Anti-Federalists and the First Amendment: This 6-page paper discusses the motivations of the Anti-Federalists in regard to the First Amendment to the Constitution.
The Antifederalists were the people who opposed the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1787 and 1788. During the Revolutionary War, this group was called the federalists because they wanted to have a government based on a loose federation of the states rather than a centralized national government, the system favored by the Nationalists (Houghton Mifflin, n.d., p.1). However, during the debate about the Constitution, the Nationalists began calling themselves the Federalists, so the group who had previously used that name called themselves the Antifederalists.
All of the early forefathers were concerned about an appropriate balance between the states and the central government, as well as the best balance of power among the various branches of government. The Antifederalists thought that the proposed Constitution gave the president too much power. They did not want another monarch. They feared also that too much power in the central government would cause the states to simply wither away because the national leaders would have no connection to the local conditions and concerns. The Antifederalists feared tyranny.
The Antifederalists were about equal in number to the Federalists, but they were somewhat weaker (Houghton Mifflin, n.d., p.1). They were not strongly felt in the urban areas, and they were relatively less sophisticated and influential. Because of the influence they did have, Rhode Island and North Carolina voted against the ratification of the Constitution. The one point on which the Antifederalists did prevail was the need for a set of constitutional amendments to guarantee individual rights and freedoms in America, and it was their impetus that brought about the Bill of Rights (Houghton Mifflin, n.d., p.1).
The First Amendment ...