First Party System

The First Party System was the <a href="/facts/Political_parties_in_the_United_States/N0SBY8ux">political party system</a> in the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a> between roughly 1792 and 1824. It featured two national parties competing for control of the presidency, Congress, and the states: the <a href="/facts/Federalist_Party/Q4P54s6j">Federalist Party</a>, created largely by <a href="/facts/Alexander_Hamilton/XcKMy8Ke">Alexander Hamilton</a>, and the rival Jeffersonian <a href="/facts/Democratic-Republican_Party/bn17a9No">Democratic-Republican Party</a>, formed by <a href="/facts/Thomas_Jefferson/8yxtcjKK">Thomas Jefferson</a> and <a href="/facts/James_Madison/zIJlNhLd">James Madison</a>, usually called at the time the Republican Party (which is distinct from the modern <a href="/facts/Republican_Party_(United_States)/XXM1EVPr">Republican Party</a>).
The Federalists were dominant until 1800, while the Republicans were dominant after 1800. Both parties originated in national politics, but soon expanded their efforts to gain supporters and voters in every state. The Federalists, successors to the <a href="/facts/Pro-Administration/Q4P54s6j">Pro-Administration</a> faction that favored Washington's policies, appealed to the business community and had their base in the North, while the Republicans, like the <a href="/facts/Anti-Administration_party/hzwv0x5P">Anti-Administration</a> faction before them, relied on the planters and farmers within their base in the South and non-coastal North. By 1796, politics in every state was nearly monopolized by the two parties, with party newspapers and caucuses becoming effective tools to mobilize voters.
The Federalists promoted the financial system of Treasury Secretary Hamilton, which emphasized federal assumption of state debts, a tariff to pay off those debts, a national bank to facilitate financing, and encouragement of banking and manufacturing. The Republicans, based in the plantation South, opposed strong executive power, were hostile to a standing army and navy, demanded a strict reading of the Constitutional powers of the federal government, and strongly opposed the Hamilton financial program. Perhaps even more important was foreign policy, where the Federalists favored Britain because of its political stability and its close ties to American trade, while the Republicans admired France and the French Revolution. Jefferson was especially fearful that British aristocratic influences would undermine <a href="/facts/Republicanism_in_the_United_States/p6PKbIbW">republicanism</a>. Britain and France were at war from 1793 to 1815, with only one brief interruption. Official American policy was neutrality, with the Federalists hostile to France, and the Republicans hostile to Britain. The <a href="/facts/Jay_Treaty/W9skFeRu">Jay Treaty</a> of 1794 marked the decisive mobilization of the two parties and their supporters in every state. President <a href="/facts/George_Washington/ucb7mE4Q">George Washington</a>, while officially nonpartisan, generally supported the Federalists and that party made Washington their iconic hero.
The First Party System ended during the <a href="/facts/Era_of_Good_Feelings/c3J0KRGc">Era of Good Feelings</a> (1816–1824), as the Federalists shrank to a few isolated strongholds and the Democratic-Republicans lost unity. In 1824–28, as the <a href="/facts/Second_Party_System/TdMyPq7B">Second Party System</a> emerged, the Democratic-Republican Party split into the <a href="/facts/Andrew_Jackson/MjlxPRzk">Jacksonian</a> faction, which became the modern <a href="/facts/History_of_the_United_States_Democratic_Party/syykwY1I">Democratic Party</a> in the 1830s, and the <a href="/facts/Henry_Clay/F9eyVhPL">Henry Clay</a> faction, which was absorbed by Clay's <a href="/facts/Whig_Party_(United_States)/4tQTAzq2">Whig Party</a>.

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First Party System