Federalist Party

The Federalist Party, referred to as the Pro-Administration party until the 3rd United States Congress as opposed to their opponents in the Anti-Administration party, was the first American political party.

The first two-party system consisted of the Federalist Party, who supported the ratification of the Constitution, and the Democratic-Republican Party or the Anti-Administration party (Anti-Federalists), who opposed the powerful central government, among others, that the Constitution established when it took effect in 1789.

The Federalist Party came into being between 1792 and 1794 as a national coalition of bankers and businessmen in support of Alexander Hamilton's fiscal policies.

He was an influential interpreter and promoter of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the founder of the nation's financial system, the Federalist Party, the United States Coast Guard, and the New York Post newspaper.

The party controlled the federal government until 1801, when it was overwhelmed by the Democratic-Republican opposition led by Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System.

The only Federalist President was John Adams.

He was the first, and only, president elected under the banner of the Federalist Party.

Federalist policies called for a national bank, tariffs and good relations with Great Britain as expressed in the Jay Treaty negotiated in 1794. The Jay Treaty battle in 1794–1795 was the effort by Washington, Hamilton and John Jay to resolve numerous difficulties with Britain.

It inflamed the new growth of two opposing parties in every state, the pro-Treaty Federalists and the anti-Treaty Jeffersonian Republicans.

They recovered some strength through their intense opposition to the War of 1812, but they practically vanished during the Era of Good Feelings that followed the end of the war in 1815.

The era saw the collapse of the Federalist Party and an end to the bitter partisan disputes between it and the dominant Democratic-Republican Party during the First Party System.

After the Democratic-Republicans, whose base was in the rural South, won the hard-fought presidential election of 1800, the Federalists never returned to power.

In what is sometimes referred to as the "Revolution of 1800", Vice President Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent President John Adams of the Federalist Party.

After losing executive power, they decisively shaped Supreme Court policy for another three decades through Chief Justice John Marshall.

After returning to the United States, Marshall won election to the United States House of Representatives and emerged as a leader of the Federalist Party in Congress.

They held a strong base in the nation's cities and in New England.

As the United States and the United Kingdom fought the War of 1812, New England Federalists organized the Hartford Convention in the winter of 1814 to discuss the region's grievances concerning the war, and to propose changes to the Constitution to protect the region's interests and maintain its political power.

They recovered some strength through their intense opposition to the War of 1812, but they practically vanished during the Era of Good Feelings that followed the end of the war in 1815.

The U.S. was in a period of significant political conflict between the Federalist Party (based mainly in the Northeast) and the Democratic-Republican Party (with its greatest power base in the South and West).

Hamilton defended his administration of the nation's complicated financial affairs, which none of his critics could decipher until the arrival in Congress of the Republican Albert Gallatin in 1793.

He became the chief spokesman on financial matters for the Democratic-Republican Party, leading opposition to the Federalist economic program.

The Jay Treaty battle in 1794–1795 was the effort by Washington, Hamilton and John Jay to resolve numerous difficulties with Britain.

He directed U.S. foreign policy for much of the 1780s and was an important leader of the Federalist Party after the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788.

He was re-elected without opposition in 1792.

Adams, meanwhile, was backed by the Federalist Party in his bid for another term.

Federalist Postmasters General, Timothy Pickering (1791–94) and Joseph Habersham (1795–1801) appointed and removed local postmasters to maximize party funding.

He also represented Massachusetts in both houses of Congress as a member of the Federalist Party.

On the Republican side, Philip Freneau and Benjamin Franklin Bache blasted the administration with all the scurrility at their command.

He frequently attacked the Federalist political leaders, including Presidents George Washington and John Adams, and historian Gordon S. Wood wrote that "no editor did more to politicize the press in the 1790s."

Hamilton subsidized the Federalist editors, wrote for their papers and in 1801 established his own paper, the New York Evening Post. Though his reputation waned considerably following his death, Joseph Dennie ran three of the most popular and influential newspapers of the period, The Farmer's Weekly Museum, the Gazette of the United States and The Port Folio.

Established in 1801 by Federalist and Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, it became a respected broadsheet in the 19th century, under the name New York Evening Post.

John Fenno and "Peter Porcupine" (William Cobbett) were their nastiest penmen and Noah Webster their most learned.

12, 1751 (O.S.) – Sept. 14, 1798), was a Federalist Party editor and major figure in the history of American newspapers.

Hamilton subsidized the Federalist editors, wrote for their papers and in 1801 established his own paper, the New York Evening Post. Though his reputation waned considerably following his death, Joseph Dennie ran three of the most popular and influential newspapers of the period, The Farmer's Weekly Museum, the Gazette of the United States and The Port Folio.

A Federalist, Dennie is best remembered for his series of essays entitled The Lay Preacher and as the founding editor of Port Folio, a journal espousing classical republican values.

He warned in his Farewell Address against involvement in European wars and lamented the rising North-South sectionalism and party spirit in politics that threatened national unity: The party spirits serves always to distract the Public Councils, and enfeeble the Public Administration.

This included the state of foreign affairs, and divisions between the newly formed Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties.

The election of 1796 was the first partisan affair in the nation's history and one of the more scurrilous in terms of newspaper attacks.

Incumbent Vice President John Adams of the Federalist Party defeated former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party.

To silence Administration critics, the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798.

The Alien and Sedition Acts were four laws passed by the Federalist-dominated 5th United States Congress and signed into law by President John Adams in 1798.

George Washington was broadly sympathetic to the Federalist program, but he remained officially non-partisan during his entire presidency.

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton formed the Federalist Party to promote the national credit and a financially powerful nation.

John Fenno and "Peter Porcupine" (William Cobbett) were their nastiest penmen and Noah Webster their most learned.

In 1793, Alexander Hamilton recruited Webster to move to New York City and become an editor for a Federalist Party newspaper.

Hamilton became embittered over his loss of political influence and wrote a scathing criticism of Adams' performance as President in an effort to throw Federalist support to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

He was twice nominated by the Federalist Party as its presidential candidate in 1804 and 1808, losing both elections.

Those Federalists such as John Quincy Adams (John Adams' own son) and Rufus King willing to work with him were rewarded with senior diplomatic posts, but there was no punishment of the opposition.

Initially a Federalist like his father, he won election to the presidency as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and in the mid-1830s became affiliated with the Whig Party.