Democratic-Republican Party

The party of Jefferson and Madison, dominant from 1800 to 1824, ancestor of the modern Democrats.

Overview

Founded around 1791-1793 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in opposition to Hamiltonian finance, the Democratic-Republicans championed agrarian interests, states rights, strict construction of the Constitution, and sympathy for revolutionary France. Their victory in 1800, the Revolution of 1800, began the Virginia Dynasty and a generation of dominance. The party absorbed the Federalist program under pressure of war and eventually split in the 1820s into factions led by Adams and Crawford men versus the Jacksonians. The Jacksonian wing became the Democratic Party in 1828, making this organization the lineal ancestor of the oldest active party in the world.