The Federalist Party was the first political party in America. This party was widely popular from the early 1790s to around 1816, a period commonly referred to as the era of the First party system. Alexander Hamilton was the founder of this party, which had support mainly from businessmen and urban bankers. The party was advocating for a nationalistic and fiscally sound government. The party also supported the establishment of tariffs, a national bank, and better relations with England (Kennedy, Cohen & Bailey, 2010).
Among the issues in contention between the two sides was that of ratification of the constitution. The Democrat-Republican felt that the constitution gave too much power to the national government. This, they argued, was at the expense of the state governments. They also were against the exclusion of the bill of rights in the constitution. They lamented congress and the executive was handed too much power. They believed that a bill of right was the center of American’s interests and could not be left out of the constitution.
In response, the Federalists argued that the division of the government into three branches that are independent of each other protects people’s rights. Their argument was that since all the three branches were equal, and represented a variant aspect, then none of them could control the other. They noted that listing of the rights could be a dangerous thing because there might be abuse of the rights not included in the listing.
Reference
Kennedy, D. M., Cohen, L., & Bailey, T. A. (2010). The American pageant: A history of the
American people. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
