The First Party System: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Partisanship

In this episode we look at the development of the first party system, and the presidencies of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Disclaimer: this episode contains discussion of sexual violence, listener discretion is advised

Creators & Guests

PS

Host

President Shrimpo

What is In The West Wing?

A deep dive into the political history of the United States, hosted by President Shrimpo. In the West Wing with President Shrimpo is a deep dive into the political history of the United States. Each episode looks at the people and driving factors that created the country we live in today with special focus on the stories and voices least heard.

President Shrimpo 0:01
Hello, my name is President Shrimpo, and you are listening to In the West Wing, an American political history podcast brought to you by WKNC 88.1. In today's episode, we're going to be taking a look at America's first party system, specifically the system that included the Federalist and Democratic Republican parties, and the sort of clash of personalities that occurred between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Before we begin a conversation about the first party system, I want to acknowledge that we're going to touch on some sensitive topics. And so I wanted to include a content warning for all listeners. We will be talking about, to some extent, Thomas Jefferson's personal life. And that will include an honest conversation about his relationship with Sally Hemings. And so there will be discussion of the sexual exploitation of a minor. This is a sensitive topic. And so I thought it was best to include a content warning. So what exactly is the first party system? Essentially, I think we need to understand what a party system is. Essentially, American political history divides the relationship between political parties up into a number of party systems. Generally speaking, in American politics, there are two dominant political parties. And the first major two parties in American history were the Federalist Party and the Democratic Republican Party. And essentially, these two parties sort of aligned in sort of polar opposition to one another, along ideological lines, on economic lines and on geographic lines. So, first looking at the Federalist party, that is a party that is sort of centered around Alexander Hamilton, who is the Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, and Washington's Vice President, John Adams. Essentially, this is a party that is born sort of from the interests of Northern industrialists and merchants from from big cities like New York City and from Boston. So that sort of explains the sort of, why this party was sort of generally concentrated in the Northeast. And these were generally people who really stood to gain from a stronger federal government intervening on their behalf, both economically and politically. In opposition to the Federalist party, was the Democratic Republican Party. This was essentially a party that was sort of the brainchild of America's first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, along with other key figures, such as James Madison. Essentially, the Democratic Republican Party sort of represented the interest, generally, of southern agriculturalists, and I think you could sort of describe the ideology of the party, sort of the early liberal idealism. And you could even describe some of the sort of ways in which Jefferson looked at the world as sort of being naive. And generally, the party sort of stemmed from sort of anti Federalist values, specifically, the decentralization of federal power, and increasing the authority of state governments. Essentially, it can be best described as a system in which different groups having different material interests, clashed. And these were both elite groups- that needs to be made clear. These were wealthy plantation owners, and wealthy merchants. So essentially, America's first earliest divide was one between the differences in American elites. So, as a brief recap, the two terms of George Washington's presidency, were, technically speaking, non partisan. However, Washington was heavily influenced by the thinking of Federalists and generally surrounded himself with Federalist officials. And while the sort of anti Federalist sort of strain of thinking, technically speaking, supported Washington in both of his election bids. Hence why his, he's the only president to have been elected twice unanimously. Anti Federalists, and eventually democratic Republicans generally kind of came to oppose many of the actions under the Washington presidency. And so by 1796, George Washington refused to seek a third term, in part because he generally was tired. But also, more importantly, he kind of recognized the growing partisanship in American politics. And so, the election of 1796 is notable as the first truly contested presidential election in which two distinct political parties vied for the election of the presidency. And so, the Federalist Party nominated George Washington's Vice President, John Adams, for the presidency. While democratic Republicans nominated former Secretary of State, and sort of founder of the Democratic Republican Party, Thomas Jefferson. America's political infrastructure really wasn't designed for parties in any way. And so there was no real formal party conventions in the way that we would sort of conceive of them today. And so to that end, neither party formally selected vice presidential candidates as like, concrete official running mates, for the presidential nominees. Eventually, however, the parties would kind of generally coalesce around Thomas Pinkney of South Carolina, as the Federalist vice presidential candidate, and Aaron Burr of New York as the Democratic Republican vice presidential candidate. However, the parties really didn't firmly agree to that in any serious way. Also, it's important to note that the general population continued to not be terribly invested in presidential elections. In large part, that was because a large portion of the population could not vote. But also, people weren't really, you know, familiar with the concept of a contested presidential election. And so, I don't think people really realized how important the sort of contest would be. So while the average person was not terribly invested, a, sort of, political agents and partisans in both parties were very invested. And so it's important to say that the campaign trail for the first contested election was very, very ugly, even by today's standards. I think there are some attacks in here that kind of take mudslinging to a new degree. Democratic Republicans were very specifically associated with the revolutionary violence that was occurring during the French Revolution, specifically, in the Reign of Terror. Federalists wanted to sort of paint the democratic Republicans as sort of, part of this sort of liberal, radical excess that was going on in the world, while Federalists were generally painted as sort of being aristocratic in their sort of outlook on the world. And some were even accused of being in favor of an outright monarchy, which was shocking. Also, there were some pretty serious attacks on the character of both nominees, John Adams had the sort of less popular actions of the former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, pinned on him, and sort of accusations that he would sort of act as sort of a stooge for Hamilton, while Thomas Jefferson's moral character was sort of viciously attacked, with him being accused of being an atheist, which was absolutely shocking. Of course, no serious issue was made over his ownership of slaves. No, it was his possibility that he may have been an atheist that really got people riled up. Additionally, foreign policy played a surprisingly important role in the race. Federalists were accused of being too pro British, which, you know, the average person didn't like the British, considering the Revolutionary War. Well, on the flip side, democratic Republicans were accused of being too, Bri- uh, too pro French. Uh, this was especially, sort of came to the forefront when the ambassador from France publicly endorsed Jefferson, which sort of caused a sort of kerfuffle and a minor political uproar at the time. Uh, but it's also important to say that neither presidential candidate personally campaigned. That is sort of a rather modern political function in presidential politics. And actually, both men, as far as we're aware, remained quite close and remained good friends during this election season. Just as an example, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to James Madison, that Adams quote,

