The tide of strict construction was setting in strongly in his state, and he was borne along with the flood.
The Federalist Party, which may be regarded as definitely organized practically from 1791, was led, leaving Washington aside, by Alexander Hamilton and John Adams. A nationalization of the new central government to the full extent warranted by a broad construction of the powers granted to it by the constitution, and a correspondingly strict construction of the powers reserved to the states and the citizens, were the basic principles of Hamilton's policy.
A Republican in politics, and a firm believer in the doctrines of strict construction and state sovereignty which Thomas Jefferson had been principally instrumental in formulating, he opposed consistently the demand for internal improvements and increased tariff duties, and declined to follow Henry Clay in the proposed recognition of the independence of the Spanish colonies in South America and in the Missouri Compromise legislation.
Five of the seven judges in 1837 were his appointees, and the majority of them were Southerners who had been educated under Democratic influences at a time when the slavery controversy was forcing the party to return to its original strict construction views.
From 1816 to 1819 Harrison was a representative in Congress, and as such worked in behalf of more liberal pension laws and a better militia organization, including a system of general military education, of improvements in the navigation of the Ohio, and of relief for purchasers of public lands, and for the strict construction of the power of Congress over the Territories, particularly in regard to slavery.
