Democratic-Republican Party

The Democratic-Republican Party, referred to initially as the Republican party, , was the political party that dominated the U.S. first party system following the election of Jefferson in 1800. Party members called themselves republicans or Republicans, and voted for what they called the Republican party, republican interest, or republican ticket; occasionally other names were used. In 1793-4, beginning in Philadelphia, political activists in 35 cities formed democratic societies. These operated independently of the Republican party, and did not nominate tickets; instead they held grass roots meetings to support Republican ideas; they included several local leaders of the party. Most modern history textbooks now call it the Republican Party or Jeffersonian Republican Party; most political science books prefer Democratic-Republican Party.

Jefferson and Madison created the party in order to oppose the economic and foreign policies of the ruling Federalist Party, led by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. In foreign policy, Republicans generally favored France (until 1801) and opposed Great Britain, going to war in 1812 with Britain. The Republicans insisted on a strict construction of the Constitution, and denounced many of Hamilton's proposals (especially the national bank) as unconstitutional. Republicans promoted states' rights and the primacy of the yeoman farmer, as opposed to bankers, industrialists and merchants. Thus from 1792 to 1816 the Republicans opposed such Federalist policies as high tariffs, a navy, military spending, a national debt, and a national bank. After 1816, however, the party split on these issues. Many younger party leaders, notably Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun became nationalists who wanted to build prosperity and enough national strength to fight a war. Meanwhile, the "Old Republican" faction continued to oppose these policies. By 1828 the Old Republicans were supporting Andrew Jackson against Clay and Adams.

The Jeffersonians and Federalists invented the modern political party—with permanent party names, voter loyalty, newspapers, state and local organizations, campaign managers, candidates, tickets, slogans, platforms, linkages across state lines, and patronage.

The Republicans elected presidents Thomas Jefferson (1800 and 1804), James Madison (1808 and 1812), and James Monroe (1816 and 1820). The party's presidential candidates were nominated by a Congressional caucus. Presidents John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson identified themselves as "Republicans," but were not nominated in this fashion. The party soon dominated Congress and most state governments outside of New England. By 1820, the Federalists were no longer acting as a national party; and there was little to hold the party together. William H. Crawford in 1824 was the last nominee by caucus; but the caucus had been boycotted by most of the party. Crawford finished third in the election that year, behind John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

File:TJeffersonrpeale.jpg

Thomas Jefferson, founder of the party.

Founding

Jefferson and Madison started the party among Congressmen in Philadelphia (the national capital), then reached out to include state and local leaders around the country, especially the South. The precise date of founding can be disputed, but 1792 is a reasonable estimate; some time in the early 1790's is certain. The new party set up newspapers that made withering critiques of Hamiltonianism, extolled the yeomen farmer, argued for strict construction of the Constitution, supported France against Britain, and called for a weaker federal government; answering existing papers which supported Hamilton and the administration.

The term "Republican" emphasizes devotion to republicanism. The word "republican" was used by all Americans in the late 18th century to indicate the new nation's political values, especially its devotion to civic virtue and opposition to corruption and monarchy; According to American lexicographer (and Federalist), Noah Webster, the choice of the name was:

"…a powerful instrument in the process of making proselytes to the party. The influence of names on the mass of mankind, was never more distinctly exhibited, than in the increase of the democratic party in the United States. The popularity of the denomination of the republican party, was more than a match for the popularity of Washington's character and services, and contributed to overthrow his administration."

A related grass roots movement, the Democratic-Republican Societies arose in 1793–94; the use of "democratic" was supported by the French minister, Citizen Genet, a Girondin. It was not officially affiliated with the new party, although many local Jeffersonian leaders were also leaders of the societies. There were some three dozen of these societies; they did not nominate tickets or attempt to control legislatures, as the Republicans did. As Cunningham notes, they did not function as part of the Republican party. The Republican party was soon ridiculed as the "Democratic Party" by Federalist opponents.

Both "Federalist" and "Republican" were positive words in the 1790's, and both parties sometimes claimed them; the Federalist ticket in Pennsylvania in 1796 was called "Federalist and Republican" and similar forms were used elsewhere; the Virginia Federalists called themselves the "American Republican Ticket" in 1800. Conversely, Republicans occasionally called themselves Federalist or Federalist Republicans.

