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The Federalists vs. the Anti-Federalists

Just as important as reading the Federalist Papers is to also read the Anti-Federalist Papers. You also need to know that the "Federalists" were not really federalists, and the "Anti-Federalists" were not really anti-federalists. Once you understand that, the whole picture makes more sense.

The "Federalists" were not true federalists. Back then, a federalist was someone who wanted a federation. A federation meant a federation of states, which would have most of the power, and the federal government, would have some power, but not too much. They already had this under the Articles of Confederation. That is why it was called a confederation – it was a federation of states.

On the other hand, there were people who wanted a much stronger central government, with less power to the states. These people were called nationalists. So, the "Federalists" were actually nationalists (big central government). Alexander Hamilton was the leader of this faction (group of people with a particular political ideology).

Hamiltion knew that the Americans had just fought a war to throw off a monarchy, so Americans did not want a strong central government. Hamilton himself liked the idea of a monarchy; he just didn't like the British one. He wanted an "executive" who would serve for life, and would have a monarchy-type of succession. He also wanted the executive to have almost all of the power. He was a leading advocate for appointing George Washington as America's first king.

Hamilton called his faction the "Federalists" because he knew that "Nationalist" at that time was not popular. In other words, he lied about what he really believed when he participated in writing the Federalist Papers (a series of newspaper articles aimed at convincing the public to support ratification of the new Constitution). He wanted to install a monarchy.

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