| | Heath Anthology of American LiteratureFederalist and Anti-Federalist Contentions - Author Page |
 | | The Federalists found it difficult to allay common Anti-Federalist concerns—that individual states would lose their political autonomy under the new Constitution, that a national standing army was a threat to liberty, that officials in the new government would constitute an aristocracy, and that there was no bill of rights guaranteeing individual liberties. |
| | In the debates for ratification, supporters of the Constitution were called Federalists, while opposers came to be known as Anti-Federalists (a name given them by Federalists who realized the value of stigmatizing their opponents with the negative prefix). |
| | In Federalist No. 6, Hamilton, echoing the beliefs of English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588—1679), argued that human beings are basically “ambitious, vindictive and rapacious.” Hamilton used this theory of human nature to argue for a strong national government to check the “factions and convulsions” which would otherwise tear the states apart. |
| college.hmco.com /english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/eighteenth/federalistandantifederalist.html (1230 words) |
