Federalists Vs Anti Federalists Essay

Their leaders included some of the most influential figures in the nation, including , leading national figures during the Revolutionary War period.Many Anti-Federalists were local politicians who feared losing power should the Constitution be ratified.

Their leaders included some of the most influential figures in the nation, including , leading national figures during the Revolutionary War period.Many Anti-Federalists were local politicians who feared losing power should the Constitution be ratified.States that did not ratify the Constitution would not be considered a part of the Union and would be separate countries.

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This debate occurred in meeting halls, on streets, and on the printed page.

Both sides in the argument had a considerable following.

Some still believed that the Articles of Confederation could be amended in such a way that they would provide a workable confederation.

Some wanted the Union to break up and re-form into three or four different confederacies.

As one member of their opposition, , said, these politicians "will not cherish the great oak which is to reduce them to paltry shrubs." The Federalists favored the creation of a strong federal government that would more closely unite the states as one large, continental nation.

They tended to come from the wealthier class of merchants and plantation owners.One Pennsylvania Anti-Federalist, who signed his articles "Centinel," declared, It is the opinion of the greatest writers, that a very extensive country cannot be governed on democratical principles, on any other plan than a confederation of a number of small republics, possessing all the powers of internal government, but united in the management of their foreign and general concerns. [A]nything short of despotism could not bind so great a country under one government.Although the Anti-Federalists were united in their opposition to the Constitution, they did not agree on what form of government made the best alternative to it.After the Constitution was signed and approved by delegates of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, it had to be ratified by the states.As determined by Article VII of the Constitution, ratification required the approval of nine special state conventions.In making their arguments, the Anti-Federalists often relied on the rhetoric of the Revolutionary War era, which stressed the virtues of local rule and associated centralized power with a tyrannical monarch.Thus, the Anti-Federalists frequently claimed that the Constitution represented a step away from the democratic goals of the American Revolution and toward the twin evils of monarchy and aristocracy.They argued that the document would give the country an entirely new and untested form of government.They saw no sense in throwing out the existing government.Moreover, the Anti-Federalists argued that the Constitution would spell an end to all forms of self-rule in the states.Many Anti-Federalists believed in a type of government that has been described as agrarian republicanism.