George Washington's Farewell Address is basically a 1796 subtweet aimed at the entire rest of American history. He warned the country against "the baneful effects of the spirit of party" — and by the time he finished writing it, political parties had already formed. Nobody listened. Nobody has ever really listened.
This clip is a segment from one of my live monthly History Lecture Party sessions — the Patreon series where I do a full deep-dive lecture (plus live Q&A) for subscribers every month. August's topic was the history of the political party "switch."
Here's the arc: the ratification fight over the Constitution split the country into Federalists (strong central government, hi Hamilton) and Anti-Federalists (deeply suspicious of that same strong central government). That fight didn't go away after ratification — it just put on a suit and became the first real party system, with Hamilton's Federalists squaring off against Jefferson and Madison's Democratic-Republicans. Washington watched this happen from inside his own cabinet, hated it, warned everyone about it on his way out the door in 1796 — and then it got worse anyway. The Federalists eventually collapsed (turns out flirting with disloyalty during the War of 1812 will do that to a party), and the Democratic-Republicans ended up so dominant that historians call the period that followed the "Era of Good Feelings" — a name that is doing a lot of heavy lifting, because "good feelings" is not exactly what one-party dominance actually produced.
Want the full lecture, live Q&A, and invites to future History Lecture Parties? That's a Patreon-exclusive perk — link below.
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