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Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Maryland Historical Society

The Federalist Party took shape in the 1790s as the nation’s first party system emerged. Thomas Sim Lee, during his second term as Maryland’s governor (1792-1794), became the first governor of the state to affiliate with the Federalists. It was the party of conservative, established politicians, such as Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and General Otho H. Williams and James McHenry, who served President Washington and his administration. Samuel Chase and Luther Martin were among the more prominent Maryland Federalists after 1800, and Roger B. Taney was an important figure in later years, until he became a Jacksonian Democrat.

The Federalists dominated Maryland politics in the 1790s by winning strong majorities in the General Assembly. Lee was followed by three more Federalist governors. In the election of 1800, however, one of the nation’s most divisive elections ever, a better organized Democratic-Republican party, led by Thomas Jefferson, defeated the Federalists. President John Adams was denied a second term, and Republicans won an overwhelming majority in the Maryland House of Delegates. The Federalist Party continued as an effective opposition party and came back to power in Maryland from 1812 to 1816, after which its electoral fortunes in the state collapsed.

The Federalist Party in Action
The first party system was fueled by the Jefferson-Adams rivalry and gained strength during the presidential election campaigns of 1796 and 1800. The rise of regional newspapers, such as the Democratic-Republican Aurora in Philadelphia and the Federal Gazette in Baltimore, encouraged partisan (even inflammatory) political discourse and party-based electoral campaigns. By the election of 1798 at the latest, the parties had put down deep roots in Maryland. Most politicians identified themselves and their opponents with party labels.

Party leaders articulated agendas for state and federal government and organized candidate lists at the county level for state and federal offices. This partisanship triumphed over the deep skepticism of the times regarding political parties. James Madison in Federalist #10 had warned against factions, believing they would promote particular minority interests, rather than the permanent general interest of the community as a whole.

Regionally in Maryland, the southern Eastern Shore remained staunchly Federalist. Republicans eventually dominated the upper Chesapeake and western portions of the state and built a strong party machine in Baltimore. Martin, Chase, and Robert Goodloe Harper helped to shore up the Federalist Party in Baltimore, but the Federalists lost a key figure, General Samuel Smith, to the Republican side. Despite their differing agendas and ideals, both parties drew heavily on establishment figures from the traditional political classes for their leadership.

What the Federalist Party Stood For
The term “Federalist” implied a federated, that is, decentralized government. In the battle over ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787-88, the supporters of a strong central government adopted the term to counter accusations that the new government would be too powerful. Their use of the term was totally misleading, since the Federalists did not support a federated, decentralized government but its exact opposite, a centralized government. Their opponents—who supported a true federated, or decentralized, government—ended up being called anti-Federalists. The anti-Federalists largely became irrelevant after 1788, since they had opposed the creation of the government. Luther Martin, a conservative “anti-Federalist” in 1787-88, was an exception, joining the Federalist Party in Maryland after 1800.

Most of the politicians who joined the parties of the first party system in the 1790s had supported a strong national government during the battle over the Constitution. They had not expected parties to emerge in America, but two major issues helped spawn political parties. First, Alexander Hamilton, as Secretary of the Treasury during George Washington’s administration, proposed a complex economic plan to pay the national debt and promote industrialization and internal trade through the creation of a national bank, federally –funded internal improvements, and protective tariffs.

The Federalists were skeptical about any further progress of democracy in America. They promoted conservative ideals, such as the continuity of common law; traditional social deference; property qualifications for office holding; economic policies that promoted trade and protected creditors; and government by men of education, wealth, and social standing.

The second issue shaping the first party system was the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Many Americans, particularly among the wealthy, were appalled by the disorder and by the execution of the king and many of France's aristocrats and rich people. When Britain went to war with Revolutionary France, the Federalists supported Britain, a country they considered a model for the United States. They feared disorder and believed that elites were not a danger to the country but rather an advantage, providing key leadership for the government and the economy. Democratic-Republicans, however, led by Thomas Jefferson, favored France, America's ally during the War for Independence, and its revolutionary ideals calling for liberty and equality among all men.

With Revolutionary France at war with Britain, naval hostilities threatened to draw the United States into war. American privateer commanders, including some from Baltimore, worked for the French cause. The Federalist Adams administration was staunchly pro-British and sponsored policies that proved highly unpopular, including the Alien and Sedition Acts aimed at stifling pro-French, pro-democratic activities and publications. While sitting as a federal judge in Baltimore in 1803, Samuel Chase, a strong Federalist, lectured against what he took to be dangerously radical ideas. His views were the basis for the eighth Article alleged against him at his impeachment trial.

Maryland Federalists went along with the elimination of the property qualification for voting in the state when Republicans, fresh from decisive victories in 1800 and again in 1801, championed the change in state law. Both parties accepted the elimination of voting rights for free blacks who met the property qualification because the new law stipulated adult white male suffrage for citizens of Maryland. Maryland Federalists resisted efforts to overhaul the legal system and backed the Annapolis establishment, rather than an expanded jurisdiction for the county courts.

In the context of the War of 1812, many Americans saw Federalist opposition to the war as disloyal. A mob in Baltimore attacked a group associated with Alexander Contee Hanson, a Federalist printer and opponent of the war. The horrific episode ended with the beating, tarring and feathering, and mutilation of several men. General James Lingan, a Maryland hero of the Revolution, was killed. After this event, public outrage helped the Party recover political momentum in Maryland, but after1816 voters increasingly considered Federalists as men of the past, and support for the party virtually disappeared.

Some former Federalists in Maryland initially supported the political career of General Andrew Jackson, but his policies eventually betrayed their agenda and helped bring about the final disintegration of the Party. Federalist ideals survived, however, and continued to appeal to some of the nation’s political and intellectual leaders.

Prominent Maryland Federalist Party Leaders
The early generation of Federalist Party leaders included the following: Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Jeremiah Townley Chase, Samuel Chase, George Dent, William Hindman, John Eager Howard, Thomas Johnson, James Lloyd, Luther Martin, James McHenry, Benjamin Ogle, Benjamin Stoddert, and Otho H. Williams.

Later generation Party leaders included the following: Robert Beverly, Elias Boudinet Caldwell, Clement Dorsey, Walter Dorsey, Richard Frisby, Charles Goldsborough, Robert Henry Goldsborough, Alexander Contee Hanson, Robert Goodloe Harper, John Carlyle Herbert, John Rousby Plater, Charles Carnan Ridgely, George Hume Steuart, Roger Brooke Taney, John Hanson Thomas, Jacob Wagner.

—Jeffrey K. Sawyer

University of Baltimore