When evaluating the balance between Federalist and Anti-Federalist influence in the United States, one must also have a firm understanding on the basis of their views as they apply to the Constitution itself. The first mention of Federalism was in the 17th century, though strictly in religious terms at that point. The word itself comes from the Latin word foederatus, meaning bound by treaty. Federalism as a tool is simply put, a way to link separate states together by a national government to achieve common goals that would have otherwise been impossible to them. It can be argued that, while both opposing viewpoints are completely contradictory in nature, the fact remains that both sides believed with absolute certainty that they acted out of the purest sense of goodness and integrity.
             Originally, all of the nation's Founding Fathers, as they all were men, held a similar view of how their country should be run however radical it may have seemed at the time. Charles A. Beard, a professor of politics once said, "You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence". "All men created equal", in truth, applied only to those white men who owned land. Many of the Constitutional framers held a Calvinistic view of society. They believed that man was greedy, power hungry, aggressive, selfish, contentious, and always at a state of war. To them, man's nature was a universal constant that could not change, only be manipulated. The greatest belief common to all was that "good politics" could control the impulses and actions of man. The Founding Fathers wanted to build their government on what they thought of!
             as the natural order of things, in which a self-sustaining system would help and regulate itself. It was in this view that their con...