Question

Why did the Federalists believe that it would be dangerous to add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution? 1) Because they believed it would limit individual freedoms. 2) Because they believed it would give too much power to the government. 3) Because they believed it would create confusion and conflict. 4) Because they believed it was unnecessary and redundant.

Answer 1

The Federalists thought adding a Bill of Rights was unnecessary and could imply unlisted rights were unprotected. The correct option is 4.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Federalists believed that it would be dangerous to add a Bill of Rights to the Constitution because they thought it was unnecessary and redundant. They reasoned that the Constitution's enumeration of limited powers, combined with the protections against Congressional overreach already embedded within the document, made a separate Bill of Rights superfluous. Alexander Hamilton, writing in the Federalist No. 84, argued that the inclusion of a Bill of Rights might imply that any unlisted rights were unprotected, potentially inviting violations of those rights.

Moreover, Federalists believed that the Constitution was designed to regulate the general interests of the nation and that state constitutions and the existing civic virtue of Congress would suffice to protect individual freedoms. The fear was that a specific enumeration of rights would lead to the assumption that any right not listed was not safe from governmental infringement.

However, in response to strong concerns from Anti-Federalists and as a condition for ratification by key states, the Federalists eventually agreed to consider amendments, leading to the adoption of the present Bill of Rights. Hence the righr answer is 4.