The Adams Federalists

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Johns Hopkins University Press, Dec 21, 1953 - History - 408 pages

Originally published in 1953. Between 1789 and 1803, the United States existed as a developing national state, sparsely settled. The de facto precedents of America's nascent political system had not yet been fleshed out by the generation of statesmen who paved its political way. Historians have examined the rise of the party system in US politics by emphasizing the Jeffersonians, who—led by Thomas Jefferson—helped to develop an agrarian voting bloc. In The Adams Federalists, Manning J. Dauer attends to Adams's struggles with the Federalist Party, arguing that his term is the key to understanding the success of the Jeffersonians in promoting their own democratic ideals. Dauer attributes the fall of Federalism to Adams's failure to maintain a moderate cohort in the White House. The Federalist Party's leadership increasingly adopted policies that isolated the Federalists' agrarian supporters, who in turn found support in the Jeffersonians' archaic politics. Professor Dauer provides an alternative explanation for the popularity of Jefferson's political faction and argues that economic factors undergirded the political organization of early America's voting base. Since its publication, scholars have recognized The Adams Federalists as a definitive study of the Federalist Party during the Adams administration.

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Contents

Chapter Page 1 The Basis of Early Political Divisions I Com mercial Groups
3
The Basis of Early Political Divisions II Agri cultural Groups Social Religious and Other Factors
18
The Political Theories of John Adams
35
Copyright

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About the author (1953)

Manning J. Dauer was a professor of political science and former chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida. He held leadership positions in the American Political Science Association, the Southern Political Science Association, and the US Army Corps.

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