Governments & Political Parties: Republicans & Federalists

• Republicans = Democratic Republicans (Thomas Jefferson) and are the distant parents of today’s Democratic Party
• Federalists led by John Adams & Alexander Hamilton
• Federalists favored stronger central government & sympathetic to commercial & financial interests which were strongest in New England
• Democratic Republicans favored agrarian interests and states rights – strongest support in the South
• Hamilton’s Dept. Of Treasury was the most organized office – he wanted to establish the USA’s credit internationally & insisted on paying back loans – solid credit nation, like England
• Bank of US, support manufacturing – Hamilton proposed a nation’s health depended upon strong institutions...he seemed to exceed the powers of the Constitution for central Gov. – (IMPLIED POWERS)
• Jefferson opposed: monopolistic concentration of power, violates Constitution, US will be like England
• England & France regularly searched US ships, press-ganged sailors
• England still had military presence in America (against the Treaty signed in Paris)
• DR – England as the enemy, aristocracy & monarchy – opposed Jay’s Treaty
• Feds– France as the epitome of worst in human society, France abandoned respect & social hierarchy
• France often attempted to bribe US government officials (XYX affair) & aggressive at sea toward US ships
• 1798 US Navy engaged French in combat – subsided when Napoleon gained power in 1799