Editing Federalist Party (section)

===Federalism===
[[Fisher Ames]] (1758–1808) of Massachusetts ranks as one of the more influential figures of his era.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 985426|title = Fisher Ames, Spokesman for New England Federalism|journal = Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume = 103|issue = 5|pages = 693–715|last1 = Douglass|first1 = Elisha P.|year = 1959}}</ref> Ames led Federalist ranks in the House of Representatives. His acceptance of the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] garnered support in Massachusetts for the new Constitution. His greatest fame came as an orator who defined the principles of the Federalist Party and the follies of the Republicans. Ames offered one of the first great speeches in American Congressional history when he spoke in favor of the [[Jay Treaty]]. Ames was part of Hamilton's faction and cautioned against the excesses of democracy unfettered by morals and reason: "Popular reason does not always know how to act right, nor does it always act right when it knows".<ref>Russell Kirk, ''The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot'' (2001). p. 83</ref> He warned his countrymen of the dangers of flattering demagogues, who incite dis-union and lead their country into bondage: "Our country is too big for union, too sordid for patriotism, too democratic for liberty. What is to become of it, He who made it best knows. Its vice will govern it, by practising upon its folly. This is ordained for democracies".<ref>Fisher Ames, letter of 26 October 1803, Works, p. 483. As cited in Kirk, ''The Conservative Mind''  p. 83.</ref>

Intellectually, Federalists were profoundly devoted to [[Republicanism in the United States|liberty]]. As [[Samuel Eliot Morison]] explained, they believed that liberty is inseparable from union, that men are essentially unequal, that ''vox populi'' ("voice of the people") is seldom if ever ''vox Dei'' ("the voice of God") and that sinister outside influences are busy undermining American integrity.<ref>Samuel Eliot Morison, ''Harrison Gray Otis, 1765–1848: the urbane Federalist'' (2nd ed. 1969) pages x–xi</ref> British historian [[Patrick Allitt]] concludes that Federalists promoted many positions that would form the baseline for later American conservatism, including the rule of law under the Constitution, republican government, peaceful change through elections, stable national finances, credible and active diplomacy and protection of wealth.<ref>Patrick Allitt, ''The Conservatives'' (2009) p 26</ref>

In terms of "classical conservatism", the Federalists [[wikt: have truck with|had no truck with]] European-style aristocracy, monarchy, or established religion. Historian [[John P. Diggins]] says: "Thanks to the framers, American conservatism began on a genuinely lofty plane. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall, John Jay, James Wilson, and, above all, John Adams aspired to create a republic in which the values so precious to conservatives might flourish: harmony, stability, virtue, reverence, veneration, loyalty, self-discipline, and moderation. This was classical conservatism in its most authentic expression".<ref name="Diggins"/>

Federalists led the successful battles to abolish the [[Atlantic slave trade|international slave trade]] in New York City and the battle to abolish [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] in the state of New York.<ref>Paul Finkelman,"Federalist Party" in Robert A. Rutland, ed. ''James Madison and the American Nation 1751-1836: An Encyclopedia'' (1994) pp 144–145.</ref> The Federalists' approach to nationalism was coined "open" nationalism in that it creates space for minority groups to have a voice in government. Many Federalists also created space for women to have a significant political role, which was not evident on the Democratic-Republican side.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Den Hartog |first1=Jonathan |title=Religion, the Federalists, and American Nationalism |journal=Religions |date=5 January 2017 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=5 |doi=10.3390/rel8010005|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The Federalists were dominated by businessmen and merchants in the major cities who supported a strong national government. The party was closely linked to the modernizing, urbanizing, financial policies of Alexander Hamilton. These policies included the funding of the national debt and also assumption of state debts incurred during the Revolutionary War, the incorporation of a national [[First Bank of the United States|Bank of the United States]], the support of manufactures and industrial development, and the use of a tariff to fund the Treasury. While it has long been accepted that commercial groups are in support of the Federalists and agrarian groups are in support of the Democratic-Republicans, recent studies have shown that support for Federalists was also evident in agrarian groups.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dauer |first1=Manning Julian |title=The Adams Federalists |date=1968 |publisher=Johns Hopkins Press |location=Baltimore |isbn=9781421434667}}</ref> In foreign affairs, the Federalists opposed the French Revolution, engaged in the "[[Quasi War]]" (an undeclared naval war) with France in 1798–99, sought good relations with Britain and sought a strong army and navy. Ideologically, the controversy between Democratic-Republicans and Federalists stemmed from a difference of principle and style. In terms of style, the Federalists feared mob rule, thought an educated elite should represent the general populace in national governance and favored national power over state power. Democratic-Republicans distrusted Britain, bankers, merchants and did not want a powerful national government. The Federalists, notably Hamilton, were distrustful of "the people", the French and the Republicans.<ref>Chernow (2004)</ref> In the end, the nation synthesized the two positions, adopting representative democracy and a strong nation state. Just as importantly, American politics by the 1820s accepted the two-party system whereby rival parties stake their claims before the electorate and the winner takes control of majority in state legislatures and the Congress and gains governorships and the presidency.

