<P> The First Party System was primarily built around foreign policy issues that vanished with the defeat of Napoleon and the compromise settlement of the War of 1812 . Furthermore, the fears that Federalists were plotting to reintroduce aristocracy dissipated . Thus an "Era of Good Feelings" under James Monroe replaced the high - tension politics of the First Party System about 1816 . Personal politics and factional disputes were occasionally still hotly debated, but Americans no longer thought of themselves in terms of political parties . </P> <P> Historians have debated the exact ending of the system . Most concluded it petered out by 1820 . The little state of Delaware, largely isolated from the larger political forces controlling the nation, saw the First Party System continue well into the 1820s, with the Federalists occasionally winning some offices . </P> <P> Alexander Hamilton felt that only by mobilizing its supporters on a daily basis in every state on many issues could support for the government be sustained through thick and thin . Newspapers were needed to communicate inside the party; patronage helped the party's leaders and made new friends . </P> <P> Hamilton, and especially Washington, distrusted the idea of an opposition party, as shown in George Washington's Farewell Address of 1796 . They thought opposition parties would only weaken the nation . By contrast Jefferson was the main force behind the creation and continuity of an opposition party . He deeply felt the Federalists represented aristocratic forces hostile to true republicanism and the true will of the people, as he explained in a letter to Henry Lee in 1824: </P>

Would soon become the republican party creating the first party system in u.s. politics