Democratic-Republican Party

The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed liberalism, republicanism, individual liberty, equal rights, separation of church and state, freedom of religion, anti-clericalism, emancipation of religious minorities, decentralization, free markets, free trade, and agrarianism. In foreign policy, it was hostile to Great Britain and in sympathy with the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. The party became increasingly dominant after the 1800 elections as the opposing Federalist Party collapsed.