America's Two-Party System Analysis

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With the United States emerging as its own country from the American Revolutionary War, the revolutionary leaders aspired to create a government of democracy, eliminating the tyranny of a king, which they had despised. Although with good intentions, the two-party system which had been created sealed the United States’ fate of entering into the Civil War in the future. This system would divide the country into two sides, which was warned of by others during that time. The two sides of the country also formed different morals apart from each other, exemplifying their differences and instigating more problems. The First Party System started the divide with essentially one party representing the South and one party representing the North. The Second…show more content…
What made it worse in the United States’ case, the division was between the North and the South, which created a rift not only in politics, but in the country itself and the people in either side. In the scenario of the first president, George Washington, the situation was relatively balance since Washington never completely declared his devotion to one party or the other, although he did exhibit tendencies toward the Federalist Party. Therein, the following presidents were part of some party that they favored. M John Adams directly expressed, “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties…” (“Founding…” 1). Even though the dangers of the two-party system were acknowledged by some, the opposing parties rose in popularity, competing for control over the government, supporting either the North or the South. Also, in his parting presidential speech, George Washington says, “… [it creates] animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection… [allowing] influence and corruption” (Ibid). Despite these warnings, the party system was used to represent the ideas of the public. Over time, the tension built up between the North and the South, similarly to how the tension rose between the colonies and Great Britain. The North mimicked the parent country, Great Britain,…show more content…
With similar problems as the First Party System, the Second Party System was mostly controlled by the voting bloc formed in the southern states. Now adding to the previous problem, the American expansion was a major theme in the United States at this time. With the newly acquired expansion of land, new states were being formed and annexed to the United States. While this would seem to be excellent for the United States, in reality, it posed a new and serious problem. Deciding whether or not a new state was to be a free state (slavery being abolished and prohibited) or a slave state became a concern to the Second Party System. This divide in whether a state could have slaves or not separated the North and the South even further from each other, as it would unbalance the previous voting power of either party. The conflict brewing between the two sides because of the two-party system would not be able to sustain a sound
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