Thomas Jefferson 10:28
"is so amiable, that I pronounced you will love him if you ever become acquainted with him."

President Shrimpo 10:33
Additionally, not only was there little infrastructure for political parties, but the Electoral College in its current form, was not equipped to handle a strict party system. Generally, I think the Founding Fathers would have envisioned nonpartisan candidates who would just be put forth on their own personal merits. John Adams ultimately won the election, having swept the Northeast, while, and while Thomas Jefferson generally won the South, along with the sort of Frontier states of Kentucky and Tennessee, um, but despite the fact that John Adams won, the race for vice president was a lot, lot messier. To reiterate, the Electoral College, at this time, did not divide the vote between President and Vice President. Instead, each elector was given two electoral votes weighted equally. And whoever came in first would be elected president and whoever came in second would be vice president. And so, none of the vice presidential candidates actually surpassed the necessary threshold to become Vice President. And so, John Adams, a Federalist, was elected president. While in second place, Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic Republican, and Adams main opponent, would be elected Vice President. Which is sort of, I think, an interesting idea, especially if something as strange as that were to happen today. John Adams' presidency would mostly be colored by tensions between himself and the former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton essentially hoped to continue to exert influence over the presidency as he had done under George Washington. But, John Adams was not particularly interested in getting Hamilton's input, which caused quite a bit of tension within the Federalist party. One of the defining events of Adams presidency was something known as the XYZ affair and the Quasi War. So, following the Jay Treaty that has been signed under President Washington, relations with the revolutionary French had kind of become tense. And so Adams, unlike some Federalists, had actually initially hoped to renormalize relations with the French and sent a delegation of diplomats to Paris. However, those diplomats would only be granted 15 minutes to speak with France's foreign minister, Talleyrand, and the French would refuse to conduct diplomatic talks. And so, a number of French diplomats essentially tried to extort the American diplomats, demanding that the delegation pay bribes in order to continue diplomatic talks. And this caused a huge scandal, becoming known as the XYZ affair, in the United States. And essentially, the two major parties would split over their opinion over the events. Federalists would call for a military buildup against the French, seeing this as sort of an open and naked threat to American influence and power. While on the other end, democratic Republicans suspected the entire scandal to be entirely fabricated and made up by Federalist agents to create an excuse to form an alliance with the British and to go to war with the French. As a result of the scandal, America would engage in what is known as the Quasi War, which was an undeclared naval war against the French from 1798 to 1800. And this would mark a historic low point in American and French relations. And also, this being an undeclared military conflict, would set sort of the earliest precedent for America engaging in undeclared wars, as, quote unquote, "police actions". And this would be used as sort of the justification for future conflict, such as the Vietnam War and the Iraq wars. Stemming from this sort of tense point in American foreign policy, a number of acts would be created by the Federalist controlled Congress. These acts would be called the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. So, American politics became increasingly polarized over the Quasi War. And more specifically, immigrants from France and Ireland, were generally unhappy with the conflict with the French. And so they gradually began to gravitate towards the Democratic Republican Party. Four acts were passed by the Federalist Congress, which became known as the Alien Sedition Acts. These acts increased the naturalization time in order to become a citizen to 14 years. These acts allowed the president to deport any foreigner, who is considered to be a danger to the American Republic. And additionally, these acts criminalized publishing, quote, "false, scandalous and malicious writing against any government official, or the government in general, with the punishments including two to five years in prison, and fines up to $5,000" which, at the time, was an incredible amount of money, uh, to be fined. However, it's important to say, as much as, as much of a sort of hoopla is made about these acts, they were never really enforced on a large scale. Only 10 people were ever convicted under the Sedition Act. And no deportations were signed by John Adams. Regardless, these laws were, in effect, a political threat to those who opposed our Federalist foreign policy. And that really colored the way people looked at John Adams' presidency. Um, there is some question as to how involved Adams was in drafting these laws. But the fact is, he did sign them. And so democratic Republicans really very viciously attacked the laws as violating the Constitution. Despite this, John Adams would continue to justify these laws later in life. In a letter written to Thomas Jefferson, written in 1813, saying, quote,

