What arguments did the anti-federalists use to convince people to support the Constitution?

Answer 1

The anti-federalists were opposed to the Constitution and actually wanted the Articles of Confederation to be revised if anything.

Also, the Federalists (who wanted the constitution) wrote a series of essays to support the Constsitution and to inform people on why the Constitution is a good thing and that it will help America become a more stable country. Some writers are John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton.

Answer 2

Some of the objections of Anti-federalists (for the primary documents of press, letters, and ratification conventions, see The Debate on the Constitution, Bernard Bailyn, editor).: Even the Federalists are not sure the Constitution will work. We know our rights in our states, we do not know what rights we will have under the new government. The US is too big, it can only be held together with force. The ratification process is moving too fast for clear thinking. It doesn't make sense to try out a government that has never been tried before, and they should be ashamed of throwing over their state governments for no good reason. No one gave permission for the Convention to pretend that they could say "We the people", they exceeded their instructions. The secrecy of the Philadelphia Convention proves there will be no freedom of the press. Nothing good can come out of secret meetings. The stronger government in the Constitution will be taken over by despots who will make us all slaves. Our confederacy will be replaced with a strong central power over all the states. The states will be abolished. A national government which can do all things "necessary and proper" can bypass the state governments. The states cannot control the federal courts; there will be chaos with contradictory law and court rulings. The Senate is too strong and too few. Senators will become an anti-republican aristocracy. The US Congress is too small, it will be easily corrupted. There will be no protection from the national government's taxes when they are harmful. The US will be too big, so government will be far removed from the people, not their representatives. Slavery can be abolished, so it will be abolished. Slavery is not abolished, so it will never be abolished. There is no religious test for federal officers as there is in the states, so men who are evil or the wrong kind of Christian might be elected. There must be amendments to protect our rights from Congress. The amendment system will necessarily lead to violence and civil war.