Federalists & Anti-Federalists Quick Lesson

[Luis337]

When the newly independent and sovereign states of the union formed, they had some hyperinflation problems so they told their representatives to go meet up and edit the Articles of Confederation to fix the problem.

We ended up scrapping the Articles of Confederation without significantly addressing the currency problems and just began from scratch...and from that came the Constitution. There were two important men present commanding two main groups at the drafting of the Constitution:

Alexander Hamilton and his buddies who were nationalists; favoring a strong central government and even a monarchy.

Patrick Henry and his buddies who were federalists; favoring strong states' rights.

Now, Mr. Hamilton was very sneaky. He named his group "the federalists" even though they were nationalists. He did this because the country had just had a revolution to get rid of a strong central government: King George III. He knew the people wanted to be part of sovereign states.

Mr. Henry named his group "the anti-federalists" because he of course was against Hamilton's nationalist ideas, but he had already taken the name of federalists.

The two groups wrote a series of letters and essays to convince the general population to vote in order to approve or reject the new Constitution.
These are known as the Federalists Papers (which are widely cited in court cases) and the Anti-Federalist Papers (which are basically ignored especially today.) If you have a child, look through their history book and search for the Anti-Federalist Papers. They're non-existent. Now look for the Federalist Papers.

Long story short: The population voted for the ideas of "The Federalists" (nationals), when what we fought a war
to have was the ideas of "The Anti-Federalists" (federalists).

[the Great Ag]

Nice summary, Lou. THanks.

For those who want to get more detailed about the Anti-federalists, these 2 books are indispensable:
The Articles of Confederation by Merrill Jensen http://www.amazon.com/articles-Confe...0483146&sr=1-6

The Anti-Federalists by Jackson Turner-Main http://www.amazon.com/Antifederalist...482283&sr=1-17

I read the Articles of Confederation first before the Anti-federalists. I DO NOT recommend reading the Anti-Federalist papers as I found the writing style of that period difficult to read. What we write in one sentence, would take 3-5 in the revolutionary period.

After reading these two books, you will have a huge understanding of the differences between the two documents and how the US CON is designed for a LARGE CENTRAL GOV'T.

THe Great Ag

[footloose]

When the newly independent and sovereign states of the union formed, they had some hyperinflation problems so they told their representatives to go meet up and edit the Articles of Confederation to fix the problem.

We ended up scrapping the Articles of Confederation without significantly addressing the currency problems and just began from scratch...and from that came the Constitution. There were two important men present commanding two main groups at the drafting of the Constitution:

Alexander Hamilton and his buddies who were nationalists; favoring a strong central government and even a monarchy.

Patrick Henry and his buddies who were federalists; favoring strong states' rights.

Now, Mr. Hamilton was very sneaky. He named his group "the federalists" even though they were nationalists. He did this because the country had just had a revolution to get rid of a strong central government: King George III. He knew the people wanted to be part of sovereign states.

Mr. Henry named his group "the anti-federalists" because he of course was against Hamilton's nationalist ideas, but he had already taken the name of federalists.

The two groups wrote a series of letters and essays to convince the general population to vote in order to approve or reject the new Constitution.These are known as the Federalists Papers (which are widely cited in court cases) and the Anti-Federalist Papers (which are basically ignored especially today.) If you have a child, look through their history book and search for the Anti-Federalist Papers. They're non-existent. Now look for the Federalist Papers.

Long story short: The population voted for the ideas of "The Federalists" (nationals), when what we fought a war
to have was the ideas of "The Anti-Federalists" (federalists).

I'm probably missing something here, but I don't recall the general populace ever getting a chance to vote either way.

Sorry GreatAg, I highly recomment reading the antifederalist papers. A little brain exercise never hurt anyone.

Antifederalist No. 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION: A DANGEROUS PLAN OF BENEFIT ONLY TO THE "ARISTOCRATICK COMBINATION"

That part, right there in the first paragraph, should tell the story in clear enough terms.

http://www.wepin.com/articles/afp/