The Party System: Friend or Foe?

After America's Constitution was written in 1787,  two political parties formed in the 1790s: the more fiscally conservative Federalist Party led by U. S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, who believed in a strong central government, and the Republican Party( derived from the Anti-Federalists) , led by James Madison, writer of the Constitution, and Thomas Jefferson, who believed that the country was based upon agrarian farmers and thus the common good of the United States should be the basis of  government decisions.   However, the two parties were constantly fighting.  In the 1780s, much dissension arose among members of Congress after Hamilton's various bills were introduced.   The most controversy occurred when Hamilton proposed the bank bill.  The Anti-Federalist members adamantly insisted that since a national bank plan was omitted from the Constitution,  a national bank should not exist.  Regardless, Congress ceded to his proposal and the Bank Bill was passed, with the official Bank of the United States opening in 1791.  Overall, Hamilton got his way in most matters of Congress, mostly due to the fact that his opinion was valid and respected among the members of Congress.   However, not everyone supported him and his ideals.  Agrarian farmers who provided the basis of the economy expressed unhappiness with the taxes he imposed.  They also complained that the Federalist Party  as a whole did not keep the good of the common people in mind and instead appealed to the small amount of wealthy property owners.  Soon after,  Madison and Jefferson began to concur with the grievances of the farmers.  The Federalists, they believed, did not have the common people's best interest at heart and used corrupt political practices to reward their supporters and gain advantages in the system.  Hamilton's opponents went so far as to  compare the Federalists to the abhorrent British systems that the colonists of the 1770s had tried so hard to defeat!  All this dissension and disagreement inevitably resulted in organized oppositions to Federalist domination (the official creation of the Republican Party which had been called the Anti-Federalist Party before).  The Republicans tried to assemble meetings with hopes of gaining more of a majority. 

 So, was the Party System detrimental or helpful to the infant nation?  I believe that it was both.  The Federalists created a very strong system that was and still is a good basis of government.  Without doubt, Hamilton certainly made innumerable substantial contributions to the young nation, and his ideals are still in effect today.  And the Republicans' fundamental ideas of looking out for the common good are very valid as well.  But also, all the dissension and lack of unity that occurred between the two parties was detrimental to the young States.  They were too busy arguing to strengthen themselves as a nation and become aware of the dangers and challenges ahead as a new country.  The strong feeling of unity and morale that was instilled in America throughout the Revolution diminished.  The citizens did not share the same ideas anymore, which obviously is inevitable as new ideas form.  Instead, the cutthroat environment of the American politics that we see today were beginning to form, and furthermore the nation was more open to attack because of the internal problems.  Therefore, while altogether the party system helped establish core beliefs and ideals of American government and politics, the party system at the time stunted America's growth as a nation because of the internal dissent and lack of unity.