The Anti-Federalists were not right about the Constitution. They thought that ratifying the Constitution would strengthen the national government and weaken the states government power. The truth was that under the Articles of Confederation, the national government was too weak to solve any problems that the states were having, like the economy. The national government under the Articles of Confederation could not impose taxes or set economic policies.
Before the ratification of the Constitution in 1788, the central government could not set taxes or regulate commerce between states or other nations. The central government also had trouble with gaining revenue paying debts owed to foreign countries. And the Articles of Confederation did not even establish the executive or judicial branch, having only the legislative branch, who’s only power is to make laws. This means that while the central government can create new laws, they cannot implement or enforce these laws. When the central government tried tax the states to fund the Revolutionary War, the states would simply not pay.
While the central government was weak, state governments became corrupt and did not use their power justly. State governments would impose trade restrictions with each other, states just printed more money to settle debts, and banks would create plots in which the debt in which they hold would drop value. Under the Articles of Confederation, where the national government had almost no power, the country seemed to be on the edge of collapsing because of its debt problem and no power to solve any domestic or foreign problems.
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These problems affected the country at a colossal scale that meetings took place discussing the problems about the Articles of Confederation and the problems with the economy. Delegates from all the states came to these meetings, which would eventually be called the Constitutional Convention. The reason of the Convention at first was to revise the Articles of Convention and to solve the economic crisis that the United States was going through.
There were two different groups of people at the Constitutional Convention. The first group, the Federalists, not called that at the time, wanted a stronger central government. James Madison, a member of the Federalist Party, argued that a larger federal government would stop separate political groups from trying to take power in the government. The Federalists wanted economic and political stability with England, and to add the executive and Judicial Branches into the central government. These three branches provide a system of checks and balances so that one branch would not have too much more power than the other branches.
The Anti-Federalists were the other political party during this time period. The Anti- Federalists argued for stronger state governments than a strong national government. They were concerned that giving the national government more power would turn it corrupt, or into a monarchy. Samuel Bryan, a delegate from New York, argued that the checks and balances system would be placed not to serve the people, but to “obfuscate federal corruption.” He also said that the rich exaggerated the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation to gain more power and prestige. Robert Yates, delegate from Pennsylvania, made a point, that under the new Constitution, Congress could approve taxes and that the government would decide for themselves what justified creating new taxes “for the general welfare of the people. The Federalists argued that the government power would balance liberty and order in the country.
Even with Anti-Federalist opposition, the Constitution got ratified and put in place in 1788. The new Constitution enabled the central government to tax the people, and for Congress to pass taxes with a majority vote. The Constitution also allowed the President to veto legislature that was from Congress and allowed Congress to override the President’s veto with a two-thirds majority vote.
The Constitution also assigned the responsibility of printing money to the central government, and disallowing the states to print any form of currency. This helped the economy by decreasing inflation of the currency. The Constitution also gave the power of making treaties with foreign countries to the central government. The states also had to give up their power to declare war on other countries and to form armies and navies. The Constitution broke down power between the three branches in the government, legislative, executive, and judicial. Each of these three branches had a checks and balances system to make sure that the branches did not have power over each other.
The delegates in the Constitution Convention made the government powers separated in different parts because they wanted to make sure that it would not be easy for one party or group of people to achieve control over the government. The main reason the Constitution was ratified so early was because of the Bill of Rights appeasing the Anti- Federalists. The Federalists were worried that the addition of the Bill of Rights might limit Americans freedoms by listing the freedoms they had. James Madison saw the importance of adding the Bill of Rights to the Constitution, he saw that the ratification of the Constitution would not proceed if the Anti-Federalists did not get documentation of what the peoples expected rights and liberties are. It was for this reason that the Constitution got ratified without much resistance.
The Anti-Federalists were wrong about the Constitution limiting the states and peoples power over the national government severely. Yes, the Constitution took away some powers that the states owned, but these powers were too great for just the states to have. Before the Constitution was put in place, the central government was too weak and had too few powers to be able to do anything. The country was in an economic crisis because the states had too much power. After the Constitution was ratified, the economic success of it was apparent. The changes that were in the Constitution incentivized people to specialize in different economic occupations, and encouraged them to trade with each other.
Under the new Constitution, Anti-Federalists argued that the new government would be unrepresented by the people, controlled by the upper class, and oppressive to the poor. The Federalists argued that because of the largeness of the country, the people would be more receptive to the new government. Madison argued that a larger government would be less vulnerable to different parties that want to take control over it.
The Constitution correctly fixed the mistakes that were in the Articles of Confederation. Thanks to the Constitution, there was an equal divide of power between the state and central governments. And in the central government, there were three branches of power that had a system of checks and balances over each other. During the Articles of Confederation, the state governments had so much power that it caused an economic crisis. The Constitution made sure that the power to regulate commerce only laid in the hands of the federal government. The Constitution gave the necessary power to the federal government, while still respecting the states government.
