Federalist Party

The Federalist Party was the first national political party in the United States. It was formed by Alexander Hamilton during the first term of President George Washington from the "federalist" movement that pushed for the ratification of the Constitution in the late 1780s. The Federalists drew considerable support from the Northeast, New England in particular, and were made up largely of urban businessmen and bankers.

The Federalist party favored a strong federal government and pushed for positive relations with the United Kingdom. Because both George Washington and John Adams were Federalists (Washington tended to support Federalist poilcies), they succeeded in establishing one. Occasionally, however, they strayed into the authoritarian side of things; under Adams, they passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which made it illegal to print "malicious" or "scandalous" criticism of the federal government (but not of Democratic-Republican Vice President Thomas Jefferson) and gave an unprecedented amount of power to the President.

John Adams' missteps in his presidency caused the party to lose control of the White House to Thomas Jefferson, and there was never another Federalist president. The party then collapsed after the War of 1812 due to the events of the Hartford Convention, in which a large group of New England Federalists seriously discussed the prospect of secession from the United States due to the effect that the war with the British Empire was having on the region's trade-based economy. The talk of secession went over with the rest of the country about as well as one would expect, and the Federalist Party was disgraced. The Whig Party (not to be confused with the Modern Whig party) is its closest descendant. And due to its origin as a successor party made up of Whigs and abolitionists, the GOP from about 1856-1980 was probably the last remnant of the Federalist Party — as of the 21st century, most Federalist states are solidly Democratic.