The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-06-02
Party Names and Organizations.

Its Interesting to tEace|n-this
country, the influence of party names
and organizations. In the war of the
Revolution the friends of the popular
cause took the name of Wings, because
that was the cognomen of the men in
England who favored liberty. Those
in favor of the Royal cause were styl.
ed Tories, after that party in Great
Britain, which was the friend and the
apologist of arbitrary power.
When the war was over and the
Constitution of 1889 was adopted,
there arose new designations. 1t be
ing a Federal Constitution, its friends
| were called Federalists and its enemies
Anti Federalists. No one then claim
ed that 1T was what we now hear SO
much about, National Government.
1t was understood by all to be simply
federative in its operation The Anti
Federalists opposed it because, in
their Judgment, it gave too much pow
er to the Federal Government, and
reserved too little to the States.
Had Thomas Jefferson been a mem
Der of the Convention which framed
the Constitution. instead of being the
Minister to France, we should, un-
d%oubtedly, have had a very different in
strument-one that would have been
far more definite aad decided in its adj
herence to the general doctrine of
State rights.
After the Federal Government had
commenced its operation, in 1889, its
opponents took the name of Repub-
licans-a significant indication that
they were particularly the friends of a
republic, instead of the semi-monarchy
which the leading Federalists, such as
Alexander Hamilton and General
Knox, preferred. The Federalists,
not recognizing this distinction CT Re
publicans, and wishing to identify the
popular party in the United States
with the excessive horrors of the Rev
olutionists in France, styled them
Democrats, which was a phrase then
commonly applied to she Jacobins.
The Republicans accepted the term,
intended as one of reproach, and made
it one of honor, which they have proud
ly reCdlL0G W IIlS udf.
The Federalist organization, after,
its successive defeats, under Jefferson
and Madison, each of whom served
two Presidential terms, abandoned its
name, and chose that of National Re
publicans. Under this they were
known for some years, until a large
portion of them became merged into
the party opposed to the Masons,
which was called Anti Mason. This
not succeeding, Colonel James Waston
Webb, then editor of the New York
Courier and Enquirer, and now Minis
ter to Brazil, in 1884 baptized the par
ty anew with the name of Wing, SUPP
posing that it had an old Revolution
airy flavor that would recommend it to
the people.
BY this term the opponents of the
were known until 1858,
when they apparently disbanded. For
short time they were without a cog
nomen, other than that of Know-No-
to which its members, in a
degree, belonged. Finally, in
1855, some parties in New York, find
ing that the old term by which the
Democracy were formerly known
hat of Republican-was not in use,
seized upon it, and applied it to their
organization. Therefore, after a lapse
If fifty years, the Federal party was
glad to find refuge under o name
which its opponents had made respec-
able.
Through all the changes and Wis