National Republican Party

The National Republican Party was a United States political party that existed from 1829-1833 at the start of the Second Party System.

Before John Quincy Adams's presidency the original Republican Party, which had been the only truly national American political party for over a decade, began to dissolve, losing its infrastructure and identity. Its caucuses no longer met to select candidates. Politicians who supported Adams became known as the National Republicans, while others who supported Andrew Jackson were called "Jackson Men" and would later form the Democratic Party. In the 1828 election, Adams won 44% of the popular vote, and 84 out of 261 electoral votes.

The ad-hoc coalition that supported John Quincy Adams fell apart after 1828 and the main opposition to Jackson was the National Republican party created and run by Henry Clay. It shared the nationalistic outlook as the Adamsites, and wanted to use national resources to build a strong economy. Their 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 they would promote national unity and harmony. 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. [Brown p 20] The Whig party emerged 1832-34 as a coalition of National Republicans, along with Anti-Masons, disaffected Jacksonians, and people whose last political activity was with the Federalists a decade before.

See also

• American System
• List of political parties in the United States
• Era of Good Feelings
• Second Party System

References

• Thomas Brown; Politics and Statesmanship: Essays on the American Whig Party. Columbia University Press. 1985.
• Carroll, E. Malcolm; Origins of the Whig Party Duke University Press. 1925. chapter 1
• Michael F. Holt; The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. 1999
• Robert V. Remini, Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union (1993)

External links

• Summary Of The Proceedings Of A Convention Of Republican Delegates, From The Several States In The Union, For The Purpose of Nominating A Candidate For The Office Of Vice-President Of The United States; Held At Baltimore, In The State Of Maryland, May, 1832.
• Journal of the Proceedings of the National Republican Convention, Held at Worcester, October 11. 1832 Mass State convention proceedings at Google Books
• Proceedings of the National Republican Convention of Young Men: Which Assembled in the City of Washington at Google books
• An Address to the People of Maryland, from Their Delegates in the Late National Republican Convention at Google books
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