ABSTRACT
The Declaration of Independence had declared unequivocally, in language that has echoed around the world, that “all men are created equal.” But while the rhetoric emanating from the Declaration, the American Revolution, and the Constitutional Convention would seem to have created a broad-based democracy, in reality American political culture in the 1790s and early 1800s was not rooted in popular participation. Of course, slaves, women, and free African Americans were excluded from voting and, in fact, from other forms of political engagement. During the Revolution, African Americans had served the cause of Independence with distinction. Women played key roles as patriots by holding rallies and organizing parades. Yet after the Revolution, nearly every state (except New Jersey) wrote constitutions that restricted suffrage to white men who were property holders, excluding not just women and African Americans from voting, but substantial numbers of poor white men as well. The first organized political groups, which historians and political scientists refer to as the First Party System, were the Federalists and the Republicans (also known as the Democratic-Republicans). So even when the first political parties formed in the 1790s American democracy was still far from fulfilling its promise.