In pre-existing usage, "party", where it did not have the negative sense of "faction", often meant a personal connexion or political influence; the Republicans included some personal or single-issue state organizations, like the Clintonians of New York or the "correspondents" of Pennsylvania. They continued to be sometimes referred to by personal names; not merely Jefferson, but also Madison (perhaps more frequently), William Branch Giles, and Charles Pinckney.

Presidential Elections of 1792 and 1796

The elections of 1792 were the first ones to be contested on anything resembling a partisan basis. In most states the congressional elections were recognized, as Jefferson strategist John Beckley put it, as a "struggle between the Treasury department and the republican interest." In New York, the candidates for governor were John Jay, a Federalist, and incumbent George Clinton, who was allied with Jefferson and the Republicans.

In 1796, the party made its first bid for the presidency with Jefferson as its presidential candidate and Aaron Burr as its vice presidential candidate. Jefferson came in second in the electoral college and became vice president. He was a consistent and strong opponent of the policies of the Adams administration. Jefferson and Madison, through the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, announced the “Principles of 1798,” which became the hallmark of the party. The most important of these principles were states' rights, opposition to a strong national government, skepticism in regard to the federal courts, and opposition to a Navy and a National Bank. The party saw itself as a champion of republicanism and viewed its opponents as supporters of the aristocracy, not the people.

The party itself originally coalesced around Jefferson, who diligently maintained extensive correspondence with like-minded republican leaders throughout the country. Washington frequently decried the growing sense of "party" emerging from the internal battles between Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Adams and others in his administration. As tensions in Europe increased, the two factions increasingly found themselves on different sides of foreign policy issues, with the Republicans favoring France over England. The Republicans opposed Hamilton's national bank and his belief that a national debt was good for the country. They strongly distrusted the elitism of Hamilton's circle, denouncing it as "aristocratic"; and they called for state's rights. Above all they disagreed with Hamilton's sense of the Constitution as an elastic, growing document. They feared this interpretation would allow the national government to centralize power.

The fierce debate over the Jay Treaty in 1794-95, transformed the Republicans from a loose movement into a true political party. To fight the treaty the Jeffersonians "established coordination in activity between leaders at the capital, and leaders, actives and popular followings in the states, counties and towns."

Party Strength in Congress

Historians have used statistical techniques to estimate the party breakdown in Congress. Many Congressmen were hard to classify in the first few years, but after 1796 there was less uncertainty.

Federalist and Republican Strength in Congress

	Election year
House	1788	1790	1792	1794	1796	1798	1800	1802	1804	1806
Federalist	37	39	51	47	57	60	38	39	25	24
Republican	28	30	54	59	49	46	65	103	116	118
% Republican	43%	43%	51%	56%	46%	43%	63%	73%	82%	83%
Senate
Federalist	18	16	16	21	22	22	15	9	7	6
Republican	8	13	14	11	10	10	17	25	17	28
% Republican	31%	45%	47%	34%	31%	31%	53%	74%	71%	82%

Source: Kenneth C. Martis, The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, 1789-1989 (1989); the numbers are estimates by historians.

This, however, is an attempt to assign a party label to very ill-organized groups; Cunningham found long ago that only about a quarter of the House of Representatives, up till 1794, voted with Madison as much as two-thirds of the time, and another quarter against him two-thirds of the time, leaving almost half as fairly independent. Albert Gallatin recalled only two caucuses on legislative policy between 1795 and 1801, one over appropriations for Jay's Treaty, the other over the Quasi-War, and in neither case did the party decide to vote unanimously.

Organizational strategy

The new party invented some of the campaign and organizational techniques that were later adopted by the Federalists and became standard American practice. It was especially effective in building a network of newspapers in major cities to broadcast its statements and editorialize in its favor. Fisher Ames, a leading Federalist, used the term "Jacobin" to link members of Jefferson's party to the terrorists of the French Revolution. He blamed the newspapers for electing Jefferson; they were, he wrote, "an overmatch for any Government.... The Jacobins owe their triumph to the unceasing use of this engine; not so much to skill in use of it as by repetition."

