The Anti-Federalists
These are portraits of the three most well-known Anti-Federalists; George Mason, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry.
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The Anti-Federalists were a group of delegates, who, after the Constitutional Convention, tried to create a more balanced frame for government by adding in a bill of rights to the end of the drafts. At this point in time, the Constitution had been drafted and the Federalists were getting the Constitution ratified. The Anti-Federalists tried to spread their movement on individual rights, and tried to stop the Federalists from getting the Constitution ratified by 9 of the 13 states. The Anti-Federalists believed that there should be a balanced system of government between federal government and the state governments. They wrote an anthology of essays, called the Anti-Federalist Papers as newspaper essays debating issues with the Constitution's draft. George Mason, Samuel Adams, and Patrick Henry were among the most well-known of the Anti-Federalists, and wrote under the pen name of Cato and Brutus, Roman consuls. Eventually, they forced the Federalists to allow them to add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution, listing the basic rights of the citizens.
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