Monday, January 25, 2016

What was said by the Anti Federalists when they were arguing on what the new government of the United States should look like?

It should also be pointed out that the anti-Federalists,
some of whom included Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, refused to ratify the 1787
Constitution unless it has a Bill of Rights attached to it. This Bill of Rights would
limit the power of any future federal government that would unite the 13 states in a
stronger, "more perfect Union."


The anti-Federalists were
keenly aware of the abuses of government. Thomas Jefferson, who would eventually become
the leader of the successor party to the anti-Federalists, to be known as the
Democratic-Republicans, wrote about the abuses of supreme executive power in his
Declaration of Independence. He borrowed many words and phrases from previous documents,
such as the English Bill of Rights (1689) and the Virginia Declaration of Right
(1776).


The Bill of Rights that we have today consists of
the first ten amendments to the Constitution. The current ten originally started out as
12, but after some editing by James Madison, the First Congress narrowed the list down
to 10, with ratification coming from the states in 1791, keeping their promise to list
those rights retained by the people, and they also included the 9th and 10th Amendments,
which reserved unenumerated powers to the people and the states respectively. This
document would be used to justify the state's power to nullify federal law, though
unsuccessfully. Either way, the Bill of Rights is a legacy left to "posterity" of the
Framers by the anti-federalists.

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