William Marvel: Anti-Democrats

In the chaotic debate over the U.S. Constitution, a galaxy of governmental theories eventually congealed around two ideological poles. The basic structure occasioned little debate, mimicking the parliamentary example, but differences over the proportion and purpose of each component spawned a blizzard of conflicting opinions. Those with bureaucratic tastes leaning to the aristocratic side, who favored a powerful central government, quickly characterized themselves as “Federalists.” That co-opted a Revolutionary-era metonym for the rebels who also called themselves “patriots,” and the name carried all the implicitly positive connotations associated with the winners of that war.

Those who harbored serious reservations about the potential tyranny of the Federalists’ model lacked the organizational cohesion to decide what to call themselves. In another sly move, the Federalists effectively decided on a pejorative name for their opponents by smearing them and all their complaints with derogatory adjectives. Federalist newspapers published long, anonymous essays in the summer and autumn of 1787, urging ratification and scorning critics as an “anti-federal junto” of “anti-federal demagogues” who spread the “basest anti-federal insinuations and suspicions.”