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After 30 years of service to his country, George Washington was finally on his way back to his beloved Mount Vernon. He had won America's independence and was elected President unanimously twice. But during his first term, what began as philosophical differences between the Republicans (led by Jefferson and Madison) and the Federalists (led by Hamilton and Adams) had turned into an all-out feud.
No one used the term "party" to describe these differences then. All were in agreement that political factions had led to corruption in Europe, yet their differences remained. Previous friends and allies in their struggle for independence now fought viciously over the role of the Federal government. They had managed to solve their differences over the ratification of the Constitution by the Federalists yielding to the demands of the Republicans for a Bill of Rights, but now, Hamilton's National Bank enraged the Republicans who said no such power was granted by the Constitution. They feared that if the government had the power to create a bank, why not a National Church or corporate monopolies? Washington agreed with Hamilton and the bank was created, but accusations of a planned monarchy grew.
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By 1793, after the execution of King Louis XVI in France's revolution, France declared war on England. Again the two groups were split. The Republicans wanted to support France in return for her assistance during the American Revolution and the Federalists felt neutrality was in our best interest. Washington observed increasingly rabid newspaper attacks on both sides and wanted nothing more than to return to Mount Vernon. When word got out that he just might, hostilities ceased for a short time. Jefferson wrote to him what everyone was thinking:
"The confidence of the whole union is centred in you. Your being at the helm... North & South will hang together, if they have you to hang on..." Thomas Jefferson, May 23rd, 1792
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They, and the nation got Washington for another four years, but by the time John Adams was elected as the second President, the two factions were well-entrenched and even more partisan. And his past friend, and sudden bitter rival, Thomas Jefferson, was also his Vice President.
"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty." Washington's Farewell Address, 1796
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