conclusion of peace with England, in 1783, political
discussion centered about the Constitution, which in 1788 took the
place of the looser Articles of Confederation adopted in 1778. The
Constitution as finally ratified was a compromise between two
parties--the Federalists, who wanted a strong central government, and
the Anti-Federals (afterward called Republicans, or Democrats), who
wished to preserve State sovereignty. The debates on the adoption of
the Constitution, both in the General Convention of the States, which
met at Philadelphia in 1787, and in the separate State conventions
called to ratify its action, form a valuable body of comment and
illustration upon the instrument itself. One of the most notable of
the speeches in opposition was Patrick Henry's address before the
Virginia Convention. "That this is a consolidated government," he
said, "is demonstrably clear; and the danger of such a government is,
to my mind, very striking." The leader of the Federal party was
Alexander Hamilton, the ablest constructive intellect among the
statesmen of our Revolutionary era, of whom Talleyrand said that he
"had never known his equal," whom Guizot classed with "the men who have
best known the vital principles and fundamental conditions of a
government worthy of its name and mission." Hamilton's speech _On the
Expediency of Adopting the Federal Constitution_, delivered in the
Convention of New York, June 24, 1788, was a masterly statement of the
necessity and advantages of the Union. But the most complete
exposition of the constitutional philosophy of the Federal party was
the series of eighty-five papers entitled the _Federalist_, printed
during the years 1787-88, and mostly in the _Independent Journal_ of
New York, over the signature "Publius." These were the work of
Hamilton, of John Jay, afterward, chief-justice, and of James Madison,
afterward president of the United States. The _Federalist_ papers,
though written in a somewhat ponderous diction, are among the great
landmarks of American history, and were in themselves a political
education to the generation that read them. Hamilton was a brilliant
and versatile figure, a persuasive orator, a forcible writer, and as
secretary of the treasury under Washington the foremost of American
financiers. He was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, at Weehawken, in
1804.

The Federalists were victorious, and under the provisions of the new
Constitution George Washington