Federalist and Anti-federalist

Transcript: Good morning boys and girls today we are going to talk about the Federalist and Anti-Federalist so you better put your thinking caps on. So what is the deal between these two groups? Well, it all stems back to us declaring independence from Great Britain. After we declared ourselves independent we set up a new government that would establish the articles of confederation. During the time from the beginning of our government and the summer of 1787 The Articles of Confederation proved itself weak from time to time. The Articles of Confederation was unable to collect taxes, have no standing army and the national government could not force states to obey their laws. So here we have it, with the United States almost in shambles due to the loosely fit states we are in the process of ratifying the Constitution. There would be two sides to this story : The federalist (who found the articles of federation weak) and thought that we needed to operate under one central government. On the other hand, we had the Anti-federalist who wished to keep the power with the states and sort of tweak the Articles of Confederation. Notable figures such as James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton would lead the federalist. The federalist thought the states should give up some of their powers to the national government. They favored one single person to lead the executive branch which is the president. The Anti-Federalist job seemed to deny anything the federalist stated but their aims were clear and wanted to slightly tweak the Articles of Confederation. One fear that many anti-federalist had is that giving too much power to the federal government is a bad bad thing, after all we just witnessed the power of King George which ultimately made us break away from Great Britain and start Revolutionary War. So the Anti-federalist held a legitimate attitude toward big government, most of these men were generals in the war who fought for our freedom so it was kind of hard to ignore them. Furthermore the anti-federalist also feared that the government cannot rule a large nation as big as The United States. The only countries to run a successful republic were the small countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland. Having one federal government rule the entire country was new to America, because before the states played a large role in government. In order to sway the people both groups published their own papers, yes at this time there was no twitter, radio nor internet. Interesting enough these papers called the federalist and anti-federalist papers (how original). Alright class, your job is to follow some of the links that I posted and view the Federalist papers. Remember to keep in mind this question, “What was the influence of the Federalist papers on the ratification of the constitution and the future of America?”. I know this happened a little over 200 years ago but try and put yourself in their shoes. America was still very young at the time and having problems within the government could be very dangerous. Tomorrow in class you will help fill in a graphic organizer to show the varying perspectives. Alright now, lets get work to work and remember don’t forget to be great! References: Alexander Hamilton Ten Dollar Bill. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . American Soldier. Digital image. Soldier 1776. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Anti-Federalist. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Articles of Condederation. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Barack Obama Clip Art. Digital image. I2 Clip Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Digital image. Articles of Confederation Cartoon. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Divided. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Federalist. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Great Britain Flag. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Independence Day. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . James Madison. Digital image. Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Legal Picture. Digital image. Static Square Space. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . McClenaghan, Willam A. Magruder's American Government. Needham, MA: Prentice Hall, 2002. Print. Revolutionary War Battle. Digital image. Georgia Info. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Thinking Cap. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Uncle Sam Clip Art. Digital image. Graphics Factory. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. . Weak Articles of Confederation. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2015. .