Why did Andrew Jackson form the Democratic-Republican Party?
He didn’t. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison did. The party’s elected presidents were Thomas Jefferson (1800 and 1804), James Madison (1808 and 1812), and James Monroe (1816 and 1820). The party soon dominated Congress and most state governments outside of New England. By 1820, the Federalists were no longer acting as a national party; there was little to hold the Democratic-Republican Party together. William H. Crawford in 1824 was the last nominee by the Congressional nominating caucus; but the majority of the party boycotted the caucus. Henry Clay finished fourth in the election that year, behind John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and William Crawford. Their factions became separate parties after the election, of which the Jacksonians became the basis of the present Democratic Party; the National Republicans were absorbed into the Whig coalition which faded out before the American Civil War.
