George Washington was the first to call political parties self-created societies. His opinion of the effect political parties would have on the American government can be read in his Farewell Address, published when he left office in 1796. Both Washington and John Adams advised Americans not to support political parties. Political parties were starting in American politics during the administrations of Washington and Adams because of a contention between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. By the election of 1800 there were two full-fledged parties dominating the election. Jefferson's Republican-Democrat Party crushed Hamilton's Federalist Party in the election and dominated American politics as a one-party government for the next two decades. In the 1820's Jefferson's party split into two parties, the Democrats headed by Andrew Jackson and the National Republicans headed by John Quincy Adams. Andrew Jackson and Martin van Buren were the first American politicians to actively try to convince Americans that political parties were necessary in American government. Jefferson's followers previous to that time justified the existence of their party as being there to protect America against the Federalist followers of Alexander Hamilton. The success of Jackson and Van Buren in promoting their pro-slavery Democratic Party set the stage for the Civil War.

Thank you for responding. getting a better understanding of the need for political parties and their existence. i've learned that more than just the democat/republican parties exist, still with similar beliefs among the parties! don't see a major different between them.

Well, I agree with George Washington. Political parties are not necessary, whereas, independent voters are. You are correct that political parties all have similarities. Their basic premise is that the people need to put their individual liberty subject to a party, which will represent them in government.
The main problem is that once in power, political party politicians pass legislation to destroy free elections, making it impossible for independent voters to be candidates for office. For example, in Arizona, the state where I live, current election laws require an independent to get 23,000 nomination petition signatures to qualify as a candidate for the same office a Republican or Democrat has to get 4,000 signatures to run for. Laws like these reduced the number of independent voters after the 1830's to the point where party contentions over slavery took over the government and caused the Civil War. Without the Democratic Party to provide protection for the institution of slavery, the issue could have been resolved, and slaves could have been freed without a war.
The extreme of what can happen when a political party takes power is what happened in Nazi Germany. Compare what happened there to George Washington's prediction of people putting their faith in some unscrupulous person rather than in principles of government.
Right now 43% of Americans are registered independent after independent voters had a single digit percentage as recently as the administration of John F. Kennedy. What keeps them from participating in the government are the state election laws I have already pointed out. The problem is that the issue cannot be resolved through the courts because the courts have done what they did with the slavery issue and taken the position of the strongest political party. The last Supreme Court decision concerning slavery was the Dred Scott decision. With regard to elections, federal courts take the side of political parties, and the Supreme Court has refused hear a case brought by a minor party or independent voter for more than twenty years.
So independent voters have to wait until they have another seven percentage points in numbers and are in a position to force the issue in order to get ballot access.

Political parties go all the way back to the founding of the United States. The Federalist and the Whigs were the first political parties. The Federalist was supporters of the Constitution who advocated its ratification. However, the Whigs were fashioned after Britain’s Parliament but later formed the Republican Party. The reason for the form of this party was to oppose the spread of slavery in the Western states. The Democratic Party developed out of the anti-Federalist movement. However, todays political parties the Democrats and the Republicans have different agendas. The Democrats are liberal (focusing on the quality) while Republicans are conservative (focusing on traditional institutions and government).