John Adams 17:17
We were then at war with France. French spies then swarmed in our cities and in the country. Some of them were intolerably turbulent, impudent, and seditious. To check these was a design of this law. Was there ever a government which had not authority to defend itself against spies in its own bosom, spies of an enemy at war?

President Shrimpo 17:38
Now, aside from the sort of major turbulence going on in the theater of foreign politics, and I would even say, in domestic politics, uh. The turn of the century was also sort of a period of incredible political change in the United States. Notably, George Washington passed away in December of 1799, America's first president. Additionally, the Capitol was officially moved at this time to Washington, DC in 1800, from its provisional Capitol of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania. And so this sort of, period of, unprecedented change, and also turbulence at the hands of a Federalist controlled federal government, led to the election of 1800 being one of the wildest, I don't, wait okay, maybe not one of the wildest, but really, a very turbulent election season. Um, by 1800 voters had really largely turned against the Federalist party. I would essentially say that the party had kind of overplayed their hand, they had done too much too quickly, and alienated a lot of very core constituents. And so, this election cycle would be much uglier than it had been in 1796. Actually, with both major candidates actually openly attacking each other, when they had been quite personal friends- and this essentially was a rematch, 1796, with President John Adams running as the incumbent President, and Vice President Thomas Jefferson running as a member of the opposing party, trying to unseat his own president that he was serving under. And it's also important to say that John Adams took flak, not only from democratic republicans, but from other Federalists, these people were known as high Federalists, and these were generally sort of the acolytes and sort of political allies of Alexander Hamilton who had kind of really grown to resent what John Adams was doing. With Alexander Hamilton publishing an essay that was circulated in opposition to Adams, saying, quote,

Alexander Hamilton 20:04
He is a man of an imagination sublimated in eccentric, propitious, neither to the regular display of sound judgment nor to steady perseverance and a systematic plan of conduct. To this defect are added the unfortunate foibles of a vanity without balance and a jealousy capable of discoloring every object.

