Federalist Party

Federalist Party, American political party of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It originated in the groups advocating the creation of a stronger national government after 1781. Its early leaders included Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, James Madison, and George Washington. These men provided much of the impetus and the organization behind the movement to draft and ratify the federal Constitution to secure the gains of the War of Independence on an orderly and stable basis. Their support came from the established elites of old wealth in the commercial cities and in the less rapidly developing rural regions.

From 1789 to 1801 the Federalists were the dominant force in the national government. Under Hamilton's leadership, they settled the problems of the revolutionary debt, sought closer relations with Great Britain in Jay's Treaty of 1794, and tried to silence their domestic critics with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. These policies cost them much of their support, including that of Madison, who with Thomas Jefferson organized the Republican party, which drove the Federalists from power in the election of 1800.

Between 1801 and 1815 the Federalists held caucuses and conventions, primarily in the New England states, opposing the commercial and diplomatic policies of the Jefferson and Madison administrations. These efforts climaxed in the Hartford Convention of 1814, which because of its apparent sympathy for the idea of secession, left the party tainted with the image of disloyalty. From 1816 to 1820 Federalist parties in the northern states continued to contest elections and support candidates, such as Rufus King, for the presidency, with virtually no success. By 1824 the Federalists had ceased to function as an effective political organization.