The Constitution was a complex and controversial document, because many people were expecting the Articles of Confederation to be amended and not a whole new government to be created. Those that created the document and who agreed with its message of creating a stronger central government were known as the Federalists. Those that were against the formation of a stronger central government and wanted their liberties protected were known as Antifederalists. Both Federalist and Antifederalists disagreed on whether to ratify the Constitution because of two reasons, a) should the United States have a strong central government or keep the power within the states’ control, and b) should a strong central government take precedent over liberty.
The…show more content… They opposed ratification of the Constitution and wanted their freedoms protected. Major Antifederalists include, Patrick Henry, George Clinton and Samuel Adams. They were less organized than the Federalists, but they did have an impressive group of leaders who were in state politics. The Antifederalists believed that the greatest threat to the future of the United States lay in the government’s potential to become corrupt and seize more power that could dominate the people. Antifederalists thought that the proposed Constitution threatened to lead the United States down a road of political…show more content… The idea of ratifying the Constitution had been decided at the Philadelphia Convention by many of our country’s founding fathers. They thought that convincing the public that the weak central government of the Articles of Confederation needed to be strengthened. The articles required that any changes in Constitutional law may be presented to the state legislatures, and that any alterations required must be unanimous approval. The new proposal increased the power of the national government, at the expense of great power. It was certain that many state legislatures would oppose the changes. They were completely aware of all the major challenges they were going to have. The framers of the new plan started a new approach through a ratifying procedure that went directly to the people. The framers suggested that constitutional law was not lacking significance that it would be not right to have it approved through ordinary political channels. Instead of this they thought special conventions should be held for the people to evaluate such important changes. Antifederalists were well aware of the weaknesses of the current central government and shared the framers' sense that the state legislatures were more likely to oppose the Constitution, because of this they approved the new terms so long as a Bill of Rights was