to favor France over Britain, though the party's pro-French stance faded after Napoleon took power. The Democratic-Republicans were strongest in the South and the western frontier, and weakest in New England. History Founding, 1789–1796 In the 1788–89 presidential election, the first such election following the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, George Washington won the votes of every member of the Electoral College. His unanimous victory in part reflected the fact that no formal political parties had formed at the national level in the United States prior to 1789, though the country had been broadly polarized between the Federalists, who supported ratification of the Constitution, and the Anti-Federalists, who opposed ratification. Washington selected Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury, and he relied on James Madison as a key adviser and ally in Congress. Hamilton implemented an expansive economic program, establishing the First Bank of the United States, and convincing Congress to assume the debts of state governments. Hamilton pursued his programs in the belief that they would foster a prosperous and stable country. His policies engendered an opposition, chiefly concentrated in the Southern United States, that objected to Hamilton's Anglophilia and accused him of unduly favoring well-connected wealthy Northern merchants and speculators. Madison emerged as the leader of the congressional opposition while Jefferson, who declined to publicly criticize Hamilton while both served in Washington's Cabinet, worked behind the scenes to stymie Hamilton's programs. Jefferson and Madison established the National Gazette, a newspaper which recast national politics not as a battle between Federalists and Anti-Federalists, but as a debate between aristocrats and republicans. In the 1792 election, Washington effectively ran unopposed for president, but Jefferson and Madison backed New York Governor George Clinton's unsuccessful attempt to unseat Vice President John Adams. Political leaders on both sides were reluctant to label their respective faction as a political party, but distinct and consistent voting blocs emerged in Congress by the end of 1793. Jefferson's followers became known as the Republicans (or sometimes as the Democratic-Republicans) and Hamilton's followers became the Federalists. While economic policies were the original motivating factor in the growing partisan split, foreign policy became even more important as war broke out between Britain (favored by Federalists) and France, which Republicans favored it until 1799. Partisan tensions escalated as a result of the Whiskey Rebellion and Washington's subsequent denunciation of the