Many Anti-Federalists favored a small central government because they equated British domination with powerful governments. Others wished to advance democracy but were worried that the affluent would control a powerful government. They felt that the states were given the new federal government an overwhelming amount of authority.
These Anti-federalists included political luminaries like James Winthrop of Massachusetts, Melancton Smith of New York, Patrick Henry, and George Mason, as well as a sizable number of everyday Americans, especially yeomen farmers who dominated rural America.
The most significant Anti-Federalists delegate to the State ratification conference in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1788, Melancton Smith presented many of the same arguments as the Federal Farmer, took the brunt of the Federalist assault, and engaged Alexander Hamilton in contentious debates. The principal Anti-Federalist authors, according to historians, were Melancton Smith or Richard Henry Lee, George Clinton (Cato), Samuel Bryan (Centinel), and Robert Yates (Brutus) (Federal Farmer).
Learn more about anti-federalists:
https://brainly.com/question/1939977
#SPJ9
