Lesson 2 - Classical Republicanism
The Anti-federalists (A-f) argued that there was no need for a completely new constitution to replace the Articles, though they agreed changes were needed. Their main concern about the new system proposed was that it lost sight of the limitation of power necessary for freedom.
The A-f argued that the chief weakness of the existing government came from a decline in the civic and moral strength among the American people since the end of the war. The A-f emphasis on the importance of civic virtue was the foundation for their vision of a classical republic.
By contrast the Federalists attack the great principles of classical republicanism asserting that while virtue is of great importance, it has not proven sufficient to control a country and to steer it toward greatness. The Federalist embracing of virtue is still seen in the many writings which are signed anonymously as “Publius”. This noble and humble manner was a common practice among both the Federalists and the A-f.
Americans at the time were well acquainted with classical republicanism through the great writings of such philosophers as Aristotle and Cicero. Also, Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Law, greatly influenced by the Greco-Roman thinkers, was well known to all the Founding Fathers.
But Montesquieu’s interpretation took a different approach in that it de-emphasized the aristocratic system of antiquity and embraced a more democratic model. The best practical republic was conceived as a mixed regime—a republic that combined aristocracy with some democracy by taking much power out of the hands of the moral elite and placing it in the hands of the majority of the people. In the best version of the compromise, the moral elite had to share power with the ordinary people and govern with their consent without becoming mere servants of the people.
The classical republicanism ideal in both its original and the Montesquieu versions were held in high regard by the A-f. The A-f spoke of the chief goal of government as being the securing of rights and liberties in an individualistic and libertarian sense. Both antagonists shared a vision of America as being larger in scale and more diverse than any classical republic.
What most distinguished the A-f philosophy was the outlook that politics was a type of a necessary evil, required to protect the personal liberty of individuals who exercise their liberty largely in more private pursuits. They disagreed with classical republicanism in that they did not hold government in a high regard, but mistrusted it. They considered it intrinsically corrupting. They saw the new constitution as a threat to individual rights and freedoms by an excessively centralize government far removed from the direct control of the people. They much preferred a confederacy of smaller, localized and more participatory democracies.
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