Political parties have been around since politics emerged from the stranglehold of the strongest and extended out to even the most limited of franchises.

“Parties” existed even within the courts of absolute kings. “Factions” are how Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay referred to them in “The Federalist Papers,” and they appeared on American soil in something like their modern form almost as soon as the Constitution in which they went unremarked upon was ratified and Hamilton and Madison, the two greatest contributors to the framing, went their separate ways over the great issues of their day.