Definition of turnbuckle. : a device that usually consists of a link with screw threads at both ends, that is turned to bring the ends closer together, and that is used for tightening a rod or stay.
Such splintering had not yet led to formal party organization, but later the faction led by Andrew Jackson would evolve into the Democratic Party, while the factions led by John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay would become the National Republican Party and later the Whig Party.
A split appeared in the then Republican party during the 1824 elections (at the end of the Monroe administration). When the election was thrown to the House of Representatives, Henry Clay backed John Quincy Adams to deny the presidency to Andrew Jackson, a longtime political rival.