No matter what their political views may have been, some American leaders garner unequivocal respect and admiration from their successors purely because of their impact on this nation’s history. Among these elite historical figures is George Washington, the United States’ first president, who famously conjectured in his Farewell Address about the “baneful effects of the spirit of [political] party.” Although his service as President has been cherished for centuries by Americans, his ominous forewarning against political faction was virtually disregarded. However, the election of 1828 substantiated Washington’s original statement, and ultimately the conflict between parties precipitated the infamous Civil War.
While election of any kind seems to be an innocuous method of selecting government officials, hotly contested elections both modern and of centuries past have created the negative effects that Washington predicted. Perhaps the most ruthless election to date was the presidential election of 1828, in which Andrew Jackson, a Democrat, sought to unseat the incumbent National Republican, John Quincy Adams. In the decision that became known as the “Corrupt Bargain”, both opposing parties presented brutal arguments against each other that were widely circulated among the public citizenry. Jacksonians accused Adams of wasting public funds on extravagant White House ornaments (such as a billiard table), and Republicans countered by producing a “coffin handbill” that intended to portray Jackson as a cold-blooded murderer. The most glaring effect of the parties’ harshness was seen in Jackson’s wife Rachel, who died in December of 1828 shortly following accusations of bigamy imputed by Adams’ camp.
From the United States’ first elections to the ballots of today, political parties have pulled Americans apart rather than bringing them together. Accusations between candidates of opposing parties culminated into the now-ubiquitous television attack ad, most famously shown in Lyndon Johnson’s “Daisy” advertisement in 1964 which illustrated the dangers of nuclear war, allusive to the rivaling Republican campaign of Barry Goldwater. Even in 1796, Washington anticipated the animosity that would eventually be shared by opposing divisions in American politics and feared for the country’s wellbeing. Over two hundred years later, derisive attacks from this nation’s leaders prove that there are significant drawbacks to the perennial two-party system.
Though the bitterness between parties can be caustic, the quarrels of a single election never approached the sectional conflict that in April 1861 became the American Civil War. In the 1856 and 1860 elections, the Democratic and Republican parties had become so regionally entrenched that the southern states were completely in favor of the former, and the northern states endorsed the latter exclusively. Instead of unifying the nation as some had hoped, it became evident in 1856 and 1860 that the two-party system was creating an irreparable divide between north and south, most notably in the well-established Democratic Party. Washington himself, by insisting that party divisions would be prone to occur on a geographical scale, projected the basic path of the Civil War that would become the deadliest conflict in American history. Not only was it the most lethal of American wars, it was the most painful for American citizens, some of whom witnessed their fathers and sons take opposing sides in a war that split more than just a country. In their futile effort for independence, the Confederates suffered a 30% death rate for white males aged between 18 and 40. Even the northern victors underwent a 10% death toll of males from ages 20-45. Surely those who disagreed with Washington and supported the two-party system would not have been in favor of the deaths incurred by the largely sectional Civil War. Unfortunately, the massive influence of Washington at the time was insufficient in compelling his countrymen to strictly prohibit the formation of political parties and possibly prevent the United States’ most deadly war.
Of the forty-four presidents of the United States of America, George Washington was the only one not vocationally associated with a political faction. Even though he was largely ignored in his plea to preserve the nation through the avoidance of such parties, his viewpoint exposed several of the flaws in a two-party system. Through issues both modern and of the country’s early days, Washington’s advice to the nation consistently rings true. He warned in 1796 against the “common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party”, and in 2011, his words are as relevant as they ever were.
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