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The anti-Federalists were against the ratification of the constitution. The views of the Federalists and the anti-Federalists were completely different. The Federalist and anti-Federalist papers were battles over problems with the Constitution. The only reason the anti-Federalists agreed to help ratify the constitution was because of the Bill of Rights and without the Bill of Rights the Constitution would not have been ratified. Following the American Revolution the United States was free of British control, the first attempt at a formal government was a document called the Articles of Confederation. Many agreed that under the Articles of Confederation enough power was not given to the central government, and on the other hand too much power was given to the state government.
As a result of the Articles of Confederation the Philadelphia Convention was called in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. The convention was originally called to help strengthen the Articles of Confederation, but it was decided a whole new constitution needed to be written. As a result the Constitution of the United States of America was born and with it came the opposing views of the Federalists and the anti-Federalists. The Federalists were strong believers in the Constitution, and believed that this was the only way to achieve a just society where people could have their right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Federalists were generally wealthy citizens, who's profession in most cases was a lawyer. A good example of this was Alexander Hamilton, who studied law before becoming a politician.
The supporters of the Federalists followed suit being "Propertied and educated people. " (web) According to the Federalists if the Constitution had parts to it that didn't work it could be amended. This doesn't seem right because if it was written by a group of Federalists, then clearly amending it will favor their views. At the Philadelphia Convention the only type of people who could afford to make the trip were rich people, and rich people generally shared the views of Federalists. Federalists thought that the Constitution provided a strong central government by the people, but this was only partly true. The people of the United States were running the country, but it was only the upper class again. One of the major beliefs of the Federalists as pointed out at the Philadelphia convention was that a state should vote according to it's population, this later became a big issue with the anti-Federalists and people from the smaller states.
This also led to the Federalists wanting a strong executive branch of the government, with long terms of office and unlimited terms for the politicians. To them the Bill of Rights wasn't needed to ratify the Constitution. With all these little things the Federalists were just trying to take power, show they were the ones that control the country. They tried to keep people with the same opinions as them in office as long as possible, and they didn't want the Bill of Rights because they wanted to control the people of the United States. In charge of the Federalists was a rich lawyer from the British West Indies named Alexander Hamilton.
In the pre-Revolution period he was a Whig, hating the British tyrants, but after the Revolution was won and politics split the country again he joined the party which more resembled the former Britain. Like the rest of the Federalists, Hamilton believed in a strong central government, which gave them more power. His biggest contribution to his Federalist cause were the works he, James Madison and John Jay did on the Federalist Papers. This was propaganda to pull people towards the views of the Federalists in support of the Constitution. He also constantly fought for the ratification of the Constitution.
In opposition of the Federalists were the anti-Federalists who later went by many names such as the Republicans and the Democratic Republicans. These were people who were strongly opposed to the United States Constitution. They wanted a strong state government instead of a strong central government. To them if the central government was too strong then it would threaten the people's liberties and right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The anti-Federalists were made up of anyone who was poor and not a big landowner, anyone tired of being controlled, anyone who wanted the people's votes to directly count and anyone who wanted to protect their rights. The anti-Federalists were made up of all different types of people, while the Federalists were mainly upper class.
The anti-Federalists represented the United States population as a whole better than the Federalists. When it came to the way the government was run the anti-Federalists wanted the complete opposite of the Federalists. The anti-Federalists wanted their power in the legislature, mainly the lower house where every state has one vote. They wanted the terms of office to be shorter, with limits on how many terms you could serve. These officials were not to be elected by representatives but directly by the people of the United States. The only way the anti-Federalists would ever even consider helping to ratify the Constitution was if it contained a Bill of Rights, which they thought was "essential for preserving the individual liberties" (web) of the people.
Without this document the government could control every one like a tyranny. To them the Constitution without the Bill of Rights was just a weapon of the upper class against the poor. The figurehead of the anti-Federalists was Thomas Jefferson who later became President of The United States. The funny thing about Jefferson was for a long time he would not choose sides between the Federalists and the anti-Federalists, he was totally against political parties.
He was for a strong central government, which was more of a Federalist's view. What made Jefferson come to his senses was Alexander Hamilton and his "implied powers" Implied powers were powers which were not stated directly in the Constitution (web), in other words powers that were assumed by the government. Jefferson was totally against this, he believed that the Constitution could do the things which the Constitution states it can and nothing should be assumed. This was the start of a great feud between Hamilton and Jefferson, the first real battle of political parties for election in office. In the fight between Federalists and anti-Federalists propaganda played a large role on both sides. It first started in speeches and local newspapers when three Federalists wrote in to share their opinions.
The anti-Federalists followed suit and read their own speeches and sent in their own letters sharing their views. The only major difference between the two was the Federalist papers were written strictly by three politicians, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay; and the anti-Federalist papers were written by many anti-federalists which showed a wider range of their views. The Federalist Papers were written in 1788 by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. In all there are 85 Federalist Papers and their sole purpose was to gain support for the Federalists to help ratify the Constitution. The papers appeared in the Independent Journal during the course of the year in 1788. All of the papers were directed towards the people of New York who were in strong opposition to the ratification of the Constitution.
Hamilton, Jay, and Madison were some of the greatest propagandists of their time and these documents show it. All of th...
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