Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist Quotes

Famous Federalists
Click the card to flip 👆
1 / 45
Terms in this set (45)
Famous Federalists
Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, John Jay, John Adams.
Famous Anti-Federalists
Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams.
"...the absurdity must continually stare us in the face of confiding to a government the direction of the most essential national interests, without daring to trust to it the authorities which are indispensable to their proper and efficient management."
Federalist
"...government...ought to be clothed with all the powers requisite to complete execution of its trust."
Federalist
"Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of a good government"
Federalist
"A bill of rights...serves to secure the minority against the usurpation and tyranny of the majority."
Anti-Federalist
"This country should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties."
Federalist
"In a majority be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure...In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can be readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger."
Federalist
"States are the characteristics and the soul of a confederation. If the states be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great consolidated national government of the people of all the states."
Anti-Federalist
"The states should respectively have laws, courts, force, and revenues of their own sufficient for their own security; they ought to be fit to keep house alone if necessary; if this be not the case, or so far as it ceases to be so it is a departure from a federal to a consolidated government."
Anti-Federalist
"The ultimate purpose of good government is security for the natural rights of the individuals."Both"The means of security can only be regulated by the means and the danger of attack. They will in fact be ever determined by these rules and by no others. It is vain to oppose constitutional barriers to the impulse of self preservation."Federalist"The...new form of government...declares a consolidation or union of all thirteen parts, or states, into one great whole...It is an intuitive truth that a consolidated republican form of government will lead...into a monarchy, either limited or despotic."Anti-Federalist"In a republic, the manners, sentiments, and interests of the people should be similar."Anti-Federalist"In a just government, freedom is unlimited."Both"...one government...never can extend equal benefits to all parts of the United States. Different laws, customs, and opinions exist in the different states, which by a uniform system of laws would be unreasonably invaded."Anti-Federalist"The number of the representatives appears to be too few, either to communicate the requisite information of the wants, local circumstances, and sentiments of so extensive and empire, or to prevent corruption and undue influence in the exigencies of such great powers."Anti-Federalist"Good government is based on the consent of the governed."Both"There must be interwoven, in the frame of the government, a general power of taxation, in one shape or another."Federalist"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."Federalist"You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."Federalist"Vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty."Federalist"One can hardly expect the state legislatures to take enlightened views on national affairs."James Madison, Federalist"You say that I have been dished up to you as an Anti-Federalist, and ask me if it be just. My opinion was never worthy enough of notice to merit citing; but, since you ask it, I will tell it to you. I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. Therefore, I am not of the party of Federalists."Thomas Jefferson, Anti-Federalist"...that if we are in earnest about giving the Union energy and duration, we must abandon the vain project of legislating upon the States in their collective capacities; we must extend the laws of the federal government to the individual citizens of America; we must discard the fallacious scheme of quotas and requisitions, as equally impracticable and unjust."Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Paper No. 23"Congress, or our future lords and masters, are to have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises. Excise is a new thing in America, and few country farmers and planters know the meaning of it."A Farmer and Planter (pseudonym) in Anti-Federalist Paper No. 26"Nothing is more certain than the indispensable necessity of government, and it is equally undeniable, that whenever and however it is instituted, the people must cede to it some of their natural rights in order to vest it with requisite powers."John Jay in Federalist Paper No. 2"This being the beginning of American freedom, it is very clear the ending will be slavery, for it cannot be denied that this constitution is, in its first principles, highly and dangerously oligarchical; and it is every where agreed, that a government administered by a few, is, of all governments, the worst."Leonidas (pseudonym) in Anti-Federalist Paper No. 48"It is, that in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person: in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, must be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region."James Madison in Federalist Paper No. 14"A consolidation of this extensive constitution under one government cannot succeed, without a sacrifice of our liberties."Antifederalist"The multitude... Have not a sufficient stock of reason and knowledge to guide them... It is not safe to trust the virtue of any people."Federalist"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse arrest on the interference."Antifederalist"On the contrary, we know that the ruin of one of them proceeded from the incapacity of the federal authority to prevent the dissensions, and finally the disunion, of the subordinate authorities."Federalist"The principles, therefore, upon which the social contact is founded, ought to have been clearly imprecisely stated, and the most express in full declaration of rights to have been made - but on the subject there's almost an entire silence."Antifederalist"The regular distribution of power into distinct departments; the introduction of legislative bounces and check; the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior; the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own election... They are means, and powerful means, by which the excellences of the republican government maybe retained and its imperfections lessened or avoided."Federalist"Thought not a government, vested with such extensive and indefinite authority, to have been restricted by a declaration of rights? It is certainly ought."AntifederalistIt has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force.Federalist 1 Alexander Hamilton Excerpt 1The most important question that was ever proposed to your decision, or to the decision of any people under heaven, is before you, and you are to decide upon it by men of your own election, [chosen] specially for this purpose. If the constitution, offered to [your acceptance], be a wise one, calculated to preserve the [invaluable blessings] of liberty, to secure the inestimable rights of mankind, and promote human happiness, then, if you accept it, you