Federalists and Anti-Federalists had different opinions on many topics. Federalists believed the federal government should have an active and strong role. They believed in having a national bank. They wanted the federal government to have significant power. They tended to support Great Britain in foreign policy matters. They believed in a loose view of the Constitution.
The Anti-Federalists had opposite views. They were against the national bank. They wanted the state governments to have more power than the federal government. They wanted the federal government to have a limited role in our society. They tended to support France in foreign policy issues. They believed in a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
Anti-Federalists would likely ask the Federalists the following questions:
Why do you want a strong federal government when we fought against the rule of the strong British government?
Why should we be friendlier with Great Britain when it was France that helped us in the Revolutionary War?
Why should we try to interpret what the writers of the Constitution meant? Why can’t we follow what is directly written in the Constitution?
Why do we want to have an extensive system of taxes when we were opposed to the taxes the British placed on us?
Why were the Federalists willing to pass laws such as the Alien and Sedition Acts that limited our freedoms when we fought so hard to gain the freedoms we had?
The Anti-Federalists would have had a lot of questions for the Federalists because they different views on many significant issues.
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