Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, was the first Democrat, yet he was the head of the Republican Party. The old Republican, or Anti-Federalist Party, did not assume the name "Democratic Party" until 1828. Prior to that time the two parties were known as the Federalists and the Republicans. It is an irony of political history that the name discarded by the Democrats was later assumed by their most bitter opponent.

The Confederate States Post Office located in Richmond during the Civil War was the most profitably operated in the world up to that time.