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Comparing the Federalists and Anti-Federalists

Comparing the Federalists and Anti-Federalists

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." (www.constitutioncenter.org)

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...

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