As one historian explained, "It was the good fortune of the Republicans to have within their ranks a number of highly gifted political manipulators and propagandists. Some of them had the ability... to not only see and analyze the problem at hand but to present it in a succinct fashion; in short, to fabricate the apt phrase, to coin the compelling slogan and appeal to the electorate on any given issue in language it could understand." Outstanding phrasemakers included editor William Duane and party leaders Albert Gallatin, Thomas Cooper and Jefferson himself.

Just as important was effective party organization of the sort that John J. Beckley pioneered. In 1796, he managed the Jefferson campaign in Pennsylvania, blanketing the state with agents who passed out 30,000 hand-written tickets, naming all 15 electors (printed tickets were not allowed). Thus he told one agent, "In a few days a select republican friend from the City will call upon you with a parcel of tickets to be distributed in your County. Any assistance and advice you can furnish him with, as to suitable districts & characters, will I am sure be rendered." Beckley thus was the first American professional campaign manager, and his techniques were quickly adopted in other states.

The emergence of the new organizational strategies can be seen in the politics of Connecticut around 1806, which have been well-documented by Cunningham. The Federalists dominated Connecticut, so the Republicans had to work harder to win. In 1806, the state leadership sent town leaders instructions for the forthcoming elections. Every town manager was told by state leaders "to appoint a district manager in each district or section of his town, obtaining from each an assurance that he will faithfully do his duty." Then the town manager was instructed to compile lists and total up the number of taxpayers, the number of eligible voters, how many were "decided republicans," "decided federalists," or "doubtful," and finally to count the number of supporters who were not currently eligible to vote but who might qualify (by age or taxes) at the next election. These highly detailed returns were to be sent to the county manager. They in turn were to compile county-wide statistics and send it on to the state manager. Using the newly compiled lists of potential voters, the managers were told to get all the eligible people to the town meetings, and help the young men qualify to vote. At the annual official town meeting the managers were told to, "notice what republicans are present, and see that each stays and votes till the whole business is ended. And each District-Manager shall report to the Town-Manager the names of all republicans absent, and the cause of absence, if known to him." Of utmost importance the managers had to nominate candidates for local elections, and to print and distribute the party ticket. The state manager was responsible for supplying party newspapers to each town for distribution by town and district managers. This highly coordinated "get-out-the-vote" drive would be familiar to modern political campaigners, but was the first of its kind in world history.

Revolution of 1800

Jefferson's platform

Political parties in the 1790s did not issue official platforms, but Jefferson issued a major statement in January 1799 that was widely reprinted and circulated. It became the basis of his party's philosophy:

…In confutation of these and all future calumnies, by way of anticipation, I shall make to you a profession of my political faith; in confidence that you will consider every future imputation on me of a contrary complexion, as bearing on its front the mark of falsehood and calumny.

I do then, with sincere zeal, wish an inviolable preservation of our present federal constitution, according to the true sense in which it was adopted by the States, that in which it was advocated by its friends, and not that which its enemies apprehended, who therefore became its enemies; and I am opposed to the monarchising its features by the forms of its administration, with a view to conciliate a first transition to a President and Senate for life, and from that to a hereditary tenure of these offices, and thus to worm out the elective principle. I am for preserving to the States the powers not yielded by them to the Union, and to the legislature of the Union its constitutional share in the division of powers.

And I am not for transferring all the powers of the States to the general government, nor all those of that government to the Executive branch. I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple, applying all the possible savings of the public revenue to the discharge of the national debt; and not for a multiplication of officers and salaries merely to make partisans, and for increasing, by every device, the public debt, on the principle of it's being a public blessing.

I am for relying, for internal defence, on our militia solely, till actual invasion, and for such a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors from such depredations as we have experienced; and not for a standing army in time of peace, which may overawe the public sentiment; nor for a navy, which, by its own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will implicate us, grind us with public burthens, and sink us under them. I am for free commerce with all nations, political connection with none, and little or no diplomatic establishment.

