Note On Speeches Debating The Consitution From The NY Ratification Convention

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Jason Vo Professor Sanchez HIST&146 11 June 2023 Module 5 Essay: “Speeches Debating the Consitution from the NY Ratification Convention” The ratification of the United States Constitution in 1787 was an important event that started the conflict between the two factions, the Federalists and the Anti Federalists. This was one of the first significant walls the United States faced after they attained independence from the British government. The politicians of America had broken up into two major factions that were based on the views they had on the ratification of the Constitution. Both of the factions had hugely different ideals from one another with the Federalist's ideal that having a centralized government was important for the stability …show more content…

Overall, the British government was a tyrannical rule in which the ruling and decisions were all up to one person, King George III. Since the United States had previously already had to go through a terrifying event that was the British government, the Anti Federalists wanted to learn from their mistakes and avoid a government that would possess unmanageable power which would lead to corruption within the system and oppression for the people under the rule. Secondly, the Anti Federalists had also debated that there was a lacking of a Bill of Rights, which would protect the freedom of the people and make sure that the government would not overstep boundaries. With the current path that the Constitution was following the Anti Federalists feared the downfall of the United States, with all three of the branches of the new central government threatening all of the beliefs and ideals that the Anti Federalists had followed. Not only was there a lacking of power and representation for the people in the state there was also a lack of representation in the Central government for the people in order to speak out against the ratification of the constitution. Melancton Smith declared, “ The idea that naturally suggests itself to our minds, when we speak of representatives is, that they resemble those they represent; they should be a true picture of the people; possess the knowledge of their circumstances and their wants; sympathize in all their distresses, and be disposed to seek their true interests” (Smith, 123). This essentially is a jab at the idea of how scummy it was for the Federalists to attempt to rig the voting by having a lack of representation for the people in order to try to tip the tides in their favor. Ultimately, the Anti