Strict Vs Anti Federalist Analysis

703 Words3 Pages

The year was 1789 and George Washington took the oath and became the first President of the United States. Although the country now had a president there was still much work that needed to be done. This was the beginning framework of the three branches of government we now have today. The signing of the Constitution created the judicial, legislative and executive branch. Still today, this is how the government is ran. Once the framework was complete there was still much uneasiness and disagreement with how the country should be ran. The Federalists were for big government and the anti-federalists wanted to keep it at the state level. I will compare the two groups and what they stand for.
Even though the majority of people were in favor …show more content…

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who thought that the national government should be restricted to the powers given to them in the Constitution. However Alexander Hamilton and the people who followed him thought that there was a better way of reading the Constitution which was classified as loose reading, especially of the elastic clause which grants congress power. “To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution . . . powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States.” “There can be no time, no state of things, in which credit is not essential to a nation…” “A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. It will be a powerful cement of our union.” The way Alexander Hamilton looked at and how he read the Constitution led him to believe that the clause gave congress the power to do anything that is not restricted in the Constitution. The loose reading of the Constitution is what was feared the most. This included the national bank which he thought could be formed because it does not say that it can not be done. After much debate between the looser reading and the tighter reading of the Constitution by the government, Congress approved the bank by a thin margin granting it a 20 year charter in February

Open Document