CHAPTER 20

RISE OF POLITICAL PARTIES

[Sidenote:  Formation of the Federalist party. McMaster, 202.]

207.  The Federalists.—­There were no political parties in the United States in 1789.  All the leading men were anxious to give the new Constitution a fair trial.  Even Patrick Henry supported Washington.  Many men, as Alexander Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris, believed a monarchy to be the best form of government.  But they saw clearly that the American people would not permit a monarchy to be established.  So they supported the Constitution although they thought that it was “a frail and worthless fabric.”  But they wished to establish the strongest possible government that could be established under the Constitution.  This they could do by defining in the broadest way the doubtful words in the Constitution as Hamilton had done in the controversy over the bank charter (p. 162).  Hamilton had little confidence in the wisdom of the plain people.  He believed it would be safer to rely on the richer classes.  So he and his friends wished to give to the central government and to the richer classes the greatest possible amount of power.  Those who believed as Hamilton believed called themselves Federalists.  In reality they were Nationalists.

[Sidenote:  Formation of the Republican party.]

208.  The Republicans.—­Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Albert Gallatin, and their friends entirely disagreed with the Federalists on all of these points.  They called themselves Republicans.  In the Great Declaration Jefferson had written that government rested on the consent of the governed.  He also thought that the common sense of the plain people was a safer guide than the wisdom of the richer classes.  He was indignant at the way in which Hamilton defined the meaning of phrases in the Constitution.  He especially relied on the words of the Tenth Amendment.  This amendment provided that “all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.”  Jefferson thought that phrases like “not delegated” and “necessary and proper” should be understood in their ordinary meanings.  He now determined to arouse public opinion.  He once declared that if he had to choose between having a government and having a newspaper press, he should prefer the newspaper press.  He established a newspaper devoted to his principles and began a violent and determined attack on the Federalists, calling them monarchists.  These disputes became especially violent in the treatment of the questions which grew out of the French Revolution.

[Sidenote:  The French Revolution, 1789.]

209.  The French Revolution.—­In 1789 the French people rose against their government.  In 1792 they imprisoned their king and queen.  In 1793 they beheaded them, and set up a republic.  The monarchs of Europe made common cause against this spirit of revolution.  They made war on the French Republic and began a conflict which soon spread to all parts of the world.