Federalist
...a strong centralized government in fear that it would only replace King George III's tyranny. As a result, the first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, gave the national government hardly any power over the states, and created chaos within the nation. Because of the Articles' inefficiency, a new document called the Constitution was drafted. The Constitution created a more centralized government with the separation of powers among executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The ratification of this new constitution created a debate among the federalists and the anti-federalists. The federalists were supporters of the ratification and were led by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison. These three Federalist leaders wrote "The Federalist Papers", a series of eighty-five essays defending the Constitution, under the name "Publius", and circulated the documents widely. They claimed that the division of powers and the system of checks and balances would protect Americans from the tyranny of centralized authority. Thus people did not need to be protected from the powers of the new government in a formal way. The federalists strongly affirmed that a stronger federal government needed to be instituted.
Federalists built on the notions of classical republicanism. They claimed that the nation did not need to fear centralized authority when a carefully structured government would exclude the possibility of tyranny. The Articles of Confederation were approved by the Congress that designed them and sent to state legislators for ratification; the public opinion was disregarded. "When the people of America reflect that they are now called upon to decide a question, which in its consequences must prove one of the most important that ever engaged their attention, the propriety of their taking a very comprehensive, as well as a very serious,...
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