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The Anti-Federalists debated with their Federalist colleagues, including Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, on the functional model and competencies of the planned federal government. The Anti-Federalists believed that almost all the executive power should be left to the country's authorities, while the Federalists wanted centralized ...
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]
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 ...
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 Federalists of this time were rivaled by the Anti-Federalists, who opposed the ratification of the Constitution and objected to creating a stronger central government. [14] The critiques of the Constitution raised by the Anti-Federalists influenced the creation of the Bill of Rights . [ 15 ]
Like the anti-Federalists who opposed him, Madison was substantially influenced by the work of Montesquieu, though Madison and Montesquieu disagreed on the question addressed in this essay. He also relied heavily on the philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment , especially David Hume , whose influence is most clear in Madison's discussion of ...
The first Congress also passed the United States Bill of Rights, a key demand of Anti-Federalists, to constitutionally limit the powers of the federal government. During the Federalist Era, American foreign policy was dominated by concerns regarding Britain , France, and Spain.
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.