will lay a lasting foundation of happiness for millions yet unborn; generations to come will rise up and call you blessed. You may rejoice in the prospects of this vast extended continent becoming filled with freemen, who will assert the dignity of human nature. You may solace yourselves with the idea, that society, in this favoured land, will fast([full]) advance to the highest point of perfection; the human mind will expand in knowledge and virtue, and the golden age be, in some measure, realised. But if, on the other hand, this form of government contains principles that will lead to the subversion of liberty — if it tends to establish a despotism, or, what is worse, a tyrannic aristocracy; then, if you adopt it, this only remaining assylum for liberty will be [shut] up, and posterity will execrate your memory.Brutus I (Anti-federalist) October 18, 1787 Excerpt 2This government is to possess absolute and uncontroulable power, legislative, executive and judicial, with respect to every object to which it extends, for by the last clause of section 8th, article Ist, it is declared "that the Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this constitution, in the government of the United States; or in any department or office thereof." And by the 6th article, it is declared "that this constitution, and the laws of the United States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and the treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution, or law of any state to the contrary notwithstanding." It appears from these articles that there is no need of any intervention of the state governments, between the Congress and the people, to execute any one power vested in the general government, and that the constitution and laws of every state are nullified and declared void, so far as they are or shall be inconsistent with this constitution.Brutus I (Anti-federalist) October 18, 1787 Excerpt 3The 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. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State. The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments in times of peace and security. As the former periods will probably bear a small proportion to the latter, the State governments will here enjoy another advantage over the federal government. The more adequate, indeed, the federal powers may be rendered to the national defense, the less frequent will be those scenes of danger which might favor their ascendancy over the governments of the particular States.Federalist 45 James Madison Excerpt 4History furnishes no example of a free republic, anything like the extent of the United States. The Grecian republics were of small extent; so also was that of the Romans. Both of these, it is true, in process of time, extended their conquests over large territories of country; and the consequence was, that their governments were changed from that of free governments to those of the most tyrannical that ever existed in the world. ...The territory of the United States is of vast extent; it now contains near three millions of souls, and is capable of containing much more than ten times that number. Is it practicable for a country, so large and so numerous as they will soon become, to elect a representation, that will speak their sentiments, without their becoming so numerous as to be incapable of transacting public business? It certainly is not.Brutus I (Anti-federalist) October 18, 1787 Excerpt 5The other point of difference is the greater number of citizens and extent of territory which may be brought within the compass of republican than of democratic government; and it is this circumstance principally which renders factious combinations less to be dreaded in the former than in the latter. The smaller the society, the fewer probably will be the distinct parties and interests composing it; the fewer the distinct parties and interests, the more frequently will a majority be found of the same party; and the smaller the number of individuals composing a majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression. Extend the sphere and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens; or if such a common motive exists, it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength and to act in unison with each other.Federalist 10 James Madison Excerpt 6This principle, which seems so evidently founded in the reason and nature of things, is confirmed by universal experience. Those who have governed, have been found in all ages ever active to enlarge their powers and abridge the public liberty. This has induced the people in all countries, where any sense of freedom remained, to fix barriers against the encroachments of their rulers. The country from which we have derived our origin, is an eminent example of this. Their magna charta and bill of rights have long been the boast, as well as the security, of that nation. I need say no more, I presume, to an American, than, that this principle is a fundamental one, in all the constitutions of our own states; there is not one of them but what is either founded on a declaration or bill of rights, or has certain express reservation of rights interwoven in the body of them. From this it appears, that at a time when the pulse of liberty beat high and when an appeal was made to the people to form constitutions for the government of themselves, it was their universal sense, that such declarations should make a part of their frames of government. It is therefore the more astonishing, that this grand security, to the rights of the people, is not to be found in this constitution.Brutus II (Anti-federalist) November 1, 1787 Excerpt 7It has been several times truly remarked that bills of rights are, in their origin, stipulations between kings and their subjects, abridgements of prerogative in favor of privilege, reservations of rights not surrendered to the prince. Such was MAGNA CHARTA, obtained by the barons, sword in hand, from King John. Such were the subsequent confirmations of that charter by subsequent princes. Such was the Petition of the Right assented to by Charles the First in the beginning of his reign. Such, also, was the Declaration of Right presented by the Lords and Commons to the Prince of Orange in 1688, and afterwards thrown into the form of an act of Parliament called the Bill of Rights. It is evident, therefore, that, according to their primitive signification, they have no application to constitutions, professedly founded upon the power of the people and executed by their immediate representatives and servants. Here, in strictness, the people surrender nothing; and as they retain everything they have no need of particular reservations. "WE, THE PEOPLE of the United States, to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Here is a better recognition of popular rights than volumes of those aphorisms which make the principal figure in several of our State bills of rights and which would sound much better in a treatise of ethics than in a constitution of government.Federalist 84 Alexander Hamilton Excerpt 8perfection is not to be expected in anything that is the production of man - and if I did not in my conscience believe that this scheme was defective in the fundamental principles - in the foundation upon which a free and equal government must rest - I would hold my peace.Brutus I (Anti-federalist) October 18, 1787 Excerpt 9