Opposition Against The New Constitution
by The major argument that they Anti-Federalist had was that it took away the rights of the states and threatened the natural rights of the people.
The draft of the constitution was a big surprise to the people because nobody knew about it except for those who were involved in the convention to draft one. Once people knew about the new constitution, some became furious because the public had no word on it. Those who opposed the new constitution became known as the Anti-Federalist. Anti-Federalist strongly opposed the ratification of the new constitution and united under that cause.
Anti-Federalist argued that the new constitution gave the federal government too much power. Along with the old ideas listed on the Articles of Confederation, the new constitution gave the national government new powers such as the power to tax and to assemble an army. The largest problem was the fact that it would take away the power from the states. This started conflicts with smaller states because in the Articles of Confederation every state was equal, but the new Constitution would change that. Next, it lacked a Bill of Rights. Anti-Federalist felt that the constitution could potentially violate the rights of people. Eventually, the Bill of Rights became the main focus of the Anti-Federalist and it also rallied the support of others. They stated that the new constitution was very vague and ambiguous. Anti-Federalist had a fear of the new developing government because the constitution can allow anything to happen. The Bill of Rights would protect the rights of the people from the government.
The Federalist, in favor of ratifying the constitution realized that the vote on ratifying the constitution was very close. They feared that if it did not pass, they would have to spend more time to draft a completely new constitution. They agreed that the Bill of Rights would be drafted once the constitution was ratified. This last attempt succeeded and the Anti-Federalist won the battle concerning the Bill of Rights. However, Anti-Federalist lost the war in their attempt to fight off the ratification of the Constitution.
Liked it
