that of factories for British commerce. Much of the capital which had been employed here, had been British capital, and the connection sustained with Europe by our merchants had been connections with British houses. No sooner had peace been declared, than British commerce sought to regain its American market. To this end goods flowed freely into our reopened ports, and the British Government aided the effort of its merchants to recover our trade, by obstructing us in every continental direction to which we inclined and by facilitating reinstatement of commercial connection with Great Britain. But the depression which followed the peace was attributed in a great degree to the impotence of the Confederation, and the spread of democratic doctrines and the pronounced efforts of the debtor classes to obtain relief

by summary processes at the expense of their creditors, alarmed foreign lenders and checked the supply of funds. Domestic trade, equally timorous, shared the alarm. What was wanted by the commercial classes, was a government whose stability would commend it to the foreign lender. It is obvious, that the needs of commerce thus drew to the support of the Constitution the whole commercial interest and threw its weight in favor of a form of government, which, in its division of powers, resembled the British system and promised this stability.

A far different motive enrolled upon the side of the Constitution and of the Federalist administration, the higher grade of officers in the late revolutionary army. Many of these belonged to the wealthy class or had bodies of land which they hoped would attain great value in the course of time. But they were animated

CONSERVATIVE ELEMENTS

143

also by motives peculiar to themselves: they had tasted the sweets of official and social elevation, and had no sympathy with a democracy which threatened to do away with distinction. The general officers of the late army are consequently to be found prominent among the adherents of a constitution which insured the stability they desired so greatly, and of an administration whose measures were conducive to the subordination of society and to the consolidation of authority.

Finally, it must not be forgotten that men born and brought up under an anglican government, and one which was the outgrowth of race instincts and race experience, should prefer a form of government which resembled the only one of which they had any practical knowledge, and which addressed itself to their race character. The nearer it came to the old government the better, and the Constitution afforded such a government, inasmuch as it was anglican in nature and was free from the features that formerly had become obnoxious to the colonists. Those, therefore, who saw in a government of distributed powers and of powers which checked and balanced each other, the safest form which authority could take, hastened to support the new constitution. Thus the reflective men and those particularly whose avocations led them to consider, more or less, the nature of government, those who having something, deemed the delegation of little felt powers a small price to pay for the security of their possessions, eagerly gave their adhesion to a constitution which promised them this security, and they supported an administration which made enhanced value of these possessions a declared object of

CHAPTER VIII.

THE FORMATION OF PARTIES

CONTINUED.

Constituents of the Democratic-Republican Party (Anti-Federalists)- Principles prevalent among the people, especially the agriculturists-Errors of the Federalists - Jefferson and Hamilton The Old School and the New School.

SUCH were the personal and political elements of the Federalists and such the material motives for supporting, first the Constitution and afterward the Washington Administration. As the measures of the Treasury multiplied, divergence of opinion grew, and the different social elements arrayed themselves against each other. It must be kept in mind, that the two great parties had assumed shape in the policy of the administration. He who sees in the opposition to the measures of the Treasury, opposition to the Constitution itself, is wide of the truth. We have already seen, that, though the Constitution was not adopted by such a concurrence of opinion or with such general enthusiasm as to warrant its complete success, the general disposition to give it a fair trial, was unmistakable. This disposition must not be confounded with sullen acquiescence. It was real and hearty, and that it was so, is shown by the rapidity with which the Constitution grew into favor; and apart from certain localities and interests, there was nothing like hostility to it, but merely the prudential doubt which accompa

nies every experiment. It is, then, going altogether too far to include opposition to the Constitution itself as an element in the composition of the new party. Those who had opposed the adoption of the Constitution, had been styled anti-Federalists, and as many of the new party had been such, this name clung to them. That it was a misnomer, however, is shown by these facts: 1. That, after the adoption of the Constitution, the anti-Federalists never organized as such; and never re-appeared in any capacity as antiFederalists. 2. That the name was soon seen to be out of place, and was discarded for others, such as Jeffersonians, Republicans, and, at last, Democrats. 3. That the main cause which brought the new party into existence was to establish a construction of the Constitution which, it asserted, would give this instrument its true effect. This it could not do, had it not already accepted the Constitution and did it not stand pledged to its support.

The elements, then, which the measures of the Treasury drove into opposition to the administration, were as follows:

1. Those who saw in the federal government a power created for the benefit of the states, and which stood to them as a creature stands to its creator. These were they who believed that the race predilection for local self-government was to be fostered at the cost, if need be, of everything else, except fundmental rule and order. Indeed, in their eyes, there

was no social good nor

evil that did not flow from obeying or opposing the chief of all race instincts. Self-government was as great a virtue to them in poli tics as self-control was in ethics, and the right to i