After the War of Independence, the founding fathers sought to create a government unlike any that the world had previously seen. With their recent experiences under British rule, the United States did not want a powerful central government; therefore, they created a document in which all the power went to the states, the Articles of Confederation. When this document proved to be weak, the Founding Fathers began to re-evaluate their stance on a central government. This led to the idea of ratifying the United States Constitution. The Federalists, who supported the ratification, attempted to promote the ratification through a collection of essays called the Federalist Papers. The Anti-Federalists, who opposed the ratification of the Constitution,
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Throughout this process, there was one overall winner, the Federalists. There are numerous ways that their victory is apparent in the United States Constitution. First, the Constitution implemented Madison’s system of checks and balances to prevent one particular branch from acquiring too much power. In Federalist 51, Madison expressed his fear of the government obtaining too much power. He explained that a system in which each branch overlooks the other two branches would “control the abuses of government” and ensure that no single branch would become too powerful (Madison). Furthermore, Madison’s idea from Federalist 10 was also incorporated into the Constitution. In his essay, he argued the importance of a Republic, opposed to …show more content…
For instance, they won the Bill of Rights. The Anti-Federalists believed these ten amendments were necessary to protect individual freedoms and basic rights and prevent an over-powerful central government. Though the Federalists opposed this idea, they added it as a concession to the Anti-Federalists; they realized the only way they would achieve ratification to the Constitution would be to compromise. In the Tenth Amendment, the states are granted the powers not reserved for Congress (BarbourA-1). Despite their minor victories, the Anti-Federalists essentially lost in the ratification process. One specific example of their defeat can be seen in one of their essays, Brutus 3. In this essay, Brutus argued for equal representation within government, in which the number of people voting would be proportional to the number of people living in the states. Unfortunately, he lost this argument, and Article 1 of the Constitution implemented the three-fifths compromise (Barbour
Throughout this process, there was one overall winner, the Federalists. There are numerous ways that their victory is apparent in the United States Constitution. First, the Constitution implemented Madison’s system of checks and balances to prevent one particular branch from acquiring too much power. In Federalist 51, Madison expressed his fear of the government obtaining too much power. He explained that a system in which each branch overlooks the other two branches would “control the abuses of government” and ensure that no single branch would become too powerful (Madison). Furthermore, Madison’s idea from Federalist 10 was also incorporated into the Constitution. In his essay, he argued the importance of a Republic, opposed to …show more content…
For instance, they won the Bill of Rights. The Anti-Federalists believed these ten amendments were necessary to protect individual freedoms and basic rights and prevent an over-powerful central government. Though the Federalists opposed this idea, they added it as a concession to the Anti-Federalists; they realized the only way they would achieve ratification to the Constitution would be to compromise. In the Tenth Amendment, the states are granted the powers not reserved for Congress (BarbourA-1). Despite their minor victories, the Anti-Federalists essentially lost in the ratification process. One specific example of their defeat can be seen in one of their essays, Brutus 3. In this essay, Brutus argued for equal representation within government, in which the number of people voting would be proportional to the number of people living in the states. Unfortunately, he lost this argument, and Article 1 of the Constitution implemented the three-fifths compromise (Barbour