The Federalist Party, 1789-1823

The Federalist Party, in America, was that group of men which organized the national government of the United States under the Constitution of 1787. The name Federalists was first given to those who stood for the adoption of the Constitution. They brought to the support of the instrument men of wealth, property-holders, the greater planters, the army officers, and creditors generally.The Federalists controlled the government until 1801, and organized it in all its branches, giving it an administrative machinery that in the main endures today. After 1801 they never regained power, losing strength by internal dissension and factious opposition to Democratic measures on grounds of ultra-strict construction. The party was dangerous in its sectionalism in 180.8, and in 1814, when the Hartford Convention was called. By 1817 it was practically dead as a national party, although it lived on in Massachusetts until 1823.It is said that Federalism died because the work for which the party came into being was finished, and because the Republicans usurped its principles of nationality. Others say that it died because its great leaders, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams, became bitter enemies, and because Jefferson was far their superior as a party leader. Perhaps the real reason was that Republicanism was thoroughly Democratic add modern, while Federalism had become obsolete in its social and economic ideas.