a. and sb. Also 7–8 fœderal. [a. F. fédéral, f. L. type *fœderāl-is, f. fœder-, fœdus covenant (:—pre-Lat. *bhoidhes-) cognate with fidēs FAITH.]
A. adj.
1. † a. gen. Of or pertaining to a covenant, compact, or treaty. Obs.
1660. Stillingfl., Iren., I. iv. (1662), 91. The sprinkling of the blood which was the main thing intended here as a fœderal rite.
1701. Grew, Cosm. Sacra, III. iv. 113. The Romans compell’d them … contrary to all Fœderal Right and Justice … to part with Sardinia.
1789. G. White, Selborne (1853), 336.
| Not so the sage: inspired with pious awe, | |
| He hails the federal arch. |
1825. T. Jefferson, Autobiog., Wks. 1859, I. 15. Our connection had been federal only, and was now dissolved by the commencement of hostilities.
b. spec. (Theol.) Pertaining to or based upon the Covenant of Works, or Covenant of Grace. Also, Constituting or expressing a covenant entered into by an individual with God. See COVENANT sb. 8.
Federal theology: the system based on the doctrine of covenants made by God with Adam as representing mankind, and with Christ as representing the Church. Federal head: = covenant-head (COVENANT sb. 10 b), applied to Adam and Christ.
1645. Ussher, Body Div. (1647), 418. There is a fœderall sanctity, or externall and visible holinesse at least in children of believing parents.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., II. viii. 71. As are the degrees of our restitution and accesse to the first fæderall condition, so also are the degrees of our pardons.
1673. True Worsh. God, 30. The Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood … being a Federal Banquet.
1737. Waterland, Eucharist, 424. The Service of the Holy Communion carries in it something of a federal Nature, is a kind of covenanting or stipulating Act.
a. 1800. Cowper, On Milton’s P. L., Wks. 1837, XV. 339. Christ becomes the fœderal head of his church.
1878. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), VI. 91. As one of the leading exponents of ‘federal’ theology, he [Cocceius] spiritualized the Hebrew Scriptures to such an extent that [etc.].
2. Of or pertaining to, or of the nature of, that form of government in which two or more states constitute a political unity while remaining more or less independent with regard to their internal affairs.
This sense arises from the contextual meaning of phrases like federal union, in which the adj. was originally used in sense 1 a.
[1707. Seton, Sp. in Sc. Parlt., in Parl. Hist., VI. App. 142. Sweden and Denmark were united by a fœderal compact under one monarch.]
1777. W. Robertson, Hist. Amer. (1783), II. 197. The celebrated league, that united the Five Nations in Canada into a federal republic.
1787. J. Barlow, Oration, 4 July, 8. The establishment of a permanent fœderal system.
1832. Sir G. C. Lewis, Remarks on the Use and Abuse of Some Political Terms, x. 116. A federal government is when an union is formed between several states, by the terms of which some part of the sovereignty is lodged in persons whose powers extend over all the states, and the remainder is lodged separately in persons whose powers are confined to each particular state.
1837. Calhoun, Wks. III. 166. He meant the party who believed that this was a Federal Republic, a Republic, the constituent parts of which were States; in contradistinction to a national consolidated republic, in which the constituent parts were the aggregate mass of the American people, taken collectively, and in which the States bore the same relation to the whole as counties do to the States.
1851. Ht. Martineau, Hist. Peace (1877), III. V. xii. 449. The permanently important subject was the scheme of constituting a federal union of the British North American provinces, for the two objects of securing good government for these colonies themselves, and of providing a counterbalance to the increasing power of the United States in the western hemisphere.
1874. Stubbs, The Constitutional History of England (1875), I. ii. 26. There was not in the time of Tacitus, any more than in that of Caesar, any general centre of administration, or any federal bond among the several tribes, although the great kindred races had common religious rites and sanctuaries.
b. Of or pertaining to the political unity so constituted, as distinguished from the separate states composing it.
1789. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 576. They have passed a bill rendering every person holding any federal office incapable of holding at the same time any State office.
1796. Washington, Let., Writings, 1892, XIII. 342. One or other of the proprietors in the Federal City.
1844. Thirlwall, Greece, VIII. lxi. 83. The federal sovereignty resided in the general assembly.
1876. Mathews, Coinage, xxi. 198. It was not until several years after the declaration of Independence (1776) that a Federal coinage was issued.
1891. Speaker, 11 July, 36/1. Into both federal and cantonal legislation the Referendum has been introduced.
3. U.S. Hist. a. Favoring the establishment of a strong federal, i.e., central government.
1788. Lond. Mag., 21. [The people of Massachusetts] forward in promoting the fœderal interest.
1789. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 576. Everywhere the elections are federal.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 587. Marylanders … are in general very federal, and friends to good government.
1839. Calhoun, Wks., III. 391. He [Hamilton] is the … impersonation of the national or Federal School … as Jefferson is of the State Rights Republican School.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. III. liii. 332. The disappearance of the Federal party between 1815 and 1820 left the Republicans masters of the field.
b. In the American Civil War of 1861–65: Of or pertaining to the Northern or Union party, or its supporters, troops, etc.
1861. O. W. Holmes, Pages fr. Old Vol. Life (1891), 2. A sad disaster to the Federal army.
1863. Dicey, Federal St., II. 241. The stories of the barbarities and cruelties inflicted by the Confederates on Federal prisoners, had inevitably soured the Northern mind.
1878. R. Taylor, Stonewall Jackson and the Valley Campaign, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 258. The fire to our rear appeared to recede, and a loud Federal cheer was heard, proving Jackson to be hard pressed.
4. United in a league, allied, confederated, rare.
1867. J. B. Rose, trans. The Æneis of Virgil, IV. 473.
| I never leagued at Aulis to destroy, | |
| No fleet of mine was federal ’gainst Troy, | |
| No deed of mine disturbs Anchises’ dust. |
B. sb. Chiefly pl. One on the side of the Union in the American Civil War of 1861–65; esp. a soldier in the Northern army.
1870. A. H. Stephens, Hist. War betw. States, II. xxiii. 582. Two grand campaigns were now again clearly developed by the Federals.
1871. Sir S. Northcote, Life, Lett. & Diaries (1890), II. 38. Timidly putting in a plea for a few flowers to two or three graves of Federals also.
