Essay on "State Powers vs. Federal"

Essay 5 pages (1546 words) Sources: 1+ Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Federal Antifederal

The Framing of the Inherently Federalist Constitution

The Constitution was at the time of its composition both a revolutionary and extraordinarily controversial document and doctrine. It proposed to establish a powerful federal Republic comprised of a Union of States. A sharp departure from Imperial England, out of which it was born, in its ambition to acknowledge the right of individuals for representation, and yet in many fundamental ways modeled after the machinations of the property-driven feudal Europe of its forebears, a United States emerged with clear ideological ties to its mother country and yet stewarded by a process of a progressive nature. As the introduction to the Herbert Strong collection of the Anti-Federalist Papers argues, the Constitutional Convention that would produce the U.S. Constitution in 1787 would be perhaps the first example in history to that juncture of a government being framed upon the inception of a nation, as opposed to this formulation occurring upon whim, happenstance or inevitability. The congregation of individuals varied according to region and philosophical disposition and the contentious, considerate nature of the debate which proceeded would lead to commitments to forming a strong, equitable Union. And yet, the process of ratification would spawn further meaningful debate over the dangers inherently present in the Constitution, which appeared to provide justification for an incontestably strong federal government. Endorsed during this period by the authors of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, the Constitution was designed to establish a form of government known as representative democracy. While the Anti-Federalist Papers were not credibly intended to dissuade the overall ratification of the Constitution, it would be the role of these state-level representatives to appeal to the framers of the document for acknowledgement of necessary protections for state and individual rights. Both positions would figure into the development of a nation in reflection of Thomas Jefferson's monumental Declaration of Independence.

In an act which would be the final provocation of armed hostilities between the British and the colonists, the Declaration dissolved ties to the crown and entered a philosophical position which may be considered as fundamental to both sides in the ratification debate. Jefferson argued that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Mansfield, 7) He goes further to argue that this is the very cause for the founding of government. This must necessarily inform a discussion on the topic of the debate waged between Federalists and Anti-Federalists. Thus, the anti-federalists through such conduits as Brutus (designed to maintain the theoretical anonymity of those who collectively asserted this position, would work to draw up a constitution concordant with these values. Its objection to the centralized nature of the federalist ideology is particularly well-captured in articles such as the Anti-Federalist Paper No. 17, which argues that the intended empowerment of the federal government went too far to the detriment of state's rights. So contends Brutus when he denotes that ," as its powers reach, all ideas of confederation are given up and lost. It is true this government is limited to certain objects, or to speak more properly, some small degree of power is still left to the States; but a little attention to the powers vested in the general government, will convince every candid man, that if it is capable of being executed, all that is reserved for the individual States must very soon be annihilated, except so far as they are barely necessary to the organization of the general government." (TN, 1) This is a position which, though extreme in its cautionary speculation about the outcome of the selected form of government, is nonetheless a compelling observation concerning the implications of the emerging Constitution. Most particularly, it addresses the perception that the Constitution is an inherently federalist document with a distinct bias toward the preeminence of federal authority over individual state identities.

The reigning debate on the subject is captured well by such figures as Alexander Hamilton who, in his introduction to the Federalist Papers, points to the central conflict dividing thinkers on either side of the debate. He notes of the desire amongst all of the Founding Fathers to balance the authority of a strong republic against the access of the people to fair representation and public office that "so numerous indeed and so powerful are the causes which serve to give false bias to the judgment, that we, upon many occasions, see wise and good men on the wrong as well as on the right side of questions of the first magnitude to society." (Rossiter, 28) but this is a matter more of effective rhetoric than general acknowledgement, as Hamilton moves on to present arguments which while correctly in favor of the Constitution, would too vehemently endorse the marked power of central government against the rights of individuals. In Hamilton's position, too liberated a public could prove a threat to the stability, prosperity and longevity of a union. Hamilton essentially argues that the ability of a government to freely and strongly represent its public is itself tantamount to the freedom and strength of a nation as a whole. His text determines "that the vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty." (Rossiter, 29)

An ironic consequence of the Federalist Papers is that these very same firebrands of revolution against British tyranny would so ardently produce a piece of literature designed to orient the government with a veritably uncontestable range and permeation of powers. As crucial Anti-Federalist Robert Yates would contend under the penname, Brutus, "that at a time when the pulse of liberty beat high and when an appeal was made to the people to form constitutions for the government of themselves . . . It is therefore the more astonishing, that this grand security, to the rights of the people, is not to be found in this constitution." (Storing, 119) This would be part of the most potent of appeals found in the writings of the Anti-Federalists, with this argument formulating the case against the Constitution's crucial omissions. Indeed, the anti-federalists seemed clearly to sense the degree of friction and uncertainty which would unfold in the coming centuries as a result of an essentially unsettled philosophical debate. Though compromise is a key term with respect to the development of the U.S. Constitution and its attendant form of governance, it is also clear that some degree of this Compromise has been forced and therefore essentially unsettled.

So are we aided in our understanding of this unsettled compromise by consideration of Anti-Federalist Paper No. 17, which introduces what would become one of the most commonly debated aspects of Constitutional law. Here, Brutus would identify the evolving reality of differing interpretational approaches to the laws of the Constitution, remarking that "this [new] government is to possess absolute and uncontrollable powers, legislative, executive and judicial, with respect to every object to which it extends, for by the last clause of section eighth, article first, it is declared, that the Congress shall have power 'to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or office thereof.'" (TN, 1) This criticism remarks upon the early incarnations of what would ultimately become known as strict constructivism of the Constitution. This would render it a document of allegedly incontrovertible determination, rendering the Constitution an inherently federal document with limited or no susceptibility to alteration or insightful interpretation.

The Federalists would put forth the argument though that this compromise had provided the states with considerably more rights and power than the anti-federalists were willing to acknowledge. So denotes Madison in… READ MORE

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