Not too surprised that so many HNers don't know this, so I should have explained better in the previous comment. The Federalist party called for a strong national government to fix all the ills in the previously weak confederation, and they succeeded spectacularly, making the US the most powerful government on Earth instead of a bunch of warring factions making their own treaties, regulations, money, and tariffs. The very first aim of the Federalist Society is "checking federal power."

It's all about the context. Federalists wanted a stronger government compared to Anti-Federalists who wanted something akin to a confederation. Nowadays the debate is not between federalists and confederalists, that ship has sailed, it is between federalists and unitarists.