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Title: The Birth of Political Parties
Type of document: overview
Annotation:
The framers of the Constitution had not prepared the Constitution with political parties in mind. They associated parties with the corrupt factions that dominated British politics. The founders hoped that the "better sort of citizens," rising above popular self-interest, would debate key issues and reach harmonious consensus regarding how best to legislate for the nation's future. Thomas Jefferson reflected this outlook when he declared in 1789, "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."
Despite a belief that parties were evil and that they posed a threat to republican government, leaders in Washington's first administration created the first modern political parties. Divisions first emerged in 1791 over Hamilton's proposals to fund the federal and state debts, to establish a national bank, and to provide government assistance to manufacturing.
On the grounds that Hamilton's fiscal plans threatened his vision of the Republic, James Madison organized congressional opposition and retained the poet Philip Freneau to edit a newspaper, the National Gazette, to warn the populace about Hamilton's designs. Madison and his ally Thomas Jefferson saw in Hamilton's program an effort to establish the kind of patronage society that existed in Britain, with a huge public debt, a standing army, high taxes, and government-subsidized monopolies.
Hamilton responded in kind. He secured John Fenno to publish the Gazette of the United States, claiming that his opponents wanted to return the national government to its weak condition under the Articles of Confederation. By 1794, his faction had evolved into the Federalist party, the first national political party in history capable of nominating candidates, coordinating votes in Congress, staging public meetings, organizing petition campaigns, and disseminating propaganda.
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