President Shrimpo 20:22
And so with Adams taking attacks from essentially both sides, he was incredibly vulnerable. And Thomas Jefferson would solidly beat John Adams for, in his reelection bid, and will be elected the third president, with the Democratic Republicans sweeping Congress. One small note about sort of chaos of this political cycle, is that Thomas Jefferson and his running mate Aaron Burr, accidentally tied the electoral vote, as one elector was supposed to cast their vote instead of for Aaron Burr, or some other candidate, just to ensure that Aaron Burr would be in second place. And so America had its first contingent election, with the House of Representatives officially electing Thomas Jefferson as president, and Aaron Burr as vice president. Now, before we discuss Thomas Jefferson's presidency, I think it's important for us to make a serious note on his character. Specifically, his participation in American slavery and his relationship with Sally Hemings. So while Thomas Jefferson made a number of academic and moral arguments against slavery, he was very willing to participate in the practice making quite a bit of money. And it's important to say that Jefferson owned roughly 600 enslaved people over the course of his entire lifetime, with 100 slaves held at his Monticello estate at any given time. Now, this next section is going to talk about a very sensitive topic that may not be for all listeners. And so, we will be discussing the sexual exploitation of a minor. And if that is not something that you feel you're able to listen to at this time, please skip ahead to 24 minutes, 15 seconds. One of the biggest strikes against Thomas Jefferson's moral character, and I think something that needs to be acknowledged in any conversation about the former president, is his relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. Sally Hemings was the half sister of his deceased wife, Martha. And Sally Hemings was Thomas Jefferson's property. The two of them met when Jefferson was on a diplomatic mission in Paris. Jefferson was 44 at the time, when Sally was 14. It's not clear exactly when, but the two of them began a sexual relationship shortly thereafter. And over the course of Sally's lifetime, she would have six of her children with Jefferson. Some sources do try to rationalize the relationship in some ways being consensual. And quite frankly, that's inexcusable. Sally Hemings was a teenager, when he was a adult man, 30 years her senior. And Sally was legally considered his property. Under no uncertain terms, this should be considered and treated for what it is. And that is rape. Thomas Jefferson, America's third president, raped a teenage girl and had her as property for the duration of her lifetime. This is something that America needs to reckon with, and acknowledge if we're going to have any honest conversations about our history. Now, moving on, one of, sort of defining of political events in American politics under Jefferson's first term actually started resulting from something that happened at the end of John Adams' presidency, specifically, what is known as the midnight judges. So in the last days of John Adams' presidency, a large number of federal court positions were created and filled with Federalist loyalists. These appointments were called the midnight judges. And this essentially, was the straw that broke the camel's back. That officially ended John Adams and Thomas Jefferson's friendship for years, with the two not speaking for more than a decade. But more importantly, this would lay the groundwork for one of the most important Supreme Court cases in all American history, Marbury vs. Madison. The newly appointed Secretary of State, James Madison, refused to process a number of these Court appointments. Specifically, the appointment of one William Marbury. Marbury would file a complaint to the Supreme Court, asking them to intervene on his behalf, and force Madison to process his nomination. Under the leadership of Chief Justice John Marshall of the Supreme Court, ultimately ruled that the Supreme Court did not have the constitutional authority to force Madison to process the nomination as this was not something expressly granted to the Supreme Court. And quite frankly, that specific case was not of major importance. But, it's firmly established the concept of judicial review, and established the idea that the Supreme Court had the power to assess the constitutionality of any case brought before them. And this would essentially grant the Supreme Court their strongest power that they've continued to wield to this day. Now, as to the substance of Jefferson's first term, it can be best described as an effort to undo most of the policies conducted under the Federalist administration of John Adams, essentially, seeking to shrink the scale of federal taxes and expenditure, shrinking the size of the military budget, in particular. This, honestly, Jefferson's first term was just a flurry of activity. One of the most major pieces of American foreign policy would occur during this time period, specifically, the Louisiana Purchase. Thomas Jefferson essentially believed that in order to preserve the sort of centrality of sort of a Yeoman, agricultural based American economy, the United States needed to expand West. That essentially, the American dream was built on the back of small, independent farmers. And the only way for those independent farmers to sort of maintain their importance and prominence in the American system was to continually expand westward into land that was inhabited by Native Americans. And so, in 1803, the Secretary of State James Madison would negotiate the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from the French government, under Napoleon Bonaparte, for $15 million dollars in a stretch of land, equal to about 828,000 square miles, stretching from what is today Louisiana to Montana. The French, in reality, only actually occupied a tiny sliver of the land, mostly along the Mississippi River, with Native Americans living on most of the territory that was sold. Essentially, what Jefferson had purchased, was the right to colonize land that was inhabited, that was actually inhabited by native tribes, who did not actually fall under the actual legal power of France. They may have, on a map, been part of, of New France, but in practice, they were entirely independent bodies, entirely independent polities and groups of people who didn't recognize or consent to the Louisiana Purchase. Another very key event of Jefferson's foreign policy is an event known as the first Barbary war. During this period, there were a number of sort of major North African pirate states, essentially, in which these pirates in the, in the western Mediterranean off the coast of what is today Algeria and Tunisia, would kidnap and hold European and American sailors hostage. And the United States, up to that point, had largely just kind of paid these pirates off with tribute. But under Jefferson, America fought in undeclared naval war against the pirates in an effort to to defend American shipping in the Mediterranean. This would become known as the first barbary war. And this was one of the first major engagements abroad to protect American interests, of course, the Quasi war had happened, but that was essentially a conflict at home. This was the first time America really actively pushed itself outwards into the other reaches of the world, in order to sort of protect American interest elsewhere. And that's sort of, I think, interesting and kind of, sows the seeds for what American foreign policy would become, later on, in the later centuries. Another sort of confounding factor for President Jefferson was his relationship with his first vice president, Aaron Burr. Jefferson and Aaron Burr had become increasingly distant, with Jefferson having written about Aaron Burr, quote,

