United States presidential election, 1824

Infobox Election
election_name = United States presidential election, 1824
country = United States
type = presidential
ongoing = no
previous_election = United States presidential election, 1820
previous_year = 1820
next_election = United States presidential election, 1828
next_year = 1828
election_date = October 26 - December 1, 1824


nominee1 = John Quincy Adams
party1 = Democratic-Republican Party
running_mate1 = John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, Nathan Sanford, Henry Clay
home_state1 = Massachusetts
electoral_vote1 = 84
states_carried1 = 13 "(after vote in House)"
popular_vote1 = 113,122
percentage1 = 30.9%


nominee2 = Andrew Jackson
party2 = Democratic-Republican Party
running_mate2 = John C. Calhoun, Nathan Sanford
home_state2 = Tennessee
electoral_vote2 = 99
states_carried2 = 7 "(after vote in House)"
popular_vote2 = 151,271
percentage2 = 41.3%


nominee4 = William H. Crawford
party4 = Democratic-Republican Party
running_mate4 = Nathaniel Macon, Martin Van Buren, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Nathan Sanford, Andrew Jackson
home_state4 = Georgia
electoral_vote4 = 41
states_carried4 = 4 "(after vote in House)"
popular_vote4 = 40,856
percentage4 = 11.2%


nominee5 = Henry Clay
party5 = Democratic-Republican Party
running_mate5 = Nathan Sanford, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson
home_state5 = Kentucky
electoral_vote5 = 37
states_carried5 = N/A
popular_vote5 = 47,531
percentage5 = 13.0%
map_

---

map_size = 350px
map_caption = Presidential election results map. Green denotes states won by Jackson, Pink denotes those won by Adams, Blue denotes those won by Crawford, Orange denotes those won by Clay. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
title = President
before_election = James Monroe
before_party = Democratic-Republican Party
before_color = 0080000
after_election = John Quincy Adams
after_party = Democratic-Republican Party
after_color = E75480

In the United States presidential election of 1824, John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825 after the election was decided by the House of Representatives. The previous few years had seen a one-party government in the United States, as the Federalist Party had dissolved, leaving only the Democratic-Republican Party. In this election, the Democratic-Republican Party splintered as four separate candidates sought the presidency. 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.

This election is notable for being the only time since the passage of the Twelfth Amendment in which the presidential election was decided by the House of Representatives, as no candidate received a majority of the electoral vote. This presidential election was also the only one in which the candidate receiving the most electoral votes did not become president (because a majority, not just a plurality, is required to win). It is also often said to be the first election in which the president did not win the popular vote, although the popular vote was not measured nationwide. At that time, several states did not conduct a popular vote, allowing their state legislature to choose their electors.

General election

Campaign

The election was a contest among:
* General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, a charismatic hero of the War of 1812, a former United States Representative, and a then-current United States Senator from Tennessee.

* John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, son of former President John Adams, former member of the Federalist Party, former United States Minister to Russia, one of the drafters of the Treaty of Ghent, former United States Senator from Massachusetts, and the then-current Secretary of State.

* William H. Crawford of Georgia, former United States Minister to France, former United States Senator from Georgia, former Secretary of War, and the then-current Secretary of the Treasury.

* Henry Clay of Kentucky, the “Great Compromiser,” and the then-current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

In 1822, Jackson was nominated for president by the legislature of Tennessee; a convention of Pennsylvanian Democratic-Republicans nominated Jackson in 1824. The traditional Congressional caucus nominated Crawford for president and Albert Gallatin for vice president, but it was sparsely attended and was widely attacked as undemocratic. Gallatin later withdrew from the contest for the vice presidency. In 1823, Crawford suffered a stroke. Even though he recovered in 1824, this crippled his bid for the presidency. Also, John Quincy Adams had more support than Henry Clay because of the huge popularity he had among the old Federalist voters in New England; by now, the Adams family too had united with the Democratic-Republican Party.

The election was partially a contest of favorite sons as it was a conflict over policy (positions on tariffs and internal improvements was where some significant disagreement existed), as the candidates were backed by different sections of the country: Adams was strong in the Northeast, Jackson in the South, West and mid-Atlantic, Clay in parts of the West, and Crawford in parts of the East.

John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, current Secretary of War, was initially a fifth candidate in the early stages of consideration, but he opted instead to seek the vice presidency and backed Jackson after seeing the popularity of Crawford in the South. Both Adams' and Jackson's supporters backed Calhoun, giving him an easy majority of electoral votes.

Results

None of the four presidential candidates received a majority of the electoral vote, so the presidential election was decided by the House of Representatives. (See “Contingent election” below.) Meanwhile, John C. Calhoun secured a total of 182 electoral votes in a generally uncompetitive race to win the vice presidency outright.

Source (Popular Vote): Leip PV source| year=1824| as of=July 26, 2005

Source (Electoral Vote): National Archives EV source| year=1824| as of=July 30, 2005

^(a) "The popular vote figures exclude Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, South Carolina, and Vermont. In all of these states, the Electors were chosen by the state legislatures rather than by popular vote."

Source: National Archives EV source| year=1824| as of=July 30, 2005

Breakdown by ticket

^(a) "Wikipedia's research has not yet been sufficient to determine the pairings of 21 electoral votes in Delaware, Maryland, and New York; therefore, the possible tickets are listed with the minimum and maximum possible number of electoral votes each."

1825 Contingent election

The presidential election was thrown to the U.S. House of Representatives. As per the Twelfth Amendment, only the top three candidates in the electoral vote were candidates in the House: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William Harris Crawford. Left out was Henry Clay, who happened to be Speaker of the House. Clay detested Jackson and had said of him, “I cannot believe that killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the various, difficult, and complicated duties of the Chief Magistracy.” [Henry Clay to Francis Preston Blair, January 29, 1825.] Moreover, Clay's American System was far closer to Adams' position on tariffs and internal improvements than Jackson's or Crawford's, so Clay threw his support to Adams, who had many more votes than Clay. John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, on the first ballot. [cite book |last=Adams |first=John Quincy |authorlink=John Quincy Adams |coauthors=Adams, Charles Francis |title=Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848 |url=http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0836950216&id=KPQrq0LBvbYC&pg=PA501 |accessdate=2006-08-02 |year=1874 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott & Co. |id=ISBN 0-8369-5021-6 |pages=501–505] [cite book |author=United States Congress |others=18th Congress, 2nd Session, February 9 |title=House Journal |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(hj01849)) |accessdate=2006-08-02 |year=1825 |pages=219–222]

Adams' victory shocked Jackson, who, as the winner of a plurality of both the popular and electoral votes, expected to be elected president. When President Adams appointed Clay his Secretary of State, he essentially declared him heir to the Presidency, as Adams and his three predecessors had all served as Secretary of State. Jackson and his followers accused Adams and Clay of striking a “corrupt bargain”. The Jacksonians would campaign on this claim for the next four years, ultimately attaining Jackson's victory in the Adams-Jackson rematch in 1828.

Electoral College selection

See also

* Andrew Jackson
* "Corrupt Bargain"
* Electoral college
* Henry Clay
* History of the United States (1789-1849)
* John Quincy Adams
* Realigning election
* Second Party System
* United States House elections, 1824
* William Harris Crawford

Notes

References

*

External links

* [http://dca.tufts.edu/features/aas/index.html A New Nation Votes: American Election Returns, 1787-1825]