There were two political groups, the Federalists and the Democratic Republicans.
Democratic-Republicans were founded by Thomas Jefferson, and supported by James Madison among others. They wanted a small government. They interpreted the Constitution loosely, were favored by the common man, and were against Hamilton's national bank plan. (Democratic means by the people, Republic means representives decide what the people want--a democratic republic is literally just the form of government America has.)
Federalists were founded by Alexander Hamilton. Our second president, John Adams, was a Federalist, but since Federalist was not a common choice (it was mostly favored by upper-classmen who had something to gain from large gov't) he was the ONLY Federalist president. Federalists are called that because they support FEDERAL (country-level) government.
