Government History 1. Federalist Party was formed at the times of first George Washington's administration (1789-1793) and was the first strong party in the American history. It was soon opposed by the Democratic-Republican party (1792), created by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. The basic disagreement between the sides was over the nature and role of government in the society. Important disagreement between the parties was also in attitude towards British rule: Federalists supported Great Britain while Republicans strongly opposed it. In 1800 presidential chair was taken by the first Democrat president, Thomas Jefferson, and the White House stayed captured by Democrats for the next 40 years. After the War of 1812 Jefferson's party was divided into more conservative National Republicans, lead by John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, and Democrats, lead by Andrew Jackson. The National Republican party acquired the name of the Whig Party, while Democrats kept the title of Democratic Party. 3. Later on the Whigs split within the party over the issue of slavery and kept together only due to opposition to the Democrats up to the early 1850s. Eventually Whigs fell apart and there formed a new party that opposed slavery. It was the new Republican Party, also called Grand Old Party (GOP), which was found in 1854. This was the birth of the American two-party system. In 1960 Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected as a president and Republicans became the dominating party in American politics. 3. Although Republicans and Democrats came out of one party that was formed as an opposition to the ruling Federalist party, the parties went through many transformations until they acquired the forms of two main parties. Between 1800 and 1865 America went through formation of first political opposition, Jeffersonian Democracy, challenge of central government system, War of 1812, transportation revolution, industrialization, economic growth and Civil War. All of these processes did not go without supporters and opponents in America. Every of the events or processes either changed the dominating force, split parties or transformed them. For example, desire to get rid of British rule and to build democratic society gave birth to Democratic-Republican Party. War of 1812 split the party into two, where Democrats stayed united and dominated politics, the Whigs further split up on the basis on slavery issue disagreement. However, economic changes gave rise to slavery opponents and a new Republican party was formed out of Democrats’ opponents, which included mainly anti-slavery Whigs, some old Democrats and some representatives of third parties. Bibliography 1. Lansford, T.M. (2005). “Political Parties.” Encyclopedia of American Studies. Available: 2. Origins in Jeffersonian Democracy. (2005). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Columbia University Press. Available: 3. “Republican Party.” (2005). Wikipedia. Available: