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Farewell Address
"President George Washington warned against the 'baneful effects of the spirit of the party'", (McGraw Hill, 515). While he advised against having more than one party by the end of his second term there was already a second party that opposed the first. Over time parties were created while others disintegrated. However, to this day there are still the two most prominent: democrats and republicans. -
Democrat-Republicans
"The Democrat-Republicans dominated politics into the late 1820's", (McGraw Hill, 516). Unfortunately there was a lot of conflict which caused the party to split in 1828. Most of the conflict was over differing opinions over banking, tariffs and slavery. -
Slavery Debate before Civil War
By the 1850's slavery was still a very controversial topic. This created splits in the political groups -
Parties after Civil Wwar
After the Civil War Democrats and Republicans still had major power in politics. "Republicans generally represented the Northern states and controlled the presidency and both houses of congress", (McGraw Hill, 516). Democrats were usually from the Southern states. They only held the presidency four times between 1860 and 1932. Even since 1968 the two parties have split control of Congress and the presidency.
