Dbq The Beliefs Of The Federalist And Anti-Federalists

The Federalists and Anti-federalists shared the common beliefs of John Locke’s Enlightenment ideals such as all men were born equal (even though most of these men owned slaves), but their opinions about the role of government were different. Both parties had their own visions of how a new government would function and how the Constitution would support the government being proposed. Many argued that the Articles of Confederation had created a very weak government with very limited power. Specifically, the amount of power or the absence of power of a central government was the main disagreement between the Federalists and Anti-federalists. As a result, the Federalists and Anti-federalists argued about the ratification of a new constitution, which would give the central government more power.

The leaders of the Federalist Party were George Washington (but not openly) from Virginia, Benjamin Franklin from Massachusetts, James Madison also from Virginia, and Alexander Hamilton from Virginia.

This party developed because of the ratification of the constitution process; one way the Federalists tried to persuade people that their views were right about a strong central government during the ratification process was through several articles, which became known as The Federalist Papers. The Federalists argued that the people needed a strong central government to keep order and protect the union (Doc 1). They believed that this form of government was needed because the Articles of Confederation was proof that the union needed a strong central government. They argued that the Articles of Confederation gave the central government too little power and as a result the Union, faced economic difficulties, foreign problems and state quarrels (Doc 3). They processed Checks and Balances, which was a system designed so that the central government would not get more powerful than the other would, and was intended to counter arguments being made by the Anti-federalists (Doc

7).
The leaders of the Anti-federalists party were George Mason and Patrick Henry from Virginia and John Hancock and James Winthrop from Massachusetts and George Clinton from New York. This Party opposed the Federalists, but still agreed that the Articles of Confederation did not work. The Anti-federalists believed that the federal government should not have an abundance of power. They believed a strong central government would eventually have complete control of everyone (Doc 4). The Anti- Federalist also believed that each individual state should have a Bill of Rights to protect the individual states rights (Doc 5). The Anti-federalists also tried to persuade people that the constitution did not need to be ratified (Doc 6).
These two parties did have some common agreements such as their views on human nature and the rights of man ruling over other men, but they disagreed on virtually everything else. The Anti-federalist thought the Federalists were creating a tyrannical government that would eventually take all power from the people and state. The Federalists thought the Anti-federalist had no solution for any problems going on inside the government.
The different opinions and ideas of these parties is what accounted for the way the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights was written, and the laws in these documents. Federalists and Anti-federalists had their own visions of the new Constitution and how it would support believes on how the government should be withheld, but their opinions about government were different. No one party was perfect they both had aspects wrong with them. These two parties were polar opposites but they wanted the same outcome, a good government.