|
| colors = Black, yellow }} The Federalist Party was the first American political party. It existed from the early 1790s to 1816 (the era of the First Party System); its remnants lasted into the 1820s. The Federalists called for a strong national government that promoted economic growth and fostered friendly relationships with Great Britain, as well as opposition to revolutionary France. The party controlled the federal government until 1801, when it was overwhelmed by the Republican opposition led by Thomas Jefferson. It came into being between 1792 and 1794 as a national coalition of bankers and businessmen in support of Alexander Hamilton's fiscal policies. These supporters developed into the organized Federalist Party, which was committed to a fiscally sound and nationalistic government. The only Federalist president was John Adams; although George Washington was broadly sympathetic to the Federalist program, he remained officially non-partisan during his entire presidency.〔Chambers, ''Political Parties in a New Nation'' (1963)〕 Federalist policies called for a national bank, tariffs, and good relations with Great Britain as expressed in the Jay Treaty negotiated in 1794. Hamilton developed the concept of implied powers and successfully argued the adoption of that interpretation of the United States Constitution. Their political opponents, the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson, denounced most of the Federalist policies, especially the bank and implied powers, and vehemently attacked the Jay Treaty as a sell-out of republican values to the British monarchy. The Jay Treaty passed, and the Federalists won most of the major legislative battles in the 1790s. They held a strong base in the nation's cities and in New England. After the Democratic-Republicans, whose base was in the rural South, won the hard-fought election of 1800, the Federalists never returned to power. They recovered some strength by their intense opposition to the War of 1812, but they practically vanished during the Era of Good Feelings that followed the end of the war in 1815.〔Wood, ''Empire of Liberty: A history of the Early Republic, 1789-1815'' (2009)〕 The Federalists left a lasting legacy in the form of a strong federal government with a sound financial base, and after losing executive power they (through the person of Chief Justice John Marshall) decisively shaped Supreme Court policy for another three decades.〔Formisano (2001)〕 ==Rise== On taking office in 1789, President Washington nominated New York lawyer Alexander Hamilton to the office of Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton wanted a strong national government with financial credibility. Hamilton proposed the ambitious Hamiltonian economic program that involved assumption of the state debts incurred during the American Revolution, creating a national debt and the means to pay it off, and setting up a national bank. James Madison, Hamilton's ally in the fight to ratify the United States Constitution, who would later be joined by Thomas Jefferson, opposed Hamilton's program.〔Smelser="''The Democratic Republic 1801-1815''"〕 Political parties had not been anticipated when the Constitution was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, even though both Hamilton and Madison played major roles. Parties were considered to be divisive and harmful to republicanism. No similar parties existed anywhere in the world.〔 By 1790 Hamilton started building a nationwide coalition. Realizing the need for vocal political support in the states, he formed connections with like-minded nationalists and used his network of treasury agents to link together friends of the government, especially merchants and bankers, in the new nation's dozen major cities. His attempts to manage politics in the national capital to get his plans through Congress, then, "brought strong responses across the country. In the process, what began as a capital faction soon assumed status as a national faction and then, finally, as the new Federalist party."〔Chambers, ''Parties in a New Nation,'' pp. 39–40.〕 The Federalist Party supported Hamilton's vision of a strong centralized government, and agreed with his proposals for a national bank and heavy government subsidies. In foreign affairs, they supported neutrality in the war between France and Great Britain.〔Miller ''The Federalist Era 1789-1801''〕 The majority of the founding fathers were originally federalists. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and many others can all be considered federalists. These federalists felt that the Articles of Confederation had been too weak to sustain a working government and had decided that a new form of government was needed. When Alexander Hamilton was made Secretary of the Treasury and came up with the idea of funding the debt he created a split in the original federalist group. James Madison greatly disagreed with Hamilton, not just on this issue but on many others as well; he and John Beckley created the Anti-Federalist faction. These men would eventually become the Republicans under Thomas Jefferson.〔Miller "''The Federalist Era 1789-1801''"〕 By the early 1790s newspapers started calling Hamilton supporters "Federalists" and their opponents "Democrats," "Republicans," "Jeffersonians" (people who supported Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president), or "Democratic-Republicans." Jefferson's supporters usually called themselves "Republicans" and their party the "Republican Party."