Federalists and Anti-Federalists - Critique the Arguments of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists

Sanya Nar

Michele Taylor

5th October, 2017

Federalists and Anti-Federalists

Critique the arguments of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

Federalists were supporters of the Constitution and they favored the balance of of power between states and the government. Anti-federalists were the opposite, they opposed having such a strong central government and thus were against the Constitution.

The Federalists insisted on division of power and the systems of checks that would protect Americans from the tyranny of central economy. This is a completely valid reason because in a country as big and diverse as America, too much power concentrated in one position could potentially damage the country. Having too much power could also create an authoritarian ruler and a country without any checks and balances. It would be better for the country if power was distributed throughout states and not just within the central government. Also, to many people the central government represented the British monarch that had recently been overthrown.

The Anti-Federalists were against the Constitution until it included the Bill of Rights. They did this because they were afraid that the Constitution wasn’t enough to protect their rights as individual citizens. The Federalists argued that this was unnecessary because any power not given to the federal government was to be given to the people and the states. However, this is an extremely unreliable source of legitimacy and there’s no way to guarantee it will happen. The conditions are also very broad and so they can be easily misconstrued against the people. Word of mouth is not sufficient to ensure the rights of citizens. The Bill of Rights on the other hand, is clear, concise, and accurately pointed out what liberties citizens enjoyed and placed restrictions on the government.

The two groups also disagreed on how to handle the economy. The Federalists firmly believed in taxes and centralizing the economy. He wanted to create a national bank that would provide loads to businessmen and increase investment in the industry because at the time America had an agricultural economy. Federalists wanted to shift from agriculture to industry. However, in rural areas people feared that a strong central government might add to their tax burden and thus favored the Anti-Federalists. In terms of centralizing the economy, I agree with the Federalists because the shift in industry from agriculture to industrial was a crucial period and if they hand’t establishing central banks and given out loans, then progress would be drastically limited as people would have no resources to set themselves up. The shift wouldn’t have been possible without government resources and aid. Taxes may seem like they’re a burden on the people, but at the end of the day they benefit the very people who paid them so I also agree with taxes.