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American politics has been shaped by an abundance of influential factors during its proud 200+ year history. War, taxation, suffrage, and racism have all dominated the American political climate. To represent the multifaceted nature of these and other topics, America has turned to political parties to help determine where they stand. Although the majority of Americans hold a rather “centrist” point of view, most have some bias, be it for either traditional or social reasons, for the conservative right or the liberal left. This bias for one faction or another is known as “partisanship.” As the year 1776 drew closer, the American colonies were, to say the least, divided. Each colony had been bred as an independent nation-state. Each had a separate economy, government, and citizens that felt loyal only to their individual colony. America needed common grievances to bind the nation together in resistance of imperial England. Grievances such as “taxation without representation” suddenly became mortal causes, thanks to the spurred enthusiasm from our founding fathers. This common fury laid the foundation for the argumentation that would come to define American government. For not only would that outrage bind the nation in war, but it would also provide a platform for the partisan, federalist/anti-federalist debate on what policy would replace the previous injustice. In the later years of the Articles of Confederation there was much agitation for a stronger federal union, which was crowned with success when the Constitutional Convention drew up the Constitution of the United States. The men who favored the strong union and who fought for the adoption of the Constitution by the various states were called Federalists, a term made famous in that meaning by the Federalist Papers of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay. After the Constitution was adopted and the new government was established under the presidency of George Washington, political division appeared within the cabinet, the opposing groups being headed by Alexander Hamilton and by Thomas Jefferson. The party that emerged to champion Hamilton's views was the Federalist party. Its opponents, at first called Anti-Federalists, drew together into a Jeffersonian party; first called the Republicans and later the Democratic Republicans, they eventually became known as the Democratic party. Party politics had not yet crystallized when John Adams was elected President, but the choice of Adams was, nevertheless, a modest Federalist victory. The Federalists were conservatives; they favored a strong centralized government, encouragement of industries, attention to the needs of the great merchants and landowners, and establishment of a well-ordered society. In foreign affairs they were pro-British, while the Jeffersonians were pro-French. The members of the Federalist party were mostly wealthy merchants, big property owners in the North, and conservative small farmers and businessmen. Geographically, they were concentrated in New England, with a strong element in the Middle Atlantic states. Opposition to war brought the Federalists the support of Clinton and many others, and the party made a good showing in the election of 1812, winning New England (except for radical Vermont), New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and part of Maryland. They failed, however, in Pennsylvania and lost the election. While the country was at war, the disgruntled merchants of New England, represented by the Essex Junto, contemplated secession and called the Hartford Convention.
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