Parallels between the abuses of power that lead to the Revolution and the potential for the abuse of power under the Constitution were visible to the anti-Federalists; guarding their hard fought political power and liberty against an inevitable despotic government was their mission. Circumstances certainly had an effect on the views of the anti-Federalists. In terms of both their recent experiences under English rule as well as the class differences that existed, the anti-Federalists perceived the Constitution as undemocratic and its drafters as the potential aristocrats and unchecked political leaders that would eventually rule over them. The bottom line, however, that caused such great concern for the anti-Federalists were the underlying philosophical principles within the Constitution. The people wanted democracy, the powers that formed the new government feared democracy. The common man, represented by the anti-Federalists, believed that democracy could work if proper representation was insured. Those holding power and influence, the Federalists, found a pure democracy to be an impracticable and even dangerous form of governing such a large nation.
The colonists had experienced the power of democracy in their towns and states, and to take away this recently discovered power was seen as a mortal threat to their liberty. They saw themselves as they were ten years earlier under English rule, subjects to political powers they could not see, and this, they believed, is what would happen again if the Constitution was to be ratified. Political leaders from an aristocratic class, far distanced from the people, would be dictating what the common man could or could not do. What history told these men, who so passionately wrote against the ratification of the proposed Constitution, was that unchecked power in the hands of a few inevitably leads to a corrupt and oppressive form of government.
Kammen, Michael. The Origins of the American Constitution: A Documentary
History. New York: Penguin Books Inc., 1986.
The Constitution Society. 6 April 2001 http://www.constitution.org/afp.htm.