Federalism Vs. Antifederalism

The ratification of the Constitution resulted in a great amount of debate within the young United States. The argument was between the supporters of the Constitution, the Federalists, and the opponents of it, the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists argued that a strong national government was necessary to bring things like stability, order, and unity to the country. The Anti-Federalists countered by saying that the power belonged with the governments of the states, rather than having a central government ruling over everyone. They were against any type of government that would diminish the ability of the states to govern themselves. These differences in opinion would result in some heated debate that almost sent our young country spiraling towards civil war.

The arguments in favor of the Federalists and the Constitution are well known. The Federalists believed that the Articles of Confederation did not give the national government enough authority. They decided to change this by drafting the Constitution. The Constitution to the Federalists was a problem solver. Such issues that they thought would be resolved were the disputes between states in trade, lack of a common currency, and issues regarding national security and defense. The Constitution was meant to solve these problems but the Federalists also claimed that the national government would preserve the independence of the states and the people living in them.

The Anti-Federalists technically lost the fight over the ratification of the Constitution. The reasons they stated for opposing the Constitution are very interesting, especially considering how different things would be if there was no Constitution or if it were structured a lot differently. One reason why they did not support the Constitution was because they weren’t as confident as the Federalists about keeping the national government from becoming too powerful. They also argued that the Constitutional Convention had exceeded the authority it was given by the Confederal Congress. They did not want a new system of government. Instead, they were confident in amending the Articles of Confederation. This never happened. The Articles of Confederation were simply abolished and forgotten.

One of the main points repeated by the Anti-Federalists over and over is that they would fight for the power of the individual states. They claimed that the system that the Federalists were planning on was not really a federal system at all but one that destroyed the independence of the states including the people living in them. After the states had fought long and hard for their independence,