<P> The Federalists left a lasting legacy in the form of a strong federal government with a sound financial base, and after losing executive power they decisively shaped Supreme Court policy for another three decades through the person of Chief Justice John Marshall . </P> <P> On taking office in 1789, President Washington nominated New York lawyer Alexander Hamilton to the office of Secretary of the Treasury . Hamilton wanted a strong national government with financial credibility . Hamilton proposed the ambitious Hamiltonian economic program that involved assumption of the state debts incurred during the American Revolution, creating a national debt and the means to pay it off, and setting up a national bank, along with creating tariffs . James Madison was Hamilton's ally in the fight to ratify the new Constitution, but he and Thomas Jefferson opposed Hamilton's programs by 1791 . Political parties had not been anticipated when the Constitution was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, even though both Hamilton and Madison played major roles . Parties were considered to be divisive and harmful to republicanism . No similar parties existed anywhere in the world . </P> <P> By 1790 Hamilton started building a nationwide coalition . Realizing the need for vocal political support in the states, he formed connections with like - minded nationalists and used his network of treasury agents to link together friends of the government, especially merchants and bankers, in the new nation's dozen major cities . His attempts to manage politics in the national capital to get his plans through Congress, then, "brought strong" responses across the country . In the process, what began as a capital faction soon assumed status as a national faction and then, finally, as the new Federalist party ." The Federalist Party supported Hamilton's vision of a strong centralized government, and agreed with his proposals for a national bank and heavy government subsidies . In foreign affairs, they supported neutrality in the war between France and Great Britain . </P> <P> The majority of the Founding Fathers were originally Federalists . Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and many others can all be considered Federalists . These Federalists felt that the Articles of Confederation had been too weak to sustain a working government and had decided that a new form of government was needed . Hamilton was made Secretary of the Treasury, and when he came up with the idea of funding the debt he created a split in the original Federalist group . Madison greatly disagreed with Hamilton, not just on this issue but on many others as well; he and John J. Beckley created the Anti-Federalist faction . These men would form the Republican party under Thomas Jefferson . </P>

Which issue led to the development of the first political parties in the united states