National elections in New Hampshire were carried by the Federalists until 1816, except in 1804 when President Thomas Jefferson won by a small majority; but within this period of Federalist supremacy in national politics the Democrat-Republi cans elected the governor from 1805 to 1812 inclusive except in 1809. In 1816 the Democrats won both State and National elec tions; and out of the transition from Federalist to Democratic control, which was effected under the leadership of William Plumer (1750-1850), a prominent politician in New Hampshire, arose the famous Dartmouth College Case. As the trustees of this institution were Federalists with the right to fill vacancies in their number, the Democrats attempted to gain control by converting it into a State university and increasing the number of trustees, but when the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court that body pronounced (1819) the charter a contract which the Federal Con stitution forbade the State to violate. Heretofore the Federalist regime had taxed the people to support the Congregational Church, but now the Baptists, Methodists and Universalists joined the Democrats, and in 1819 this State support was abolished by the "Toleration Act." Because of Daniel Webster's arguments in the Dartmouth College Case, and because his party had favoured the support of the Congregational Church by public taxation, he became very unpopular in this his native State. Accordingly, his
denunciation of President Andrew Jackson's bank policy added strength to the Jacksonian Democracy, and, later, his Whig con - nections were the greatest source of the Whig Party's weakness in New Hampshire. John Quincy Adams was an intimate friend of William Plumer, the Democratic leader, and carried the State both in 1824 and 1828. The Whigs never won a national or State election, and often their vote was only about one-half that of the Democrats. But the Democrats broke into two factions in 1846 over the question of slavery (see HALE, JOHN PARKER) ; the American or "Know-Nothing" Party elected a governor in 1855 and 1856; and then control of the State passed to the Republican Party which held it until 1912, when the Democrats carried the State for Wilson. The Democrats were again successful in the presidential election of 1916, but thereafter the State returned to its Republican tradition until 1936 when it supported Roosevelt by a narrow margin. The State government remained Republican.