The Federalist Party was the first American political party, formed in 1789 by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, John Adams, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, DeWitt Clinton, and Rufus King. The federalists agreed with a powerful federal government that would assume state debts and would establish a national bank, and the party sought to establish good relations with Great Britain during the French Revolutionary Wars. George Washington had a statement of neutrality passed at Hamilton's recommendation, leading to hostilities with the new First French Republic, which culminated in the naval Quasi-War of the late 1790s. The Federalists, which had support from New England and the North, opposed the Democratic-Republican Party of the South, but their leader John Adams' reputation was destroyed by Hamilton's arguments with him. The 1800 elections would see two Democratic-Republicans, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, run against each other with rival factions, and the Federalists never regained power. Their opposition to the War of 1812 allowed for them to have some power during the 1810s, but the Era of Good Feelings that followed the war led to the Federalists disappearing. The party disbanded in 1824.
The Federalist Party was popular among businessmen and New Englanders, and its bases of support included cities, the Presbyterians of upland North Carolina, wealthy Southern planters, urban Episcopalians and New Englander Congregationalists, former Loyalists, and the Catholics of Maryland. The Federalists supported government by the elite and distrusted the "mob", damaging the party's popularity as America democratized during the 1790s and 1800s. By the 1820s, the Federalist Party's base of support had been confined to isolated pockets in New England, and its remnants joined with conservative Democratic-Republicans to form the National Republican Party.
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