Jefferson vs. Hamilton

Before George Washington retired as president he warned the young nation not to create political parties.  He believed there should be one political party in America and it should be the American Party.  But two of Washington’s top advisors, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, created divisions that helped form the first two political parties found in the United States.

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Below is a clip from the HBO series "John Adams" It shows a conversation between President Washington's cabinet members Secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton and recently returned from France, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. The conversation the two men are having is about  Hamilton's proposed assumption of the revolutionary war debts of the individual States under the authority of the Federal government and the formation of a National bank. These issues were some of the fundamental and foundational ideological differences between the origins of the "Federalist" and "Democratic-Republican" parties.