Why did the Anti-federalists oppose the Constitution?

Question

Why did the Anti-federalists oppose the Constitution?

Answer 1

Common answer is that they "wanted a Bill of Rights". But this only accounted for SOME of them. Anti-federalists were a diverse group and their objections to the Constitution varied. Some wanted it only with significant changes (beyond the 'Bill of Rights' stuff), some did not want it AT ALL, because they believed it threatened to usurp state or local authority.

There are some collections of leading "Anti-federalist papers" that will give you a good taste of the various arguments (pay attention also to the introductions). Here are some pages that will point you to a number of them:

http://www.iahushua.com/hist/AntiFED.html
http://www.constitution.org/afp/borden00.htm
http://www.constitution.org/afp/afpchron.htm

There are many books on the struggle between Federalists and Anti-federalists, over the Constitution and Bill of Rights. One you may enjoy:

*James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights* by Richard Labunski (Oxford University Press, 2006)

Answer 2

D. From my expertise, the structure in accordance to anti-federalists consolidated too a lot skill into the usual authorities. They felt that any good usual authorities might want to threaten to create the variety of tyranny that they had fought to flee less than King George. incorrect solutions. The Articles of Confederation shaped a weak usual authorities and were the reason behind the conferences that extra about the style of the present structure. Slavery become no longer an undertaking that in contact the rustic till before the Civil warfare.

Answer 3

Because without various carefully applied amendments to protect the peoples rights and trade rights allowable the Federal Government threatened to be a Dictatorship and the Constitution the Federalists wanted would not be the emancipator it is today but rather an instrument to enslave us. The Democratic Republicans as they called themselves such as Thomas Jefferson and others protected our rights and sought the amendments to protect us! So don't be so quick to complain about The AFLCIO either because they are watchdogs for our protection and before anything is ruled on it must be brought before the people, so be glad for those who would oppose to much central Government power! I for one would rather make mistakes in my state if unintentional, but at least have the right to make our own State laws! Anything else smells of The "NORTH AMERICAN ALLIANCE" The "AMERO" dollar, a monopoly that Bush would be all to happy to have come into power, Also dangerous is a Maritime Alliance with the United Nations able to dictate our tariffs or taxation! Our economy could be devastated. Don't give away AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY.