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Maya and Sammy

Prof. Sweet

Humanities

11 December 2017

Anti- and Federalist Papers: The Truth When it Comes To Rights

In the year 1777, the Constitution was written. It was struggling to get enough votes to show that people were unified for their rights. The Constitution is the fundamental base for the rules which govern the government. Then, were born. In the year 1787-1789

Alexander , and wrote the Federalist papers. The Federalist papers were a series of essays defending the Constitution, which were published in newspapers.

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay thought that this would help the Constitution get more votes. The Federalist Papers were distributed by the New York Times anonymously. The

Anti-Federalist Papers were against the Constitution. Written in 1787-1789 as well, the Anti-Federalist papers were likely written by George Clinton, Robert Yachts and others who are currently unknown. The

Anti-Federalist Papers were a series of essays defending the Anti-, who were trying to overthrow the Constitution. They were written to convince more people to vote for the Federalist position. To get exposure, just like the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers were distributed among the New York Times anonymously. Not only were they distributed in New York, but eventually they ended up going to all of the colonies.

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Federalist paper #84, written by , was going against the idea of having the

Bill of rights. Alexander Hamilton believed that the bill of rights would fall apart like the King had with his subjects back in England. Alexander Hamilton tries to reinsure that the constitution already has basic points that are needed to aair life. He argued that people would have too much power and that they would use their rights in negative ways. Today we have the freedom of speech which protects all speech, even hate speech. People abuse their rights every day, just like Alexander Hamilton said we are using our rights in bad ways. What average Americans wanted to know was what constitution guarantees they would have freedom of religion, liberty of the press, freedom of speech, the right of people to assemble peaceably and to petition the government for redress of grievances, the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, the right of all people "to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and eects against unreasonable searches and seizures." These rights were soon stated concretely and adopted as the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

The Anti-Federalist paper that best argues against Federalist #84 is what has become known as

Anti-Federalist #84, written by Brutus. Marcus Junius Brutus was a Roman politician. This

Anti-Federalist paper makes a few points. First, Brutus was saying that all men are equal, no man has control over another man unless it’s by mutual agreement. Brutus is explaining that the Government cannot control what you do and there must be mutual consent. He brings up the point that in the past, that monarchy has taken away people’s rights. He goes on saying that even though some liberties are fair and reasonable, all liberties should be secured to the people. If not, the government might be tempted to want to control the people with no rights, like in pass. Brutus notes that in the Constitution it only mentions some of the people's rights and not all of them. This is not helping the Constitution because

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you cant have rules that are not clear. Brutus is referring to how the Government has not been trustworthy in the past and men should have the right to live knowing that their rights and properties are protected. This may sound appealing, but in reality, this sounds too good to be true. Alexander Hamilton believed that the Constitution already guarantees the separation of power between Government. Brutus disagree with this, and this was a big reason why he wanted to write the Anti-Federalist paper. Overall,

Brutus wanted Government to have restricted power towards people. I would say that because of the

Anti-Federalist papers our Government is even stronger. For example, without the bill of rights, I am sure our society would be destroyed by now.

We agree with the Federalist papers, they were strong and convincing. Even though this is true, there are slight reasons that make us think that the Anti-Federalist papers were helpful. For instance, without the Anti-Federalist there would be no Bill of Rights. It was the Anti-Federalist who made everything clear when it comes to people’s rights. Not to mention there are some statements that we disagree with. They believed that growing the government would take away people’s rights when we believe that it would add more voting of topics and freedom to people. Although we do agree with the

Federalist in some ways. They were the people that suggested to let citizens have an extra layer of government. The Federalist made state government possible. They had more political support and help make people feel more involved with the government. At the same time, there are reasons we don't agree with the Federalist. The Federalist wanted to turn America into essentially a business. They wanted to make foreign goods more expensive so that people would buy American goods and make the taxes o of that. Overall we think that the Anti-Federalist got their side. We think this because it was the

Anti-Federalist who convinced the Federalist to create the bill of rights.

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In conclusion, the Federalist papers are still relevant to this day. The Federalist papers are used in basic everyday tasks even if there are some rights we don't use today, like no quartering soldiers, they were still relevant back then. Our President, Donald Trump, is using his right to freedom of speech through social media, and during public speeches. If it wasn't for the federalist papers and the three men who wrote them, we probably wouldn't have our Constitution today and maybe Trump wouldn’t be free to speak as he does, however distasteful his comments may be.