History of Political Parties

[Keith Broaders]

Political factions or political parties were not mentioned in the Comstitution and did not exist until the election of 1796. In George Washington's Farewell Address warned that the develppement political parties would have terrible consequences.

In the presidential election of 1796 the founding fathers were divided into two political factions. The men calling themselves the Federalists and another faction known as the Anti Federalists.

The Fedearists favored having a bigger and stronger central government while the Anti Federalists supported a more limited central. government 

The Federalsts were led by Alexannder Hamilton, John Adams and James Madison and the Anti Federalists included Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and Patrick Henry.

The Anti Federalists  believed that powers not delegated to the government were prohiboted  while the Federalists believed in implied [pwers.

The Federalist believed in the establishment of a National Bank and Protective Tariffs.

The Anti Federalists favored the interest of farmers and the Federalists favored the imterests of the financial elite.

The Federalist Party's last Presidential Candidate was Rufis King om 1816. In the election of James Monroe in 1820 he ran unoppssed

In the election pf 1824 the Anti Federalists ran four candidates.  The candidates were John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Qillia, Crawford and Henry Clay

In the Presidential Election of 1824 - Andrew Jackson received 99 electoral votes, John Quincy Adams received 84 votes, William Crawford  received 41 votes and Henry Clay received 37.

All four candidates were identified as Democratic Republicans. To win the election  a total  of 131 electoral votes were requited and since none of the candidate received the requisite number of the the election would be determined in the House of Representatives,

Only 365,833 popular votes were cast in the election of 1824, but in the election of 1828 there were 1,153,779 people that votes, At this point in time popular votes became relevant,

Before 1828 the Presidential Electors had the responsibility to vote for whoever they believed would best serve the people, but after the election of 1828 the electors were required to vote for the candidate that received the most votes in the state wide popularity contest, This was when our republic became a democracy.