Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist Primary Source Analysis
Anti-Federalist
“I will now tell you what I do no not like. First, [there is no] bill of rights. . . A bill of rights is what the people
are entitled to against every government on earth. . . .and that no just government should refuse.”
- Thomas Jefferson, December 20, 1787
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
Anti-Federalist
“Without a Bill of Rights, you will exhibit the most absurd thing to mankind that ever the world saw a
government [i.e. state governments] that has abandoned all its powers, the powers of taxation, the sword, and the
purse. You have disposed of them to Congress, without a Bill of Rights, without check, limitation, or control. . .
You have the Bill of Rights to defend against a state government, which is bereaved [stripped] of all its power,
and yet you have none against Congress, thought in full and exclusive possession of all power!”
- Patrick Henry, Ratifying convention speech, “Need for a Bill of Rights”
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
Anti-Federalist
“When we speak of representatives... they resemble those they represent. They should be a true picture of the
people, posses a knowledge of their circumstances and their wants….
... The number of representatives should be so large, while it embraces the men of the first class, it should admit
those of the middling class of life. I am convinced that this government is so constituted [formed] that the
representatives will generally be composed of the first class in the community, which I shall distinguish by the
name of the natural aristocracy [upper class] of the country... From these remarks, it appears that the
government will fall into the hands of the few and the great. This will be a government of oppression [abuse].”
- Melancton Smith, "Representation in Government"
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
Anti-Federalist
“Is there not a most formidable (awful) combination of power thus created in a few? . . . The President is for
four years’ duration; and Virginia (for example) has one vote of thirteen in the choice of him, and this thirteenth
[1/13]vote not of the people, but electors, two removes from the people. The Senate is a body of six years’
duration, and, as in the choice of President, the largest state [Virginia] has but a thirteenth [1/13] vote, so is it in
the choice of senators…
You are well warranted in saying, either a monarchy or aristocracy [upper class] will be generated: perhaps the
most grievous system of government may arise. It cannot be denied that this new Constitution is highly and
dangerously oligarchic [government by a few]; and it is a point agreed, that a government of the few is, of all
governments, the worst.”
- HON. Richard Henry Lee, Governor of Virginia, Letter to Congress
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
Anti-Federalist
“This Constitution is said to have beautiful features; but when I come to examine these features, Sir, they appear
to me horribly frightful: Among other deformities, it has an awful squinting; it squints towards monarchy: And
does not this raise indignation in the breast of every American? Your President may easily become King: Your
Senate is so imperfectly constructed that your dearest rights may be sacrificed by what may be a small
minority;… Where are your checks in this Government?”
- Patrick Henry, “Shall Liberty or Empire be sought”
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
Anti-Federalist
“The premises [grounds] on which the new form of government is erected [formed], declares a consolidation or
union of all thirteen parts, or states, into one great whole, under the firm of the United States... But whoever
seriously considers the immense [huge] extent of territory comprehended within the limits of the United States,
together with the variety of its climates, productions, and commerce, the difference of extent, and number of
inhabitants in all; the dissimilitude [difference] of interests, morals, and politics in almost every one, will receive
it as an intuitive truth, that a consolidated republican form of government therein, can never form a perfect
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of
liberty to you and your posterity [future generations]….
- George Clinton, New York’s Governor "In Opposition to Destruction of States' Rights"
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
Anti-Federalist
“If you make the citizens of this country agree to become the subjects of one great consolidated [united] empire
of America, your government will not have sufficient energy to keep them together. . . . There will be no checks,
no real balances, in this government.”
- Patrick Henry, Virginia Ratifying Convention
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
FEDERALIST
“The prosperity of America depend[s] on the Union. To preserve and perpetuate [maintain] it was the great
object of the. . . . plan which the convention has advised [the people] to adopt. . . . The powers delegated by the
proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state
governments are numerous and indefinite.
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers “Number 45”
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
FEDERALIST
“Suppose this plan to be rejected; what measures would you propose for obtaining a better? Some will answer,
Let us appoint another convention;…
Are we certain that our foreign creditors will continue patient. . . Are we sure that our distresses, dissensions,
and weakness, will neither invite hostility nor insult? If they should, how ill prepared shall we be for defense,
without union, without government, without money, and without credit!”
- John Jay, Address to the people of the State of New York”
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
FEDERALIST
“Though the Constitution of New York has no bill of rights prefixed to it, yet it contains in the body of it various
provisions in favor of particular privileges and rights which, in substance, amount to the same thing. . . .[T]he
constitution proposed by the convention contains, as well as the constitution of this state, a number of such
provisions. . . .
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers, “Number84”
NOTES/TRANSLATION:
FEDERALIST
“The President of the United States would be an officer elected by the people for FOUR years; the king of Great
Britain is a perpetual [everlasting] and HEREDITARY [inherited] prince. The one would be amenable
[accountable] to personal punishment and disgrace; the person of the other is sacred and inviolable. . . .The one
would have a right to command the military and naval forces of the nation; the other, in addition to this right,
possesses that of DECLARING war, and of RAISING and REGULATING fleets and armies by his own
authority. The one would have a concurrent power with a branch of the legislature in the formation of treaties;
the other is the SOLE POSSESSOR of the power of making treaties. The one can confer no privileges whatever;
the other can make denizens [citizens] of aliens. . . . The one has no particle of spiritual [religion] jurisdiction;
the other is the supreme head and governor of the national church! What answer shall we give to those who
would persuade [argue] us that things so unlike resemble each other?
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers, “Number 69”
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