Federalist Party
America's first true political party was the Federalist Party, formed by Alexander Hamilton in the early 1790's. The Federalists came out of the movement in 1789 to ratify the Constitution. They favored a somewhat flexible interpretation of the Constitution, rule by a capable and well-educated elite, and a nation state that would be strong both fiscally and militarily. As a Federalist, John Adams was the first President to be a member of a party, and the Federalists held control of Congress until 1801. From then until the War of 1812, the Federalists continued as a strong party in New England and the northeast but did not regain control of Congress.

Democratic-Republican Party
Thomas Jefferson, along with James Madison to some extent, founded the Democratic-Republican Party in 1792 in opposition to the Federalists. They held a large majority in both Houses of Congress for the first two decades of the 19th century. The Federalist Party's remnants still existed in opposition, but they never regained power as a viable political party; and many of their views later became incorporated into the National Republican Party instead. The first three representatives of Ohio's second district were all members of the Democratic-Republican Party. Democratic-Republicans favored a strict interpretation of the Constitution, wanted to limit the powers of the national government, and championed states' rights and the importance of the average individual American farmer or common man. The Federalists tended to support a more powerful national government and a stronger executive branch.

After the outbreak of the War of 1812, the Democratic-Republican Party started to split over issues related to the war. Many of the younger party leaders led a nationalist faction in the vein of the Federalist Party which favored a stronger national government in order to build up the strength to fight wars and hold national supremacy in the Western Hemisphere. They increasingly wanted more industrial development and government spending for modernization, a stronger standing military, and a more powerful executive branch; while the "Old Republicans" wanted the national government, and especially the executive branch, to remain strictly within its constitutional specifications. These early disputes let to the party splitting more noticeably in 1824.

Splits in the Democratic-Republican Party
In the early 1820's, the "Old Republicans" started to be known as Crawford or Jackson Republicans. The Crawford/Jackson distinction was simply based on who they favored in the Presidential election of 1824. Both groups tended to strongly support states' rights and the original principles Jefferson espoused in 1798-small government, a weaker executive branch and smaller military, free trade, etc They were opposed to the nationalizing platform of increased spending and modernization that many so-called "Adams Republicans" wanted.

These differences became irreconcilable during the 1824 election. The Federalist Party was gone, and without any effective opposition, the Democratic-Republican Party splintered into its various factions. There were four candidates for the Presidency in that election-Andrew Jackson, William Crawford, Henry Clay, and John Quincy Adams. Jackson and Crawford both generally supported the "Old Republican" platform of states' rights and limited national government. Adams and Clay both supported stronger national government policies, and their supporters started call themselves National Republicans. Crawford was at first the leading candidate for the Democratic-Republican Party, but a massive stroke in 1823 ruined his health, and Andrew Jackson began to rise in prominence as the leader of the Party.

Differences among candidates in the 1824 election especially began to develop along regional lines. Henry Clay was from Kentucky, Jackson from Tennessee, Adams from New England, and Crawford from Georgia. The Democratic-Republican Party therefore aligned itself more with the southern and western states, while the National Republicans had connections to the remnants of the former Federalist Party and so were associated more with northern and New England states. John Quincy Adams won the election in 1824, and the party split was complete-thereafter the Adams Republicans became known as National Republicans. Throughout Adams' administration, Jackson's supporters were more energized and focused on their differences from National Republicans. They were often known as Jacksonians or Jacksonian Republicans.

National Republicans vs. Democrats
By the time of the 1828 election, the days of the Democratic-Republican Party were over. John Quincy Adams ran for a second term supported by the National Republican Party. Andrew Jackson defeated Adams in the 1828 election, and to avoid confusion, his supporters started to drop the "Republican" term from their party name, calling themselves Jacksonian Democrats, and finally just Democrats.

Jackson also won the 1832 election by a wide margin, officially spelling defeat for the National Republican party. Henry Clay had been the official "founder" of the National Republicans and ran as their candidate for President in 1832. After his defeat, Clay re-organized the party, combining it with the Anti-Masonic Party and other independent fringe parties that opposed Jackson, in order to form the new Whig Party. By the 1836 elections, the two major parties were the Democrats and the Whigs. This distinction continued until just before the Civil War.

