It’s like in the past half century you have arguably a somewhat liberal, JFK, being more conservative than half the republicans in congress. (Of course compared to FDR he was a rock ribbed conservative)
It’s hard to figure these guys out in the 18th century. Things are so different.
The Federalists (the party of Adams and Hamilton) were more Big Government than the Democratic-Republicans (the party of Jefferson and Madison), but it’s something like an argument between today’s traditionalist conservatives and conservatives of a more libertarian bent. ALL of them would be conservative tending more or less to libertarian by today’s standards.