The federalists believed that a federal structure with a strong central government was necessary for the country to prosper. Many of the founding fathers such as George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton supported the cause of federalism. The federalists consisted of the rich property owners who feared that ideas of liberal democracy may lead to them losing their properties and thus felt the need for having a strong central government. The federalist leader Alexander Hamilton has been credited with founding the Federalist Party. Swift states that “Federalist ideology… was predicated on the ideal of a commercial society modeled after Great Britain, in which manufacturing industries and extensive trade would generate national power and prosperity (68)”. To do that the Federalist leaders felt it necessary to enlarge the powers of the federal government and establish a strong treasury department.
The Anti-federalists were the poor people who suspected that the rich wished to impose a federal structure only to preserve their own properties. The anti-federalists led by Patrick Henry of the State of Virginia also felt that the demand for a strong central government was another ploy to destroy the autonomy of the states and a way forward to ultimately subsume state powers into central powers. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison created the Democratic-Republican Party which was also known as the Jeffersonian Party that opposed the bestowment of wealth to the rich Northerners (The White House Para 5). In addition, William West created the Country Party in Rhode Island which almost led to a civil war. The other noted leaders of the Anti-federalist movement were Samuel Adams, John Hancock and George Mason. The Democratic-Republican Party felt that the best way forward was an agricultural society that would sustain the republic through their independence and youthful vigor. To do that a limited national government was the only solution as against the strong central government proposed by the Federalist Party. Another view of the anti-federalists was that federalism was a move towards the very imperialism that they had fought to gain independence and that the President would after some time assume all the powers of a monarch.
In the end, the Federalists won the ideological battle and the Constitution of America was ratified by all the thirteen colonies with Rhode Island being the last state to ratify the constitution in 1790. However, by the time Presidential elections were held in 1800, the Federalist Party lacking a broad mass base was defeated and that led to “a period of one -party dominance by the Jeffersonians (Katz and Crotty 28)”. The Republican-Democratic Party later on became the modern day Democratic Party.
Works Cited
Katz, Richard A and William J Crotty. Handbook of Party Politics. London: SAGE, 2006.
Swift, Elaine K. The Making of an American Senate. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2002.
The White House. “James Madison.” 2009. Official White House Site. Web.