The Rise of Political Parties

The Constitution did not make a single reference to the creation of political parties when it was written and signed in 1787. When George Washington was unanimously elected president in 1789, he had no political party affiliation and no intention of participating in what he described as factions or partisanship. He feared that political parties would divide Americans and firmly believed that unity as a nation was the only way the country could survive after the American Revolution.

However, factions divided his own cabinet members, and a two-party system evolved.

Watch this video to learn about the development of the first two political parties. Then answer the questions below.

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Transcript

CAROL BERKIN: When they wrote the Constitution, they designed a beautiful model. (chuckling): Then people got into it, and the beautiful model had many unexpected consequences.

CATHERINE ALLGOR: In the republican theory that informed not only the American Revolution, but of course, the founding, there were no political parties. So our American system of governance was not set up to be a two-party system. The attitude was that there was one common good, and men of virtue worked for that common good, and anyone who worked against them was not a legitimate opposition, but a faction.

BERKIN: They thought that political parties were the most dangerous thing that could happen to a government. And then, by Washington's first term, it dawned on them that if every man voted exactly the way his conscience told him, or his indigestion told him that day, they would never get a bill passed. They begin to see the value of kind of organizing into interest groups, at the very least.

ALLGOR: By the 1790s, the Federalist and Republican parties were beginning to be formed.

TOM FLEMING: Madison was the spokesman in the House of Representatives for this party, which was starting to call themselves the Republicans, because we were a republic. They weren't the Republicans we know today. They were really closer to the Democrats. They were the, the "party of the people," they called themselves. And of course, there was an opposition party in, in, loose in the country-- there always is-- and they were called the Federalists.

"My dealing with people is governed by party rather than by personal friendships. I'd been associating almost entirely with Federalists. I suggested to a friend that it might be a good idea for members of the different parties to live together and become more sociable. He laughed, saying they'd never be able to live together in peace."

ALLGOR: We have to remember the time of the early republic. The partisanship between the parties, as they were just beginning to realize they were parties, was so vicious, was so bitter, that it really threatened to shred the culture.

In the early 1800s, the goal was not unity. It was not a legitimate opposition. It was to destroy the illegitimate faction so that the legitimate rulers could rule without any opposition.

"The object of the members seems to be to wear each other down. Even when everyone agrees on something, there always has to be what they call giving and taking. Here is a deliberative body discussing every question with total misunderstanding and without the smallest wish to agree about anything."

The Rise of Political Parties

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