Pros And Cons Of The Federalist And Anti-Federalists

There is always another side to the story. Federalist, these people supported the constitution. Though they knew that the constitution wasn’t perfection yet, According to document 3 George Washington state 's ”We have errors to correct… would to God, that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend”. George was sure that the constitution wasn’t perfect but that in this time of need they need something like it. They need a strong government, to win over the people who won’t support over fear of loss of natural laws, like mentioned in document 1 “Let us look and behold the distress which prevail in every part of our country… View these things, fellow citizens, and then say we do not require a new, a protection, and efficient federal government if you can” this document was quoted from a newspaper in Massachusetts.

According to Document 2, the Constitution was not secure enough. The Constitution did not have restrictions put in place in order to prevent a political office from ruling for life. The possibilities of the U.S. government transforming into a monarchy were too high, making it ideal to not ratify the Constitution. Furthermore, the Constitution posed a threat to those less wealthy. Document 5 expressed the concerns of the people, stating, “These lawyers and men of learning, and monied men … make us poor illiterate people swallow down the pill”.

The Articles of Confederation made up America’s first constitution. This constitution was hastily and poorly made and solved the problem of a lack of government in America. The Articles were designed to limit the government’s power over the citizens. The Articles of Confederation also did not include anything about an individual or a president to guide the country. This was because of the colonists’ past experience with Britain’s king and him having too much power over the people.

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

Despite checks and balances, the Anti-Federalists considered that these branches composed of Elites, and were afraid that Elites would grant the too much power among the branches. In fact, the real power that that the middle class had for role in the Constitution was to elect the member of House of Representatives, which they had less power in the three branches. According to Brutus in Letter number IV of the Anti-federalist Papers, each state should have an equal, full, and fair representation, without this it cannot be a free government (Document F). This would lead the common man to no voices among these three branches. The purpose of the creating the Constitution was to create a strong federal government that would

This was a problem because the ratio of population to the 1 representative was unfair. Another problematic example with the Articles of confederation were that the government could not tax people. This idea seems great when you are a person of the country, but in reality it soon backfires. The government then had no money to build roads, or schools, or do anything because it did have have any money. This is the resulting of no taxes.

Before Jefferson entered the presidential office he was a states rights supporter and when the tax on whiskey was placed he opposed it, saying “The first error was to admit it by the Constitution.” (Doc A). He didn’t like the constitution because of the fact that it would make central government stronger. When the alien act was passed he was opposed to it and said that the central government should only have a set of specific purposes and the leftover purposes should be left to the states individually. (Doc B) Determining the amount of time it takes to be a citizen, and the ability to jail people opposing the government was too much power to Jefferson. When he came into office he realized the necessity for more central power and took more matters into his own hands, he had become a loose constructionist.

Most of the levied taxes and implemented laws are believed that they were unconstitutional and that Great Britain did not consider their opinions. As the tension between the British and the American colonists grows, the colonists become more fearful of the British’s rule. According to document five, the British has a huge advantage over the colonists because it states that they have the authority to make laws that the colonists must abide by at all costs. The colonists believe that there are only two choices to defend them - the colonists- from the enormous power: “choosing an unconditional submission to the tyranny of irritated [British officials], or resistance by force” (Document five). According to document four, the colonists were that they will become slaves to the British.

His authoritative style earned him the nickname King Andrew I. A king is undemocratic because he has all the power in an autocratic government and so this title shows that Jackson was using too much power. He also often went against the advice of Congress, and one example of this is the Bank War. Congress agreed that the bank was constitutional and members of Congress and his cabinet advised him not to veto the bank charter, but he ignored them and made the decision to do it anyway. The autocratic nature of his decision-making overall gave him too much influence and decreased representation by limiting the number of people involved in making

“If this system was so framed as to command that respect from the people, which every good free government will obtain, this provision was unnecessary” (Brutus 4). •People will not support laws that the magistrates carry out by themselves and shouldn’t be expected to, since it is a free government. •The right of election is given by the people, but the Congress has the power to change the time, regulations, and place of the elections. •If the federal government moves the elections to the capital, only the high-ranked people from the society would be able to attend and they would choose people from the same class. People from the interior parts are excluded from the election process, and the representatives of state will be elected by 1/10 of all the votes.

Patrick Henry was one of those famous powerful figures, patriots, who provided support for the antifederalists. Anti Federalists were in debt and they feared a strong central government who would make them pay-off their debts. They thought that it gave too much power to the national government at the expense of the state governments, and there was no bill of rights, thus, they opposed the ratification of the constitution. As shown on Document G, even in a political system, with checks and balances, a certain branch can be too powerful, which can lead to tyranny of the common people. This document was directed towards the Federalist by the antifederalist to explain a possible problem of the checks and balances system, after the drafting of the constitution and awaiting approval.

It is similar to the constitution because it allows for what are considered basic rights like that government cannot intervene in a court case. Question 5. The bill of rights affects the power of the government in multiple ways. It bans the government from imposing any religion on everyone in America. It also restricts the government 's use of troops and makes it illegal to station troops in people 's houses without their permission.

One of these rough patches was the Articles of Confederation, which taught us that a balance of power is of great importance. We abandoned the Articles of Confederation and adopted a new Constitution because of State powers, and lack of Congressional powers. The fear of a Central Government like Great Britain led The United States away from having such a strong Central Government. So the States were given autonomy to make most decisions & have many powers under early American Government. The States could never be enforced to do anything, except for war and closing borders, the States could

Changing it every time something in the world comes about will get to a point where it’s too much for the government. “A common law Constitution is a "living" Constitution, but it is also one that can protect fundamental principles against transient public opinion, and it is not one that judges (or anyone else) can simply manipulate to fit their own ideas”( Strauss, David A). With today’s society and the way things are its hard to say whether or not this document is living or not. I still believe the Constitution is a non-living document. In another article I read, Scalia states that “that issues such as abortion and homosexuality do not appear in the Constitution makes them matters for which citizens and states can enact laws”( Patel, Ushma).

Overall, the Constitution did not establish a fair government. The document lacked equality in all different aspects. The Constitution gave the United States a strong, central government, but that didn 't make it fair. White males were the only exception in the Constitution, the only person with natural rights that were thoroughly protected. As far as natural rights go, the Constitution protected slavery thus defeating the purpose of becoming an independent nation: to have