Group 2: Nathan, Jack, McKay
Anti-Federalist writings, including Brutus No. 1, adhered to popular democratic theory that emphasized the benefits of a small decentralized republic while warning of the dangers to personal liberty from a large, centralized government. Read Brutus 1 (link above), and the following questions in one, thoughtful post on the weebly. Please address all questions asked. Which form of government is best and why? Why does Brutus believe that a large republic, as established by the Constitution, lead to tyranny? With which powers of the new government is Brutus particularly concerned? Why? What concerns does Brutus have about the relationships between the federal and state governments? What are the overall biggest fears of the Anti-Federalists? In your opinion, are those fears justified? Once you have completed your initial post, make at least one comment on the post of another classmate from each different group. For example, if you completed the questions about Brutus I, comment on one post about Federalist 10 and one about Federalist 51.
7 Comments
McKay Shockley
9/30/2018 05:37:23 pm
The form of government that is best is a free republic because it keeps people and ideas closer therefore, one person can represent people with the same ideas and beliefs. In a republic, people are supposed to have the same views and if not, there will be a clashing of opinions for a long time and it will slow down operations of the government and not promote public good. In Brutus’s opinion, a free republic worked for small regions (such as Greece republics and the Romans) but when they started to spread their influence to surrounding cities and regions, their governments went from free governments to cruel and them using a random use of power and control. Some of the powers of the new government are concerning to Brutus such as the great officers of the government and how they would deal with the people. Brutus thinks that over time the officers of the government would become above the control of the population and would use their power for themselves. Brutus thinks that there would be concerns about the relationships between federal and state governments, one of them being the power of the legislative. The legislative power is capable of laying duties, taxes, and many other things but there is no limit to this power and that could cause the government to collect taxes as they please or raise them to any mode they please. The anti-federalists were afraid that the states were giving up too much power to the new federal government, and because of that the government would take advantage of their power. I think those fears are justified because with people giving too much to a brand new government, we could lose control of our freedoms and the government would only care about what they want to do.
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Courtney
9/30/2018 07:10:12 pm
All nice facts McKay! This free republic form of government seems to be extremely beneficial and helps prevent fights vs. start them!
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d
10/18/2020 12:39:43 pm
f
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Nathan Crumb
9/30/2018 08:43:35 pm
In Brutus, the anti federalists seem to prefer a weaker central government and they want to give a good amount of power to the people and the states. They prefer this because they believe they will turn out like the British government tyranny that was hanging over them before they claimed independence. Brutus believes that this will lead to tyranny because that is what happened with the British government and they believe that it will happen to us also once the power gets to people’s heads. Brutus is concerned mostly with the legislative branch. This is because they will have the ability to raise taxes substantially if they feel the need to. Brutus feels as if they will for sure raise the taxes too because the U.S. will need to raise an army, pay off debts, and support the people of the U.S. who cannot support themselves, such as welfare. Brutus believes that the legislative branch can pass a bad law possibly and that will affect everyone in the U.S. and there is nothing they can do about it. Brutus is worried that the state gov and the federal gov will not have a great relationships because the federal gov. will try to take all of their jobs and do them themselves just to create one single government for this country. They are also worried that state gov will have no power in legislature at all which is a big problem for the people of that state. The anti-federalist’s biggest fears seem to be: a tyranny being created/abuse of power, state governments being cast away and having just federal, and the people and their liberties. These fears are justified because they are all very important matters, if our government was a tyranny today, this country would be terrible and nobody would want to come here. If the state governments were cast away they could be very worried that the federal government could have too much power and abuse it. Lastly, freedom and liberties that an U.S. citizen is entitled to is what makes this country great and the anti-federalists want this to be a priority for the new form of government.
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Anna Pittman
9/30/2018 08:56:33 pm
United States citizens are entitled to freedom and liberties and this country is great! The anti-federalists have good justified reasons about everything they believe in. Nice job!
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Landon
9/30/2018 10:39:09 pm
The fear of tyranny is a big deal, and I couldn't imagine having to make a huge choice like that. Thank you for explaining everything so well!
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Zizhe Liu
10/1/2018 12:03:43 am
the best form of government is a weak central government, just like what Brutus' opinion a large republic, as established by the Constitution will lead to tyranny. everyone loves power, it's human nature, when everybody is shocked by George Washington said he'll no longer be the president of the United States, he answered if he stay at that position too long, he'll lost his ability and courage to make a right decision, so he chose to quit. Brutus believes that if people have no power to against central government, this government will lead to tyranny. So the way to solve this problem is giving powers back to people, allow each states have their own governments, give them power to pass their own laws, give them armies. And if the central government did not give power back to people which is Brutus' most censured thing, when central government have too much power and people did not get any, this may cause something unfair. And this will also lost the connection between government and people, people have no way to tell government that maybe some laws are not applicable. The anti-federalist’s biggest fear is central government have too much power and they are abusing their power. people have a lot of problems but they do not know where to tell, central government did not know because they do not have a connection with people so they think something is good for people but it's not. and in my opinion this concern is right, we have many examples, German during WW2, Soviet Union. Those history is telling us the power of a government is from people and belong to people.
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