This is the first book dealing with any period in American history which attempts to describe and analyse national politics through studying voting patterns in state legislatures. During the 1780s two relatively stable legislative parties
emerged in every state, and each state possessed common characteristics. Main labels these parties
localists
and
cosmopolitans
and show how such issues as funding of debts, paper money, and land prices provided a battlefield for those early part division.

Originally published in 1972.

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Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia