The Anti-Federalists by Jackson Main, 1961, Edited Excerpts
Joseph
Jones to Madison, June 7 1787: “One of the first objects with the national
government to be elected under the new constitution, it is said, will be to
provide funds for the payment of the national debt, and thereby to restore the
credit of the United States, which has been so much impaired by the individual
states. Every holder of a pubic security of any kind is, therefore, deeply
interested in the cordial reception, and speedy establishment of a vigorous
continental government.”
The
Federalists were trying to bring about a major political change and were
insisting that this change was essential. To justify the Constitution, it had
to be proved that conditions were desperate and that extensive alterations in
the government were imperative. Accordingly, they insisted that a serious
commercial depression existed, that the credit of the United States and of the
several states was endangered, that property rights were in jeopardy, that the
states were disunited and weak, and that if the country were to become
prosperous, respected, respectable, and safe, the Articles must be replaced by
the Constitution.
The
prospect that creditors could sue in the federal courts and recover claims in
real money was particularly pleasing to creditors at a time when the collection
of debts was exceptionally difficult. Creditors had encountered difficulties in
collecting debts, threatened as they were with installment and tender laws,
paper money, and even rebellion. The Constitution was, Federalists hoped,
calculated to make men honest.
To
the Antifederalists, there was no need for so drastic a cure as the
Constitution. The Antifederalists believed that the Constitution created too
strong a government. It was not so much any particular power which proved the
danger, but the combination of control over taxation and the army together with
the judicial powers. The Antifederalist wished to retain the Articles and to
strengthen the Confederation.
An Economic
Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles A. Beard, 1913, Edited Excerpts
When
it is remembered that most of our history has been written by Federalists,
great care should be taken in accepting the gloomy pictures of the social
conditions under the Articles of Confederation. The gloomy view of economic
conditions persistently propagated by the advocates of a new national system
was not entertained by all writers of eminence and authority. The defects in
the Articles of the Confederation were not the serious menace to the social
fabric which the advocates of change implied.
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