Federalists. Along with John Jay and Alexander Hamilton, James Madison penned The Federalist Papers. The supporters of the proposed Constitution called themselves "Federalists." Their adopted name implied a commitment to a loose, decentralized system of government.
Nowhere was the furor over the proposed Constitution more intense than
in New York. Within days after it was signed, the Constitution became
the subject of widespread criticism in the New York newspapers. Many
commentators charged that the Constitution diminished the rights
Americans had won in the Revolution.
Fearful that the cause for
the Constitution might be lost in his home state, Alexander Hamilton
devised a plan to write a series of letters or essays rebutting the
critics. It is not surprising that Hamilton, a brilliant lawyer, came
forward at this moment to defend the new Constitution. At Philadelphia,
he was the only New Yorker to have signed the Constitution. The other
New York delegates had angrily left the Convention convinced that the
rights of the people were being abandoned.
Hamilton himself was
very much in favor of strengthening the central government. Hamilton’s
Constitution would have called for a president elected for life with the
power to appoint state governors. Hamilton soon backed away from these
ideas, and decided that the Constitution, as written, was the best one
possible.
Explanation: Jefferson was troubled over the Louisiana purchase because he was really uncertain about his authority in such matters and the constitution because it said absolutely nothing about the acquisition of the new territory.
