Today the United States government is governed by two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. Stereotypically, Democrats are often seen as more liberal and Republicans as more conservative. Our government has always been controlled by two parties, but the parties have changed numerous times. In the age of our Founding Fathers, the dominant political parties were the Federalists, founded in 1789 by Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republicans--also known as Republicans or Jeffersonian Republicans--, founded in 1791 by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. (http://www.fjc.gov/, The Sedition Act Trials – Historical Background and Documents) The beliefs held by Republicans – compared to Federalists – had more liberal views. From the perspective of a nineteenth-century American citizen, I would be a Republican. Since the Constitution was written there have been countless arguments about its meaning, but only one side is right: the Republicans. The Federalists' ideology regarding the Constitution returned to the government they had just fled...