Committed nationalists now faced their most difficult task; winning public, acceptance for an alternative structure that defied existing law. Each state, if it wanted to enter the debate at all, had to accept or reject the proposed frame of government as offered. Several Patrick Henry. Generally, they opposed the strong national government created by the Constitution, but the diverse group failed to reach a consensus on a suitable alternative. The Constitution formed a large, federal government with more centralized control than existed in the Articles of Confederation. The Anti-federalists particularly opposed sections such as the “necessary and proper” clause, which allowed the federal Congress to pass any laws it felt were necessary and proper to govern the nation. One of the major complaints of the Anti-federalists was the lack of any bill of rights in the proposed Constitution. In a reversal of logic and contemporary usage, the nationalists who supported the new constitution took for themselves the respected name of federalists. They gave their opponents the negative-sounding term Anti-federalists. The war for Independence exhausted the new nation.
Chapter 9.
1. When Americans think of African-Americans before the Civil War, the first image that invariably comes to mind is one of slavery. Some slaves bought their own freedom from their owners, but this process became more and more rare as the 1800s progressed. Many slaves became free through manumission. The voluntary