Anti Federalism Dbq

To a major extent, the political ideology of the Jeffersonian Republican party resembled that of the Anti-Federalists in the debates that occurred during the ratification of the US Constitution. Anti-Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republican party favored the people more than the elites that the Federalists and Hamiltonian Federalists party favored. The main ideology in the Anti Federalists and Jeffersonian party were to have the power and say in government be more in the people’s hands rather than having it to select few elites. The Anti-Federalists and the Jeffersonian party believed in preserving individual liberties, which can be shown during the ratification of the constitution and how the Bill of Rights made it into the constitution.

Upon receiving his copy of the new constitution, Jefferson was upset that there was no presence of a Bill of Rights. This is significant since the Anti-Federalists strongly believed in individual liberties while the Federalists argued that it was not necessary and were strong believers in the power of the central government. It took quite long for a Bill of Rights to be added to the constitution, which protected individual liberties. However, this soon changed when John Adams, a Federalist, signed the Seditions Act, jailing those who spoke badly against the president. A document written by Jonathan Elliot shows that Virginia was not favoring the new Alien and Sedition Acts. He wrote to inform people about pre-existing laws that are interfering with the newly signed ones. He said, “ That the General Assembly does particularly protect against the palpable and alarming infractions of the constitution in the two late cases of the “Alien and Sedition Acts,” passed at the last session of congress; the first of which exercises a power nowhere delegated to the federal government;

Both parties agreed that the constitution should be able to protect individual liberties that cannot be violated. The Anti-Federalists and the Jeffersonian party were both Egalitarian. Most of the time both parties were consisted of middle to lower class farmers, who owned slaves. The Anti-Federalists shaped the U.S. constitution since they were able to keep a check on the Federalist party during the debates. The controversy that exists between the two parties during the convention shaped the ideology of the upcoming parties, The Hamiltonian and the Jeffersonian.The parties both hated the British, and the Jeffersonian party prefered France over Britain. Thomas Jefferson ultimately feared the Federalists and didn’t have trust in the government when elected as a secretary for Washington’s cabinet. Anti-Federalists and the Jeffersonian party didn’t have a large say in government when they first started. This is what people like Amos Singletary feared. While the Jeffersonian party wanted to get out the truth and print press about the government who was more Federalist favored, the president put out acts directly violating the Constitution. Many can infer that the Hamiltonian party feared the Jeffersonian Republicans. The Jeffersonian party is an evolved version of the Anti-Federalists during the debates over the ratification of the constitution. To a