The Rise and Fall of the Whigs

Upon the re-election of President Andrew Jackson in 1832, Henry Clay set about coalescing the many parties that opposed King Andrew.  Thus, the Whig Party was born in 1833.  By 1836, the Whigs nominated several candidates to oppose Jackson's VP and selected successor, Martin Van Buren.  They went down to defeat.  However, the Whigs held a third of the Senate and 40% of the House.  The party was growing.  In the midterms of 1838, the party increased its representation in both houses of Congress.  The Panic of 1837 earned the president an unwanted nickname: Martin Van Ruin.  1840 would be the year for the Whigs.

William Henry Harrison had been one of the four Whig candidates in 1836, winning the most votes and most states among them.  Despite his age (67), he was nominated as the sole candidate for 1840.  "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was the slogan that won the presidency.  Better yet, the Whigs took control of the Senate (29 out of 52 seats) and the House (142 out of 242 seats).  Senator Henry Clay prepared a slate of legislation that would reverse Jacksonian policies and finally put his ambitious American System in the driver's seat.  However, President Harrison wasn't as pliant as Clay hoped.  Nonetheless, Harrison was a Whig who would push Whig policies.  There was nothing to stop the abrupt change in direction of the country.

President Harrison died.

After only one month in office, Harrison hadn't done anything yet.  Vice President Tyler, who had retreated to his plantation in Virginia after the inauguration (who needs a useless VP milling in Washington), was called to the capitol.  While Henry Clay was considering who could replace Harrison as president, Tyler took the oath of office.  The Constitution didn't say what happened if a president died in office and wouldn't until 1967.  Worse, Tyler insisted that he was now president and there would be no majority vote in the cabinet to determine what action he could take.  Worse still, Tyler suddenly resumed his Democrat views; he had broken with the party in the wake of the Nullification Crisis but now decided he was more Democrat than Whig.  He vetoed bill after bill from Congress, preventing the implementation of the Whig agenda.  The great victory of 1840 dissolved.

Though the Whigs would win the presidency again in 1848, they never again held the majority in both houses.  The death of President Harrison was also the death of the Whigs as a majority party.  The Whigs remained an opposition party until the mid 1850s, when it was absorbed by the newly-formed Republican Party.

Van Buren vs. 4 Whigs

In 1824, Henry Clay was Speaker of the House and one of four Democratic Republicans running for president.  The others were Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William Crawford.  Clay correctly predicted that no one would win the majority, which would throw the election of president to the House of Representatives.  As Speaker, he liked his odds of being selected there.  His plan was ruined when he placed 4th and the House could only consider the top three candidates.  Drats!

Twelve years later, Henry Clay's nascent Whig Party was pitted against Jackson's Vice President, Martin Van Buren.  The Whig Party was only a couple of years old and Clay - who had the best name recognition - chose not to run in 1836.  Instead, hearkening back the 1824, the Whigs fielded a slate of candidates, each running in states where they had the best chance at winning.  All they needed to do was prevent Van Buren from winning a majority of the electoral votes, which would let the House pick from the top contenders.

William Henry Harrison, who had largely vanished from politics more than a decade before, proved to be the most popular of the Whigs, winning 7 states and 37% of the popular vote.

Hugh White, a senator from Tennessee, won 2 states and 10% of the vote.

Daniel Webster, the famous orator and senator from Massachusetts, carried his home state and 3% of the vote.

Willie Mangum, yet another senator, carried South Carolina.  This was odd as he was the senator for North Carolina, which voted for Van Buren.

Despite the number of candidates arrayed against him, Martin Van Buren won a majority of the votes, nearly 51% and carried 15 states.

Though the gambit didn't pay off for the Whigs, they did discover which of their candidates they should run in the next election.  William Henry Harrison, Hero of the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe and noted General from the War of 1812, had shown the most nationwide support.  It was thus no surprise when he was selected as the sole Whig candidate to face Van Buren in 1840.

Three Time Loser: The Great Compromiser

Discouraged by the Tyler administration, Henry Clay nevertheless saw opportunity coming in 1844.  Though Tyler wanted to be re-elected, no party wanted him.  He had left the Democratic Party and betrayed the Whig Party.  It looked like Martin Van Buren would be the Democratic nominee in 1844 and Clay the Whig.  Clay liked his chances.  Despite the ongoing ruckus about annexing Texas, neither Van Buren nor Clay were in favor of that.  It would be a policy argument, the American System vs. Jacksonian Democracy.  Once again, events turned against Clay.

Though Van Buren received the majority of the votes for the nomination at the Democratic Convention, he could not secure the two-third required.  Nor could any of the other initial contenders.  Then, someone suggested James Knox Polk.  Polk, the first dark horse candidate, was selected on the 9th ballot.  Unlike Van Buren, Polk favored the annexation of Texas.  President Tyler, who was running an independent campaign that supported annexation, dropped out of the race in favor of Polk.  The election now became a referendum on the Texas question and the country voted for annexation.  Henry Clay was now a three-time loser for the presidency.  Even so, he was not yet done.

