Compare And Contrast Federalist And Anti Federalists

In 1787 many important people, like Benjamin Franklin and John Hancock, had different views and beliefs on ratifying the Constitution. This lead to two groups forming the federalists and the anti federalists. The federalist believed that the Constitution should be ratified for the sake of a strong government, while the anti federalist believed that the Constitution should not be ratified because of the lack of individual rights. Specifically, the antifederalists point of view was more reasonable towards the public due to the fact the anti federalists wanted power within each state and not the central government. One reason why the anti federalist’s point of view is more sensible than the federalists is because the anti federalist thought

Most of the federalist were either debaters, farmers, or in the lower class. For example, Diffen claimed, “Anti-federalists were closely tied to rural landowners and farmers who were conservative and staunchly independent” (“Anti-Federalist vs Federalist”). In other words, this meant the anti federalists followers were of the common people, so the anti federalists wanted a government that fit the majority of the population. The anti federalists did not want rich men to represent the government because it was similar to the government in England. Most of the anti federalists did not want the government to have all of the control, but wanted the nation to have certain principal regardless of power. For instance, U.S. History said, “...They [Anti federalists] believed that the greatest threat to the future of the United States lay in the government's potential to become corrupt and seize more and more power...” (“Antifederalists”). Which meant that the anti federalists wanted the government to be small and not be runned by one person. Particularly, this also also lead to the anti federalists wanting to remain with the Articles Confederation because the document allowed the states to govern independently. Therefore if the nation was runned by the states and had a proper leader in each state than the nation would not become too powerful and would better the nation for the common