It will be remembered that there were two political
parties in the United States during the war of 1812: one,
the Federalist, was in general opposed to the war; the
other, the Republican, was in favor of it. This latter is

not the same as the present Republican
1%'^t^n,"*' Pa"y' but is really the beginning of the

party called Democratic. The question of
the war was not the only one on which the parties dif-
fered : the Federalists leaned to the side of England in
the wars following the French Revolution, while the Re-
publicans sympathized with France ; the Federalists fav-"
ored a strong central government in. the United States,
while the Republicans thought the separate States should
be stronger and more independent. The Southern States
were Republican, and the New England States, especially
Massachusetts and Connecticut, were Federalist ; though
there were many of the latter party in the Sooth, and
some of the former in New England.
In Maryland, in the elections of 1814, the Federalists
made considerable gains; but in those of 1815 the Repub-
licans made such gains that the Federalists had a ma-
jority of only one vote in the General Assembly. The
latter party gradually lost power in all the States, chiefly
because of its opposition to the war, until in 1816 Mon-



ji-vGooglc



AFTER THE WAR WITH ENGLAND 108

roe, the Republican candidate for President, received the
electoral votes of all the States except Massachusetts,
Connecticut and Delaware. In 1820 he received all the
votes except one,* and the Federalist party fell to pieces
completely. In this same year the Republicans gained
cranplete control of the State Government of Maryland.
