Federalist Party

The Federalist Party began as a cluster of nationalists within the Continental Congress. Organized political parties developed in the U.S. in the 1790s, but political factions--from which organized parties evolved--began to appear almost immediately after establishment of the federal government. Those who supported the Washington administration were referred to as "pro-administration" and would eventually form the Federalist party, while those in opposition joined the emerging (Jeffersonian) Republican party.

Instrumental in calling the Constitutional Convention in 1787, it disintegrated during the 1820s. The Federalist Party, unlike the Republicans, sought to create a powerful centralized federal government, supported industrialization, and sought to strengthen socioeconomic ties with Great Britain. Many Federalists feared the onset of mob rule in America after Jefferson's election in 1800, but this first transition from one political party to another passed smoothly.

After Robert Morris declined to serve as Secretary of the Treasury, Washington offered Alexander Hamilton the $3,500-a-year position. Sacrificing a $12,000 annual income from his law practice in New York, Hamilton accepted and became a dominant figure in the Washington administration. A nationalist and an aristocrat, Hamilton believed that the country had little to fear from a well-administered central Government. In his view, powerful interests in the large States represented the major threat to the Union. He believed that the future of the country lay in commerce and manufacturing. If the Government were to survive, it must have the aid and support of the men of means: Merchants, bankers, and businessmen. Hamilton's program showed more concern for order than liberty, had valued property over human fulfillment, and had benefited the merchant and speculator at the expense of the common farmer. An opposition was rising. Thomas Jefferson would be its leader.

Calling themselves Federal Americans, under John Adams the anti-French faction proceeded not merely to prepare for war with France, but to initiate legislation having in view the punishment or expulsion from the country of the increasing class of aliens who had constantly allied themselves with the opposite faction. In June, 1798, were passed two acts directed against aliens, one extending the time of naturalization from five to fourteen years, the other giving the President discretionary power to expel, imprison, or place under bonds any aliens he might consider dangerous to the country.

The following month the Alien Enemies act finished the proscription by providing for the expulsion of all aliens who were subjects of a country with which we were engaged in war. The well known Sedition act completed this remarkable series of enactments. That these laws were exceedingly unwise, because of their obviously partisan intent and from their more than doubtful constitutionality, was apparent to all not blinded by party madness.

But from the larger point of view they betray a lack of statesmanship and even of ordinary political foresight, which was to cost their authors the confidence of the nation. The populations of Europe were just coming to believe in America as a refuge and as a future home. The alien laws would stir deeply the thousands of partly or wholly naturalized foreigners in this country, and would operate powerfully upon many times that number of their relatives and friends in Europe. The excellent quality of the immigrants made them extremely desirable here. Their numbers were at first not large, for the movement to America was as yet hardly started. Bromwell gives the number as averaging 4,000 annually from 1784 to 1794, and 6,000 annually from 1790 to 1810.

The means by which the Federalists had maintained their position were artificial, and their resources were temporary; it was by the virtues or the talents of their leaders that they had risen to power. When the Jeffersonian Republicans attained to that lofty station, their opponents were overwhelmed by utter defeat. An immense majority declared itself against the retiring party, and the Federalists found themselves in so small a minority that they at once despaired of their future success.