Compare And Contrast Federalist And Anti Federalists

The Federalists Vs. Anti-Federalists

There are two sides to every story, this includes the ratification of the Constitution. There were the people that were for ratification of the Constitution called Federalists, and there were people against it called Anti-Federalists.

The Federalist were one first political parties in the United States. They wanted a strong central government, to promote economic development and public improvements. To get more support on ratification of the constitution, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay all wrote a total of 85 essays that were put together in a book called The Federalist. Hamilton wrote 50 essays, Madison wrote 30 and Jay wrote the rest. In Hamilton essays, he wanted to get rid of the fear that Americans had with political power. Hamilton also stated that the Constitution had created “the perfect balance between liberty and power”. There are many points that Hamilton and Madison writes in their essay. In Federalist No. 68 Hamilton writes that putting the leadership of the country in one person hands was not dangerous. In Federalist No. 70, Hamilton argued that it would be easier to control one president than to control many presidents.

They believed that the Constitution gave the government too much power and if the government had too much power then they would be back to where they started with the same monarchy as Britain. The Anti-Federalist lacked the leadership power compared to the Federalists. Some Anti-Federalist included Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Patrick Henry. Anti-Federalists said that the new government would fall because of merchants and creditors. Anti-Federalist who opposed the Constitution believed that the Constitution failed to protect the rights of citizens and threatened liberties. Many Anti-Federalists that wrote against the ratification of the Constitution used pseudonyms such as Centinel, Brutus, and Federal