(1834–54) U.S. political party.
Organized by opponents of Pres. Bank of the United States (see Bank War ) and nullification in South Carolina allowed Henry Clay to bring fiscal conservatives and southern states' rights proponents together in a coalition with those who still believed in the National Republican program of a protective tariff and federally financed internal improvements. The party also included members of the former Anti-Masonic Party. The Whig's candidate, William H. Harrison , won the 1840 presidential election and the party captured Congress, but Harrison's premature death halted enactment of the Whig program (his vice president and successor, John Tyler , vetoed much of the Whig's agenda). Clay was the party's unsuccessful candidate in the 1844 election. In 1848 it nominated Zachary Taylor , who won the presidency. The party began to split into the "conscience" (antislavery) and "cotton" (proslavery) Whigs and was further divided by the Compromise of 1850 . Its nominee in the 1852 election, Winfield Scott , failed to win wide support as most Southern Whigs joined the {{link=Democratic Party">Democratic Party . In 1854 most Northern Whigs joined the new Republican Party , though some joined the Know-Nothing Party .