<Ul> <Li> Politics of United States </Li> <Li> Political parties </Li> <Li> Elections </Li> </Ul> <Li> Politics of United States </Li> <P> The Democratic - Republican Party was an American political party formed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1791--93 to oppose the centralizing policies of the new Federalist Party run by Alexander Hamilton, who was secretary of the treasury and chief architect of George Washington's administration . The new party controlled the presidency and Congress, as well as most states, from 1801 to 1825, during the First Party System . It began in 1791 as one faction in Congress, and included many politicians who had been opposed to the new constitution . They called themselves Republicans after their ideology, Republicanism . They distrusted the Federalist commitment to republicanism . The party splintered in 1824 into the Jacksonian movement (which became the Democratic Party in 1828) and the short - lived National Republican Party (later succeeded by the Whig Party). </P> <P> The term "Democratic - Republican" is used especially by modern political scientists for the first "Republican Party" (as opposed to the modern Republican Party founded in 1854). It is also known as the Jeffersonian Republicans . Historians typically use the title "Republican Party". </P>

When did the democratic and republican party start