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Thread: The purpose of this forum is to encourage you to think through the major debates
that occurred after the drafting of the Constitution. These are important debates both for
the historic nature of the debates and for the ways in which those debates shaped the lines
of political debate throughout American history.
After the Constitution was written, major debates ensued between the Federalists and the
Anti-Federalists over proper role, size, and scope of the government. In this assignment,
you will have the opportunity to explore, explain, and analyze this debate. Refer to the
significance/role of the Bill of Rights, Madison’s Federalist Paper #10, and the 9th and 10th
Amendments (among other things).
What were the major arguments of the Anti-Federalists and the Federalists?
Based upon your course reading, were the Anti-Federalist or the Federalists more
consistent with American political thought?
Find an example of Anti-Federalist thought in current events and find an example of Anti-
Federalist thought in current events. Explain how your example represents the perspective
you’re describing.
The major arguments regarding the Anti-Federalists and the Federalists were their views on the
centralization of government. According to the anti-federalists, the United States Constitution
gave too much power to the Federal government. Their skepticism of the Constitution resulted in
the implementation of the Bill of Rights including the ninth and tenth amendment. One of the
more well known anti-federalists, Patrick Henry, deeply rejected the notion of a strong federal
government because of the depravity of man. Patrick Henry once declared, “Show me that age
and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their
rulers being good men without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest
privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt.”1
As the result of the anti-federalists efforts, the tenth amendment was constructed in order to
confirm the understanding of the people at the time the Constitution was adopted, that powers
not granted to the United States were reserved to the States or to the people.2
The antifederalists also believed that government worked best when the size of the republic was
smaller. This would ultimately be a highly debated issue and one in which is the basis for James
Madison’s Federalist paper 10 where he advocated the importance of an extended republic to
reduce the liklihood of the majority oppressing the thoughts of the minority.3
American political thought has changed over the years, however it seems that the anti-federalists,
rather than the federalists promoted early American sentiments both before and directly after the
revolutionary war. Ultimately while federalists support the American political thought of the
modern day, the anti-federalists supported American thoughts surrounding the revolution as they
were more fearful of central government and advocated for the Bill of Rights because the
government could not be trusted to support human rights on their own. While the anti-federalists
promoted more individual liberty than that of the federalists, the federalists form of governance
is more practical especially dealing with economic and foreign matters.
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The anti-federalists predicted that the federal government that the Constitution created would
increase its power until states were second considerations. They also argued, unlike James
Madison, that it was unwise to govern and large population from a remote and distant
government that would hold immense power over the daily lives of common people. This has
proven to be a very large issue as the federal government makes more decisions about American
personal life than ever before, and even state governments have increasingly passed pre-emptive
measures which take power from the localities to make decisions for the people within their
jurisdictions.4
1Wilson, Travis. Shall Liberty or Empire be Sought, April 1, 2014.
2 United States v. Sprague, 282 U.S. 716, 733 (1931).
3Madison, James. Federalist No.10, in The Federalist Papers, ed. Clinton Rossiter (New York: New American Library, 1961), pg 61.
4Burrus, Trevor. The Anti-Federalists Predicted Today’s Political Morass, and Can Help Us Get Out, November 7, 2016.
I really enjoyed reading your post, Abigail. It is true that one of the greatest achievements of the
Constitution Convention was the disillusion of the Articles of Confederation. The articles posed
many issues in providing for homeland security as the process under the Confederation to declare
war would have been costly for the country’s security. While there were many examples of how
the Articles of Confederation failed, the anti-federalists who did not support the creation of a
strong central government like the one proposed in the Constitution, did have legitimate
concerns. Their main concerns were grounded in the notion of a government gradually becoming
tyrannical which we can see remnants of that in our own government today such as the
development of the National Security Association. (1)
While the disillusionment of the Articles of Confederation was an important accomplishment, I
believe that the anti-federalists support for the creation of the Bill of Rights was the most
important accomplishment of the convention.
I agree with you that one of the most important aspects of the Constitutional Convention was the
Great Compromise. However, there has been large disagreements even today about if the Great
Compromise was able to make the voting system of representation more fair. Adam Liptak, in his
article Big State, Small State, advocates the inequality of the Great Compromise as due to the
amount of residents. He states that , “ a Vermonter has 30 times the voting power in the Senate of
a New Yorker just over the state line”. (2)
Ultimately, I really enjoyed reading your post and I look forward to reading your discussions in
the future.
1 Gary Galles. The Antifederalists were Right (2006).
2 Adam Liptak. Big State, Small State, New York Times (2013).
