The New Nation

Portrait by Artist to Come


QUICK FACTS

           

Perspectives

  • Shay’s Rebellion
  • Constitutional Convention
  • Federalists and Anti-Federalists

During the war ... Washington thought his way to federalism, long before a Federalist Party existed. He believed in a strong central government, supreme over the states; a strong financial system on the British model, with taxes to fund its debt; a flourishing commerce to create prosperity (and to train seamen for a powerful navy, which would in turn protect shipping); and a strong military. And most officers came out of the experience of the Revolution with the same views.

Myron Magnet
The Founders at Home: The Building of America, 1735 - 1817 (2014)