Alternative History
Register
Advertisement

Timeline: French Trafalgar, British Waterloo

Federalist Party of the United States
Founder Alexander Hamilton
Founded 1792
Dissolved 1829
Preceded by none
Succeeded by National Republican Party
Ideology Federalism, nationalism, industrialization, non-interventionism
Political position Left
Colours Orange, Black and White (usually associated with a black and white, later orange and white cockade)

The Federalist Party is a defunct national political party of the United States of America, and often considered the first in American history. From 1792 until 1829, the party elected two presidents, John Adams and Rufus King, though George Washington, the first president of the US shared many of the views of the Federalists but remained an Independent while in office. The Federalists were one of the two major parties of the era, the other being the Democratic-Republican, and had dominated the North-East and New England for almost its entire existence. A strong force in the House of Representatives due to its support in the North, it rarely got more than a third of the Senate due to its weak grip in the Southern States.

The Federalist party primarily campaigned for a centralized government, industrialization, urbanization, a federal banking system and was originally a strong supporter of England and neutrality in European Affairs, but after the disastrous First American War became strongly pro-Napoleon, who exercised a strong, centralized government, under President Rufus King who served two terms. King, however, was unable to prevent the party from splitting with the few anti-French/pro-British members leaving to join to form a minor "American" Party that was still strongly federalist, but campaigned for an isolationist policy. Pro-French members of the Democratic-Republican Party as it imploded in the 1820s joined with the Federalists after the First American War, which dampened some of the centralized, industrialization policy. After King, the party was unable to present a strong front to the newer Democratic Party, as they could not handle the wide range of ideologies that joined the party in the later years.

The last members of Federalist Party later merged with the National Republican Party in 1829 to form a party with a broad nationalist, centralized platform. The few members that did not join migrated to the Democratic Party, founded small regional parties or became independents. The name of the Federalist party would be resurrected multiple times in the next 190 years as a third party, though they achieved limited success.

Advertisement