When it comes to politics, people usually have one of two ideas: they're either for something or against it. Few countries illustrate this political divide as starkly as the United States, where an old saying goes, "If you're not a Democrat, you're a Republican."
For more than 150 years, Republicans and Democrats have represented the views of a majority of Americans. They're not the only political parties to ever exist in our country, however. Other parties have come and gone, some of them leaving a lasting impact on our everyday lives.
The Federalist Party
George Washington didn't belong to a political party and he didn't care for them. Washington believed that party politics got in the way of good governing and led to needless public turmoil. Yet it was members of Washington's cabinet who founded the first political parties of the post-Constitution era of American history.
Washington's treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton, founded the Federalist Party to encourage a strong central government. Hamilton and his supporters believed that a strong government and limited states' rights would fuel national prosperity, a belief that took hold among businessmen but was opposed by farmers, partly because of high taxes levied at the federal level. John Adams was the only Federalist elected president, and the party disappeared by 1808.
Jacksonian Democrats
Standing in opposition to Alexander Hamilton were Thomas Jefferson and James Hamilton, who formed the Democratic-Republican party to represent those in rural areas who chafed at Washington's desire for power and higher taxes. After the War of 1812, a conflict supported by the Federalists but opposed by the Democratic-Republicans, this party became the sole political influence in Washington for eight years.
Disagreements over how to interpret the Constitution split the party in 1828. Those who favored a more powerful president joined Andrew Jackson to form the Jacksonian Democrats, which would eventually evolve into the modern Democratic party.
The Whig Party
Politicians who wanted Congress to have more power, including Henry Clay, formed the Whig Party. Three members of the Whig Party, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Zachary Taylor, were elected president. Millard Fillmore served one term as president following Taylor's death in 1850. Future president Abraham Lincoln ran as a Whig candidate for congress in Illinois.
Among the achievements of the Whig party was the passage of The Compromise of 1850, which admitted California to the United States. The Compromise failed to abolish slavery in the new American territories, and internal dissent over this issue led to the party's collapse by 1856. Many members of the Whig party joined the newly formed Republican Party, which adamantly opposed slavery.
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