The greatest concern of the opponents to the Constitution, known as the Anti-Federalists, was the potential for a strong central government to infringe upon the rights of states and individuals. They feared that the Constitution did not provide enough protections for individual liberties and that the federal government would become too powerful, resembling a monarchy. Anti-Federalists also argued that the Constitution lacked a Bill of Rights, which they believed was essential to safeguarding personal freedoms.
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Well, when the opponents of the Constitution gathered to share their concerns, they often worried about the central government having too much power and potentially becoming like the British monarchy they had just fought to gain independence from. They also expressed fears about individual rights not being clearly protected within the document. It's important to remember that these concerns helped shape the Bill of Rights, which guarantees important freedoms for all Americans.
The greatest complaint was that the Constitution created a federal level of government that had the potential to become completely supreme over the individual states. The Constitution itself states that appropriate Federal Laws and actions constitute the supreme law of the land and that states are bound to abide by them. At that time, states considered themselves virtually sovereign as against any other state or federal government. To placate concerns of such states, the Constitution was written in such a way that it gave the federal government only specific enumerated powers, reserving to the states all other powers not expressly given to Congress. This was supposed to allow states to still conduct their own internal affairs as they saw fit without interference from what might become an all-powerful federal government.
The biggest flaw in the original Constitution, as pointed out by anti-Federalists who opposed the drafting of a constitution, was the absence of a bill of rights. However, the Federalists, who supported creating the Constitution, realized that adding a bill of rights would be a good idea, and so they added it, essentially taking the only argument against the Constitution away from the anti-Federalists.
the Constitution did not give enough explicit protections for individuals
or for apex
The Constitution gave too much power to the Federal government.
The convention had overstepped its authority in writing the new Constitution.
a bill of rights
Antifederalists are the opponents of the constitution.
Control of trade by Congress would hurt their economy.
The Bill of Rights.
Anti-Federalists