Antifederalist position on state/federal power - melancton smith
source: speech given by melancton smith on june 27, 1788. in a country where a portion of the people live more than twelve hundred miles from the centre, i think that one body cannot possibly legislate for the whole. can the legislature frame a system of taxation that will operate with uniform advantages? can they carry any system into execution? will it not give occasion for an innumerable swarm of officers, to infest our country and consume our substance? people will be subject to impositions which they cannot support, and of which their complaints can never reach the government. another idea is in my mind, which i think conclusive against a simple government for the united states. it is not possible to collect a set of representatives who are acquainted with all parts of the continent. can you find men in georgia who are acquainted with the situation of new hampshire, who know what taxes will best suit the inhabitants, and how much they are able to bear? can the best men make laws for the people of whom they are entirely ignorant? sir, we have no reason to hold our state governments in contempt, or to suppose them incapable of acting wisely. . we all agree that a general government is necessary; but it ought not to go so far as to destroy the authority of the members. we shall be unwise to make a new experiment, in so important a matter, without some known and sure grounds to go upon. the state constitutions should be the guardians of our domestic rights and interests, and should be both the support and the check of the federal government.
questions:
1. did the anti-federalists want the states or the federal government to have more power? why?