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Federalism in Literature

John Jay (Federalism 2). Such individuals advocated for a stronger national government to help address a number of crises in the fledgling nation, many of them economic in nature.

The Federalists pushed for a new Constitutional Convention. The Federalist Papers offered articles that highlighted the "defects of the Articles of Confederation" and the merits of the newly proposed Constitution (Federalism 2). Rather than proposing new Amendments to the Articles of Confederation, the Convention adopted a new mandate to build a new Constitution for the U.S. Once the Constitution was drafted and exposed to the public, the Federalist Movement became focused on "getting the Constitution ratified" through various literary outlets (Federalism 2). The Anti-Federalists fought back through literary efforts as well, feeling the status quo was fine and doubting the proposal of the Federalists, "especially the absence of a Bill of Rights and the potential for an elected monarchy" (Federalism 2). With the support of George Washington, the Constitution was ultimately ratified.

Ultimately at the heart of the debate between Federalists and Anti-Federalists was sovereignty. As O'Brien (413) explains, those who wrote against Federalism pointed to the Articles of Confederation, which specified that "each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence...expressly delegated to the United States." The Constitution of the Federalists remedied the problem of two coordinate sovereignties, vesting absolute sovereignty in the federal government under the philosophy that "Sovereignty was considered to reside in the nation, in the people of the several states" (O'Brien 413). In this transfer of power, the concept of popular sovereignty associated with "We, the people," came into being with the U.S. Constitution. Literature of the era was used to wage the successful battle, with the Federal Farmer, for one, "referring to those i...

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Federalism in Literature. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:08, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2000811.html