ANTIFEBRIN, a trade name for the sub stance known to chemists as acetanilide (q.v.).
the first political party in the United States after the separation from Great Britain. The loyalists having been expelled, there was no issue to divide upon till the question of replacing the loose Confed eration with a stronger bond came up. The representatives of commerce and capital, and the mass of the educated classes, favored rati fying the Constitution; those who feared that a strong government meant a disguised new kingship, the local leaders who wished to retain pre-eminence, and the conservatives who thought no evils comparable to those of change, opposed it. The names were in direct oppo sition to the facts, the Federalists striving to turn the federation into a unified nation, the Anti-Federalists endeavoring to preserve a loose disintegrated federation. The victory of the superior classes was overwhelming, one great cause being that the men who were later the leaders of the Anti-Federal opposition were Federalists (q.v.) for the time being, as they felt that the existing condition of affairs was intolerable. In the organization of the first Congress and executive under the Constitution, the Federalists proper held every post but three, and even those were not technically ((anti)) till later. In this Congress, though there was much individual opposition to the Federalist measures, it was unorganized, and the Anti Federal spirit could hardly be said to animate a body. Hamilton's scheme for clearing up the public debt was the first point of division. The payment of foreign debts was carried unani mously; that for paying the Continental debt at par was opposed by Madison and others ex cept as to original holders; that for assuming the State debts was bitterly fought as defam ing the States' solvency and as buying the sup port of capital for the Federal government, was carried by only five votes, reconsidered and beaten by the seven votes of the new North Carolina just admitted, again reconsidered and carried by Jefferson's log-roll of establishing the new capital on the Potomac. His national
bank scheme (1791, opposed by Madison in the House and Jefferson and Randolph in the Cabi net) and his tariff and excise schemes also excited a growing hostility from this element, which by the time of the 2d Congress (1 Oct. 1791) was becoming a new strict-construction party; no longer opposed to the Constitution as such, but opposed to extending its powers beyond the most literal interpretation of its terms. Jefferson, Madison, and Randolph were now the chiefs of the new party in public office; but Jefferson disclaimed being an Anti-Federal ist, based his policy on love of as sympathizing with the French Revolution, and called the Hamiltonians °monarchists.° The Republicans and Anti-Federalists comprised the same elements, however, and were based on the same natural division, and Washington's proclamation of neutrality in the European con flict in 1793 fused them into one as the Repub licans, later into the Democratic—Republican party.