Perhaps the first thing to know about politics in this period is that this was when the United States moved from the Articles of Confederation to the Constitution. Under the Articles of Confederation, the US was a confederacy. The state governments had essentially all of the power in the country and the national government was very weak. After Shays’ Rebellion in 1786 and 1787, American elites believed that this system had to go. They set up a Constitutional Convention that was supposedly going to amend the Articles of Confederation but which, instead, wrote a new constitution. This new constitution, which we simply call the Constitution, set up a federal system with a much stronger national government. This was perhaps the most important political event in this time period.
The second thing to know about the politics of this time is that it saw the creation of the first two political parties in the country’s history. These were the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republicans. The Federalists were, in general, the party of wealthy merchants in cities. They believed in a strong national government. They wanted the US to have a mixed economy with farming and manufacturing. The Democratic-Republicans, by contrast, were the party of less wealthy people, particularly in the countryside. They wanted the American economy to be based almost exclusively on small farms. The Federalists were strong in New England while the Democratic-Republicans were strong elsewhere. The main figures associated with the Federalist Party are George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams. Thomas Jefferson is seen as the leader of the Democratic-Republican Party.
The third thing to know is that these parties were further divided by the French Revolution and the war between the UK and France. The Federalists supported England. They did this partly because they depended on trade with England and partly because they thought that the English system of government was better than the French system that arose after the Revolution. The Democratic-Republicans supported France. They believed in the radical democracy of the French Revolution.
A fourth thing to know about this time period is that the Federalists held power at first but were then replaced by the Democratic-Republicans. While this changeover was bloodless, it was marked by considerable struggle. The Federalists held power when George Washington was president for the first two presidential terms under the Constitution (1788 and 1792 elections). They continued to hold power when John Adams was elected as Washington’s successor. However, people started to see them as the party of the elites and started to turn against them because of this. This led to the election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800. While there was no bloodshed, there was the conflict around the Alien and Sedition Acts. The most important of these laws made it illegal to criticize the government. The Federalists passed and enforced this law to try to suppress Democratic-Republican newspapers. This was extremely controversial and led to a great deal of bad blood between the two parties.
A final thing to know is that the US went to war with Great Britain in 1812. This is political because the US went back and forth as to whether it should fight against France or against Britain. With the Democratic-Republicans in power, the country eventually decided to fight Britain. In political terms, this war was most important because it led to the death of the Federalist Party, which opposed the war.
While there is much else to know about politics during this era, these are the most important facts.
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