What Does History Teach

Introduction

The paper represents the comparison and contrast of federalist papers and anti-federalist papers. These are a series of five to eight documents written in the favor of the American government and in support of the adoption of the constitution. In addition, they also give guidelines on how application of the policies made by government should be practically applied. The papers date back to the 1780s and have been written by John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison. They present the antifederalist philosophy on what lessons are contained in history, how a civil war will result if the constitution is adopted, domestic factions and insurrection, and the duration for which an Executive should be given the office. The paper summarizes the documents and evaluates them too (Hamilton, p. 93).

Summary

The first document What does history teach? poses an interesting question on the failure of constitution. It suggests that if it is a clause in law that law of United States of America which affects the lives of people of the Empire of note has to be revised again and again and should be enforced only after the consent of people has been taken, how come the government officials or the best brains have failed so many times in the past making laws that are full of flaws. It also throws light on the argument that if America is a free state and people are masters of their own rights, then an implementation of a constitution that has not been formed with their consent an infringement of their right on independence.

The second document which has been selected for the comparison is Adoption of the constitution will lead to civil war. The document talks of the state of various people when a change in the constitution is about to take place. Emotions such as fear, anxiety, and jealousy are very common. People have their fingers crossed and they wait for the authorities to reveal what the change entails for them. The author says that the constitution as it stood back at the time when the document was written, if it was adopted it would only bring out the worst in all the country men who will fight amongst one another (Wootton, p. 74). The consequent civil war will only result in disease and famine for the poor and the increase in wealth of the rich, hence, the system which was already bad will become worse.

The third document points out that faction is violence and is thus a vice. It states that the amendments made in the constitution may not be very admirable as some would like to say but they have tried to address the issues related with insurrection and faction and if one were to become really partial only then one will overlook this major change. It is also true that the complaints that come from the public's side on the regardlessness of the public interest, violation of rights ad discrimination against minorities, instability of the government and ...