Led by Clay, the new party maintained its historic nationalistic outlook and desired to use national resources to build a strong economy.
Its platform was Clay's American System of nationally financed internal improvements and a protective tariff, which would promote faster economic development.
More important, by binding together the diverse interests of the different regions, the party intended to promote national unity and harmony.
For instance in 1830, Alexander McIlhenny recorded in his diary, "May 29th: I attended the Anti Jackson meeting at Sultzers in Taney Town.
The Whig Party emerged in 1833–1834 after Clay's defeat as a coalition of National Republicans, along with Anti-Masons, disaffected Jacksonians and people whose last political activity had been with the Federalists a decade before.