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The Rise of Factions

Part 1. Vocabulary 30 Points

*In order to understand this article we must understand the vocabulary. Define each word/phrase listed below so you can use it while you are reading the article.

  1. faction
  1. virtues
  1. repository
  1. policies
  1. championed(verb)
  1. aristocracy
  1. embodied
  1. radical
  1. egalitarianism
  1. guillotine
  1. albeit
  1. ratification
  1. endorse
  1. partisan
  1. repugnant
  1. vitriol
  1. invective
  1. tenure

Part 2: Annotations 30 Points

Purposefully annotate the article. Annotations are intended to summarize the text, ask important questions about the content or draw conclusions. Minimum of 6 annotations.

Part 3: Questions to Consider 40 Points

Answer these in complete sentences on a separate sheet of paper.

  1. Describe in detail the two different groups, Democratic Republicans & Federalists. Be sure to include their view points, supporters, leaders, etc. (worth 16points)
  2. How did the Federalist use the French Revolution as evidence as to what might happen if the “common man” had a political voice? Do you think they were right?
  3. How is this article relevant to American politics today?
  4. What do you think are some benefits of organized political parties? What do you think are some negatives of organized political parties?

The Rise of Factions

Stepping off their pedestals the Founding Fathers, who united to create a nation divide over how to govern it.

Thomas Jefferson was holding forth one day on the virtues of the common man, explaining that the people are the best and wisest repository of trust and power, when he was interrupted by Alexander Hamilton. Who burst out, “Your people sir, is nothing but a great beast!” This exchange between two men who detested one another reflects the intellectual divisions that began to surface in the years after freedom was won. They are apparent in the text of the Constitution itself, which carefully divides legislative power between lawmakers, who are directly elected by the people and serve terms of only two years; and legislators who were originally appointed by the most powerful men in their home states (Senators were not elected by popular vote until 1914 by the 17th amendment) to remain in office for six years.

The Founding Fathers had seen Britain’s policies toward America shift with every change of power in Parliament; they dreaded sacrificing the national unity they had so desperately forged in the pursuit of political interests. The Constitution they wrote makes no mention of political parties, but as these citizens were soon to find out, parties- or factions, as they were often called at the time- seem essential to the democratic process.

Even before the Revolutionary War was won, American patriots fell into two broad categories; those, like Jefferson, who championed the common man; and those, like Hamilton, who believed in a natural aristocracy and embraced the more gradual march to limited democracy embodied by English history. Hamilton’s camp call the Jeffersonians “levelers”, rejecting what they viewed as a radical egalitarianism that would put the dreaded “mob” in power. Jefferson’s camp rejoiced in 1789 when France’s oppressed multitudes overthrew their King, but when that revolution devolved into a riotous bloodshed and justice by the guillotine, the Federalists could point to an object lesson in the madness of crowds.

After the war, these long-simmering ideological differences approached the boiling point. As the Articles of Confederation (America’s first government) proved unworkable and the need for restructuring the government became apparent, statesmen cleaved into opposing camps, one wishing to strengthen the government, the other believing that this centralization of power presented a greater danger than the difficulties of governing under the flawed Articles. The first group called themselves Federalist, while the opposition, initially known as Anti-Federalists, eventually became known as the Democratic Republicans.

Here the lines become blurred. The Constitution’s final draft contained many compromises, and the advocates of a more powerful Federal Government failed to achieve many of their goals, including a “president” who was appointed by the Senate to serve for life. For these reasons, some politicians who would later become leasers of the Democratic-Republican Party, including Jefferson and James Madison, supported the ratification of the Constitution, albeit reluctantly. Others who would later emerge as leading Federalists, like Hamilton, John Jay and John Adams, also favored ratification but expressed reservations for exactly the reasons that men like Jefferson were willing to endorse the Constitution.

The one man who was consistently willing to bridge the divide between these emerging parties was George Washington. Striking a delicate balance and almost always willing to compromise, Washington remained studiously above the fray, describing political parties as “truly the worst enemy” of enlightened government. Even so, America’s first President was far more closely identified with Federalist policies than those of Democratic- Republicans, and when Washington sided with Hamilton (over Jefferson’s objections) to create the first Bank of the United States in hopes of stabilizing the Federal Government’s finances, the president came under partisan attack. When he ran for reelection in 1796, Washington did so as a Federalist.

His successor, John Adams, embraced policies especially repugnant to Jefferson and the Democratic -Republicans. His misguided attempt to stop the vicious vitriol spewed by his opponents was the Alien and Sedition Acts, which limited their freedom of speech, in clear violation of the First Amendment. In contrast, the Democratic –Republicans were fervent champions of freedom of expression; Jefferson famously claimed he preferred newspapers to governments. The 1800 race between Adams and Jefferson set a high-water mark for invective slander that has seldom been equaled in American politics.

Jefferson won and scaled back Federalist display when he took office in 1801. Hs Administration foretold the end of theFederalist Party: it would never again hold the presidency and would eventually disappear, discredited in the public eye by its opposition to the War of 1812. But this did not mean the end of partisan rivalry. After a brief period of one-party harmony during the tenure of President James Monroe, the Democratic-Republicans would split into the two perpetually feuding partied that continue to dominate American politics to this day.