In any case the members were apt to be creatures of a republican despot or else delegates of politicians or petty factions.
Assuming that the leaders had a fairly clear conception of what they wanted, even if the mass of their adherents did not, it is possible to aline the factions or parties somewhat as follows: on the one hand, the unitary, the military, the clerical, the conservative, and the moderate; on the other, the federalist, the civilian, the lay, the liberal, and the radical.

Interspersed among them were the advocates of a presidential or congressional system like that of the United States, the upholders of a parliamentary regime like that of European nations, and the supporters of methods of government of a more experimental kind.

Broadly speaking, the line of cleavage was made by opinions, concerning the form of government and by convictions regarding the relations of Church and State.

These opinions were mainly a product of revolutionary experience; these convictions, on the other hand, were a bequest from colonial times.
The Unitaries wished to have a system of government modeled upon that of France.

They wanted the various provinces made into administrative districts over which the national authority should exercise full sway.
Their direct opponents, the Federalists, resembled to some extent the Antifederalists rather than the party bearing the former title in the earlier history of the United States; but even here an exact analogy fails.