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Anti-Federalists

The great debate

The publication of the U.S. Constitution in September 1787 began one of the most vigorous political campaigns in American history. Arguing over the merits and meaning of government helped to make constitutionalism a central defining characteristic of American political culture.

Although the Constitution had been drafted in private by a small group of statesmen, the result became very public. As soon as the Philadelphia Convention ended, Americans began discussing the new form of government. Less than a month later in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, an observer noted that everyone was interested in the new Constitution. In other parts of America, similar observations were made. One Virginian said it was part of the conversation "from the Governor to the doorkeeper."

The decision of the Philadelphia Convention to have the Constitution approved at a convention in every state meant that Americans from all walks of life could join in the public debate. The Constitution was studied and analyzed section by section. Some writers saw themselves as Romans creating a new government when the rule of kings ended there thousands of years ago.

Other authors took the low road, swearing at and insulting the Constitution. One of the only surviving political cartoons was titled, "The Looking Glass for 1787." In this cartoon, Connecticut is a wagon heavy with debt that is sinking in the mud. To the left, Federalists want taxes to pay military pensions, and to the right, Anti-Federalists, representing farmers, want no more taxes. They are pulling the wagon in opposite directions. The themes of the cartoon are about approving the Constitution and giving more power to the federal government and how best Connecticut will be saved.

Arguments for and against the Constitution were heard in taverns, town squares and in the streets. Federalists and Anti-Federalists staged mock funerals and executions to express their views of the Constitution. These spirited celebrations and protests sometimes ended in full-scale riots.

Who were the Anti-Federalists?

Anti-Federalists were never happy with their name. Elbridge Gerry, a leading Anti-Federalist, reasoned it would have been more appropriate to call to the two sides "rats" and "anti-rats!" He added, " ...they were in favor of a Federal Government, and the others were in favor of a national one."

No group in American political history was more diverse than Anti-Federalists. The opposition to the Constitution brought together rich planters in the South, middle- class politicians in New York and Pennsylvania and back-country farmers from several different regions.

Among leading Anti-Federalist voices were plantation owner George Mason of Virginia and Gerry, a wealthy New England merchant. Mason and Gerry viewed the centralization of power as a dangerous step toward tyranny. The opposition to the Constitution in the mid-Atlantic was very different. It included weaver-turned-politician William Findley and a former shoemaker from Albany, Abraham Yates. These men feared that the Constitution threatened the democratic achievements of the Revolution and they wanted individual states, the governments closest to the people, to keep most of the power in the American system.

Finally, anti-federalism also attracted those with of a lower-class view of democracy. They wanted the voice of the people to have more control. Only the actions of the crowd taking to the streets could fulfill their ideal of democracy.

The Anti-Federalist critique of the Constitution

There was considerable diversity among the opponents of the Constitution. However,  there were three core issues that defined this opposition.

1. The omission of a Bill of Rights

The absence of a Bill of Rights was an often-repeated criticism of the Constitution. Anti-Federalists felt a specific bill of rights was essential for the preservation of liberty.  A fundamental statement of political and legal principles would educate citizens and make them more effective guardians of their own liberty.

2. The centralizing tendencies of the new government

The new powerful central government created by the Constitution would slowly reduce the states to insignificant players in a powerful new centralized nation state. Anti-Federalists feared that the new Constitution would create a central state similar to the one in England. The extensive powers to tax, the provision for a standing army and the weakening of the state militias would allow this new powerful government to become tyrannical.

3. The aristocratic character of the new government

The charge of aristocracy was frequently voiced by Anti-Federalists, and according to this view, the Constitution favored the interests of the wealthy over those of common people. A government with too much power would inevitably become corrupt and would place the interests of those in power over the common good.

Anti-Federalists and the historians

Throughout American history, Anti-Federalist ideas have been resurrected by groups eager to challenge the central government's power. Historians have continuously reinterpreted the meaning of anti-federalism.

In the 1890s, Anti-Federalists were those who wanted to return to the earlier democracies of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. This interpretation was challenged by conservative historians during the Cold War era in the 1950s. For these scholars, the Anti-Federalists were examples of the paranoid style of American politics, as they were backward-looking thinkers who failed to grasp the theoretical brilliance of the Constitution. This claim was later challenged by liberal historians who saw anti-federalism as a movement driven by country people who were opposed by a group of city supporters of the Constitution. The rise of the new social history centered on civil rights and foreign wars during the turbulent 1960s.

During the 20th century, anti-federalism played a central role in a number of different narratives about American history. For some, opposition to the Constitution was part of the rise of democracy. For others, it was bringing on the decline of the republic; while others saw it as a source of modern liberal individualism.

The enduring legacy of the other founders

Judges, lawyers and legal scholars have tried to discover the original understanding of the Constitution and the various provisions of the Bill of Rights. From central government control to the Second Amendment rights regarding militias and weapons, legal scholars and courts have increasingly turned to Anti-Federalist texts to support their conclusions. If the past is any guide to the future, the ideas of the Anti-Federalists are likely to continue to play a prominent role in future constitutional controversies.

Saul Cornell holds the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History, Fordham University, and is the author of "The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788–1828" (1999) and, with Jennifer Keene and Ed O'Donnell, "American Visions: A History of the American Nation" (2009).