The Antifederalists, the First Congress, and the First Parties

Abstract

It is regularly argued that the ratification of the federal Constitution and the formation of the Federalist and Jeffersonian Republican parties marked points of significant discontinuity between politics before the new Constitution and thereafter. In this paper, we argue that there was significant continuity in politics in this period. In particular, we argue that the antifederalist representatives in the First Congress helped create such continuity in both debate and voting. Issues that arose in the First Congress were regularly tied to constitutional questions, sometimes explicitly so, as in passage of the constitutional amendments and in the question of executive removal powers. At other times, notably in debate and action over Hamilton's fiscal plan, the constitutional issues formed the basis for interpreting the particular policies at hand. We argue that the antifederalists forged such links in debate, helping to establish the grounds for the opposition of Madison and his supporters to Hamiltonian goals. Moreover, their votes made up a substantial proportion of that opposition, and they served as part of the coalition that eventually formed the Jeffersonian Republican party. We also argue that the formation of new institutions like political parties needs to be understood not only in terms of the interests and political goals of their creators, but also in terms of the ideas and principles that motivated their actions.