And I am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe; entering that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the confederacy of kings to war against the principles of liberty. I am for freedom of religion, and against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another: for freedom of the press, and against all violations of the constitution to silence by force and not by reason the complaints or criticisms, just or unjust, of our citizens against the conduct of their agents.

And I am for encouraging the progress of science in all its branches and not for raising a hue and cry against the sacred name of philosophy. For awing the human mind by stories of raw-head & bloody bones to a distrust of its own vision, & to repose implicitly on that of others, to go backwards instead of forwards to look for improvement, to believe that government, religion, morality, and every other science were in the highest perfection in ages of the darkest ignorance, and that nothing can ever be devised more perfect than what was established by our forefathers.

To these I will add, that I was a sincere well-wisher to the success of the French revolution, and still wish it may end in the establishment of a free and well-ordered republic. But I have not been insensible under the atrocious depredations they have committed on our commerce.

Election of 1800

The party's electors secured a majority in the 1800 election, but by an oversight, an equal number of electors cast votes for Jefferson and Burr. The tie sent the election to the House, and Federalists there blocked any choice. Finally Hamilton, believing that Burr would be a poor choice for president, arranged for Jefferson to win. Starting with 1800 in what Jefferson called the “Revolution of 1800,” the party took control of the presidency and both houses of Congress, beginning a quarter century of control of those institutions. A faction called “Old Republicans” opposed the nationalism that grew popular after 1815; they were stunned when party leaders started a Second Bank of the United States in 1816.

Henry Clay of Kentucky was Speaker of the House from 1811-1813, 1815-1820, and 1823-1825.

In 1804, the party's Congressional caucus for the first time created a sort of national committee, with members from 13 states charged with "promoting the success of the republican nominations." That committee later was disbanded and did not become permanent. Unlike the Federalists, the party never held a national convention but always relied on its Congressional caucus to select the national ticket. That caucus, however, did not deal with legislative issues, which were handled by the elected Speaker and informal floor leaders. The state legislatures often instructed members of Congress how to vote on specific issues. More exactly, they "instructed" the Senators (who were elected by the legislatures), and "requested" the Representatives (who were elected by the people.) On rare occasions a Senator resigned rather than follow instructions.

The opposition Federalist Party, suffering from a lack of leadership after the death of Hamilton and the retirement of Adams, quickly declined; it revived briefly in opposition to the War of 1812 but the extremism of its Hartford Convention of 1815 utterly destroyed it as a political force.

Monroe and Adams, 1816-1828

President James Monroe (1817-1825)

In rapidly expanding western states, the Federalists had few supporters. Every state had a distinct political geography that shaped party membership. In Pennsylvania, the Republicans were weakest around Philadelphia and strongest in Scotch-Irish settlements in the west. Members came from all social classes, but came predominantly from the poor, subsistence farmers, mechanics and tradesmen. After the stalemate in the War of 1812, partisanship subsided across the young republic -- people called it the Era of Good Feeling. James Monroe narrowly won the party's nomination for President in Congress over William Crawford in 1816 and defeated Federalist Rufus King in the general election.

In the early years of the party, the key central organization grew out of caucuses of Congressional leaders in Washington. However, the key battles to choose electors occurred in the states, not in the caucus. In many cases, legislatures still chose electors; in others, the election of electors was heavily influenced by local parties that were heavily controlled by relatively small groups of officials. Without a significant Federalist opposition, the need for party unity was greatly diminished and the party's organization faded away.

James Monroe ran under the party's banner in 1820 and built support by consensus. Monroe faced no serious rival and was nearly unanimously elected by the electoral college. The party's historic domination by the Virginian delegation faded as New York and Pennsylvania became more important. In 1824, most Democratic-Republicans in Congress boycotted the caucus; only a small rump group backed William Crawford. The Crawford faction included most "Old Republicans," who remained committed to states' rights and the Principles of 1798, and distrustful of the nationalizing program promoted by Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. Following the lead of former Crawford supporter Martin Van Buren, the Old Republicans mostly supported Andrew Jackson by the late 1820s.

