Class ppt

1. Essential Questions:
- What were the dividing issues between Federalists and
Antifederalists?

2. Bell Ringer- Compare and Contrast
Federalists and Anti-Federalists
Federalists Anti-Federalists

3. The Federalist Papers
 These were
anonymously written
by Federalists to
educate the public
over 2 issues:
 A stronger central
government was
needed
 With “separation of
powers” and “checks
and balances,” there’s
no way the new
government would
become abusive and
tyrannical

4. How did Antifederalists
respond?
 They wrote their own essays to express
concerns over the following:
 The need for a bill of rights
 Concerns about states’ rights

5. What about a bill of rights?
 “It has been several times truly remarked, that bills of rights are in
their origin, stipulations between kings and their subjects,
abridgments of prerogative in favor of privilege, reservations of
rights not surrendered to the prince. Such was Magna Carta,
obtained by the Barons, sword in hand, from king John...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 every thing, 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....I
go further, and affirm that bills of rights, in the sense and in the
extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in
the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous.” –
Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84

6. Extension Activity
 Work with your assigned group to
analyze the text about Federalists and
Antifederalists.
 Discuss and record answers for
questions 1-7 on a separate sheet of
paper. Your answers SHOULD BE
DETAILED

7. Bell Ringer
 Continue your text analysis questions
over the Federalist Papers

8. Federalist vs Antifederalist
Debate
 Get in your assigned group
 Use the “Short Biographies” handout to research
Federalists and Antifederalists
 Prepare a short introduction summarizing your assigned
individual’s accomplishments prior to 1788
 On a separate sheet of paper, prepare your
responses to the following questions:
 Do you think the United States should have a strong
central government? Why or why not?
 Do you think the Constitution should have a bill of rights?
Why or why not?
 Do you favor or oppose the Constitution? Why?
 How would your opponents respond to each of these
same questions?