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Federalists Vs. Anti Federalists

After the Constitutional Convention the real battle was just beginning. There were those people who opposed the Constitution and they took on the name of the Anti-Federalists, and then there were those who were in favor of the Constitution and they became known as the Federalists. There were many opinions from both sides played out in the public through printed newspapers across the country. The debates between the two sides were heated at times. The main concern was how much power the federal government should have. "Two Founding Fathers who represented opposing sides were Alexander Hamilton, who argued for a strong national government with James Madison and John Jay in the seminal Federalist Papers, and Thomas Jefferson who favored a weaker central government and more power resting with individual states"(The Federalists Debates, n.d; & Bruns 1986). This is where the different political parties got there starts; they are what we call today Democrats and Republicans.
The plight of the Anti-Federalists was essentially they wanted a more pure federal system. They believed that the Constitution as it stood did not protect individual rights. Samual Bryan was the first to publish an article where he declared "that the new government would become one controlled by the wealthy established families and the culturally refined. The common working people he believed were in danger of being subjugated to the will of an all powerful authority remote and inaccessible to the people." Of course the Federalists also gave compelling speeches in their defense for instance when James Wilson made a speech to a crowd "praising the new government as the best which has ever been offered to the world"(Bruns, 1986).
Both sides gave compelling arguments and had valid points of view, but the Anti-Federalists seemed to be the side that had the people's best interests in mind. They only wanted to protect the rights of the people in America, and the Constitution lacked...

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