Thomas Jefferson wrote on the state of party politics in the early 1820s:

An opinion prevails that there is no longer any distinction, that the republicans & Federalists are compleatly amalgamated but it is not so. The amalgamation is of name only, not of principle. All indeed call themselves by the name of Republicans, because that of Federalists was extinguished in the battle of New Orleans. But the truth is that finding that monarchy is a desperate wish in this country, they rally to the point which they think next best, a consolidated government. Their aim is now therefore to break down the rights reserved by the constitution to the states as a bulwark against that consolidation, the fear of which produced the whole of the opposition to the constitution at its birth. Hence new Republicans in Congress, preaching the doctrines of the old Federalists, and the new nick-names of Ultras and Radicals. But I trust they will fail under the new, as the old name, and that the friends of the real constitution and union will prevail against consolidation, as they have done against monarchism. I scarcely know myself which is most to be deprecated, a consolidation, or dissolution of the states. The horrors of both are beyond the reach of human foresight.

In the aftermath of the disputed 1824 election, the separate factions took on many characteristics of parties in their own right. Adams' supporters, in league with Clay, favored modernization, banks, industrial development, and federal spending for roads and other internal improvements, which the Old Republicans and the Jackson men usually opposed. Writing in his personal journal on December 13, 1826, President Adams noted the difficulty he faced in attempting to be nonpartisan in appointing men to office:

And it is upon the occasion of appointments to office that all the wormwood and the gall of the old party hatred ooze out. Not a vacancy to any office occurs but there is a distinguished federalist started and pushed home as a candidate to fill it—always well qualified, sometimes in an eminent degree, and yet so obnoxious to the Republican party, that he cannot be appointed without exciting a vehement clamor against him and the Administration. It becomes thus impossible to fill any appointment without offending one half of the community—the federalists, if their associate is overlooked; the Republicans, if he is preferred.

Presidential electors were now all chosen by direct election, except in South Carolina, where the state legislatures chose them. White manhood suffrage was the norm throughout the West and in most of the East as well. The voters thus were much more powerful, and to win their votes required complex party organization. The Jacksonians, under the leadership of Martin Van Buren, built strong state and local organizations throughout the country. President Adams was defeated by Andrew Jackson in the election of 1828.

Party name

Jefferson used the term "republican party" in a letter to Washington as early as May of 1792. By 1794 Jefferson and Madison routinely used the term "republican" and the "Republican party". Members typically called themselves Republicans. Their Federalist opponents often called them "Democrats" or "Jacobins" as an insult, referring to mob rule or to the Terror stage of the French Revolution. Thus in 1798 former President George Washington wrote, "you could as soon scrub the blackamore white, as to change the principles of a profest Democrat; and that he will leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country." The first official name came with the first national Democratic convention in 1832 which used "Republican Party." After 1803, a few local branches began using "Democratic Republican" to describe themselves. In 1811, Hezekiah Niles used "Democratic Republican" routinely in the Niles' Register; As Gammon shows, in 1824 "the one party name in existence was "Republican." Indeed the party had been mostly so styled since 1812, as is shown by Jefferson's letters and by Niles' Register. The term "National Republican" was first applied to the Adams-Clay faction in New York during the latter stages of the campaign of 1824. In New York state politics the name "Democratic" was revived in 1824. In 1818 there had been a split in the New York Republican party, with DeWitt Clinton leading one faction and Martin Van Buren the other. The latter faction was dubbed by its enemies the "Bucktails," and about the same time began to refer to itself as the "Democratic" party. The term "Republican," however, was still used to indicate both "Bucktails" and Clintonians.

Nationally, a new terminology had not yet crystallized by 1830. In the 1828 election, both Adams and Jackson still thought of themselves as "Republicans," but ran under the names of their factions. Adams thought of himself as a "National Republican" while Jackson's supporters called themselves "Jackson Men" or "Jacksonians."

After Jackson's victory in 1828, Henry Clay, longtime party leader in Congress, tried to create a National Republican Party. Former members of the defunct Federalist Party (including Daniel Webster) gravitated to Clay's new party. A national convention of the "National Republicans" in 1831 nominated Henry Clay for the Presidency and John Sergeant for the Vice Presidency; a national convention of the "Republicans" in 1832 endorsed the reelection of President Jackson and nominated Martin Van Buren for the Vice Presidency. The name "Democratic Party" was adopted by the latter in the mid 1830s. After Clay's defeat by Jackson in 1832, the National Republican Party disappeared and was soon superseded by the new, more permanent Whig Party.

