The four times in which there has been a discrepancy between the popular vote and the Electoral College, the Democratic candidate won the popular vote and the Republican candidate managed to steal the election through the Electoral College. No need to try to spin or glamorize this particular instance.
That's an occurrence of electoral geography of the times, I'd think, rather than any ingrained bias towards the Republicans. And 1824 is the first occurrence, before either party had formed (though
of course we could say that in spirit, Adams represented what would become the Republicans and Jackson later led the Democrats, blah blah f#ckity blah).
