Party lines and loyalty were drawn to the point of personal bitterness
and public destructiveness. Such division along party lines represented
the most severe split between the two political factions since the
inception of the republic. It made a deep impact upon Washington
and the memory must have been in his mind as he wrote about the very
real capacity of political parties to destroy the fragile unity holding
the nation together.It is not that Washington
failed to understand the contribution of parties, but he was greatly
concerned that they had previously, and would again, grow seeking more
power than other groups to the detriment of the whole.Washington
was aware that other governments viewed political parties as
destructive because of the temptation to manifest and retain power, but
also because they would often seek to extract revenge on political
opponents.So now we see from history that third party forays are limited in strength
and often serve only to undermine one or another of the major parties in
the capacity of a “spoiler.” If Washington could see America now, probably the only thing that he could say after getting over the shock, would be: “I told you so!”
