, army, and the power to tax. Henry and others viewed this as basically Great Britain. They were afraid that the

The Anti-Federalist oppose the proposed constitution because the anti -federalists felt as though i gave too much of the power to the national government. The anti-federalist believed that if the y gave the national government got too much power then they would end up like the British monarchy

The Antifederalists’ did not want the new constitution because they had a fear that the government would become too powerful. They thought that the new constitution should contain a Bill of Rights. They wanted the Bill of Rights so it would protect and educate the citizens of the new government. They thought they would use the power to reduce the power of the states. They also did not like the idea of the President having the power to veto decisions.