[ek_hornbeck]

Washington was not a Federalist.

Techically true, Washington did not joint any political party. But many of his top cabinet appointments were Federalists, and his policies (including the charter of a First National Bank) were clearly Federalist and opposed by Democratic-Republicans like Jefferson and Madison.

[FredZarguna]

It's more than "technically true." Washington was trying to discourage the further entrenchment of political parties, already dangerously far along in his own administration, by his personal example. He also had a Democratic-Republican -- the leader of the faction, as a matter of fact -- in arguably his most important cabinet post post.

He had "many" top cabinet appointments who were Federalists?

Again, you need to check your history. Washington did not even have "many" cabinet positions to appoint in the first place. I'll concede your argument if your definition of "many" is ... THREE. [And actually, it's more like TWO.]

Edmund Randolph, though nominally a "Federalist," was probably closer to Madison's "Federalism" than he was Hamilton's. He was certainly no Anglophile -- one of the darker marks of the Federalist tribe -- and he did not support Virginia's ratification of the Constitution. His role in the Constitutional debates in Virginia was largely to insert language much more favorable to the anti-Federalists in both tone and substance to Virginia's position. Eventually, he voted for ratification, but ONLY because eight other states had already done so. And he made that reason plain in casting his vote. He remained very deeply suspicious of Federal power; much more so than Madison, who was not a Federalist. Randolph is difficult to claim as anything but a FINO.

But this is all wide of my original point. The OP attempted to draw Washington into my criticisms of Alexander Hamilton. There is no doubt that Hamilton was a Big Government "conservative." Simply because Washington was susceptible to Hamilton's influence in some areas, that does not make Washington a Hamiltonian Federalist.

Asserting the synedoche "Hamilton equals all founding conservatives" is like asserting "George W. Bush equals all contemporary ones."

Like the claim that Jefferson was a "liberal," this argument is hogwash.

The Federalist Party, as Randolph's counterpoint to Hamilton clearly shows, admitted of a fairly broad range of ideology, and it is wrong to claim its adherents marched in lock step, even with as important a Federalist as Hamilton.