The Democratic-Republican Party was founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Their opposing party was the Federalist Party, whose principal members were John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, though Adams and Hamilton no longer worked together much.
Compared with the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republican Party placed greater emphasis on the powers of the states. Thus, when Hamilton proposed a unified federal currency and debt system, it provoked opposition from several states, which accused the Federalist Party of monarchic despotism.
There was a gap between the planned capital and the Washington that had actually been built. Anyone visiting for the first time would feel cheated. It did not even look like a city; swamps were everywhere, making it an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.
There were no courts or grand halls here, and only a few buildings had been completed. The legislators could only hold meetings in the unfinished "corridors" of the United States Capitol, and were sometimes interrupted by gunshots from less than a hundred yards away as hunters slaughtered quail and wild turkeys.
Not only did legislators from Massachusetts find it unpleasant, even foreign visitors did. The presidential residence and the United States Capitol were the only public buildings; in other words, there was not even an inn. It was muddy beyond measure in winter and dusty in summer. Cornfields stretched as far as the eye could see. As for Wild Goose Creek, renamed the "Tiber River," it truly was only a creek. Its water was neither clear nor abundant, and it was full of frogs.
Why not choose New York, Philadelphia, or Boston? Why insist on choosing this place with no urban character at all?
There was no doubt that Thomas Jefferson was the first president to settle here, but the defeated Federalists repeatedly pointed out in the newspapers