Question

So, what about the Constitution made people in the late 1780s (the "Critical Period") nervous or fearful

of the new federal government that was being proposed?

Answer 1

When the Constitution was approved in 1787, a large part of American society fell into fear of the political and administrative system it created for the United States.

Thus, the Constitution established a presidential regime in which the executive power would be exercised by a unipersonal governing body, the President, which would be limited in its powers by the Congress and the Supreme Court based on checks and balances.

Even so, many people (the so-called anti-federalists) believed that this type of one-man government could degenerate into an absolutist and totalitarian system, just like what was previously suffered at the hands of the British Crown.