Modern claims to the party's heritage

The Democratic Party is often called "the party of Jefferson and Jackson"; the Republican Party is often called "the party of Lincoln and Jefferson," notwithstanding the ideological shifts that all parties underwent over the years.

The Democratic Party traces its lineage to the Republican party by way of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren and other Republicans. Many politicians of the Democratic Party have emphasized their party's link to Jefferson and the Republican Party. Martin Van Buren wrote in his Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States that the party's name had changed from Republican to Democratic and that Jefferson was the founder of the party. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the eldest grandson of Jefferson, gave a speech at the 1872 Democratic National Convention and said that he had spent eighty years of his life in the Democratic-Republican Party. After 1896 William Jennings Bryan ousted the conservative Bourbon Democrats and dominated the Democratic party. Bryan bestowed the national Democratic party its modern ideology of anti-elitism, suspicion of big business, and support of greater government involvement in the economy. Support for states rights remained a strong theme until the 1960s.

In 1991 the United States Senate passed by voice vote "A bill to establish a commission to commemorate the bicentennial of the establishment of the Democratic Party of the United States." It was introduced by Democratic Senator Terry Sanford and cosponsored by 56 Senators.

The coining of the name "Republican Party" in 1854 for the new anti-slavery party, was intended to harken back to Jeffersonian ideals of liberty and equality, but not limited government or states rights, ideals that Abraham Lincoln and many members of the new party sought to revive together with Clay's program of using an active government to modernize the economy.

Republican presidents

The following United States Presidents were elected following a process that selected them as a national nominee of the Democratic-Republican party:

• Thomas Jefferson (1801–1809)
• James Madison (1809–1817)
• James Monroe (1817–1825)

In addition, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson identified themselves and their administrations as Republican, but ran in elections where opponents did as well.

Candidates

Election year	Result	Nominees
		President	Vice President
1792	lost	(none)	George Clinton
1796	lost(a)	Thomas Jefferson	Aaron Burr
1800	won(b)
1804	won		George Clinton
1812	won	Elbridge Gerry
1816	won	James Monroe	Daniel Tompkins
1820	won
1824	lost(c)	William H. Crawford	Albert Gallatin

• ^(a) Jefferson did not win the presidency, and Burr did not win the vice presidency. However, under the pre-12th Amendment election rules, Jefferson won the Vice Presidency due to lack of discipline among Federalist electors.
• ^(b) Jefferson and Burr received the same total of electoral votes. Jefferson was subsequently chosen as president by the House of Representatives.
• ^(c) Crawford and Gallatin were nominated by a small group of their supporters in Congress. Gallatin later withdrew from the contest. Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay also ran as Republicans, although they were not nominated. While Jackson won a plurality in the electoral college and popular vote, he did not win the constitutionally required majority of electoral votes to be elected president. The contest was thrown to the House of Representatives, where Adams won with Clay's support. John C. Calhoun won the vice presidency.

