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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...
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…
Federalist Papers The purpose of the Federalist Papers The Federalist Papers were prepared to ensure that a constitution was ratified to provide a perfect union. The Papers focused on the concept of a perfect and improved union. While this could be the primary purpose of the document, it was also concerned with other things. Aspects of the federalist like welfare, safety, and union are inseparable, and the union seems to be much
Federalist Paper #10, James Madison discusses the Union's ability to control and break the influence of specific factions over the governmental process. The paper includes many strengths, and a few weaknesses. Yet the overall paper convinced me of the purpose of the Union in this capacity. Federalist Paper # 10 begins with a discussion of the problem at hand, that of how to control the factions of a nation. The paper
Federalist and Anti-Federalist Review Federalist papers were written in support of the ratification of the U.S. constitution while anti-federalists were written in opposition of the same. The most important papers in federalist series were paper 10 and 5 both written by James Madison on the subject of power distribution within the federation. Anti-federalist paper 3 was written under the pseudonym Brutus and meant to oppose the arguments raised by Madison on
Introduction The penning of the American Constitution during the 1787 Philadelphia convention was followed by its ratification. This formal process delineated within Article 7 necessitated at least 9 states’ agreement to implement the Constitution, prior to actually enacting it (Pole, 1987). Whilst the Federalists supported ratification, Anti-Federalists were against it. Those opposed to the constitution’s ratification claimed that it accorded disproportionate power to federal authorities, whilst robbing local and state bodies of their power, excessively. According to
James MadisonPersonal BackgroundJames Madison was born on March 16, 1751, in Port Conway, Virginia. He grew up in a wealthy family, with his father, James Madison Sr., being the largest landowner in Orange County and a prominent planter. Madison was educated at home and at a boarding school before attending the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), where he completed his studies in 1771. He was known for his
Anti-Federalist & Bill of Rights The Anti-federalist vs. Federalist argument is one of the most heated political debates the United States has ever seen. Though the length of the actual debate was relatively short, lasting from October of 1787, when the final version of the constitution was approved by the first congressional convention to June of 1788 when Virginia was the first to ratify the constitution of the United States. The