welcome to the first American political party study guide first let's describe what exactly is a political party a political party is made up of people who have similar beliefs about how government should be run those ideas and those beliefs about government group people together those people that group together into political parties work to try to influence government's actions they try to influence bills and laws that are introduced and pass foreign policy they choose candidates and they actually campaign to get them elected and all of this is done to try to guide the growth of the country in the direction that this group of people believes the country should move most Americans in the early 1800s feared political parties because they had seen in Britain a lot of bickering and fighting over partisan issues and other was the two parties fighting against each other rather than the two parties working to try to make the country better and they feared the same thing would happen in America George Washington strongly opposed political parties for that very reason he thought they would divide our country Americans also feared political officials would abuse their power and use their political power for personal gain rather than to support and improve the country despite their fears the constant bickering and fighting and arguing between Al Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson LED people to start taking sides their arguments were all about what government should and should not do how much power government should and should not have and the people kind of gravitated to the person that held similar beliefs that they did and those groups of supporters became the first political parties the Democratic Republican party was founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and they were able to get George Clinton the governor of New York and Aaron Burr the Attorney General of New York to join the Democratic Republican party with their support they were able to draw in many other people to join their party who would join and support the Democratic Republican party Farmers Thomas Jefferson thought we should be an agricultural country so he was very supportive Agriculture and Farmers craft workers remember craft workers were worked out of their homes primarily back in the 1800s and finally some wealthy Planters also joined and supported the Democratic Republican party the Federalist Party was founded by Alexander Hamilton and he was able to get people like John Adams Roger Sherman and John J to join the Federalist Party many of these people were the Federalist who actually helped to write the Declaration of Independence the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution and and so the Federalist Party was just a growth of their involvement in government already who else would join in support the Federalist Party that would be your Merchants Alexander Hamilton believed that the government needed to make loans to businesses to stir the economy uh he was working to try to pay off the debts and so because of that the merchants who would benefit from his support were definitely going to join his political party many Southern Planters also were joining the Federalist Party to put it in perspective here is a little chart to show you the different beliefs that the Federalists and the Democratic Republican parties's held so the Federalists believe that our country's economy should have an emphasis on manufacturing shipping and trade while the Democratic Republicans believed that our emphasis should be on agriculture and farming Federalists believed we should have a strong central government a strong federal government Democratic Republicans thought that the states should have more power the Federalists believed in a loose interpretation of the Constitution it was more of a guideline where the Democratic Republicans believed in a very strict interpretation if it doesn't specifically say it in the Constitution we should not be able to do it the Federalists were pro- British they felt that we should support Britain and the Dem Democratic Republicans believed we should be pro- French the French helped us in the American Revolution so therefore we should turn around and support and help them Alexander Hamilton obviously favored the National Bank since it was his suggestion that we create one because he favored it so did the people in his political party the Democratic Republicans opposed the national bank because nowhere in the Constitution did it say that Congress had the power to create a bank the Federalists also favored the protective tariffs that were passed the Democratic Republicans however opposed these protective tariffs and finally one of the biggest areas they disagreed on was who should be able to lead the country the federals believe that only the wealthy and well educated should lead the nation they didn't really believe that the average everyday man had the experience or the knowledge in order to lead and be a part of the government where the Democratic Republicans believe that all types of people should have political power and there you have the creation of the first two political parties in America