Apparently the anti-feds were opposed to becoming the most powerful nation on earth.
No one is suggesting -unlimited- power by the federal government. It is hard to imagine how anyone could oppose the government having enough power simply to maintain its existance in the face of domestic foes too weak to control administration by organic means.
Walt
In 1861,
The yankees knew that having Southern men of honor, like Robert E. Lee, Nathan B. Forrest, and Jefferson Davis in the Union, was essential to its survival. The Yankee States, existing in a union without the Southern States, rightly seemed silly and unworkable to the Yankees. So they fought to keep them from leaving.
85 year prior to that,
King George knew that having American men of honor, like James Madison, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, in the British Empire, was essential to its survival. The British, in an empire without the Americans, rightly seemed silly and unworkable. So he fought to keep them from leaving.
Southerners, however, knew that the CSA was destined to become the greatest nation on earth, and they knew that they didn't need New Englanders of the Kennedy and Rockefeller ilk in it, to become just that. Ahh - the spirit of independence; so American.