Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/328

316 way of distinction, the Jackson men called themselves Democratic Republicans, and the followers of Clay and Adams National Republicans, — appellations which a few years later gave room to the shorter names of Democrats and Whigs.

These two new political organizations are commonly assumed to have been mere revivals of the old Federal and Republican parties. This they were, however, only in a limited sense. It certainly cannot be said that the Democrats were all old Republicans, and the Nationals all, or nearly all, old Federalists. John Quincy Adams himself had indeed been a Federalist; but he had joined the Republicans during Jefferson's presidency, when the conflict with England was approaching. Clay had been a Republican leader from the start, and most of his followers came from the same ranks. On the other hand many old Federalists, who hated Adams on account of what they called his desertion, joined the opposition to his administration, and then remained with the Democratic party, in which some of them rose to high places. As to the antecedents of their members, both new parties were, therefore, composed of mixed elements.

They did, indeed, represent two different political tendencies, somewhat corresponding with those which had divided their predecessors, — one favoring a more strict, the other a more latitudinarian, construction of constitutional powers. But this, too, must be taken with a qualification. The old Republican party, before Jefferson's election to the