When the 13 colonies were declared independence from Britain on July, 4th, 1776, they realized the extremity of their intentions in the war and to coordinate with each other. Furthermore, they adopted the Articles of Confederation, which was a basis constitution which created an alliance of sovereign states which made the state’s work with each other in military relations and foreign policies. Although the Articles of Confederation were helpful and established order, they weren’t sufficient enough to hold the states united through the war.
After the war, the states didn’t even consider following the Articles of Confederation and decided to follow their own personal interests rather than thinking about the interests of the new free United States. In addition, most of America’s top intellects needed to decide how they would unify the country, economy as well as establish a balanced government. There were two political parties that were a products of the new uprising country; The Federalists and the Antifederalists. During the time, Congress was acting as the head of the government but only because as a country we lacked the legal structure of authority.
In 1777, For Congress it was difficult to lay a new foundation of government in the center of a continued global war. America soon realized they had no political aims or experience in how to establish and form a successful country. Furthermore America resided to the republican political theory as well as their experiences as colonials. There was plenty of controversy about whether the ideals of the Federalists were stronger than that of the Anti federalists and vice versa, because the country was stuck and needed to find its path.
It was soon proven that The political views of the Federalists were better than that of the Anti Federalists because they were more organized, had more experience and claimed to establish a strong central government that would preserve the individual liberties of the people. Through, 1776 when the United States gained independence to 1788 when the Constitution was ratified, Federalists and Antifederalists had an on ongoing debate based on one question, how should we structure the United States government and economy and why?
The differences between the Federalists and the Antifederalists are so wide ranged and structured in such a way that they have very contrasting viewpoints. The Federalists’ beliefs could be portrayed as one of a nationalist, because they believed in one strong central government. Federalists wanted that strong central government in order to stabilize and bring balance into the country. The Federalists had a plan to ratify and modify the Constitution to properly manage the debt and tensions that followed in the American Revolution.
They were all for the ratification of the Constitution, they believed that the constitution would help them further their cause. The Federalists wanted to further their cause by creating a government that would benefit the wealthy as well as the economy and correct the debt that America faced after the war. One of the reasons why the Federalists wanted a strong central government was because they wanted to unify the country; They felt that the country was solely focusing on state claims rather than the benefit of the country as a whole.
George Washington named Alexander Hamilton the first secretary of treasury, but also Hamilton held most of the power out of the Federalists and had the most ideas and support on his claims as a Federalist, he once stated” It’s not tyranny we desire; it’s a just, limited, federal government. ” Which specifically coordinates to the conclusion that a strong federal government can prevail. As well as re As a whole the Federalists believed that the American Government should uphold the rights and liberties each person should have. Most of the Federalists were ealthy and therefore lived in many urban areas and cities where they can profit, which was beneficial because they would benefit the economy by creating more jobs and offering more opportunity. The Antifederalists opposed the ratification of the Us Constitution, because they felt that it gave too much power to those in charge. Most of the Anti Federalists never organized efficiently enough across all the 13 states, so they had to fight the ratification of the constitution in every state convention. In addition, the Anti Federalists believed that state governments needed to become a vital procedure.
They deem that if they let each state govern themselves it would be the closest thing the country had to establishing a real government that was for the people. Although, Federalists and Antifederalists did agree on one thing, which was the belief that having a king or a entitled dictator would only lead to disaster in America. But the Anti Federalists felt very strongly that the state governments and territories would be the most efficient way, because they believed that America was too divided within its culture of the people that it would become to difficult to run solely on one national government.
What concerned the Anti Federalists the most was a sole national government that would start off strong but then soon begin to differentiate and start to create different priorities about the economy and its wealth. Also another main concern that the Antifederalists had was that the states would lose their independent influence with the expansion of the new national government’s power. Although, most of the Anti Federalists were farmers or poor people who lived in farm areas, they still held strong intelligent opinions on how a central government should not hold all of the power.
Anti Federalists thought that the constitution would give too much power to congress and the central government that if it stayed on that path, America will become corrupt. The Anti Federalists felt that if the government was run in a more Federalist way that they would only support the wealthy and help them with profits and focus on the matters of money rather than the welfare of the people. The success the the Anti Federalists received was pushing for the Bill of Rights, because that would be the only way to ensure their liberties that the Anti Federalists felt the Constitution violated.
Thomas Jefferson played a big role in the ideals of the Anti-Federalists, he originally supported the idea of a strong federal government, but he resigned from the cabinet in 1793 because of his strong counter arguments to the federalist views of Alexander Hamilton, particularly having to do with the funding of war debts. Thomas Jefferson then went on to draft the Kentucky Resolution which was one of the very first written declarations of state rights. Thomas drafted this as an attempt to provide evidence that the 1793 Federalist sedition and Alien acts were not constitutional.
Thomas Jefferson thoroughly disliked the concept of implied powers, which meant that the government can use any of their powers not explicitly disallowed in the Constitution. Jefferson was against everything the Federalist party stood for and states his personal opinion of them,”Thave been ever opposed to the party, so falsely called Federalists, because I believe them desirous of introducing, into our government, authorities hereditary or otherwise independent of the national will. ” He believes them to be false and against independence of the people’s liberties.
The Federalists succeeded in creating a strong national government but with that came responsibilities. America still needed to pay off its war debt and the economic ideals of the Federalists would be able to accommodate that, by establishing a national bank. The national bank was a successful idea, it had three main phases that associated with the national bank that convinced the people that the national bank was a good idea to have.
The three phrases are as stated: “to lay taxes for the purpose to provide for the general welfare… o make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the enumerated powers... [and] to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states. ” To the American people these sounded like gifts that would be able to solve all of America’s problems as well as being able to establish a well, put togther economy. In addition, the Federalists also gained popularity with the Federalists Papers. The Federalist Papers were, a series of eighty-five essays urging the citizens of New York to ratify the new United States Constitution.
The Federalists papers drew influence and brought up conversation about the new Constitution. One of the main points that stood out in the Federalists papers was in the introduction,”It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government. ” This means that the main question is whether America can prevail and become successful in present time as well as in the future.
The papers were written by none other than Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay. The paper received a lot of attention and were put in newspapers around the country. Thus, The Federalists prevailed in their reach toward creating a economy and government in which eventually succeeded. Through the ideal of having a strong central government that would unify the country, to paying off the war debt and creating a stable economy through the use of the U. S national bank.
In addition to ratifying the constitution as well as establishing the Federalists Papers and to provide for the general welfare. Their ideals also helped establish the creation of the Bill of Rights as well as the earlier form of Constitution which were the Articles of Confederation. All in all, the decision in believing in the ideas and economic and political views of the Federalists worked out. As of now, we base our whole economy and government ideals on what Alexander Hamilton, Congress, and the other Federalists did.
