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FEDERALIST PARTY
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FEDERALIST PARTY , in See also:American politics, the party that organized the See also:national See also:government of the See also:United States under the constitution of 1787. It may be regarded as, in various important respects, the lineal predecessor of the American Whig and Republican parties. The name Federalists (see See also:ANTI-FEDERALISTS) was first given to those who championed the See also:adoption of the Constitution. They brought to the support of that See also:instrument " the areas of intercourse and See also:wealth " (Libby), the See also:influence of the commercial towns, the greater planters, the See also:army See also:officers, creditors and See also:property-holders generally,—in See also:short, of interests that had See also:felt the evils of the weak government of the
See also:Confederation,—and also of some few true nationalists (few, because there was as yet no See also:general national feeling), actuated by See also:political principles of centralization independently of motives of expediency and self-See also:interest. Most of the Federalists of 1787–1788 became members of the later Federalist Party.
The Federalist Party, which may be regarded as definitely organized practically from 1791, was led, leaving See also:Washington aside, by See also: They, having the See also:great opportunity of initiative, organized it in all its branches, giving it an administrative machinery that in the See also:main endures to-See also:day; established the See also:doctrine of national See also:neutrality toward See also:European conflicts (although the variance of Federalist and Republican See also:opinion on this point was largely factitious); and fixed the practice of a liberal construction of the Constitution,'—not only by See also:Congress, but above all by the United States Supreme See also:Court, which, under the See also:lead of John See also:Marshall (who had been appointed See also:chief-See also:justice by Pres. John Adams), impressed enduringly on the national See also:system large portions of the Federalist doctrine. These are the great claims of the party to memory. After 18ox it never regained power. In attempts to do so, alike in national and in See also:state politics, it impaired its morale by See also:internal dissension, by intrigues,andby inconsistent factious opposition to Democratic measures on grounds of ultra-strict construction. It took up, too, the Democratic weapon of states' rights, and in New See also:England carried sectionalism dangerously near See also:secession in 1808, and in 1812-1814,during the See also:movement, in opposition to the See also:war of 1812, which culminated in the See also:Hartford See also:Convention (see HARTFORD). It lost, more and more, its influence and usefulness, and by 1817 was practically dead as a national party, although in See also:Massachusetts it lingered in power until 1823. It is sometimes said that Federalism died because the Republicans took over its principles of See also:nationality. Rather it See also:fell because its great leaders, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, became See also:bitter enemies; because neither was even distantly comparable to See also:Jefferson as a party See also:leader; because the party could not hold the support of its See also:original commercial, manufacturing and general business elements; because the party opposed sectionalism to a growing nationalism on the issues that ended in the war of 1812; and, above all, because the principles of the party's leaders (e.g. of Hamilton) were out of See also:harmony, in various respects, with American ideals. Their conservatism became increasingly a reactionary fear of democracy; indeed, it is not a strained construction of the times to regard the entire Federalist See also:period from the American point of view as reactionary—a reaction against the doctrines of natural rights, See also:individualism, and states' rights, and the financial looseness of the period of the War of See also:Independence and the succeeding years of the Confederation. The Federalists were charged by the Republicans with being aristocrats and monarchists, and it is certain that their, leaders ' Even the Democratic party has generally been liberal; although less so in theory (hardly less so in practice) than its opponents. 236 (who were really a very remarkable See also:body of men) distrusted democratic government; that their See also:Sedition See also:Law was outrageous in itself, and (as well as the See also:Alien Law) See also:bad as a party measure; that in disputes with Great See also:Britain they were true See also:English Tories when contrasted with the friendly attitude toward See also:America held by many English Liberals; and that they persisted in New England as a See also:pro-British, aristocratic social-cult See also:long after they lost effective political influence. In short, the See also:country was already thoroughly democratic in spirit, while Federalism stood for obsolescent social ideas and was infected with political "Tory-ism " fatally against the times.
Besides the See also:standard general histories see O. G. Libby, See also:Geographical See also:Distribution of the See also:Vote of the Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, 1787–1788 (See also:Madison, Wis., 1894); the See also:Memoirs of See also:Oliver See also:Wolcott (ed. by See also:Gibbs) ; C. D. Hazen, Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution (" J.H.U. Studies," See also:Baltimore, 1897) ; See also: See also:Bayard. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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