American history: Who were the Anti-Federalists
by Jerry Curtis
The Anti-Federalists were a political faction in the very beginnings of American government; as indicated by the prefix "Anti-" they were opponents of a group called Federalists. The Anti-Federalists did not want a strong central government and they strongly opposed the new Constitution engineered by their Federalist opponents. Even after ten years of disunity under the clearly inadequate Articles of Confederation, with a weak Continental Congress that proved unequal to the task of running our newly independent country, the Anti-Federalists were deeply suspicious of any system that would supplant the supremacy of the individual states.
While the states were debating and considering the proposed Constitution, the better organized Federalists used the power of the press to make a good case for a new Constitution. Their vision was a new federal government with a strong chief executive, an empowered judiciary, and two chambers of representatives to keep an eye on the latter two. The Federalists, who were the brains of the country John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, to name only four- wrote and published the historic Federalist Papers and won their case.
The Anti-Federalists, whose group was somewhat more reactionary, less well known and not so well organized, the firebrand Patrick Henry was their most famous member- wrote their Anti-Federalist papers giving opposing view points and insisting that a strong federal government would be a return to the very despotism they defeated in the recent revolution. They also argued that a federal judiciary with powers superseding state courts was a dangerous infringement on states rights.
After the Anti-Federalists lost the constitutional argument, they assumed the role of an opposition party both within and outside of the first President's government. George Washington despised factionalism and wanted nothing to do with political parties. Within his cabinet, however, were the personifications of the factionalism he hated. Alexander Hamilton was the Secretary of the Treasury and quintessential Federalist. Hamilton's archrival, and premiere Anti-Federalist, was Thomas Jefferson.
As the political argument between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists polarized both factions, a frustrated Thomas Jefferson withdrew from George Washington's administration. Despite the President's stated neutrality, George Washington normally favored much of Hamilton's strong Federalist banking and fiscal policies and backed Hamilton in disputes with Jefferson.
The Federalists dominated American government until John Adams' failed reelection campaign in 1800. The four years of Adams saw the first real abuse of power by the Federalist Congress and its president with the hated Alien and Sedition acts. Under these egregiously anti-constitutional laws, it was unlawful to criticize the government and more than one newspaper publisher was jailed.
The Alien Act targeted what the Federalists feared as French revolutionary influence. France at the time was undergoing their own radical experiment in democracy that both deposed and decapitated its king and nobility. The Federalists were essentially pro-British. The Anti-Federalists included the former American ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson, who was an avowed Francophile.
Jefferson defeated Adams in a rancorous, divisive election in 1800, which was ultimately decided by the House of Representatives. As the first Anti-Federalist in office, Jefferson doubled the size of our country through his Louisiana Purchase from the French. In doing so he violated his Anti-Federalist principles, believing that he was exceeding his constitutional Executive powers. Nowhere in the Constitutional was there any authority for extending the territory of the United States through purchase. Not wanting to pass up a great deal, Jefferson figured it was easier to get forgiveness than permission and bought the land anyway. Ironically, it was the Federalists who complained over this use of presidential power.
In the end, America's political system evolved into the present day two parties. Modern Democrats as well as Republicans can trace their ideological origins in what Jefferson eventually named his party: the Democratic-Republicans. Today's Democrats owe their populism and advocacy for individual rights to Jefferson's Anti-Federalist roots. In fact, our Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution were adopted at the insistence of the Anti-Federalists. Today's Republicans inherit their suspicion of big government and judicial activism to the Anti-Federalist views of Jefferson.
The Federalists eventually disbanded as an organized political party. Their former foes, the Anti-Federalists had long since split into the Whig and the Democrats. The Whigs went the way of the Federalists, and Lincoln's Republicans emerged. As the dispute over states rights and slavery developed, the factionalism that George Washington feared and hated would result in the irreconcilable differences that would become the U.S. Civil War.
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