Why Was Thomas Jefferson Unhappy With The Distribution Of Power Today

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WOULD JEFFERSON BE HAPPY WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER TODAY? In order to answer our question, we must first determine where Thomas Jefferson stood between Federalism and Anti-Federalism. We need to consider his views on the U.S. Constitution, and how he would feel about Federalism today. I will provide a short description of Federalism and Anti-Federalism in order to make a viable argument on why Thomas Jefferson would not be unhappy with today’s Federalist Government. Jefferson was one of our Founding Fathers, authored the Declaration of Independence, our third President and a staunch Anti-Federalist. Jefferson eventually joined the Republican party, not to be confused with the Republican party in later times (Blog, 2009). Anti-Federalist did not support the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. In fact, Jefferson only provided written guidance from France during the ratification convention since he was serving as the Minister to France. The Anti-Federalist were really Democratic-Republicans, also known as Jeffersonian Republicans, who believed in strong state and local governments elected with the power to regulate intrastate commerce, provision for public health, safety, and welfare, and the right to …show more content…

The new Federalism was a system of government which divided power between the federal government and various state governments (answer.com, Pg.2). The Constitution gave certain powers to the federal government, other powers to the state governments and yet other powers to both (xxx, xxxx). In other words, the federal and state governments cooperated with each other, but the federal government was always first in maintaining a strong and balanced America. Federalism promoted big government with paper money, national banks, managed taxes, and the power to make treaties, declare war or raise and support armies (Textbook pg.