"It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force."
Alexander Hamilton · Federalist No. 1, October 27, 1787 · New York Independent Journal
They built a republic without parties. Parties formed anyway. The founders who built it could not agree on what it meant. This series documents the first decade of self-government, from Hamilton's question in 1787 to the first peaceful transfer of power in 1801.
Experiment in Freedom
1787–1801
Federalist No. 1, Oct 27 1787
Jefferson's inauguration, March 4 1801
The primary sources for this series span Founders Online, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives. Every episode cites documents by institutional archive and confirmed URL. Three sourcing distinctions are essential to this series and are noted in each relevant episode.
Hamilton's opening question in Federalist No. 1: can societies establish good government from reflection and choice, or only from accident and force?
The last day of the Constitutional Convention. Franklin's closing speech. McHenry's anecdote. The exchange with Mrs. Powel is in an appendix, not Madison's Notes.
Hamilton, Madison, and Jay made the case for ratification. The Anti-Federalists made a different case, in pamphlets and essays published under names including Brutus and Federal Farmer.
Washington inaugurated at Federal Hall. No precedent existed for the office or the ceremony. The First Congress had been meeting since April 1.
Washington appeared in the Senate chamber to seek advice on treaty negotiations. The Senate referred his questions to a committee. He left and never came back.
Hamilton proposed a national bank. Jefferson said it was unconstitutional. Hamilton said it wasn't. Washington signed it. The debate opened a constitutional argument that never closed.
Western Pennsylvania farmers refused to pay the whiskey excise tax. Washington called up 13,000 militia and rode at their head. The only sitting president to personally command troops in the field.
Washington published the Farewell Address warning against the spirit of party, sectionalism, and permanent foreign alliances. All three were already present when he wrote.
Hamilton defended Washington's Neutrality Proclamation as Pacificus. Jefferson asked Madison to respond. Madison did, as Helvidius. The exchange defined the constitutional boundary on foreign policy.
Washington sent Chief Justice Jay to negotiate with Britain. The treaty was widely seen as humiliating. The Senate ratified it twenty to ten. The debate split the country along party lines.
Federalist No. 10 warned against faction. The Farewell Address warned against party. The founders who wrote those documents built the parties anyway.