Democratic-Republicans Vs Federalists

Arising from the smoke of the French Revolution was a wave of Jacobin ideologies arriving on the shores of the American continent. During this diffusion of ideas, there were two primary political parties trying to gain power in America: the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists. With the Democratic-Republicans adopting French Jacobin ideologies and Federalists leaning towards anti-Jacobin views, tension between the two parties erupted into a bitter political conflict resulting in each side doing what they had to in order to gain power. Subsequently, Federalist politicians used anti-French Revolution propaganda in order to shape American political views and ultimately gain power in government. Adopting the name “Jacobins”(416)1, Democratic-Republicans

The popular majority of the Democratic-Republican and radical Jacobin views disseminated fear into members of the Federalist party whose political power was slowly declining. One example of Democratic-Republican behavior that fueled Federalist uneasiness can be seen in the actions of David Bradford, a Jacobin supporter who led rebellions against government implementations; most famously the Whiskey Rebellion in which Bradford threatened to establish a committee of public safety and start building guillotines (420)2. In accompany to public violence, Democratic-Republican activist dove into writings to attempt to further dismantle the Federalist party. Writers, such as Benjamin Bache, wrote to the masses of the American populous with statements such as in his 1795 publication, Aurora where Bache stated, “The guillotine: May it maintain it 's empire till all crowned heads are laid in the dust” (419)3. This radical Jacobin ideology blatantly endorsed the violent and illogical events of the French Revolution at the time bringing

In order to crumble the increasing popularity of the Democratic-Republicans, the Federalist party turned to anti-Jacobin propaganda aiming to curb democratic challenges to political, cultural and religious hierarchies (414)5. The beginning political propaganda began mildly, reinforced by writings and statements from numerous influential politicians and men. The Federalist party political counterattack against the Democratic-Republicans was an effort to sway the American populous using rational and the credibility of authoritative men. This type of propaganda can be seen in the early stages of the Federalist movement in the works of William Cobbet, a British man, who would later become a forefront leader in the battle against anti-Jacobin ideologies. Cobbett dug into the behind the scenes practices of the Democratic-Republican party and warned American citizens of French Jacobin doctrine operating in the country through actions taken by the party. Comparing French Jacobin acts to those of American Jacobins, Cobbett displayed evidence to American citizens presenting copious similarities between the two groups in aspects such as unauthorized public meetings and attempts by the group to force their representatives to vote correspondingly to their groups favored position on government issues (De Hartog