Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans

[RINO Tom]

Gotta go with the political ancestors: the Federalists.

[RINO Tom]

Undecided. Someone plz explain

The Federalists believed that the first priority of the national government should be to protect the interests of businesses and merchants: they therefore supported a strong central government that could guarantee credit and establish a stable national currency. They also feared the excesses of the French Revolution and therefore generally opposed efforts to increase popular participation in politics, believing that the uneducated "common man" was too easily swayed by demagoguery. Often accused of "monarchism," they believed that the best way to prevent an American Reign of Terror was to limit the extent to which voters could reshape the government in a single election and infamously supported the Alien and Sedition Acts, which outlawed criticism of the president.

The Republicans were a coalition of Southern planters and small farmers and tradesmen in the Mid Atlantic initially organized to oppose Federalist policies. They claimed to represent the interests of the "common man," which meant that they opposed efforts to centralize power in the hands of the elites. They disliked banks and manufacturing for a number of reasons: commercial ventures, they argued, were a threat to democracy because they elevated the love of money over the love of country, established a quasi-artistocracy with merchants and bankers at the top, and robbed citizens of their independence by making them dependent on markets for everyday goods (it didn't help that many small farmers were in debt to these firms, and therefore resentful of their influence). As such, they were suspicious of the federal government, whose policies in the last decade of the 18th Century served to elevate these "monied interests." They supported increased popular participation in politics and favored Jefferson's vision of an agrarian republic populated by independent yeoman farmers who would be free of the corrupting influence of money. Following the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Republicans enjoyed an explosion of popularity that would allow them to dominate the national government until the close of the 1st Party System. Some, like their founder Jefferson, were slaveholders, but others were life-long abolitionists (and it's worth noting that Federalist darling Charles C. Pinckney supported restoring the slave trade after it was outlawed in 1808).

Nice write-up!  It's nice to see someone go beyond "muh Democratic-Republicans was da small government party."