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Rh presidency, had been terribly excited at the assumptions of power by the Federalists, such as the alien and sedition laws. But when in possession of the government, they went fully as far in that direction as the Federalists had done. Their leaders admitted that they had exceeded the warrant of the Constitution in the purchase of Louisiana; and their embargoes, and the laws and executive measures enforcing them, were, as encroachments upon local self-government and individual rights, hardly less objectionable in principle than the alien and sedition laws had been. But it must be admitted that these things were not done for the purpose of enlarging the power of the government, and of encroaching upon home rule and individual rights. It was therefore with a self-satisfied sense of consistency that they continued to preach, as a matter of doctrine, the most careful limitation of the central power and the largest scope of local self-government. In this respect the new Democratic party followed in their footsteps.

The old Federalists, on the other hand, had openly declared themselves in favor of a government strong enough to curb the unruly democracy. The National Republicans, or Whigs, having in great part themselves been Jeffersonian Republicans, mostly favored a liberal construction of constitutional powers, not with a view to curbing the unruly democracy, but to other objects, such as internal improvements, a protective tariff, and a national bank.