Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 180, Let's Get the Parties started.

Last time out, we started preparing for the end of the Washington administration by looking at

the rift between what would become the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans. In particular,

we looked at the growing friendship that was

forming between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Today, we're going to look at how the

rift grew and led to the formation of parties. We'll pick things up with a press war. In 1789, John Fenno started publishing a newspaper,

The Gazette of the United States. Originally, it was planned to support the Constitution

and the national government, but it soon became more partisan, as you may expect, considering

it was partly funded by Alexander Hamilton. It started

defending the government from its critics. The publishing of discourses on DeVille, John Adams' warning

against uncontrolled democracy, was too far for Jefferson, and before long, he and Madison were in contact with the poet

Philip Fenruhe to create a rival newspaper. It took a position of translator in the State

Department to convince Friedrich to agree, but eventually he did, and the National Gazette was

born in October 1791.

The National Gazette argued that Hamilton was planning to end liberty and bring about the creation of both an aristocracy and a mollarchy,

while Jefferson was a patriot, defending liberty against Hamilton's corruption.

The parties did not exist yet, but by this point, something called the Republican interest was already being talked about in

Comerous, centred around the Virginian delegation. This represents a significant moment.

As you'll recall, the great political debate at the end of

the 1780s was between the Federalists and anti-federalists, a debate the anti-federalists

soundly lost. But this repositioned the argument into one between Republicans and aristocrats, an argument which

Hamilton realised was to the Federalist's disadvantage. Hamilton attacked Jefferson in the press,

...