The politics of the 1820's

Doing some genealogy research in Kentucky, ran across this and thought it interesting.
http://www.westernkyhistory.org/christian/perrin/chap4.html


"Organization of Political Parties.—The political excitement of 1824—25 was not confined to Christian County and to Kentucky, but extended throughout the country. The Presidential campaign of 1824 was probably the most exciting since the formation of the Republic, with the exception of that of 1800, which resulted in the election of Mr. Jefferson over the elder Adams. The candidates at this election were Henry Clay, Gen. Jackson, John Quincy Adams and William H. Crawford, of Georgia. Each of these distinguished gentlemen had his friends, who supported their favorite candidate from personal preference and not from party predilection. None of them, however, had a majority of the votes in the Electoral College, and under the constitutional rule, upon the House of Representatives devolved the duty of making choice of President, each State, by its delegation in Congress, casting one vote. Gen. Jackson led Mr. Adams in the Electoral College by a small plurality; Mr. Crawford was the third on the list of candidates, and Mr. Clay, who was the hindmost man, was dropped from the canvass. Mr. Adams was chosen President by the casting vote of the State of Kentucky. Mr. Clay was a member of the National House of Representatives, and its Speaker, and it was at once claimed by many of his political enemies that it was through the great influence of Ohio, which State, as well as his own, Mr. Clay had carried in the Presidential contest, that the delegation from Kentucky was induced to cast the vote of the State for Mr. Adams, an Eastern man, in preference to Gen. Jackson, a Western and Southern man. By that coup d’etat Mr. Clay was instrumental in organizing political parties that survived the generation of people to which he belonged, and ruled in turn the destinies of the Republic for more than a quarter of a century. In the new cabinet Mr. Clay was placed at the head of the State department by Mr. Adams, which gave rise to the charge of “ bargain and sale” between the President and his Chief Secretary, that threw the country into a blaze of excitement from one end to the other. At this time, when Henry Clay has been dead for more than thirty years, no one will presume or dare to question his patriotism or honesty; but the charge was so persistently made by1 the partisans of Gen. Jackson, it greatly injured Mr. Clay in the public estimation, and contributed largely to the General’s success in the Presidential race of 1828, and proved the shibboleth of destruction to Mr. Clay’s hopes of the Presidency ever after. At the Presidential election of 1828, party lines were closely drawn between Gen. Jackson and Mr. Adams, and the result of a hot and bitter contest was the triumphant election of the hero of New Orleans, both by the electoral and popular vote. At that time parties were known throughout the country as the Jackson and Anti-Jackson parties. With but few changes in their platform of principles, they eventually became the Whig and Democratic parties.

The Whig party, during its existence, was the ruling party in Christian County, and upon all important occasions, when a full party vote was called out, its champions were borne to victory. In 1840 the Liberty party was organized, and a ticket for President and Vice President nominated: James G. Birney, a former slaveholder of Kentucky, but then a resident of Michigan, was placed first upon the ticket, and Thomas Morris, of Ohio, placed second. This ticket was condemned and frowned upon in Kentucky, and the small vote polled by it throughout the country was drawn mostly from the Whigs. But notwithstanding the drafts made by the anti-slave party, the temperance party, and other organizations upon the Whigs, they continued to be one of the ruling parties until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, which led to the organization of the Republican party, and the absorption of the Whig, as well as the Liberty or Abolition party. In 1856 the Republican party received one vote in Christian County, cast for John C. Fremont for President. It was given by David Croft, in Scates Mill Precinct. It is said that his son called out, “Father, what did you vote for Fremont for?” and that the old man— then very old—replied, “They say he wants to free the niggers, and so do I.” Four years later a man named Davis Howell voted for Abraham Lincoln in the same precinct. To-day it is the dominant party in the county.

The Democratic party, which sprang into existence or assumed distinctive form during the administration of Gen. Jackson, is still one of the great political parties of the country. For fifty years it has maintained its organization without change of name, and at present the indications for its success were never more flattering. For some years after the close of the late civil war, it was the dominant party in the county, but since the ballot has been placed in the hands of the negroes it has changed the phase of politics, and the Republicans hold sway, and usually carry off the spoils of office."