United States presidential election, 1824

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The United States presidential election of 1824 is often considered a realigning election. The previous few years had seen the rare phenomenon of one-party government in the United States, as the Federalist Party had dissolved, leaving only the (Democratic-)Republican Party. In this election, the 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 Whigs.

This election is notable for being the only time since the passage of the Twelfth Amendment that the presidential election was thrown into the House of Representatives, as no candidate received a majority of the electoral vote. It is also often said to be the first election in which the president did not win the popular vote. This is hard to determine, insofar as a quarter of the states did not conduct a popular vote, instead having the state legislature choose their electors.

General election

Campaign

The election was a contest between:

• General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, a charismatic hero of the War of 1812 and a former United States representative and senator;
• John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, son of former President John Adams, former United States Minister to Russia, one of the drafters of the Treaty of Ghent, and the 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 current Secretary of the Treasury; and
• Henry Clay of Kentucky, the "Great Compromiser", the current Speaker of the House.

Crawford received the nomination of the caucus in Washington, but this was sparsely attended and was widely attacked as undemocratic. In 1823, Crawford suffered a stroke. Even though he recovered in 1824, this crippled his bid for the presidency.

This election was more a contest of favorite sons than of conflicts over policy as the candidates were backed by different sections of the country: Adams was strong in the Northeast, Jackson in the South and mid-Atlantic, Clay in parts of the West, and Crawford on the Southeastern seaboard.

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

Results

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

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. [1824 Presidential Election Results]. [Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections] (July 26, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): [Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996]. [Official website of the National Archives]. (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: [Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996]. [Official website of the National Archives]. (July 30, 2005).

Breakdown by ticket

{| class="wikitable" ! Presidential Candidate ! Running Mate ! Electoral Vote^(a) |- | Andrew Jackson | John Caldwell Calhoun | 98 .. 99 |- | John Quincy Adams | John Caldwell Calhoun | 65 .. 74 |- | William Harris Crawford | Nathaniel Macon | 24 |- | Henry Clay | Nathan Sanford | 23 .. 27 |- | John Quincy Adams | Andrew Jackson | 9 .. 10 |- | William Harris Crawford | Martin Van Buren | 9 |- | Henry Clay | John Caldwell Calhoun | 7 .. 11 |- | Henry Clay | Andrew Jackson | 3 |- | William Harris Crawford | Henry Clay | 1 .. 2 |- | John Quincy Adams | (none) | 1 |- | John Quincy Adams | Nathan Sanford | 0 .. 7 |- | William Harris Crawford | John Caldwell Calhoun | 0 .. 7 |- | William Harris Crawford | Nathan Sanford | 0 .. 5 |- | Andrew Jackson | Nathan Sanford | 0 .. 1 |- | John Quincy Adams | Henry Clay | 0 .. 1 |- | William Harris Crawford | Andrew Jackson | 0 .. 1

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^(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.

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—he had said that, "I cannot believe that killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the … duties of the First Magistracy"—and Clay's American System was far closer to Adams' position on tariffs and internal improvements than Jackson's or Crawford's, so he threw his support to Adams, and Adams won on the first ballot.

This shocked Jackson, who expected that, as the winner of a plurality of both the popular and electoral votes, he should have been elected President. When President Adams appointed Clay his Secretary of State, essentially declaring him heir to the Presidency—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 leading to Jackson's victory in the Adams-Jackson rematch in 1828.

	Adams	Jackson	Crawford
1st ballot	13	7	4

 

	1st ballot
Alabama	Jackson
Connecticut	Adams
Delaware	Crawford
Georgia	Crawford
Illinois	Adams
Indiana	Jackson
Kentucky	Adams
Louisiana	Adams
Maine	Adams
Maryland	Adams
Massachusetts	Adams
Mississippi	Jackson
Missouri	Adams
New Hampshire	Adams
New Jersey	Jackson
New York	Adams
North Carolina	Crawford
Ohio	Adams
Pennsylvania	Jackson
Rhode Island	Adams
South Carolina	Jackson
Tennessee	Jackson
Vermont	Adams
Virginia	Crawford

Electoral college selection

{| class="wikitable" ! Method of choosing Electors ! State(s) |- | each Elector chosen by voters statewide | Alabama
Connecticut
Indiana
Massachusetts
Mississippi
New Hampshire
New Jersey
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Virginia |- | each Elector appointed by state legislature | Delaware
Georgia
Louisiana
New York
South Carolina
Vermont |- | state is divided into electoral districts, with one Elector chosen per district by the voters of that district | Illinois
Kentucky
Maryland
Missouri
Tennessee |- |

• two Electors chosen by voters statewide
• one Elector chosen per Congressional district by the voters of that district

| Maine

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See also

• History of the United States (1789-1849)

References

Navigation

 

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