Title: What were major differences between the Federalist Party and the Democratic Republican Party? : AskHistorians
Headings: What were major differences between the Federalist Party and the Democratic Republican Party?
What were major differences between the Federalist Party and the Democratic Republican Party?
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U.S. Politics Revolution through Civil War

Content: The best way to compare the two parties is to compare their ideological leaders. Alexander Hamilton was a driving force behind the Federalists while Thomas Jefferson was the founder of the old Republican Party (Democratic-Republican, Jeffersonian Republican). Alexander Hamilton served as Washington's first Secretary of the Treasury (he is on the $10 and the treasury building is on the back of that bill) and he put forward a number of centralizing plans for economics, including a tariff, a national bank, and bounties for industrial production. He wanted to use the power of the newly minted federal government to develop the economic and industrial power of the United States along the lines of the British. Jefferson (First Secretary of State under Washington), on the other hand, was far more in favor of local economics. He supported the yeoman farmers. He wanted America to be run by the states more than the federal government, no tariff as he and his fellows were exporters of raw materials and Europe had more demand for Tobacco and Cotton (a new industry for the USA thanks to the Cotton Gin), and other cash crops than the USA had. He was also more in line with the French over the British. From about 1796 through about 1815 the two parties were dramatically opposed the key issues of economics (plantations or factories), location of political power (national vs local), banking (yes or no), and trade policy (protect our factories or export our goods). By the war of 1812 the Federalist party was in shambles.