FINAL WARNING: The Birth of Tyranny
enemies of all order are seeking our ruin. Should infidelity generally
prevail, our independence would fall of course. Our republican
government would be annihilated...”It has been suggested, that one of the reasons that the British looted
and burned Washington in 1812, was to destroy secret documents that
would have exposed the treason against the United States, by various
people highly placed within the government.When those advocating a strong central government organized the
Federalist Party in 1791, the Anti-Federalists, who favored states’
rights, and were against Alexander Hamilton’s (Secretary of Treasury
under Washington, 1789-1795) fiscal policies, which they felt benefited
the wealthy, rallied under Thomas Jefferson, Washington’s first
Secretary of State (1789-93). They became an organized political party
after the Constitutional Convention in 1787, led by New York Governor
George Clinton (who was later Vice-President under Jefferson and
Madison), Patrick Henry of Virginia, and Elbridge Gerry of
Massachusetts (a signer of the Declaration of Independence). The Anti-
Federalists were made up of the low class, farmers, and paper money
advocates, who strongly opposed a strong central government as set
forth in the U.S. Constitution of 1789, and succeeded in getting the Bill
of Rights added. They were against a single, national government,
upper class rule, and a weak program for the separation of powers.The Jeffersonian Republicans, so named because of the anti-
monarchy views of the Anti-Federalists, had power from 1801-1825. In
1796, the party split into the Democratic-Republicans, organized by
New York State Senator Martin Van Buren (who became our 8th
President, 1837-41), who concerned themselves with states’ rights,
farmers’ interests and democratic procedures; and the National
Republicans, led by John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Daniel
Webster, who merged with the Federalists in 1820. In 1826, the
Democratic-Republicans became known as just plain Democrats, while
the National Republicans became identified as only Republicans in- That is how the two-party system was created in this country.