Anti-Federalism essays

Anti-Federalism essays The adoption of the U.S. Constitution created a centralized authority giving a great amount of power to the federal government. I think that the governments powers should be reduced and more equally divided among its branches. With such things we could have specific limitations on the government's taxation and commerce powers as well as many other things that would make our society better for the people. I feel that the Articles of Confederation work, they just need amending. This new found liberty is something that shouldn't be given up on so easily. At the Constitutional convention in which George Washington was elected President many key people were absent from the meeting; Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were away on foreign affairs and Patrick Henry refused to attend the meeting because he "smelt a rat". Patrick Henry's suspections were correct being that James Madison who had been behind the formation of the meeting had in mind the creation of a powerful central government and the subversion of the authority of the state legislatures. With the meeting being held without the presents of some of the country's major political leaders, decisions were not made to their greatest potential. In their absence some ideas were proposed such as Madison's idea that called for the near annihilation of the State legislatures and the creation of an implied empire. Other ideas came about like Alexander Hamilton's statement that the British government was above all others and had a plan to appoint lifetime executive officials - a Monarchy. The reason most Anti-Federalists oppose to the Constitution is that the republic must remain in the states, it must be geographically small in order to meet the needs of the people. With such a large demographic, the interest of the people would be too diverse and should be kept divided for individual control. SUch large districs ...