As time went on, the Federalists lost appeal with the average voter and were generally not equal to the tasks of party organization; hence they grew steadily weaker as the political triumphs of the Democratic-Republican Party grew.<ref>Shaw Livermore, Jr., ''The Twilight of Federalism: The Disintegration of the Federalist Party 1815–1830'' (1962)</ref> For economic and philosophical reasons, the Federalists tended to be pro-British—the United States engaged in more trade with [[Great Britain]] than with any other country—and vociferously opposed Jefferson's Embargo Act of 1807 and the seemingly deliberate provocation of war with Britain by the Madison Administration. During "Mr. Madison's War", as they called it, the Federalists made a temporary comeback.<ref>{{cite book |author=Robert Vincent Remini|title=Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time|url=https://archive.org/details/danielwebsterman00remi|url-access=registration|year=1997|publisher=W. W. Norton |pages=[https://archive.org/details/danielwebsterman00remi/page/94 94]–95|isbn=9780393045529}}</ref> However, they lost all their gains and more during the patriotic euphoria that followed the war. The membership was aging rapidly,<ref>{{cite book |author=James H. Broussard|title=The Southern Federalists: 1800–1816|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=agYzhC6LyJEC&pg=PA274|year=1978|publisher=LSU Press|page=274|isbn=9780807125205}}</ref> but a few young men from New England did join the cause, most notably [[Daniel Webster]].

After 1816, the Federalists had no national power base apart from [[John Marshall]]'s Supreme Court. They had some local support in New England, New York, eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. After the collapse of the Federalist Party in the course of the [[U.S. presidential election, 1824|1824 presidential election]], most surviving Federalists (including Daniel Webster) joined former Democratic-Republicans like [[Henry Clay]] to form the [[National Republican Party (United States)|National Republican Party]], which was soon combined with other anti-Jackson groups to form the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]] in 1833. By then, nearly all remaining Federalists joined the Whigs. However, some former Federalists like [[James Buchanan]], [[Louis McLane]] and [[Roger B. Taney]] became Jacksonian Democrats.<ref name="Parsons">{{cite book |author=Lynn Parsons|title=The Birth of Modern Politics : Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828|url=https://archive.org/details/birthofmodernpol00lynn|url-access=registration|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/birthofmodernpol00lynn/page/164 164]|isbn=9780199718504}}</ref>

The "Old Republicans", led by [[John Randolph of Roanoke]], refused to form a coalition with the Federalists and instead set up a separate opposition since Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin, Monroe, [[John C. Calhoun]] and Clay had in effect adopted Federalist principles of [[implied powers]] to purchase the Louisiana Territory and after the failures and lessons of the War of 1812 raised tariffs to protect factories, chartered the Second National Bank, promoted a strong army and navy and promoted [[internal improvements]]. All these measures were opposed to the [[Strict constructionism|strict construction]] of the Constitution, which was the formal basis of the Democratic-Republicans, but the drift of the party to support them could not be checked. It was aided by the Supreme Court, whose influence under John Marshall as a nationalizing factor now first became apparent. The whole change reconciled the Federalists to their absorption into the Democratic-Republican Party. Indeed, they claimed, with considerable show of justice, that the absorption was in the other direction: that the Democratic-Republicans had recanted and that the "Washington-Monroe policy", as they termed it after 1820, was all that Federalists had ever desired.<ref>John Joseph Lalor. ''[[Cyclopedia of Political Science|Cyclopedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States]]'' (1881).</ref>

The name "Federalist" came increasingly to be used in political rhetoric as a term of abuse and was denied by the Whigs, who pointed out that their leader Henry Clay was the Democratic-Republican Party leader in Congress during the 1810s.<ref>Hans Sperber and Travis Trittschuh. ''American Political Terms: An Historical Dictionary'' (1962). p. 150.</ref>

The Federalists had a weak base in the South, with their main base in the Northeast and especially New England, although there were some prominent southern Federalists like [[Charles Cotesworth Pinckney]], who had been supported by Hamilton in the presidential election of 1800.