Andrew Jackson and the Early Democratic Party
"Jacksonian democracy" is often used to refer to the political philosophy of the early Democratic Party, and particularly to Andrew Jackson's personal political views. To a large extent it originally adhered to the earlier Jeffersonian ideals, and was based on a respect for the common man, a distrust of the propertied classes, and a commitment to eliminate franchise distinctions based on property or position. Like Jefferson, Jacksonians favored geographical expansion, a strict interpretation of the Constitution, free trade, and they wanted government to maintain a "hands-off" (or laissez-faire) approach to the economy. Jacksonians differed from Jefferson in wanting to increase the power of the executive branch at the expense of the Congressional power. They also supported the patronage or spoils system, which allowed elected politicians to appoint their political supporters to administrative offices; but they opposed the appointment of judges.

Opponents of Jackson form the Whig Party
The Whig Party held to the previous National Republican political platform, but mainly functioned as the opposition party during the 1830's. Notable leaders included Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, William Henry Harrison, and Zachary Taylor. By the end of the 1840's, the issue of slavery became the main factor which led to the disintegration of the Whig Party. The Compromise of 1850 split the Party along pro-slavery and anti-slavery lines. Whig President Taylor opposed the Compromise and any talk of secession, but his successor President Fillmore supported the Compromise along with nearly any means of avoiding war. The Party lost its strongest leaders in 1852 with the deaths of Clay and Webster. In the 1852 Presidential election, the Whigs split further over slavery and General Winfield Scott's subsequent loss of the election left many Whigs greatly discouraged of ever regaining power.

Formation of Republican Party
The Republican Party was officially created in 1854, largely as a reaction to the Kansas-Nebraska Act which would have expanded slavery into the Kansas Territory. At first the Republican Party's formation was based on anti-slavery sentiment, but it was also a combination of various groups leftover from the fractured Whig Party and those who opposed the Democratic Party. By 1850, the Democratic Party had become the party of the South and the slave-holding class, beginning to move away from the Jacksonian ideal of advocating for the "common man." The new Republican Party capitalized on that aspect, and tried to build their platform around former Jeffersonian principles of early American republicanism such as the rejection of aristocracy, the individual liberty of citizens as well as their responsibility to civic duty, and the belief in the inalienable rights of human beings which cannot be violated by government or voted away by a majority (as could happen in a purely democratic system).

By the 1856 election, the Republican Party platform included a progressive plan for modernization of and improvements of railroads, cities, industry, higher education, and banking. They championed free market economics as a better alternative to slave labor, and opposed the corruption in politics purportedly resulting from the Democratic Party's patronage system. By the end of the decade, a moralistic vision for society became part of the Republican platform as well. Churches and religious groups influenced by the Second Great Awakening combined their religious convictions with their political goals of purging corruption and addressing societal problems of alcohol, polygamy, and slavery. The Republican Party in 1856 absorbed former anti-slavery Whigs and members from many different third parties such as the Free Soil Party, the Know-Nothing Party, and the American Party. John Fremont ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate in 1856 with a campaign slogan of "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men." In 1860, Abraham Lincoln, who had defected from the Whig Party after the 1852 election, won the Presidency as a Republican, becoming the first Republican President.

The Civil War and Reconstruction Period
The strain of the 1860's and 1870's caused minor fractures in the political parties yet again, but in general the two major parties continued to be the Democratic and Republican parties. Within the Democratic Party, those who opposed the Civil War were known as "Peace Democrats," and those who supported the war and were against secession were "War Democrats." Within the Republican Party, the Radical Republicans favored a more decisive war effort and harsher measures during Reconstruction. The Radicals gained prominence during President Grant's administration beginning in 1868. Disillusionment with scandal and political corruption under his administration and the harsh conditions in the Southern states caused the Liberal Republicans to break off from the main Party in 1872. They favored an end to the military era of Reconstruction and reform in the administration. Rutherford B. Hayes' election to the Presidency in 1876 effectively ended Reconstruction and healed many of the divides in the nation and in the political parties.

From 1876 to the present, there have of course been many changes and divisions within both the Republican and Democratic Parties; but they have remained the two dominant parties of our system, and the explanation given here deals only with changes in political parties through 1876.

>back