The Marache Club played an influential role in ensuring that Thomas Jefferson won the 1800 presidential election.
During the 1790s, ideological descendents from the Anti-Federalists waged political battle with the Federalists. Opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) unified the diverse Anti-Federalists into an emerging political party: the Democratic-Republican Party. Republicans wanted Thomas Jefferson to lead the way in taking away the Federalist control of the national government, for he, they expressed, manifested the party’s principles.
In 1800, several Republicans lived in a boarding house in Philadelphia known as “Marache Club.” They and many other party leaders met at the “club” to discuss politics and the upcoming election. Nathaniel Macon, a Tar Heel and an emerging leader on the national scene, lived at this boarding house and played an important role in Marache’s Club and in Jefferson’s electoral victory. Macon influenced other club residents: Willis Alston (NC), John Langdon (NH), John Nicholas (VA) and David Stone (NC). The “club” also hosted the Republican caucus that nominated Jefferson as the presidential candidate and Aaron Burr as the vice-presidential candidate.
At Marache Club, Macon held national influence, but some historians argue that the North Carolinian helped Jefferson more by forming the Warren Junto.