No less than the Federalists, they believed in freedom; but the kind of freedom they wanted, was freedom from anything but local interference.

The ordinary American democrat felt that the power of _his_ personality and _his_ point of view would be diminished by the efficient centralization of political authority.

He had no definite intention of using the democratic state governments for anti-social or revolutionary purposes, but he was self-willed and unruly in temper; and his savage treatment of the Tories during and after the Revolution had given him a taste of the sweets of confiscation.

The spirit of his democracy was self-reliant, undisciplined, suspicious of authority, equalitarian, and individualistic.
With all their differences, however, the Federalists and their opponents had certain common opinions and interests, and it was these common opinions and interests which prevented the split from becoming irremediable.

The men of both parties were individualist in spirit, and they were chiefly interested in the great American task of improving their own condition in this world.