Similarities Between The Federalist And Anti-Federalists

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In the final copy of the Constitution, many compromises were made between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The main goal of the Federalists’ was to ratify and publish the Constitution; however, the unanimous ratification by all thirteen states needed to publish the Constitution set their progress back, as the Anti-Federalists had many issues with the standing draft of the Constitution. The primary topic of discourse between the two factions was over the addition of the Bill of Rights. Another topic of contention held was the Anti-Federalists’ demands for full and fair representation in the government. Their argument was that the Constitution would give an overwhelming amount of power to the federal government, and leave the state and local governments deprived of power. They feared that the federal government would be too absent in governing to represent the citizen, as a

state and local government could. Besides the addition of the Bill of Rights, the following are the three major compromises that were made in the Constitution: the Great Compromise, the Three-Fifths Compromise, and the Trade Compromise. However, the Anti-Federalists were the ultimate “winners,” of the Constitution because they received the addition of the Bill of Rights, which secured the rights of men. Ultimately, both factions should have been satisfied with what they received from the ratification of the Constitution, but the Anti-Federalists had the most to gain because they earned rights, their primary goal, for the individual that, if they had gone overlooked, there is the possibility that the United States Government today would be very different.
The Anti-Federalists vivacious fight for the Bill of Rights has had an under-handed affect on the United States Government as we know it today.

The Bill of Rights wasn’t just a simple want from average citizens that weren’t well-to-do and privileged, it was necessity that. Their victory in securing the rights protected the thirteen states from the possibility of forming a government that could hypothetically end up being too strongly centralized and too far removed from state and local governing that it would end up resembling a monarchy. This hypothetical government has striking resemblances to the one that they just fought against in war defending their individual rights and liberties. Kennedy quotes the well-known Anti-Federalist Richard Henry Lee on this very subject, “’Tis really astonishing that the same people, who have just emerged from a long and cruel war in defense of liberty, should now agree to fix an elective despotism upon themselves and their posterity” (Kennedy 173). Here, Lee expresses one of the Anti-Federalists sentiments opposing the proposed

constitution.
The first major compromise was made at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia and after it was made, the setback in faction relations was broken and from then on it seemed that more concessions were able to be reached. This concession is known as the Great Compromise. This regarded the conflict of unfair representation. The Great Compromise settled this conflict through the following: the creation of a 2 house (bicameral) legislature. One house would be based upon population, the House of Representatives, and the second house would be based upon equal votes per state, the United States Senate. This means that each state would have two senators. Additionally, every tax bill or revenue measure must originate in the House, where population counted more heavily (Kennedy 170).
The second very important compromise settled the conflict on slavery. There was contention on the matter of taxation and representation of slaves. The Southern states supported slavery and wanted the slaves to count for representation, but not for taxation; however, the Northern states wanted slaves to count for taxation, but not for representation (Kennedy 172).