Today we have Democrats and Republicans, but in 1787, we had Anti- Federalists or Federalists. According to website (www.USConstitution.net), The Anti- Federalists eventually became what we know as today the Democrats and The Federalists became today’s Republican Party.
Those that opposed the building of the new constitution were the Anti- Federalists. Some of these individuals were Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Melanchton Smith. This group all agreed that without certain amendments the constitution would give the Government too much power.
The Anti- Federalists felt that this power would lead to devastation such as stated in the (Centinel, 1787), “The new constitution instead of being panacea or cure of every grievance so delusively represented by its advocates will be found upon examination like Pandora’s Box, replete with every evil.” This article was not the only article that would be published in the IndependentGazetter, and together they were called the Centinel. Many would follow it and many preceded it.
One of the Anti- Federalists main issues was the fear of the vote for representation as they might not know, know of, or believe the same beliefs as the representative for presidency. They feared being ruled by a stranger. They also had a problem with the issue, of this one man spending all his time in office and resembling a King, as they started to use every means that they could to control the stay in the office.
The solution that they came up with was that they wanted to stick with the confederacy and give it the power to protect themselves by state levels. Another of the Anti- Federalists problems was that the Senate would have a control of aristocracy and would become too powerful. The Bill of Rights was a request to be added to the constitution. The Federalists had decided to refuse the Bill of Rights being added claiming that such power could never be claimed by the Government. The Federalists had leadership such as Madison, Franklin and Washington, which gave them strong leverage over the people of the colonies.
This group was prepared as they could answer all of the Anti- Federalists worrisome questions. Their answers were mostly about the power that the constitution would give the Government. The power was to be split into three branches and those branches would each protect the peoples’ rights. No one group would ever have control over another group.
Though the Federalists could not deny that the Bill of Rights was exactly an ill idea, but feared that in listing the rights, and protecting certain rights there would be no way to keep the Government from violating the rights not listed. They felt it would be easier to not list the rights at all.
The idea of the Bill of Rights began to wear on the Federalists; Jefferson and Madison letters of correspondence shows us that they felt that the Bill of Rights just might put a proper legal persuasion on the Judiciary Branch.
The point that the new constitution would give them power to tax in order to pay for an army and give the Government an ability to borrow money from other countries in a time of need. They had no way to pay their soldiers to fight in a time of need and other materials that were needed. This got many to support the Federalists of the new constitution for the purpose that they wanted the extra protection from the Indians.
When I first started the research for this article, I thought I would side with the Federalists completely, however I surprised myself and see many of the worries that the Anti- Federalists had as issues. At that time they did not have the technology as we do now in presidential elections, it was easier to have been known in a state as it would be a smaller area for word to travel.
The Anti- Federalist also had a good reason for worrying about the Government being too strong and powerful, as I do not think they wanted the Government to be similar to that of a monarchy or a ruling King, especially after going through the Revolutionary War. It would have been self destruction to base a Government completely against a Government that the colonies in a whole fought so hard to get away from. Not only the idea of the Revolutionary War comes to mind, but also The Magna Carta, which was present to the English King in 1215, for him to recognize that even he had rules and laws to abide.
Once the two sides took their ideas and combined them and worked together their ideas put together what is now known as the constitution, Bill of Rights, The Democratic Party and The Republican Party to create what we now know as The United States, and united we stand.
