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 alsoCorrupt Bargain ; Democratic Party ; Elections: Presidential .

National Republican party in U.S. history, a short-lived political party opposed to Andrew Jackson . In the election of 1828, which Jackson won overwhelmingly, some of the supporters of his opponent, President John Quincy Adams, called themselves National Republicans. It was under this name that, following the lead of the Anti-Masonic party, they held a national nominating convention at Baltimore in Dec., 1831, and chose Henry Clay to oppose Jackson in the 1832 election. The adherents of the National Republican party constituted a mixture of industrialists, business leaders, farmers, laborers, and mechanics, who believed in Clay's program of high tariffs, internal improvements, and a national bank. The main issue of the campaign was Jackson's veto of the second Bank of the United States . Clay was badly beaten, and by 1836 the National Republicans had combined with other groups opposed to Jackson to form the Whig party .

National Republican Party US political party, formed after the election of Andrew Jackson as president (1828). Staunchly opposed to Jackson, the party supported the Bank of the United States, a protective tariff and internal improvements. Daniel Webster and Henry Clay were dedicated leaders of the party. By 1836 it had become the Whigs.