Rise of early political parties

Federalists and (Democratic-) Republicans

American political history has frequently involved organized political parties contesting elections, attempting to pass and/or defeat legislation, and implement a wide, and morphing, array of policy priorities. The first organized political party in American history was the Federalist party, a name that generates understandable confusion for students as the Federalist party partially overlaps with the authors of the Federalist Papers, particularly with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, but James Madison quickly emerged as a prominent leader of the rival (Democratic-) Republican party.

As with most political parties, members and supporters of the party may not agree with all party platform policy priorities and there are often personal and political rivalries both within and between competing parties. In the Federalist party, after the ratification of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams soon emerged as critical, and frequently mutually hostile, leaders. Federalist priorities, frequently articulated by Hamilton, included supporting a stronger federal government, including through the assumption of state Revolutionary War debts and the chartering of the First National Bank of the United States, as well as an openly wary, even confrontational approach towards the new revolutionary government in France. With the Democratic-Republican, soon to be called Republican[^1], party, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison assumed leading roles opposing the chartering of the First National Bank, calling for more powerful state governments and a weaker federal government, and at least initially, a more conciliatory, even supportive, approach towards the French revolutionary government and a more confrontational approach with the British government.

Political parties often obtain support based upon their appeals to regional culture, ethnic identity, religion, types of employment, levels of education, and practical benefits. In the early American republic, the Federalist Party earned most of its support in the northern states, particularly in New England, whereas the Republican Party enjoyed greater support in the southern and, at the time, western states. In the election of 1800, John Adams won all of the New England states, New Jersey, and split the electoral votes in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, whereas Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr won all of the southern vote, except for eastern North Carolina, New York, and split the electoral votes from Pennsylvania. In the election of 1812, James Madison and the Republicans won all of the southern states, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, while the Federalist candidate Dewitt Clinton won New Jersey, New York, Delaware, Maryland, and all of the New England states other than Vermont. While these are regional vote totals and do not reflect the specific votes of individual voters or even specific towns and cities, these trends both reflected and impacted then contemporary and subsequent political developments.

Era of Good Feelings

As the Federalist Party gradually diminished in electoral importance and became increasingly confined to New England, the Republican Party emerged as the dominant political party of the early 19th century. After the War of 1812 and the election of James Monroe as the 5th president, and the last of the Virginia dynasty, national political competition diminished so much that in the election of 1820, Monroe won reelection by an electoral college margin of 232-1, with 3 electors not casting votes. During this Era of Good Feelings, a moniker reflecting the presumably exaggerated resolution of political and regional rivalries and resentments after the War of 1812, the most important electoral competition came from within the Republican Party, particularly in the wake of the bitterly contested election of 1824.

National Republicans and the Democrats

While Americans are accustomed to acrimonious political campaigns, the election of 1824 remains one of the most bitterly contested, particularly as the primary popular and electoral college vote leader, Andrew Jackson, narrowly missed being elected president. Jackson earned 99 out of the 261 electoral college votes while John Quincy Adams earned 84 electoral college votes with William Crawford and Henry Clay splitting the remaining 78 votes. When the House of Representatives finally settled the disputed election by selecting John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson immediately condemned the results, particularly once Henry Clay, who had urged his home state of Kentucky and other states to support Quincy Adams, was nominated for Secretary of State. Jackson and his supporters referred to Clay as the “Judas of the West” and vowed to defeat Quincy Adams, Clay and other potential rivals in the next election. John Quincy Adams and Clay emerged as the leaders of the National Republican Party, which along with the succeeding Whig Party would serve as foils to Jackson and his successor, Martin Van Buren, while Jackson led the nascent Democratic Party.

Whig Party

In a later lesson in this chapter, you will read more extensively about Andrew Jackson and his political fortunes and impacts. For the moment, though, we should note the emergence of the Whig Party, initially an anti-Jackson alliance led primarily by Henry Clay. Named after the British political party of the same name, the Whigs decried what they perceived to be Jackson’s excessive presidential dominance and the bypassing of Congress. While the Whigs enjoyed critical support throughout different regions of the country, the uneasy alliance between the emerging urban middle class, evangelical Protestants, and nativists, people opposed to immigration, particularly Catholic immigration in the 1840s and 1850s, eventually collapsed in the 1850s, primarily because of unresolved disputes about the expansion of slavery in newly acquired territories. The two Whig candidates elected president, William Henry Harrison in 1840 and Zachary Taylor in 1848, prevailed without clearly expressed party platforms; instead, their victories stemmed primarily from the unpopularity of Martin Van Buren in 1840 and, ironically, from the spoiler role played by Van Buren in 1848 as the candidate of the short-lived Free Soil Party.

Political parties have served a variety of roles within the United States, including representation of specific interests as well as more diffuse cultural identities.

Early political parties, including the (Democratic-) Republicans, Federalists, and Whigs vigorously contested local, state, and national elections throughout the first half of the 19th century.

Parties engaged in debate and electoral contests about cultural, economic, and political policies and questions, with disagreements about slavery, including its potential expansion into new territories, ultimately emerging as the dominant political issue of the mid 19th century.

Notes

[^1]: Please keep in mind that the Republican party of the 1790s does not constitute the modern Republican party; the original Republicans of the 1790s actually served as the forerunners of today’s Democratic party while the modern Republicans were founded in the 1850s.