Clay had taken Mexico at its word that a war would commence if Texas was annexed.  Not only would it lead to war with Mexico, but it would exacerbate the slavery issue.  Despite being a slave owner, Clay viewed slavery as morally wrong and had argued for gradual emancipation.  This half-measure on his part was appreciated by neither the abolitionist of the North nor the slave owners of the South.  However, it did demonstrate why he was called the Great Compromiser.  Indeed, he had a long track record of shepherding compromises through Congress.

The Missouri Compromise (1820) allowed Missouri to join the Union as a slave state, but offset that by admitting Maine as a free state.  Further, it set a boundary between slave and free states.  It was kicking the can down the road but quelled the hot tempers of the moment.

The Nullification Crisis (1832) saw South Carolina claiming a right to ignore Federal Tariffs.  President Jackson proposed invading South Carolina if that should happen.  Jackson's vice president, John C. Calhoun, resigned during the growing divide; he was a South Carolinian and one of the strongest voices for nullification.  Clay, despite his long rivalry with Jackson, sided against the Nullifiers.  He did not like Jackson's solution of a Force Bill and military invasion.  Instead, he guided the passage of a reduction in the tariff, which mollified the Nullifiers.  The hostilities subsided and Clay was once again key in maintaining domestic tranquility.

The Compromise of 1850 resolved what to do with the vast territory acquired in the Mexican-American War.  Where President Taylor was in favor of adding California and New Mexico as free states, the South was strongly opposed to such a move.  Once again, Clay assembled legislation that offered something for everyone, but also a bitter cost.  California could be a free state but the fugitive slave laws would be strengthened.  Texas would lose much of its claimed territory in exchange for debt relief.  New Mexico would be a territory, not a state.  Taylor's untimely death and replacement by Millard Filmore saw the compromised signed into law.

In 1848, Clay had tried a final run for the presidency, but General Zachary Taylor won the Whig nomination.  Yes, as in 1840, Clay lost the nomination to a general who died in office.  He had sought the presidency in 1824, 1832, 1840, 1844, and 1848.  Though he never made it to the presidency, he is a hugely consequential American.  Clay died in 1852 and became the first person to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda.

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.

Three Time Loser: The Corrupt Bargain!

Henry Clay was born in Virginia in 1777.  Twenty years later, he moved to Kentucky and began a law practice.  He was involved in politics from the start, having suggested revisions to the Kentucky Constitution to gradually end slavery (1799), being elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives (1803), to serving as a US Senator (1806-07, 1810-11).  He didn't much care for the Senate and pursued a career in the House of Representatives.  Despite being a freshman Congressman, Clay was elected to be Speaker of the House; he was only 34 years old.  He proved to be a commanding speaker and led the war hawks in demanding war with Britain.  Indeed, the Congress - as is its prerogative - declared war on June 18, 1812.  Two years later, Clay was selected by President Madison to join the peace commission in the Netherlands to end the war.  Also on the commission was John Quincy Adams, son of President John Adams.

In 1824, James Monroe followed the example set by Washington, Jefferson, and Madison to retire after 2 terms in office.  The Federalist Party had evaporated, which led to 4 Democratic-Republicans competing for the presidency.  There was General Andrew Jackson, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford, and Speaker of the House Henry Clay.  With so many candidates, Clay was certain that no one would gain enough electoral votes to win; that would send the election to the House of Representatives.  He was certain that he would be chosen in the body he led.  Though it was a sound plan, Clay placed fourth and the 12th Amendment only allowed the House to select among the top three.  Foiled!  It was his first losing run for the presidency.

Though he could not win, he had the power to select among the three.  William Crawford had suffered a stroke and was unsuited to the presidency at this point.  There was bad blood between Clay and Jackson.  In 1818, Jackson had invaded Spanish Florida and hanged two British subjects.  Clay found this outrageous and accused him of being a potential military dictator, like Bonaparte, Cromwell, Caesar, or Alexander the Great.  Though Jackson had the largest vote total of the three candidates, Clay would not lobby in favor of him.  That left his former peace commission colleague, John Quincy Adams.

John Quincy Adams was chosen by the House as the next president.  It is noteworthy that Adams had been serving as President Monroe's Secretary of State.  Each of his three predecessors - Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson - had served as Secretary of State.  It was a training ground for future presidents.  President Adams selected Henry Clay to be his Secretary of State.

If there had been bad blood between Clay and Jackson before, this greatly exacerbated the feud.  Jackson declared a 'Corrupt Bargain' had been struck where Clay supported Adams in exchange for the prime cabinet post.  There would be a rematch in 1828.