What are Hamiltonians?

Hamiltonians were people who followed and supported the policies that Alexander Hamilton espoused on the fiscal affairs of the new union. Hamilton wanted a strong federal government relative to the states. Most importantly, though, Hamilton wanted the federal government to assume the debts that the various states had incurred in paying for the Revolutionary War. Some states had paid down much of their debts themselves and did not want the federal government to assume them. If it did, it would spread the cost of repayment of the entire debt among all of the states. This would have the effect of making some states pay for other states' debts. Hamilton had other fiscal ideas like having a national bank, which many states and people opposed. As it turned out, Hamilton's followers were diametrically opposed by Jefferson and Madison, sometimes referred to as Jeffersonians or Republicans.