See also

• List of political parties in the United States
• First Party System

References

• Adams, John Quincy. Adams, Charles Francis, ed. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848 Volume VII (1875) (ISBN 0-8369-5021-6)
• Banning, Lance. The Jeffersonian Persuasion: Evolution of a Party Ideology (1980)
• Beard, Charles A. Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (1915)
• Brown, Stuart Gerry. The First Republicans: Political Philosophy and Public Policy in the Party of Jefferson and Madison 1954.
• Chambers, William Nisbet. Political Parties in a New Nation: The American Experience, 1776-1809 (1963)
• Cornell, Saul. The Other Founders: Anti-Federalism and the Dissenting Tradition in America, 1788-1828 (1999) (ISBN 0-8078-2503-4)
• Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. Jeffersonian Republicans: The formation of Party Organization: 1789-1801 (1957)
• Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. John Beckley: An Early American Party Manager William and Mary Quarterly, 13 (Jan. 1956)
• Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operations 1801-1809 (1963)
• Cunningham, Noble E., Jr. The Process of Government Under Jefferson (1978)
• Dawson, Matthew Q. Partisanship and the Birth of America's Second Party, 1796-1800: Stop the Wheels of Government. Greenwood, 2000.
• Elkins, Stanley M. and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism (1995), detailed political history of 1790s
• Ferling, John. Adams Vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 (2004)(ISBN 0-19-516771-6)
• Gammon, Samuel Rhea. The Presidential Campaign of 1832 (1922)
• Gould, Lewis. Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans (2003) (ISBN 0-375-50741-8) concerns the party founded in 1854
• Onuf, Peter S., ed. Jeffersonian Legacies. (1993) (ISBN 0-8139-1462-0)
• Pasley, Jeffrey L. et al eds. Beyond the Founders: New Approaches to the Political History of the Early American Republic (2004)
• Sharp, James Roger. American Politics in the Early Republic: The New Nation in Crisis (1993) detailed narrative of 1790s
• Smelser, Marshall. The Democratic Republic 1801-1815 (1968), survey of political history
• Taylor, Jeff. Where Did the Party Go?: William Jennings Bryan, Hubert Humphrey, and the Jeffersonian Legacy (2006)
• Van Buren, Martin. Van Buren, Abraham, Van Buren, John, ed. Inquiry Into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States (1867) (ISBN 1-4181-2924-0)
• Wiltse, Charles Maurice. John C. Calhoun, Nationalist, 1782-1828 (1944)
• Wiltse, Charles Maurice. The Jeffersonian Tradition in American Democracy (1935)
• Wilentz, Sean. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (2005), detailed narrative history, 1800-1860

Biographies

• Cunningham, Noble E. In Pursuit of Reason The Life of Thomas Jefferson (ISBN 0-345-35380-3) (1987)
• Miller, John C. Alexander Hamilton: Portrait in Paradox (1959), full-scale biography
• Peterson; Merrill D. Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography (1975), full-scale biography
• Rutland, Robert A., ed. James Madison and the American Nation, 1751-1836: An Encyclopedia. (1994)
• Schachner, Nathan. Aaron Burr: A Biography (1961),full-scale biography

State Studies

• Beeman, Richard R. The Old Dominion and the New Nation, 1788-1801 (1972), on Virginia politics
• Formisano, Ronald P. The Transformation of Political Culture. Massachusetts Parties, 1790s-1840s (1984) (ISBN: 0195035097)
• Gilpatrick, Delbert Harold. Jeffersonian Democracy in North Carolina, 1789-1816 (1931)
• Goodman, Paul. The Democratic-Republicans of Massachusetts (1964)
• Klein, Philip Shriver. Pennsylvania Politics, 1817-1832: A Game without Rules 1940.
• Prince, Carl E. New Jersey’s Jeffersonian Republicans: The Genesis of an Early Party Machine, 1789-1817 (1967)
• Risjord; Norman K. Chesapeake Politics, 1781-1800 (1978) on Virginia and Maryland
• Tinkcom, Harry M. The Republicans and Federalists in Pennsylvania, 1790–1801 (1950)
• Young, Alfred F. The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763-1797 (167)

Newspapers

• Humphrey, Carol Sue The Press of the Young Republic, 1783-1833 (1996)
• Knudson, Jerry W. Jefferson And the Press: Crucible of Liberty (2006) how 4 Republican and 4 Federalist papers covered election of 1800; Thomas Paine; Louisiana Purchase; Hamilton-Burr duel; impeachment of Chase; and the embargo
• Jeffrey L. Pasley. "The Tyranny of Printers": Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic (2003) (ISBN: 0813921775)
• Stewart, Donald H. The Opposition Press of the Federalist Era (1968), highly detailed study of Republican newspapers

Primary sources

• Cunningham, Noble E., Jr., ed. The Making of the American Party System 1789 to 1809 (1965) excerpts from primary sources
• Cunningham, Noble E., Jr., ed. Circular Letters of Congressmen to Their Constituents 1789-1829 (1978), political reports sent by Congressmen to local newspapers
• Smith, James Morton, ed. The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776-1826 Volume 2 (1994)