Federalists / Anti-Federalists

Who are these groups?

After the constitution was created, it needed to be RATIFIED (approved).

It became obvious that there were two ways of thinking about the Constitution. Some were for it and some had problems with it.

We call these two groups the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists.

Lets look at what they believed…

View of the Federal Government

Federalists Believed there

needed to be a strong, federal government.

Anti-Federalists Were afraid of a

federal government becoming too powerful.

Wanted to keep most power with the states.

View of the 3 branches

Federalists Believed the three

branches should have equal power.

Anti-Federalists Believed that the

legislative branch should have more power than the executive and the courts.

View of who should lead the government

Federalists Wanted a strong

president or executive to lead the country.

Anti-Federalists Were afraid a

president would become like a king.

Wanted to not have a strong executive.

View of the Articles of Confederation

Federalists Believed the Articles

needed to be completely revised.

Believed that the country functioned better as a united country.

Anti-Federalists Wanted to keep the

structure of a loose union of independent states.

Wanted only minor changes in the articles.

Ideas about a Bill of Rights

Federalists Didn’t think a bill of

rights was necessary.

Were afraid if you started listing rights people would think those were the only rights you had.

Anti-Federalists Believed a Bill of

Rights was necessary to protect the people from the government.

Famous Members

Federalists Alexander Hamilton

John Jay

James Madison

Anti-Federalists Patrick Henry

George Mason

Writings – There are examples of these in the blue textbook.

Federalists Wrote the Federalist

Papers…a collection of essays designed to convince people to support ratification.

Anti-Federalists Also wrote essays