Before the election of John Quincy Adams to the presidency in 1825, the
Democratic-Republican Party, which had been the only national American political party for over a decade, began to fracture, losing its infrastructure and identity. Its caucuses no longer met to select candidates because now they had separate interests. After the 1824 election, factions developed in support of Adams and in support of Andrew Jackson. Adams politicians, including most ex-
Federalists (such as
Daniel Webster and Adams himself), would gradually become members of the National Republican Party; and those politicians that supported Jackson would later help form the modern
Democratic Party. After Adams's defeat in the 1828 election, his supporters regrouped around Henry Clay. Now the "anti-Jackson" opposition, they soon organized as the National Republican Party. Led by Clay, the new party maintained its historic nationalistic outlook and desired to use national resources to build a strong economy. Its platform was Clay's
American System of nationally financed
internal improvements and a protective tariff, which would promote faster economic development. More important, by binding together the diverse interests of the different regions, the party intended to promote national unity and harmony. Historians refer to the National Republican Party, but the term Anti-Jackson was frequently used at the time. For instance in 1830,
Alexander McIlhenny recorded in his diary, "May 29th: I attended the Anti Jackson meeting at Sultzers in
Taney Town. Addressed a few words to the meeting." The National Republicans saw the Union as a corporate, organic whole. Hence, the rank and file idealized Clay for his comprehensive perspective on the national interest. Conversely, they disdained those they identified as "party" politicians for
pandering to local interests at the expense of the national interest. The party met in
national convention in late 1831 and nominated Clay for the presidency and
John Sergeant for the vice presidency.
Formation of the Whig Party The
Whig Party emerged in 1833–1834 after Clay's defeat as a coalition of National Republicans, along with
Anti-Masons, disaffected Jacksonians and people whose last political activity had been with the Federalists a decade before. In the short term, the Whig Party formed with the help of other smaller parties in a coalition against President Jackson and his reforms. == National Republican presidents ==