[9][10] The Republican Party originated in Congress to oppose the nationalist and economically interventionist policies of Alexander Hamilton, who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President George Washington.

[17] His policies engendered an opposition, chiefly concentrated in the Southern United States, that objected to Hamilton's Anglophilia and accused him of unduly favoring well-connected wealthy Northern merchants and speculators.

[29][b] Shortly after Adams took office, he dispatched a group of envoys to seek peaceful relations with France, which had begun seizing American merchantmen trading with Britain after the ratification of the Jay Treaty.

The failure of talks, and the French demand for bribes in what became known as the XYZ Affair, outraged the American public and led to the Quasi-War, an undeclared naval war between France and the United States.

[37][38] Among these was William Duane who in his newspaper, the Philadelphia Aurora, exposed the details of the Ross Bill, by means of which the Federalist-controlled Congress sought to establish a closed-door Grand Committee with powers to disqualify College electors.

"[42] In the final months of his presidency, Adams reached an agreement with France to end the Quasi-War[43] and appointed several Federalist judges, including Chief Justice John Marshall.

[59] After Secretary of State James Madison gave his assurances that the purchase was well within even the strictest interpretation of the Constitution, the Senate quickly ratified the treaty, and the House immediately authorized funding.

[60] The Louisiana Purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States, and Treasury Secretary Gallatin was forced to borrow from foreign banks to finance the payment to France.

[66] Jefferson declined to seek a third term in the 1808 presidential election, but helped Madison triumph over George Clinton and James Monroe at the party's congressional nominating caucus.

[74] The United States had more military success in 1813, and American troops under William Henry Harrison defeated Tecumseh's confederacy in the Battle of the Thames in 1814, crushing Indian resistance to U.S. expansion.

[81] When the 14th Congress convened in December 1815, Madison proposed the re-establishment of the national bank, increased spending on the army and the navy, and a tariff designed to protect American goods from foreign competition.

"[82] Responding to Madison's proposals, the 14th Congress compiled one of the most productive legislative records up to that point in history, enacting the Tariff of 1816 and establishing the Second Bank of the United States.

[105] His requests to Congress galvanized the opposition, spurring the creation of an anti-Adams congressional coalition consisting of supporters of Jackson, Crawford, and Vice President Calhoun.

[108] The Jacksonians formed an effective party apparatus that adopted many modern campaign techniques and emphasized Jackson's popularity and the supposed corruption of Adams and the federal government.

[124][page needed] Ralph Brown writes that the party was marked by a "commitment to broad principles of personal liberty, social mobility, and westward expansion.

"[126] In a world in which few believed in democracy or egalitarianism, Jefferson's belief in political equality stood out from many of the other leaders who held that the wealthy should lead society.

"[127] Jefferson advocated a philosophy that historians call Jeffersonian democracy, which was marked by his belief in agrarianism and strict limits on the national government.

[130] Thus, the Democratic-Republicans opposed Federalist efforts to build a strong, centralized state, and resisted the establishment of a national bank, the build-up of the army and the navy, and passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts.

[132] After the party took power in 1800, Jefferson became increasingly concerned about foreign intervention and more open to programs of economic development conducted by the federal government.

In an effort to promote economic growth and the development of a diversified economy, Jefferson's Democratic-Republican successors would oversee the construction of numerous federally funded infrastructure projects and implement protective tariffs.

[59] Democratic-Republican foreign policy was marked by support for expansionism, as Jefferson championed the concept of an "Empire of Liberty" that centered on the acquisition and settlement of western territories.

[135] Under Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, the United States completed the Louisiana Purchase, acquired Spanish Florida, and reached a treaty with Britain providing for shared sovereignty over Oregon Country.

[139] Some Democratic-Republicans from the border states, including Henry Clay, continued to adhere to the Jeffersonian view of slavery as a necessary evil; many of these leaders joined the American Colonization Society, which proposed the voluntary recolonization of Africa as part of a broader plan for the gradual emancipation of slaves.

[142] Every state had a distinct political geography that shaped party membership; in Pennsylvania, the Republicans were weakest around Philadelphia and strongest in Scots-Irish settlements in the west.

[146] The Old Republicans, led by John Randolph, were a loose group of influential Southern plantation owners who strongly favored states' rights and denounced any form of compromise with the Federalists.

[148] In addition to its base among the leaders of Clay and Calhoun's generation, nationalist policies also proved attractive to many older Democratic-Republicans, including James Monroe.

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".

Using these lists of potential voters, the managers were told to get all eligible people to town meetings and help the young men qualify to vote.

The coalition of Jacksonians, Calhounites, and Crawfordites built by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren coalesced into the Democratic Party, which dominated presidential politics in the decades prior to the Civil War.

[159] The Republican Party sought to combine Jefferson and Jackson's ideals of liberty and equality with Clay's program of using an active government to modernize the economy.