He inspired the first U.S. political party

National political parties came into being as a result of the conflict over Hamilton's program and foreign policy difficulties. Hamilton, like Washington, had disliked gatherings and associated them with chaos and instability. He had planned to create a higher class of people who would rule over the party. Nevertheless, he rose to become the head of the Federalist Party, a group of politicians whose main goal was to back his policies. To get his proposal through Congress, Hamilton established himself as the leader of that party. He did this because he needed organized political backing and effective executive branch leadership. The Republican Party (later Democratic-Republican Party), founded by House of Representatives member James Madison and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, was the political force that opposed the Hamiltonians. The Federalists favored maintaining tight links with England while the Republicans desired to fortify the country's historic ties to France.

Hamilton intruded on Jefferson's purview of international affairs to carry out his plan. He fought against Jefferson's foreign policy initiatives that may benefit France or harm England because he despised the French Revolution and the egalitarian ideals it gave rise to. He also attempted to persuade Washington to adopt his thoughts on foreign policy. In terms of foreign policy, Hamilton even went so far as to caution British officials about Jefferson's allegiance to France and advise them to work directly with the president and himself rather than the secretary of state. Jefferson and Hamilton got into a fight over this and other aspects of Hamilton's plan, and they both tried to remove the other from the cabinet.