National Republican Party

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY

NATIONAL REPUBLICAN PARTY, an outcome of the controversy surrounding the election of 1824. When none of the presidential candidates in 1824 won a majority in the electoral college, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives to select a winner. Although Andrew Jackson had won a plurality of the popular vote, John Quincy Adams won election in the House on the first ballot. Jackson's supporters protested the results, claiming that a corrupt bargain had been struck between Adams and a third candidate, Henry Clay. Adams had indeed owed his election in part to the fact that Clay had instructed his supporters in the House to vote for Adams. The charge that a "corrupt bargain" had taken place gained credence when Adams selected Clay to serve in the cabinet as secretary of state. The controversy divided the Jeffersonian Republicans so severely that they devolved into two parties, one supporting the Adams-Clay faction and the other supporting the Jackson faction. The Adams party eventually became known as the National Republicans and the Jackson party assumed the name Democratic-Republicans. In 1834 the National Republican Party was absorbed by the new and larger Whig Party, and Democratic-Republicans took on the name Democrats.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hargreaves, Mary. The Presidency of John Quincy Adams. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1985.

Watson, Harry L. Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1990.

William O. Lynch / a. g.

See also Corrupt Bargain ; Democratic Party ; Elections: Presidential .