What was the Anti-Federalist stance on people's rights and the Constitution?

Question

• The Constitution ensured that the government would be limited in its power.
• The Constitution should remove the social contract, which forced citizens to do things against their will.
• The Constitution gave too many rights to common people.
• The Constitution did little to protect the rights of citizens.

Answer 1

The Anti-Federalists were primarily concerned that the Constitution did not adequately protect the rights of individuals. They argued that the Constitution centralized power in a way that could potentially lead to tyranny and that it lacked a Bill of Rights to safeguard individual liberties. Therefore, the statement that aligns most closely with the Anti-Federalist stance would be:

• The Constitution did little to protect the rights of citizens.

Anti-Federalists believed that without explicit protections for individual rights, the government could infringe on those rights. Their opposition ultimately contributed to the adoption of the Bill of Rights as the first ten amendments to the Constitution.