Federalists vs Anti-Federalists: The Debate over Ratification of the Constitution

The argument papers marked the history of the debate between those who wanted the ratification of the constitution refers to us as the federalists and those who opposed its ratification refers us the Anti-federalists, (Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Henry, Byron &Yates, 2010). The federalist papers had 85 articles that advocated for ratification of the new constitution. The anti-federalists were authored in the various form where Henry, Yates, and Byron were in the front line in opposing the ratification.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The Federalist

The federalist was a set of logical arguments in a collection of essays written by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton in the year 1788. The essay was set to influence the voters to ratify the United States Constitution, which was debated and later drafted at the constitutional convention in Philadelphia in the year 1787. The federalist essay paper is one of the important American contributions to the revolution of politics, where their theory is still considered to be the most authoritative source in coming with the original intention of framers of the US constitution.

The federalist logic argument was advocating for the creation of a strong central government that would have enough power in confronting a lot of challenges that the country was facing. James Madison was guided by the principle of, 'if men were angels, no government would be necessary' in his support for a strong central government. Most Americans during revolutionary war were opposed to the formation of a strong government in the view that the establishment of it would result in their oppression and even their rights being crushed as it had happened in the British government. However, the federalist author was on the view that lack of a strong central government will result in the Unites States breaking into 13 separate states since it was in debt, and trade among the state was also difficult.

The federalist advocated for the separation of power, where Congress, the president, and the courts had to have separate power. Madison explains this logic that it will be a tyranny government where all powers are under the same hands, and citizens will feel that they don't have freedom, which was their most worrying thing.

Hamilton addressed the main goals of the government, where the first goal is a common defense, meaning keeping the nation from external attack. The second main goal he argued was that the government was to control trade between the states and with other nations, and the third goal was that the government has the mandate of dealing with foreign countries. The federalists were of argument that there is a need to prevent the rule of majority faction where they advocated for the expansion of the united states into a large commercial republic. They were also in the front line in opposing the bill of rights, where Alexander Hamilton was in the fear that if such enumeration were to happen, it would be later be interpreted as the only lists of rights that the people had. The primary aim of federalist was to convince New Yorkers to send their delegates to the constitutional convention for them to vote in ratifying the constitution. However, these delegates refused their motive of ratifying the document where they wanted to do so unless the bill of rights are included.Anti-federalist

The Anti-federalist was lead by Henry Yate and Byron who were opposed to the ratification of the constitution of 1787. Their most fear on the ratification of the constitution was that the formation of a strong government with too much power would threaten an individual's liberties, especially since the new ratification had excluded the bill of rights. Their worry was also in the office of president, where they opposed a powerful president since they were on the view that such a position might evolve to a monarchy. They preferred the government, which was formed in 1781, that was granting the predominance power to the state governments. Henry Yate argued that the formation of a strong national government as was proposed by the federalists was a threatened people's right, their sovereignty, the prestige of the state, and the president would become a king. Byron, on the other hand, was on the opinion that a strong government would be equal to the British tyranny. Together they advocated for a democratic state to discourage a situation where the country is dominated by wealthy individuals who might oppress the poor. They felt that the state is giving too much power to the federal government, which might be misused. They were also on the opinion that the United States' land size was too big to have one central government taking control over it.

Anti-federalists rejected the formation of the new branches in the central government and were on the view that the new branches were a threat to the traditional belief they had on the importance of restraining government power. They also were on the opinion that Congress, the president, and the court power would be even much more than the British government, which was considered a tyranny state.

Anti-federalists were in the frontline to oppose the exclusion of the bills of rights as it had been proposed by the federalists. They wanted the bill to be included in the new proposed constitution, which they had a lot of support from the peoples, especially young farmers. They were on the view that people had fought a war for them to be free, and they didn't want a situation where the government is taking away their bill of rights. Their opposition on the bill of Rights was not in vain since it resulted in the adoption of the first amendment and also the other nine amendments, which constituted the bills of rights.

Work cited

Hamilton A, Madison J, Jay J, Henry P, & Yates R. "The Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers." Create space Independent Pub, 1453634193, 9781453634196 412 pages (2010)