Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/222

 180 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS explanations are hardly borne out by what we know of Mr. Madison s career up to this point; and, moreover, they are uncalled for. If we consider carefully the circumstances of the time, the pre sumed inconsistency in his conduct disappears. The new Republican party, of which he soon became one of the leaders, was something quite different in its attitude from the anti-Federalist party of 1787- 90. There was ample room in it for men who in these critical years had been stanch Fed eralists, and as time passed this came to be more and more the case, until after a quarter of a cen tury the entire Federalist party, with the excep tion of a few inflexible men in New England, had been absorbed by the Republican party. In 1790, since the Federal constitution had been actually adopted, and was going into operation, and since the extent of power that it granted to the general government must be gradually tested by the dis cussion of specific measures, it followed that the only natural and healthful division of parties must be the division between strict and loose construc- tionists. It was to be expected that anti-Federalists would become strict constructionists, and so most of them did, though examples were not wanting of such men swinging to the opposite extreme of politics, and advocating an extension of the powers of the Federal government. But there was no reason in