The degree of political consolidation among the urban elites in the early Republic was remarkable. During the era of the First Party System (1792–1824, when politics were dominated by the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party), the Bostonian patriciate overwhelmingly supported the Federalist Party, achieving “an almost comprehensive degree of political consolidation” (Jaher 1982:29). New York, similarly, was “a Federalist stronghold” (Jaher 1982:212). When
