National Republican Party

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.

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.[2] The party met in national convention in late 1831 and nominated Clay for the presidency and John Sergeant for the vice presidency.

John Quincy Adams was the only president to come from the National Republican Party.

#	Name (lifespan)	Portrait	State	Presidency start date	Presidency end date	Time in office
6	John Quincy Adams (1767–1848)		Massachusetts	March 4, 1825	March 4, 1829	4 years, 0 days

• Era of Good Feelings
• Second Party System

• Michael F. Holt. The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York. Oxford University Press. 1999.
• Carroll, E. Malcolm. Origins of the Whig Party. Durham, NC. Duke University Press. 1925.
• Robert V. Remini. Henry Clay: A Statesman for the Union. New York. W. W. Norton and Co. 1992.