What led to the creation of political parties?
Political Parties began for the same reason they exist today–to get their members in office in order to carry out their goals for the nation, or state, or town. The Founding Fathers disliked political parties, calling them “factions” motivated by self interest. Washington was so upset over the quarreling between Hamilton (Federalists) and Jefferson (anti-Federalists) that he devoted much of his Farewell Address to the evils of parties. The people who supported Hamilton and Adams were called Federalists (supporters of the Constitution) but they were not an organized political party. The first organized party in America was made up of the followers of Jefferson, who, starting in the 1790s, called themselves Republicans (or Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans). Hamilton and those who opposed Jefferson, kept the name Federalist. Jefferson’s Republican Party has no ties to the current Republican Party. In fact, the current Democratic Party considerers Jefferson and Andrew Jackson as the fo
