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Anti-Federalism was a late-18th-century political movement that opposed the creation of a stronger U.S. federal government and which later opposed the ratification of the 1787 Constitution. The previous constitution, called the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union , gave state governments more authority.
Generally speaking they reflected the sentiments of the Anti-Federalists, which Akhil Reed Amar of the Yale Law School generalized as: a localist fear of a powerful central government, a belief in the necessity of direct citizen participation in democracy, and a distrust of wealthy merchants and industrialists. [7]
The Anti-Federalists also objected to the new powerful central government, the loss of prestige for the states, and saw the Constitution as a potential threat to personal liberties. [7] During the ratification process, the Anti-Federalists presented a significant opposition in all but three states.
Madison and Jefferson formed the Democratic-Republican Party from a combination of former Anti-Federalists and supporters of the Constitution who were dissatisfied with the Washington administration's policies. [141] Nationwide, Democratic-Republicans were strongest in the South, and many of party's leaders were wealthy Southern slaveowners.
The Anti-Federalists demanded and got a promise of a Bill of Rights so that Ratification of the 1787 constitution in 1789 would not be stillborn (a political reality reluctantly recognized by the "father" of the Constitution, James Madison). These collections are their unabridged arguments against a strong central government.
Brutus was the pen name of an Anti-Federalist in a series of essays designed to encourage New Yorkers to reject the proposed Constitution. His essays are considered among the best of those written to oppose adoption of the proposed constitution. [1] They paralleled and confronted The Federalist Papers during the ratification fight over the ...
Melancton Smith (May 7, 1744 – July 29, 1798) was a merchant, lawyer and a New York delegate to the Continental Congress. [1] Praised for his intelligence, liberality, and reasonableness, [2] Smith had attained considerable respect in the State of New York by 1787 and he has been described by modern scholars as the most important Anti-Federalist theorist and spokesman.
The letters indicate that the Federal Farmer ascribed to the compact theory of federalism. The threat to federal government constituted a menace to republicanism. Without federalism, a republic the size of the United States would have grave difficulty giving fair representation to the varied interests of the people in the different states.