Thomas Jefferson 30:53
His conduct very soon inspired me with distrust, I habitually caution Mr. Madison against trusting him too much.

President Shrimpo 31:00
And quite frankly, this wasn't without reason. Aaron Burr would be dropped from the Democratic Republican presidential ticket in the election of 1804. And would be additionally defeated in a bid for the governorship of New York State. And Burr placed this blame very squarely on Alexander Hamilton. Burr would then challenge Hamilton to a duel, fatally wounding and killing him. This was a crime. I think, quite obviously. As far as I'm aware, the duel itself was actually legal. But the wielding of a firearm and killing Hamilton was a crime. And so Burr, while still being the sitting Vice President, became a fugitive and ran and went into hiding in the state of Georgia. Eventually, the charges would be dropped. However, Burr would not be reelected in the election of 1804. And actually, later on, during Jefferson's second term, there was what was known as the Burr conspiracy, which should be arrested in Louisiana, as he was apparently plotting to invade Mexico, and to essentially try to conquer a large area of territory to sort of potentially become a new country? It's not entirely clear. But he sort of, was a sort of a thorn in, in Jefferson's side, sort of unexpectedly. And this really basically ended Aaron Burr's political career. But more importantly, speaking of the election of 1804, was the 12th Amendment, which had been passed in June of 1804. And it was essentially an effort to sort of streamline the presidential election process, to sort of try to clean up the mess that had occurred both in 1796 and 1800. Essentially, it, it separated the electoral vote for the president and vice president. So electors would be, would cast a vote for president and a vote for vice president separately, to avoid situations like 1796, in which two political rivals would be serving as president and vice president, and to avoid the sort of mishap that had happened in 1800, in which there would be an accidental tie. So with the election of 1804, Thomas Jefferson was really very easily reelected, with the, with George Clinton serving as his new vice president, while the Federalists had nominated Charles Pinckney, and Rufus King, who both only won two states. There is some speculation that Alexander Hamilton had hoped to run for president in this election, and had he not been murdered, he may have been able to, you know, put up a serious fight against Jefferson, but ultimately, that just never materialized. And I think Jefferson's second term was mostly centered around debates regarding slave trade, and escalating tensions with European powers. And all of that will be discussed in more depth in the next episode of In the West Wing. But for the sake of time, I think this will sort of have to be where we leave things off. America's first party system, essentially, I think can be best described as the dueling interests of a northern political elite, and a southern political elite, with the Federalist Party representing the sort of Northern industrialist merchant sort of class, while the democratic Republicans generally represented sort of southern agrarian elites. And so, while the aesthetics and exact political goal of the two parties differed, uh, partisan politics were much more centered on personal conflicts, with sort of ideological differences sort of pushed to the sort of the way side, sort of treated more as sort of an intellectual exercise rather than a very serious material look at how the two parties function differently in the world. And so issues like tariff policy, slavery, banking, and other issues were disagreed on. But the sort of major policy clashes that we see further down in the road don't really happen to the same degree at this time. Instead, it's a lot more about sort of personal character, and sort of hectoring. And so with that, we've kind of come to the end of this week's episode of In the West Wing. I've been your host, President Shrimpo. And you've been listening to In the West Wing, a WKNC 88.1 podcast, and in the next episode of In the West Wing, we'll be taking a look at sort of the next logical step of American political history, the War of 1812 and the era of good feelings. The intro music used on In the West Wing, the Star Spangled Banner by the United States Marine Band, and Libertad by Iriarte and Pesoa.