〔After 1793–4, with the Terror in the French Revolution, "Democrat" became a negative term, until the middle of Madison's presidency; the Federalists continued to use it to describe their opponents. Robert A. Dahl, "James Madison: Republican or Democrat?". ''Perspectives on Politics'' (Volume 3, Issue 03, Sep 2005). and Dumas Malone, ''Jefferson'', 3:162.〕 The Federalist party became popular with businessmen and New Englanders; Republicans were mostly farmers who opposed a strong central government. The Congregationalists and the Episcopalians supported the Federalists, and other minority denominations tended toward the Republican camp. Cities were usually Federalist; frontier regions were heavily Republican. These are generalizations; there are special cases: the Presbyterians of upland North Carolina, who had immigrated just before the Revolution, and often been Tories, became Federalists.〔Manning J. Dauer, ''The Adams Federalists'', chapter 2.〕 Catholics in Maryland were generally Federalists.〔L. Marx Renzulli, ''Maryland: the Federalist years'' p 142, 183, 295〕 The state networks of both parties began to operate in 1794 or 1795. Patronage now became a factor. The winner-take-all election system opened a wide gap between winners, who got all the patronage, and losers, who got none. Hamilton had over 2000 Treasury jobs to dispense, while Jefferson had one part-time job in the State Department, which he gave to journalist Philip Freneau to attack the Federalists. In New York, however, George Clinton won the election for governor and used the vast state patronage fund to help the Republican cause. Washington tried and failed to moderate the feud between his two top cabinet members.〔Miller "The Federalist Era 1789-1801"〕 He was re-elected without opposition in 1792. The Democratic-Republicans nominated New York's Governor Clinton to replace Federalist John Adams as vice president, but Adams won. The balance of power in Congress was close, with some members still undecided between the parties. In early 1793, Jefferson secretly prepared resolutions introduced by William Branch Giles, Congressman from Virginia, designed to repudiate Hamilton and weaken the Washington Administration.〔Eugene R. Sheridan,"Thomas Jefferson and the Giles Resolutions," ''William and Mary Quarterly'' Vol. 49, No. 4 (Oct., 1992), pp. 589-608 (in JSTOR )〕 Hamilton defended his administration of the nation's complicated financial affairs, which none of his critics could decipher until the arrival in Congress of the Republican Albert Gallatin in 1793. Federalists counterattacked by claiming the Hamiltonian program had restored national prosperity, as shown in one 1792 anonymous newspaper essay:〔''The Gazette of United States, September 5, 1792, in Charles A. Beard, ''Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy.'' (1915) p. 231.〕 To what physical, moral, or political energy shall this flourishing state of things be ascribed? There is but one answer to these inquiries: Public credit is restored and established. The general government, by uniting and calling into action the pecuniary resources of the states, has created a new capital stock of several millions of dollars, which, with that before existing, is directed into every branch of business, giving life and vigor to industry in its infinitely diversified operation. The enemies of the general government, the funding act and the National Bank may bellow tyranny, aristocracy, and speculators through the Union and repeat the clamorous din as long as they please; but the actual state of agriculture and commerce, the peace, the contentment and satisfaction of the great mass of people, give the lie to their assertions. Jefferson wrote on February 12, 1798: :Two political Sects have arisen within the U. S. the one believing that the executive is the branch of our government which the most needs support; the other that like the analogous branch in the English Government, it is already too strong for the republican parts of the Constitution; and therefore in equivocal cases they incline to the legislative powers: the former of these are called federalists, sometimes aristocrats or monocrats, and sometimes tories, after the corresponding sect in the English Government of exactly the same definition: the latter are stiled republicans, whigs, jacobins, anarchists, disorganizers, etc. these terms are in familiar use with most persons."〔letter to John Wise in Francis N. Thorpe, ed "A Letter from Jefferson on the Political Parties, 1798," ''American Historical Review v.3#3 (April 1898) pp 488-89 (in JSTOR )〕 The term "Federalist" was considered by some to be misleading. Merrill Jensen, in his book "The American Revolution Within America", writes: :The supporters of the Constitution took the name "Federalists" and charged that its opponents were "Antifederalist," and so they are known today. Men at the time knew better. They denied that the names reflected the real convictions of the men involved or the true nature of the government provided for by the Constitution. In 1789 when James Madison proposed to insert the word "national" in the part of the Bill of Rights providing that "no religion shall be established by law," Elbridge Gerry told Congress that the Antifederalists had objected to the injustice of that name because they favored a federal government, while the Federalists favored "a national one." Madison's use of the word "national" showed that he, too, agreed.〔Merrill Jensen, "The American Revolution Revolution Within America", New York University Press, 1974, pp. 213-214〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Federalist Party」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|