Federalist vs Anti-Federalist Papers

The Federalists advocated a strong central government while the Anti-Federalists advocated state governments. The former feared that division would lead to fighting and instability. The latter feared that centralized power would lead to the kind of totalitarianism that the American Revolutionaries had just victoriously opposed in the War for Independence. This paper will describe why I would align myself with the Anti-Federalists because of their aversion for centralized power.

The difference between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists was all about what kind of government the United States would have. The Federalists wanted to ratify the Constitution (which we have today) because it defined the ways in which states would be subject to a federal government and the ways in which they would be free to act on their own. The view of the Federalists was that the Constitution would protect the states from "domestic factions and convulsions" and provide unity and cohesion (Federalist No. 6, n.d.). Indeed, Alexander Hamilton (the main author of the Federalist Papers which sought to promote ratification of the Constitution) wrote: "America, if not connected at all, or only by the feeble tie of a simple league, offensive and defensive, would, by the operation of such jarring alliances, be gradually entangled in all the pernicious labyrinths of European politics and wars" (Federalist No. 7, n.d.). Not only did the Federalists argue that the Constitution and implementation of a strong federal government would prevent states from fighting, they argued that it would also prevent the Union from getting involved in fights abroad.

While hindsight is 20/20 and we can see today that the Constitution prevented neither from happening (states ultimately clashed in the Civil War and the U.S. has been involved in foreign wars for more than a century), the Anti-Federalists saw that the arguments presented by Hamilton and the other authors of the Federalist Papers were disingenuous. For instance, the Anti-Federalists argued that by placing so much authority in a federal government, the states risked subverting their newly won liberty to "despotism, or, what is worse, a tyrranic aristocracy" (Brutus No. 1, 1787). The Anti-Federalists stated that the Constitution would enable a small group to "possess absolute and uncontrollable power, legislative, executive and judicial" and that "intervention of the state governments" would be impossible and even undesirable by this elite group (Brutus No. 1, 1787). The idea of so many diverse people being represented by so few in the federal government was irrational, as the Anti-Federalists pointed out: "One man, or a few men, cannot possibly represent the feelings, opinions, and characters of a great multitude. In this respect, the new constitution is radically defective" (Brutus No. 3, 1787). The Anti-Federalists wanted a loose confederation of states, with state governments being autonomous from one another and subject to no centralized authority. I believe their approach to government would have been the correct one, especially as we today live in a world dominated by a central government that has all the Orwellian characteristics of a totalitarian and tyrannical regime.

In conclusion, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists envisioned two polar opposite forms of government. The former wanted a centralized authority that oversaw the power of the states, and the latter wanted a loose confederation of states in which each state was autonomous and subject to none other. I would have supported the latter, as best embodied the values that the Americans fought for in the War for Independence. The Federalists, on the other hand, seemed eager to subvert Americans' newly won liberty to a select handful of men who could then be controlled by special interests -- just as is the case today.

References

Brutus No. 1. (1787). Constitution. Retrieved from http://www.constitution.org/afp/brutus01.htm

Brutus No. 3. (1787). Constitution. Retrieved from http://www.constitution.org/afp/brutus03.htm

Federalist No. 6. (n.d.). Yale. Retrieved from http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed06.asp

Federalist No. 7 (n.d.). Yale. Retrieved from http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed07.asp