Section 8Chapter 5: The Early American Party SystemToday, political parties are an authoritative and essential component of the political system of the United States. However, it is important to examine how political parties came into existence and evolved over the hundreds of years since their inception. In 1794, the major political parties were the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. The main difference between the two was that Federalists favored a strong central government, while Democratic-Republicans preferred a central government with limited powers and greater state control. At the time of the election, it seemed that the prominent and distinguished Federalist Party had the clear upper hand, but ultimately it was the Democratic-Republican candidate who ended up winning. Although the political party system was nowhere near as sophisticated as it is today, many key factors contributed to the victory of both Democrats and Republicans in Congress in 1794, including city demographics, party initiatives policies and, more particularly, yellow fever. Many political factions rushed out of George Washington's first presidential election, and by 1794 these factions were on the verge of establishing themselves as separate political parties. The two main players, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, sanctioned various methods to cultivate support for their candidate and their cause. The federal election of 1794 sparked the highest level of political tension in Pennsylvania since the ratification of the United States Constitution, which caused its share of controversy and unrest in 1787. The two candidates, Thomas Fitzsimons and John Swanwick, came from divergent countries. .... middle of paper ...... the yellow fever epidemic and the pro-people actions of the Democratic-Republicans certainly contributed to Swanwick's victory in 1794. The 1794 congressional election was very important and influential. in the evolution of the American political party system. Although Federalists dominated early politics in the newly constructed union, the Democratic-Republican candidate, Swanwick, was victorious. Many factors contributed to Swanwick's victory and cannot be ignored when analyzing how the Democratic-Republicans achieved victory in the 1794 election. All available evidence must be studied in order to understand the candidate's influences, their position on the various controversial issues of the time, and the voters themselves on the result of the 1794 election. Nimit Patel