While many of the Anti-Federalists’ fears were assuaged by the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791, the early 1790s nevertheless witnessed the rise of two political parties: the Federalists and the… Federalists and Democratic-Republicans interpreted the execution of the French monarch and the violent establishment of a French republic in very different ways.

While they did not yet constitute distinct political parties, Federalists and Anti-Federalists, shortly after the Revolution, found themselves at odds over the Constitution and the power that it concentrated in the… These rival political factions began by defining themselves in relationship to Hamilton’s financial program, a debate that exposed contrasting views of the proper role of the federal government.

Democratic-Republicans — advocates of limited government who were troubled by the expansive domestic policies of Washington’s administration and opposed the Federalists. Bill of Rights — the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, which guarantee individual rights. Citizen Genêt affair — the controversy over the French representative who tried to involve the United States in France’s war against Great Britain. Marbury v. Madison — the landmark 1803 case establishing the Supreme Court’s powers of judicial review, specifically the power to review and possibly nullify actions of Congress and the president.