hey guys welcome to the class that doesn't really matter
we've touched upon in other lectures but I think it deserves special focus because it's "muy importante."
So giddy up for the learning guys, why don't we get er done right now, the feds and anti-feds
So, the summer of 1787 is going to bring us to these two groups, the Feds and the Anti-Feds
During the Constitutional Convention, really during the ratification process.
You have to remember that the delegates at the convention during 1787 in Philadelphia that wrote that constitution
did it by bypassing the old constitution. They violated the Articles of Confederation where you needed
13 out of 13 states agreeing in order to amend (change) it.
They're not amending the Articles of Confederation; they're throwing that sucker in the garbage.
and starting all over.
But the main concept is that they're strengthening the role of the federal government.
In a sense, they're really creating centralized authority with taxing power.
And that's a really pretty big deal. So, when they go to ratify that
sucker we have two (2) groups that break out.
We have the federalists, which becomes the Federalist Party.
Really the only Federalist president was John Adams. James Madison was a Federalist originally.
George Washington, we'd probably classify him as a Federalist, but you also have
big names like Alexander Hamilton. You have John Jay,
You have some big heavy hitters that are going to argue in those Federalist Papers
Those 85 essays that this is the right balance in federalism. This is what we need
We need a large republic with a stronger central government to be the glue
to keep us all together. And you know even in the ratification
They don't go to the state legislatures for this Constitutional Convention
They go to people conventions in states, and all states had elections where they elected delegates
to a convention and each state voted. Eventually, 9 out of 13 states
were needed to ratify that. And they kind of just made that number up.
But Federalists are going to be the ones that wrote the Constitution
And who believe in this stronger role the federal government, a larger republic
If anything, they would say, "The states have a role, the states have the Senate."
The Senate was elected by state legislatures. They represent the states. The House represents the people
This is the perfect balance
We also have a large number of people that are turning against this new constitution.
And they are labeled the Anti-Federalists.
Originally they wanted to be called the Federalists because they thought they had the right balance
but they got nicknamed the Anti-Feds.
Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, um William Randolph.
George Clinton, George Mason, and even Thomas Jefferson even though they shipped him off to Paris.
The Anti-Feds' main argument is, #1, this is an illegal move.
#2, where are our liberties? We don't trust this big new federal government.
They're going to take our rights away.
And, they're not going to be looking out for the interests of the smaller states.
The rural areas.
And that's really what's represented by the Anti-Feds: rural America.
The South. Farmers. Debtors.
As opposed to the Federalists who were really represented by manufacturers and artisans and big city interests.
So that's the two main groups guys, the Federalists which support the new federal constitution
and you have the Anti-Federalists who were really in love with the Articles of Confederation
And if anything would be ok with maybe amending that document
But certainly not throwing it out, baby with the bath water.
So what's going to happen? We'll eventually
It's going to get ratified with 9 out of 13 states and
a Bill of Rights is going to be added to the Constitution in order to garner the rest of the support
of all 13 states eventually, and that's gonna protect those civil liberties
from the federal government as well as maintaining in the 9th and 10th amendments some state power
so some of those fears of the Anti-Federalists could be calmed down a little bit.
So what happens after that? The Federalist Party runs its course.
John Adams, and then after that it dies away . It becomes the Whigs and eventually it is
reborn as a Northern nationalistic Republican Party.
What happens to the Anti-Federalists?
They later become Jeffersonian Republicans, the Democratic-Republicans, and that's
the forerunner of the Democratic Party of the South
and Andrew Jackson.