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Did the Founding Fathers warn against the formation of political parties?

Tuesday, January 5, 2021
By Christopher Hutton
YES

Several of the Constitution’s creators expressed concern about political parties, or “factions.” In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison argues that the “dangerous vice” of unchecked factions harms society. A majority group could easily “sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens.” Alexander Hamilton thought parties were a “most fatal disease” for democracy. George Washington warned in his farewell address that a government run by parties would become “the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction” rather than taking on plans “digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.”

Not every founder agreed. In an 1824 letter, Thomas Jefferson wrote that two parties could be “censors of the conduct of each other” and “useful watchmen for the public.”

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