National Republican party, in U.S. history, a short-lived political party opposed to Andrew Jackson. In the election of 1828, which Jackson won overwhelmingly, some of the supporters of his opponent, President John Quincy Adams, called themselves National Republicans. It was under this name that, following the lead of the Anti-Masonic party, they held a national nominating convention at Baltimore in Dec., 1831, and chose Henry Clay to oppose Jackson in the 1832 election. The adherents of the National Republican party constituted a mixture of industrialists, business leaders, farmers, laborers, and mechanics, who believed in Clay's program of high tariffs, internal improvements, and a national bank. The main issue of the campaign was Jackson's veto of the second Bank of the United States. Clay was badly beaten, and by 1836 the National Republicans had combined with other groups opposed to Jackson to form the Whig party.
