After the Federalists won the debate and ratified the Constitution, they faced two challenges. One was to
find ways to govern the nation while smoothing over Anti-Federalist resistance to the centralized federal
government. At the same time they had to govern according to the Constitution and their own principles.
Describe in two to three sentences in the tables below the challenges that the Washington and Adams
administrations faced because of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist conflict. Explain how they overcame or
did not overcome those challenges.
We can show how Washington and Adams solved the challenges presented in the table above in the following way:
It was decided that the states would have autonomy in their actions, being able to self-govern, legislate and establish limited, but the sovereignty should be maintained by the federal government, so that the territory was properly organized.
To limit the power of the president were added the Bill of Rights and the system of checks and balances, which limited the power of the president in relation to citizens and other branches of government.
To resolve the resistance to undue taxation, the governor stated that it would be impossible to govern without establishing fees, but these fees would be charged fairly, in addition to being justified where they would be used.
Both Washington and Adams took similar steps to the anti-federalists' concerns. However, the Washington government took more general attitudes, as the suspicions of the anti-federalists had to be taken faster, as the government had to be established. Adams, on the other hand, can adapt these decisions more calmly, maintaining federalism but looking for ways to allay anti-federalists' suspicions.
