American Politics - 1903 Author:James Albert Woodburn Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE HAMILTONIAN FEDERALISTS AND THE JEFFER- SONIAN REPUBLICANS, 1789-180x3 AFTER the Constitution was adopted and Washington became President, t... more »he conflicting tendencies observed in the struggles over the adoption of the Constitution reappeared. The parties under Wash- ' n. ington are to be known as the Federalist and Democratic- the Republican. Sometimes the latter were called by their opponents, in derision and reproach, Democrats, and the hyphenated word Democratic-Republican was also used to designate them. It is often supposed that these parties are identical in principle and purpose with the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists of a few years before. This is an error. To be a Federalist in 1787 and 1788 was to favor the adoption of the Constitution. To be a States' rights Anti-Federalist was to oppose that. Madison was a National-Federalist with Hamilton then. But to be a Federalist in 1791 was to favor the adoption of Hamilton's financial measures and a broad construction of the Constitution. On these issues Madison ceased to be a Federalist with Hamilton and became a Republican under Jefferson. Both Jefferson and Madison, the originators and organizers of the Republican party, favored the adoption of the Constitution. That is, they were Federalists in 1787. But they opposed Hamilton's financial measures and broad construction ofthe Constitution and joined issue with the Federalists on other measures proposed under the leadership of Hamilton. On the other hand, some of the Anti-Federalists, like Patrick Henry, who had opposed the adoption of the Constitution, gave their adherence to Hamilton and his policy. Yet the major part of the old Anti-Federalists gave their support to the Jeffersonian Republicans, and the great body of the Federalists who did battle ...« less