The United States struggled under the Articles of Confederation, able to declare war and foreign policy, but unable to collect revenue to sustain its actions. The Constitution was designed to give more power to the national government primarily by empowering it with the responsibilities of establishing and maintaining central banking and financial policies. The national government was able to ask for monies from the states, but was not able to enforce collections of those monies needed to sustain their actions. The thirteen states essentially had recently revolted against Britain and its heavy handed tactics of collecting revenue and were almost immediately being asked to ratify and accept changes that would allow the new government to enforce funding as well. Since most of the framers of the Constitution were considered prominent and financially secure, this left the farmers and trades persons of lower class and wealth with the impression of returning back to a heavy handed government …show more content…
If the Anti-Federalists had not taken a stand, several important elements may have been left out of the Constitution such as the checks and balances that kept each of the divisions of government from obtaining too much control of the government. In addition, limiting terms of certain political offices kept a rotation of not only ideas, but a variety of leaders and representatives for the various states. Finally, without the intervention of the Anti-Federalists, the “Bill of Rights” may not have been added to the governing policies and the protection of individual rights may not have been put into place. The combination of Federalists and Anti-Federalists allowed the creation of a strong national government with a “personal” representation of the individuals it was created
The anti-federalist wanted to improve the equality in the government this is clear with this quote "As long as we can preserve our unalienable rights, we are in safety". The anti-federalist believed that the constitution needs the bill of rights to protect people individual rights. The federalist were a strong central government .They wanted a strong leader and they wanted the separation of powers as stated in the federalist quote. "It is evident that each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others.
Are you a Federalist or an Anti-Federalist? The proportional representation of the people and the government in the pursuit of equality and happiness is thoroughly explained through the Anti-Federalist party. Jackson Turner Main wrote, "to them, the man of 'federal principles' approved of 'federal measures,' which meant those that increased the weight and authority or extended the influence of the Confederation Congress." By stating this he intended to provide the explanation and root of the problem; the egos of both parties, especially federalists were a constant wall blocking the parties from a resolution The Anti-Federalists were composed of many differential elements.
Shays Rebellion served as the final nail in the coffin for the Articles of Confederation. Although the Articles of Confederation was America's first national document, it came with many weaknesses. One of the major weaknesses was that the federal government was too weak and therefore could not enforce laws. The Continental Congress borrowed money to fight in both the Revolutionary War and the French and Indian War therefore were in debt.
At this time, the American people stand divided. On one side, there are the federalists. They want a central government with limited powers and to ratify the constitution without addition. On the other end of the spectrum, there are the anti-federalists. They wish for power to be given to the states instead of a central government and to set the new constitutional rights in stone.
The Federalists wanted a strong central government. The Anti- Federalists claims Constitution gives the central government too much power and, and they worried about the new constitution will not give them any rights. That the new system threatened freedom; Also, threatened the sovereignty of the states and personal liberties; failed to protect individual rights. Besides, some of famous peoples such as " Patrick Henry" and artists have came out against the Constitution. Although the anti-Federalists were unsuccessful in stopping the passage of the Constitution, their efforts have been responsible for the creation and implementation of the Bill of
Federalists believed the key to a successful nation lay within giving the majority of the power to the national government- where they would protect the rights of the people to the fullest extent. On the contrary, anti-federalists believed giving too much power to the national federal government would result in corruption among the states, threatening the rights and liberties of the common person. As a solution to this fear of corruption, anti-federalists believed a better alternative to strong national rule would be by dividing the power up among the states. Localized authority, they believed, would better represent the needs of the common man, whereas strong centralized authority would be difficult to represent the average
Although I agree with some points of the Federalists, I mainly find the Antifederalists’ arguments more persuasive. Regarding the view of ‘The People,’ the Federalists believe that having an authority figure make decisions instead of the mass is more efficient. However, with access to education, people are educated to understand and develop their own choices instead of relying on one person to make the decisions for them. One example are the people voting in the presidential elections. The people choose who they want as the president of the country.
The Anti-Federalist’s view of government about having a federal government where the states have more power rather than to have a central government was justified. The Anti-federalists wanted to ensure the protection of individual rights along with allowing the states to have the role of checking and balancing each other. Although their inspiration was the Articles of Confederation, their main goal was to make a few adjustments along with adding a Bill of Rights to secure the citizens’ rights for many generations to come. Federalists, people who supported the Constitution, sided with having a central government. They had the determination to have the Constitution ratified.
During the process of ratifying the constitution, the federalists and anti-federalists had major disagreements on what views and ideas should be presented. Because of all of the disagreements, the two groups were eventually divided and each held their own views on what the constitution should carry. The federalists were a group of led by Alexander Hamilton and were the first political party of the United States. Most of the federalist lived in urban areas.
The Anti Federalist The anti-federalist papers were written document about why the idea of federalist is bad. three problems they had with the Constitution were the president as military king, what congress can do; what a state can not, bill of rights. These were only three of the issues I found that the anti-federalist had with the constitution. The first paper I found was the The President As Military King, anti-federalist paper #74.
Following the Revolutionary War, America had just gained independance from Great Britain and needed to form a new government. The Articles of Confederation were established as an attempt to create a government that was unlike Britain’s. Unfortunately, the Articles of Confederation had several weaknesses. When in the process of repairing those weaknesses, the Federalists and the Anti-federalists formed. The Articles of Confederation were very weak as well as useless to America and because of this, the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists could not agree on a new type of government.
The Articles of Confederation were a document seen as the “first” constitution of the United States. This document granted the new national government power to control the military, declare war, and create treaties between the states. However, the Articles had holes in it considering the government did not have the power to tax, create laws without at least nine states’ approval, or change the Articles of Confederation without a unanimous vote. This means that the country soon fell into debt and petty arguments between state, the new government had no control. It was time for a change.
These authorities that the national government should have, were all up to the states to decide under the Articles. With the taking away some of the states rights in the Constitution, Anti-federalists feared that this would leave the states too weak, resulting in more problems. Under the new Constitution, many powers that were now in the government 's hands are: the power to levy and collect taxes, the power to regulate interstate commerce, the government set up a national court system consisting of district, circuit, and a supreme court, the government could enforce laws, there was now a house based on population, and a senate based on equal representation (two votes per state), to amend the Constitution, a ⅔ vote of Congress was needed, and a ¾ vote of the states were needed, and a majority rule was needed to pass bills. These new powers and abilities of the national government helped to create a strong, new
The new government, the Constitution, is now able to enforces taxes, which allowed money to come in and the government was able to pay off their debt. One other weakness of the articles was that it gave all power to only one house of representative from each state, the constitution try to solve this matter that creating three separate branches of power, the Legislative branch, Executive branch, and the Judiciary branch, allowing the power to be more divided. Representation was another problem in under the Articles of Confederation because a big state like Massachusetts and a small state like New Jersey both have the same amount of representatives, the Constitution made a compromise by forming two house in Congress the Senate, where each state get equal representation, and the House of Representatives, where each state is represented by the population of the state. The Constitution also fixed the problem of passing a law; under the Articles of Confederation, laws can only be passed if 9 out of 13 representatives agrees on the law because of this not much laws were passed, now under the Constitution only 51 percent of the votes to pass the law. From this readers can infer that the Constitution fixed many of the defects in the Articles
They believed that this government could provide the stability and security against violent outrages. The foil of these people were the Antifederalist. The Antifederalists offered three objections: that the Congress had conspired under a “veil of mystery” to create a new form of government, that a strong national government would destroy states’ rights, and that the new system of government resembled and monarchy and that violated the principle of liberty that guided the American Revolution. They also pointed that the voters will not directly