Anti-Federalists Against too much Power
After the revolutionary war against britain the newly independent country made a new government. within the government to parties arose known as the Federalist and antifederalist. The Federalist were all for a strong government while the Anti-Federalist favored a weaker government.So when the Federaist tried to make a constitution that gave the government more power the Anti-Federalist refused to ratify the constitution. One of the reasons the Anti-Federalist refused to ratify the constitution was because it gave too much power to the government. The constitution would allow the government to tax the people much like British government had done so before in England. Another aspect that they did not like was that the Anti-Federalist felt like the government term positions were too long. They feared that those in power would not want to lose such a power and would end up taking over the position they were in. The Anti-Federalist also felt like they gave too much power to the executive branch by giving him the power to veto laws and to have control of the army. They felt like the executive branch could use the position of Commander in chief to oppress the people. The Anti- Federalist felt as if the constitution was being modeled as though the British were once again in control of them like from before.
Another reason the Anti-Federalist did not approve of the constitution was because they felt that it was written by the rich for the rich. They felt as if the constitution was more focused on protecting private property of the elite rather than protecting those people who needed help with their debts that could not be paid by the common people. The Anti-Federalist of course had had no say on what was written on the constitution since they were not including in the creation of the constitution. It was actually written in secret by rich elites and high status gentlemen like Franklin, Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and...
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