Federalist Party

Federalist Party, The, in the history of the United States, arose soon after the Revolution, chiefly among the trading and capitalist classes who desired a strong central government and restriction of State rights. Washington, Adams, Hamilton and (at first) Madison were all Federalists, and the series of papers by the two latter and John Jay, published in the New York Independent Journal and afterwards republished under the title of the Federalist, did much to aid the transformation of the Confederation into a Federal Union. The chief strength of the party was in New England. Itdis' appeared about 1812 from Federal politics, chiefly from its opposition to the war with England, though it lasted some years longer in State politics, in Massachusetts and elsewhere. It favoured the development of infant industries by protection.