Three Time Loser: The Whig Party

In the wake of the War of 1812, Henry Clay proposed his American System.  He called for a high tariff to protect and encourage American manufacturing, infrastructure spending to foster domestic commerce, more funding for national defense, a national bank to provide credit, and Federal assumption of state debt.  This eventually became the foundation for the Whig Party nearly 2 decades later.  Though President John Quincy Adams liked the American System, the Congress was not inclined to pass it.  Clay's stint as Secretary of State was busy but not noteworthy; it was mostly a case of maintaining the status quo with minor tweaks.

In the wake of the 1824 election, the Democratic-Republican party splintered.  Jackson had founded the Democratic Party (which is the one that exists today) and Adams became a National Republican.  There were other splinter parties such as the Anti-Masonic and Nullifier. In 1828, the rematch took place and Jackson crushed Adams.  Clay found himself out of government but now he was looking toward a rematch.   Clay was back in the Senate in 1831, a 20-year gap since his last service in that deliberative body.

In 1832, Clay was the nominee for the National Republican Party.  Like the 1824 election, there were multiple candidates though they each represented different parties.  There was John Floyd for the Nullifier Party and William Wirt for the Anti-Masonic Party.  Jackson proved too popular and the opposition too disorganized.  Clay won less than 40% of the vote and 49 electoral votes to Jackson's 54% of the vote and 219 electoral votes.  It was Clay's second losing run at the presidency.

Clay set about coalescing the anti-Jacksonians into a single party: The Whigs.  In Britain, the Whigs had opposed absolute monarchy and Clay viewed Jackson in that light.  In 1836, Jackson held with tradition of only serving two terms.  His chosen successor, Martin Van Buren, ran as the Democratic nominee.  Though Clay's Whig Party had assembled the various anti-Jacksonians, it was unable to settle on a single candidate.  As such, 1836 saw 4 Whigs facing Van Buren; Clay was not one of them.  Would the multiplicity of candidates lead to a contingent election like in 1824?  No.  Van Buren won, but the Whigs did secure seats in Congress.

In 1837, the Whigs controlled a third of the seats in the Senate and 40% in the House.  Clay had high hopes for the election of 1840.  Martin Van Buren - "Martin Van Ruin" - had presided over a disastrous economy and his re-election chances didn't look strong.  Though Clay sought the nomination, General William Henry Harrison was selected at the Whig National Convention; he had had the strongest showing of the 4 Whigs in 1836.  Harrison defeated Van Buren and the Whigs seized both the Senate and the House of Representatives!  Oh, happy days!  Clay was eager to implement the American System, but then disaster struck.  Harrison died only 1 month into his presidency and Vice President Tyler proved not to be quite the convert to the Whig Party as thought.