Prologue to Democracy

This study of the Southern Federalists examines their contribution to the formation of the party system at the end of the eighteenth century and to the liberalization of politics in America. Despite their belief in rule by the elite and their reluctance to develop an organized party system, the Southern Federalists are shown by Lisle A. Rose to have elicited political participation along broad geographic and social lines through local party efforts, newspaper campaigns, and mass meetings. Forced into distinct ideological and organizational identities, the Southern Federalists as much as their Republican opponents had a significant share in shaping American political life in the last years of the eighteenth century.