Anti-federalist distrusted a strong central government and wanted power to rest with the states. They also did not want a standing army. Some libertarians believe that since Americans opposed a standing army, as the vocal Anti-Federalists did, the Constitution forbade it. That is clearly not the case. B) They were largely comprised of Southern land-owners who did not want northern trade and commerce to take over the country. The Anti-Federalist who used the name of “John DeWitt” wrote extensively about the evils of standing armies in a series of essays published in the Boston American Herald in late 1787: They shall have also the power of raising, supporting and establishing a standing army in time of peace in your several towns, and I see not why in your several houses.” A) They were led by land-owning Thomas Jefferson who wanted a weak central government. Many contemporary Anti-Federalists had argued that, if standing armies were truly necessary, they should be raised and kept by the individual States. The Anti-Federalists feared such as they did not want another government controlling power as Britain was. Standing Army Federalists • Supported a standing army for national defense Anti-Federalists • Feared a standing army could be used for oppression 10. While the opponents of the Constitution, who came to be labeled “Anti-Federalists,” opposed standing … Which of the following is NOT true of the Anti-Federalists? Foreign Relations Federalists • Pro-British Anti-Federalists • Pro-French – Kinda until the French Revolution got CRAAAAAZY 11. Hamilton disagrees with this idea on several fronts, first of which is that it would force the ‘common defense’ to rely too heavily on certain States. Many Anti-Federalists, like Patrick Henry and George Mason from the mighty state of Virginia, worried that the new government would use its powers to gradually minimize the states until they had few responsibilities. No Child Left Behind is a good example. This included their resentment to have a strong standing Army.To solve this issue they wished to place government power in the hands of the State. In this light, Hamilton did much more than … The new Constitution provided for a president, a standing army and had the power to tax. He made this argument precisely to demonstrate that the reasoning behind the anti-standing army sentiment held by so many Anti-Federalists was directly at odds with the federalist system they sought to preserve. C) They did not want the federal government to have a standing army or tax them to pay off the national debt incurred by the Revolutionary War. The beliefs that grew organically from their experiences with the British also help explain Madison’s passionate anti-military rhetoric (he would later refer to the establishment of a standing army under the new Constitution as a “calamity,” albeit an inevitable one); together, they cast a long shadow over the debates surrounding the kind of military the new nation would provide for itself. D) They did not want a federal government that was toothless and would allow states too much power. The federal government is consolidating power and regulations for education, which the anti-federalist would oppose. The Anti-Federalists viewed the national government’s power to raise and command a standing army in peacetime and to exert control over state militias as a dangerous step in the direction of arbitrary government that would threaten the rights of states and the liberties of individual citizens.