Democratic-Republicans — Bunk History

Aaron Burr: Most Hated Man in American History

A more sympathetic look at Aaron Burr, the man who killed Alexander Hamilton.

by Gordon S. Wood, Matthew Wills, Herbert Sloan via JSTOR Daily on January 14, 2016

Lithograph of the reservoir of the Manhattan Water Works in 1825.

Corporations in the Early Republic

An explanation of the Manhattan Company, a bank disguised as a municipal water corporation that helped to transform Early Republican politics.

via BackStory on June 20, 2014

The Echoes of 1800 in the 2024 Election

This year’s momentous vote strangely resembles one of the most consequential elections in American history.

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via The Bulwark on November 4, 2024

Person wearing Trump 2020 hat in front of protesters with signs being in opposition of funding the war in Ukraine.

Will Foreign Policy Decide the Election?

While it is rare for foreign policy differences between the political parties to affect electoral outcomes, it has happened before.

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via Made By History on September 19, 2024

A 1797 map of New York City.

The Black Cockade and the Tricolor

Space and place in New York City's responses to the French Revolution.

by Mike Rapport via Age of Revolutions on March 4, 2024

Samuel Chase.

An Intemperate Man: The Impeachment of Justice Samuel Chase

The presence of Federalist judges frustrated Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican Party, bring justice Samuel Chase under fire.

by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on June 19, 2023

Table of election returns printed in newspaper in 1796.

Collusion, Theft, Violence, and Lies: Lurid Tales of American Elections

1796, the first contested presidential election.

by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on March 3, 2023

Portrait of Aaron Burr, an American politician and lawyer who was the third vice president of the United States, serving during Thomas Jefferson's first term (1801-1805).

A Former Vice President Was Tried For Treason For an Insurrection Plot

Aaron Burr was the highest-ranking official to stand trial for treason, which some people have invoked now amid probes into ex-president Donald Trump.

by Ronald G. Shafer via Retropolis on September 26, 2022

Painting of George Washington on horseback, leading troops through the countryside to squash the Whiskey Rebellion.

Examining Public Opinion during the Whiskey Rebellion

This armed uprising in 1794, over taxation by the fledgling new government, threatened to destroy the new union within six years of the Constitution’s ratification.

by Jonathan Curran via Journal of the American Revolution on September 7, 2021

Portrait of Thomas Jefferson

Sunrise at Monticello

Jefferson and his connection to partisanship in early America.

by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on July 19, 2021

John Jay painting

Slavery as Metaphor and the Politics of Slavery in the Jay Treaty Debate

The manner in which the debate unfolded is a reminder of the ways slavery affected everything it touched.

by Wendy Wong Schirmer via U.S. Intellectual History Blog on April 12, 2021

January 6th rioters.

What the 1798 Sedition Act Got Right — And What It Means Today

It forced a conversation about the dangers of misinformation, one we need to have again today.

by Katlyn Marie Carter via Made By History on January 14, 2021

Painting of a worried child and a despairing mother.

With Friends Like These

On early American attempts to kick out foreigners.

by Julia Rose Kraut via Lapham’s Quarterly on August 4, 2020

Our First Authoritarian Crackdown

A new book persuasively argues that the Federalists’ attempt to squash opposition and the free flow of ideas was even more nefarious than we thought.

by Brenda Wineapple via New York Review of Books on June 23, 2020

Presidents Madison and Trump Did the Same Thing — but Trump Got Impeached

Why criminalizing political opposition can be dangerous.

by Tyson Reeder via Made By History on January 15, 2020

Map of 1796 presidential election electoral votes by state.

The Founders Knew That Foreign Interference in U.S. Elections was Dangerous

The origins of our efforts to keep foreign countries out of our elections.

by Jordan E. Taylor via Made By History on October 7, 2019

Convulsions Within: When Printing the Declaration of Independence Turns Partisan

Even America's founding document isn't immune to the powers of polarization.

by Emily Sneff via Age of Revolutions on July 4, 2018

Chuck Schumer talks with a staffer in shadow beneath the seal of the U.S. Senate.

Secrecy in the Senate

To the framers, working in secret was meant to deliver enlightened legislation.

by Katlyn Marie Carter via Made By History on December 12, 2017

Thomas Jefferson and Us

The resurgence of the debate over the Sage of Monticello's legacy: Is Jefferson the ultimate patriot or ultimate hypocrite?

by David Sehat via William and Mary Quarterly on October 1, 2017

Where Did the Term 'Gerrymander' Come From?

Elbridge Gerry was a powerful voice in the founding of the nation, but today he's best known for the political practice with an amphibious origin.

by Erick Trickey via Smithsonian on July 20, 2017

Ahead of a Major Supreme Court Case on Gerrymandering, Here Are the Term's Origins

The word is two centuries old.

by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on June 19, 2017

The Immigration-Obsessed, Polarized, Garbage-Fire Election of 1800

A madman versus a crook? Unexpected twists? Fake news? Welcome to the election of 1800.

by A. Roger Ekirch via Longreads on March 28, 2017

1846 proposal for design of Washington Monument

Mall Rats

The early controversy over whether or not to build the Washington Monument on the National Mall.

via BackStory on May 23, 2014

Fisher Ames, Founding Father and arch-foe of democracy.

Died on the 4th of July

Fisher Ames’s philosophy can be summed up as follows: the “power of the people, if uncontroverted, is licentious and mobbish.”

by Stephen B. Tippins via The American Conservative on July 3, 2012

Photo of Framer James A. Bayard then a modern day photo of Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

How Past and Present Catch Up With Each Other

The election of 1801 offers a first-hand example of how current events can offer historians new perspectives on the past.

by James M. Banner Jr. via The Panorama on October 23, 2024

John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

A Trump-Biden Tie Would Be a Political Nightmare — But Maybe a Boon to Democracy

The political upheaval of 1824 changed America. The same could happen in 2024.

by Joshua Zeitz via Politico on May 16, 2024

Title page and verso of a 1727 printing of Plutarch's Lives

"Those Noble Qualities": Classical Pseudonyms as Reflections of Divergent Republican Value Systems

Writing under ancient veneers allowed partisans to politicize and weaponize ancient history during the turbulent start of the Federal Republic.

by Shawn David McGhee via Journal of the American Revolution on August 3, 2023

A portrait of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, nicknamed "Old Bacon Face," painted by John Beale Bordley in 1836.

Can a Supreme Court Justice Be Impeached? Meet ‘Old Bacon Face.’

Samuel Chase was the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached, after he openly campaigned for a president and told jurors who he thought was guilty.

by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on April 7, 2023

Workmen on the faces of Mount Rushmore, Pennington County, South Dakota, late 1930s. Roosevelt has scaffolding over his face.

President’s Day Is a Weird Holiday. It Has Been Since the Beginning.

How should a republic honor its leaders?

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via The Bulwark on February 19, 2023

Timeline of the history of American political parties to 1880, depicting intertwined streams of Democrats, Whigs, and Republicans.

What is Political Realignment?

An annotated collection of resources from the Bunk archive that help explain the shifting sands of American politics.

by Kathryn Ostrofsky on September 8, 2022

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