p> The planters turned to the farmers to form an agrarian alliance, and for more than half a century this powerful coalition embraced the bulk of the articulate interests of the country. As time went on, therefore, the main stream of American political conviction deviated more and more from the antidemocratic position of the Constitution-makers. Yet, curiously, their general satisfaction with the Constitution together with their growing nationalism made Americans deeply reverent of the founding generation. . . (Hofstadter 19).
However, one of the reasons the Constitution proved so successful is found in the federalism that was embodied in it, with federalism taken in its broadest sense to be a balance of different powers. This balance of powers was
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