The introduction of the Constitution in the United States set a center stage of controversy between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The enormous debate increasingly developed among supporters after signing of the Constitution on September 17th, 1787. This contention took place in the taverns, parlors, newspapers, and homes of Americans across the 13 states of America. The increased debates eventually lead to the ultimate decision of forming a ratification convention that determined the fate of the Constitution. The Federalists lead by James Madison favored the ratification of the Constitution while the Anti-Federalists lead by Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry were against the ratification of the Constitution. Each group had different beliefs on why or why not the constitution should or should not be passed.
The Federalists and Anti-Federalists differed in the way they planned to organize the government. The Federalists planned to form a huge national government that could develop a perfect union by enhancing the relationship within and among states. The main objective of developing this kind of national government was to better preserve the personal liberties of the people. According to Madison (1787) in the Federalist Paper No. 10, extending the sphere of minority, individual and republic rights, and the government would be protected from majority infringement.
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Apart from preserving individual liberties, the Federalists also wanted to preserve the state’s sovereignty as well as its structure. To ensure that this adheres, they advocated for the federal government to be given specific, delegated powers. This meant that anything that was not assigned to the federal government was to be reserved to the citizens as well as states. Therefore, the goal of the Federalist was to preserve the government’s principle by consent (Hamilton, 1787). The principle of the government was preserved by establishing a government upon a popular sovereignty foundation, without hindering the sovereignty of the states so that the legitimacy of the new government could be safeguarded.
Concerning the organization of the federal government, the Anti-Federalists wanted small localized governments that had limited national authority as it was under the Articles of Confederation. This group was against national power expansion and believed that a republican government could only thrive on the state level but not on the national level. In this case, the Anti-Federalist thought that only the individual states confederacy could safeguard the freedom and liberty of the nation. The Anti-Federalist concern was perhaps the lack of a bill of rights ( Yates, 1787 ). Without the bill of rights, the Anti-Federalists feared that the Constitution could not have protected the rights of people as well as those of states sufficiently. Mason believed that the bill of rights in the states was likely to be trumped by the new Constitution and thereby could not protect the rights of citizens adequately. His concern eventually led to the passing of the bill of rights as a requirement for the ratification of the Constitution in Virginia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New York, and Rhode Island
As much as the Anti-Federalists were not organized in their plans, I would align with them because they played a critical role in ensuring that the rights of individuals are protected. In the Article “ The anti-Federalists: selected writings and speeches ”, Frohnen thinks that this system should not be followed because it was not structured to sufficiently safeguard the rights of people. Their effort resulted in the development and implementation of the Bill of Rights. Currently, it appears that the government formed by the then Constitution is just an improvement from what had been developed by the Articles of Confederation.
References
Yates, J. (1787). THE ANTI-FEDERALIST" BRUTUS". The Political Science Reviewer , 6 , 249.
Hamilton, A. (1787). The Insufficiency of the Present Confederation to Preserve the Union. THOMAS Legislative Information on the Internet, The Federalist Papers , 18-20.
Madison, J. (1787). The union as a safeguard against domestic faction and insurrection. The Federalist , (10), 9.
Frohnen, B. (Ed.). (1999). The anti-Federalists: selected writings and speeches . Regnery Publishing.
