The Rise of Political Parties had many indications of its rise and it had many factors that fueled

its rise. These parties were the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans. These parties were

fundamentally different; the Federalists were big supporters of legislative power and big government

while the Democratic Republicans were against such things and believed in a very strict interpretation of

the Constitution. The rise of political parties was most largely due to the fact that on large and

controversial issues many people would take one stance or another and get into groups based on this

and the nail was put into the coffin when they directly stated that there were parties.

The Rise of Political Parties can clearly be seen in the documents. You can see the potency of

opposing views most powerfully in document one with the words he used to describe what kind of

government Hamilton decided to create. These words were powerful and were intended on attacking

Hamilton’s view of government which was a great example on how attacks could help divide the people

on views of government. Document 3 deals with an issue many soon to be Democratic Republicans had

with Hamilton’s excise tax. It speaks to the people’s total dislike of the government implementing a

fairly sized tax on the people which would be a Federalist thing to do because of its implications of a

large government while many Democratic Republicans would detest it because of the very same

implications. Documents 6 & 7 are the two sides of the Sedation Act which caused a huge divide

between the parties. Document 6 deals with the Federalist view of the issue while Document 7

expresses the view of the Democratic Republicans. Document 6 shows that the Federalists rallied

around the idea that the government had the power to silence false accusations while the Democratic

Republicans would back the argument that because the constitution allows freedom of the press that

the press is allowed to say anything they would like to say. This was a huge factor because there was no

neutrality; you were either against the Act or for it and to choose a side would be to choose a party.

Document 5 was the nail in the coffin, in it is where Jefferson clearly states the two political parties and

what they are called (just two years after Washington advised against political parties). This acceptance
also was not very fought. Jefferson did not mention how he was against the party system like

Washington he actually joined the side of one and this one of the ways that it was labeled okay to do

and therefore it was brought into the light a little more and allowed to flourish and so the Political

Parties were born.

These tied well into the times that they were in. The Political leadership was Federalist at this

time causing the Democratic Republicans to rally in order to get anything done really and the one critic

of political parties, George Washington, was dying or dead around this time leaving nearly all the

political leader to be for this concept and for them to encourage it.