The Parties in American Presidential Elections, 1789–2020

Chapter 1 The Parties in the Early Republic, 1788 – 1800

The history of America’s Constitution is the history of America’s political parties. Stretching as far back as the colonial assemblies with their longstanding rival factions in the years before Independence, the history of today’s political parties in America is most evidently and immediately rooted in the first Congress whose sessions in April 1789 saw the start of a long history of parties that traces to our own time. With members elected to the House of Representatives by a popular vote in their home districts and Senators selected by their state legislatures in the 11 states that had ratified the Constitution by this time, New York City’s Federal Hall where the first Congress assembled ...