POLITICAL TERMINOLOGY OF THE FOUNDING AND EARLY REPUBLIC
 

Federalism was a name proponents of the Constitution gave to themselves. Their plan, which eventually was adopted, divided national sovereignty between a federal government and the states. Federalists favored a strong national government with broad powers, including the power to tax, to regulate commerce, to control currency and to pass laws "necessary and proper" for carrying out any other responsibilities as they arose. They divided the strong central government into three branches and established a system of "checks and balances" between them. National growth and development, as well as international standing, rested on industrial development and growth of the business classes. Though national sovereignty derived from the people, real authority through this government structure naturally would come to be lodged in a small group of particularly talented and virtuous people. Federalists came only from the elite classes.

Federalists: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Adams
 

Anti-Federalism was the name given by Federalists to their opponents. Anti-Federalists objected to the Constitution for various reasons, all centering on distrust of central authority. They argued that the Constitution was illegal, which technically it was under the Articles of Confederation. They feared the new government would increase taxes, obliterate the states, wield dictatorial powers, favor the "well born" over the common people, and endanger personal liberty. They particularly protested the Constitution’s original lack of a Bill of Rights. Anti-Federalists were less well organized than the Federalists and were divided among themselves. They all preferred the confederation of smaller, pastoral communities with the states over nationalizing commercial and urban development. Elite Anti-Federalists believed that the talented few could and should rule with a disinterested virtue on behalf of all people but primarily at the state level. Middling Anti-Federalists, craftsmen, rich farmers, and merchants, believed that talent and virtue necessary to govern existed in all propertied classes and fair government required the participation of all. Plebian Anti-Federalists, poor farmers and servants, believed in direct democracy and a radical localism where local men imposed their own rule on their towns and households. All slave-owners were Anti-Federalist, but not all Anti-Federalists were slave owners.

Elite Anti-Federalists: Richard Henry Lee, Elbridge Gerry, Thomas Jefferson (sort of)
 

Both sides expressed a basic distrust of human nature and felt the principal role of government was to protect people from each other. Federalists believed the Constitution achieved this, and the Anti-Federalists believed that it did not. Middling Anti-Federalist fears of Plebian violence pushed them to join the other side. The Middling and Elites of both sides compromised on a promise to pass a Bill of Rights in the first Congress, on permanently side-stepping direct democracy, and on legalizing slavery to exist in the new republic.
 

Democratic-Republicans was the political faction or party that emerged after the ratification in opposition to Federalist control of the new government. Democratic-Republicans thought of themselves as a "loyal opposition" – loyal to the Constitution and new government, opposed to Federalist rule, and determined to shape the new government according to revolutionary principles of republicanism. Madison and Jefferson switched sides and abandoned the Federalist party due to the excesses of the Adams administration, including the Sedition Act of 1789.
 

Republicanism was the political ideology of the American Revolution. This meant a political system where power derived from the people, rather than the supreme authority of a king. Because of this, the sovereignty and power of a republic relied on the qualities of its citizens. All citizens were born equal to each other in terms of natural rights, but naturally differed in terms of ability and position. Government ideally would frame opportunities for each individual citizen to release innate talents and creativities in their own self-development. The health of the republic depended on the educated and honest political participation of all propertied classes in representative governance. A general citizenry of sturdy, educated, active and independent property owners would hold untrustworthy elites in check.
 

Republican Party as we now know it came along much later, in 1860, just prior to the Civil War. Very generally speaking, the Old Right among Republicans today are ideological and political descendants of Federalists. The New Right among Republicans and New Left among Democrats today are descendants of Plebian Anti-Federalists. The rest of the Democrats are descendants of the Middling and Elite Anti-Federalists.