| Summary |
Great Britain set the Massachusetts Bay Colony apart for exemplary discipline after that colony's act of defiance known as the "Boston Tea Party". Thereafter, punitive measure was followed by retaliatory counter-measure as the situation rapidly deteriorated toward armed conflict resulting casualties of empire were the expulsion of the royal governor and virtual stoppage of the judicial process. Those arms of government were regarded by the aroused colonials as special symbols of imperial domination. The taking of those extreme measures; however, produced a dilemma. Since Massachusetts considered an appointed judiciary and central executive to be instruments of tyranny and legitimate objectives for destruction by revolution, the colony neither made nor contemplated any effective substitution. The resulting anarchy had not been anticipated by the majority of the propertied conservative Independence leaders and their desire for effective remedy gradually took concrete form. An early manifestation of their reaction was the emergence in 1778 of a nucleus in Essex: County,, Massachusetts, which was to be known as the "Essex Junto". This articulate model of ultra-conservatism materially assisted in the drafting of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 by which there was established a strong central executive and an independent appointed judiciary. Vigorously opposed to popular interests and staunchly holding that the reins of government should be only in the firm hands of "the good, the rich and the well born", the Junto denounced vehemently the democratic precepts of John Hancock, caustically condemned Shays' Rebellion, and were most vocal in the clamor for a strong federal government to curb the democratic tendencies of popularly elected state assemblies. As the proposed Federal Constitution was submitted to the states, it soon became apparent that general adoption probably hinged on ratification by Massachusetts, a state considered to be pivotal. When the first informal polls revealed that the majority of the state ratifying convention was hostile to the measure, it was the resourceful Essex Junto, spearheading the proponent forces which gained sufficient delay of a final vote to accomplish the capture of John Hancock and Samuel Adams from the opposition. By this coup and other demonstrations of assiduous effort, the Junto played a vital role in the ultimate Federalist victory. In the new government, the Junto found a true champion in Washington's "prime minister", Alexander Hamilton, the brilliant young statesman brought forward his projects of government, they wore enthusiastically espoused by the Juntoists in the Cabinet, in both houses of the Congress, in the state governments, and in the press. When the very existence of the Federalist party, if not of the union, was at stake over ratification of the Jay Treaty with Great Britain in l795, it was an ©emotion-charged Juntoist speech in the House of Representatives that saved the day for the incumbents, When the opposition to Hamilton's policies found a head in the person of Thomas Jefferson, that champion of democracy was anathematized by the Junto. In the presidential election of 1796, Adams was well aware of the Junto's active participation in the scheme of the Eastern Federalists to gain the first office for Pinckney. Although denouncing their machinations, he did not. except them when, in a gesture of party loyalty, he adopted Washington's entire cabinet for his own. He was to regret deeply this act of forbearance, for when his epochal conflict with Hamilton became crucial, these very members betrayed his interests to those of Hamilton. As the Federalists were overwhelmed In the great popular reaction of 1800, sometimes known as the Second American Revolution, the Junto, now expanded into a large sectional force, were most active in the vain attempt to thwart the will of the electorate and prevent the election of Thomas Jefferson. It is the purpose of this thesis to assess the role and to delineate the activities of this formidable neo-tory force, in the formation of the Federalist Party in I773, in its growth during the Washington and Adams Administrations, and in its final downfall as a national force in 1801. |
