They crowded round him, eyeing him from head to foot with great curiosity. The orator bustled up to him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired "On which side he voted?" Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear, "Whether he was a Federal or a Democrat?" Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone, "What brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder and a mob at his heels; and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village?
Washington's Farewell Address
Some major figures in the first party system.
| Federalists | Republicans |
|---|---|
| John Adams | Thomas Jefferson |
| Alexander Hamilton | James Madison |
| George Washington | James Monroe |
"The election of 1800 was as real a revolution in the principles of our government as that of 1776 was in its form"
Jefferson
| Federalists | Republicans |
|---|---|
| Government should help find funding for industrial projects like factories | No federal funds (might be corrupting) |
| Central government sponsored banks | No banks |
| Prefer commerce and emerging industry | Prefer farming |
| Federalists | Republicans |
|---|---|
| See emerging class lines as inevitable | Seek white equality (and racial slavery) |
| Tariffs to raise funds and promote industry | No tariffs |
| Republicans | Federalists |
|---|---|
| States Rights | (Implicitly) more federal power. |
| "Empire of Liberty" | Commercial Republic |
1800 election insults
"Murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood, and the nation black with crimes" [If Jefferson wins]
1800 election insults
"We would see our wives and daughters the victims of legal prostitution." [If Jefferson wins]
1800 election insults
[He is] "repulsive pedant" a hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, not the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.
James Callendar on Adams
The only presidential democracy with a long history of constitutional continuity is the United States.
Juan Linz, 1990