Description
If you think the Founding Fathers had some grand plan, you are mistaken. The theme of this class is “making it up as we go along.” Political parties were not envisioned as what they called “factions” in those times and were anathema. The assumption was that the “better sorts” would govern based on Enlightenment principles, that virtue would override vice, and a prosperous republic would emerge.
In the two classes on this topic, we will examine how two political parties developed despite this idyllic vision and the chaos that resulted in the election of 1800. By the election of 1820, only one political party survived, ushering in what was called “The Era of Good Feeling,” which was anything but. We will look at the multiple parties that vied for legitimacy until the emergence of what we identify today as the Democrat and Republican parties.