The Parties in American Presidential Elections, 1789–2020

Preface

The history of political parties in America’s presidential elections is the history of America itself, and it is the history of a Constitution written by some of the most admired and respected figures of a generation of officeholders whose pleadings against political parties were rejected by ordinary Americans, taking it upon themselves to defy this discouragement and to form for themselves a party tradition whose history is as old as the Constitution itself. For all the talk of how much Americans respected President George Washington, they rejected his rejection of political parties in his famous Farewell Address of Monday, September 19, 1796 by sorting themselves in that very same moment into the 2 national parties then-shaping ...