Antifederalists Vs Federalists

The drafting of the new federal Constitution for the infant United States drew many staunch lines between federalists and antifederalists. These differences proved to be vast and in most cases complex, the antifederalists opposed the newly drafted constitution, while the federalists pushed for its ratification. These two primary views of how the United States government should function, made the ratification of the Constitution by no means a guarantee in 1787. Thus, the criticisms made by the antifederalists and the retorts returned by the federalists echoed the uncertainty of the United States in its infancy, plus these arguments demonstrated the blurred views on the “good society” and developed the Constitution into a document that preserved
The antifederalists rallied behind the ideologies of the Revolution. They saw the federalists as monarchical, detouring from the wants and needs of the people in search for national glory. Patrick Henry and Edmund Randolph both feared that states would lose their right to govern their own people and thus, each state should be able to govern as its own independent entity. They stressed the importance of virtues representation, fearing the proposed congress would be too much like parliament, and the president too much like a king. However, the antifederalists could not agree on an alternative form of government that would fit their agrarian “good society.” They pressed for a Bill of Rights, to ensure individuals would keep their rights and the “ordinary people” would not be forgotten by the monarchs in charge. They wanted to ensure that Revolutionary themes of sovereignty and direct representation would not be lost with the new constitution, placing more importance on their proposed Bill of
While the vision of the federalists remained dominant in the Constitution, the first ten amendments were added in as the Bill of Rights, establishing an important compromise and addition to the document. The antifederalists constant critiques over the federalists helped develop the Constitution further, and forced men like to Madison to continue publishing essays in for the Federalist Papers and answer the complex questions of strong central government that many Americans still feared. While the federalists won the day in regards to ratifying the Constitution, the antifederalists helped preserve the core principles that carried the colonies through the Revolution. Therefore, while some of the core ideologies were muted by the Federalists’ Constitution in light of a more progressive and modernized nation, the antifederalists forced them to critique and improve their own core beliefs. This allotted for successful combination of Revolutionary and modern progressive ideologies that assisted in the development of young