Presidential Elections of 1824 Deadlocked
The presidential election of 1824 was marked by a significant deadlock involving four primary candidates: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Harris Crawford. Despite Jackson securing both the highest number of popular votes and electoral votes (99), he fell short of the required majority needed for outright victory. Consequently, the election was referred to the House of Representatives, as stipulated by the U.S. Constitution.
This election highlighted growing discontent with the congressional caucus system, leading to a divide among political factions and a shift towards new party alignments. The House ultimately chose Adams as the sixth president on February 9, 1825, largely due to Clay's influence, despite his exclusion from the final ballot. The controversial outcome sparked accusations of a "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Clay, particularly after Adams appointed Clay as his secretary of state. This election also set the stage for a significant political realignment, resulting in the emergence of the National Republicans and the continuation of the Democratic-Republicans under Jackson's leadership as they prepared for the next election cycle in 1828.
Presidential Elections of 1824 Deadlocked
Presidential Elections of 1824 Deadlocked
On December 1, 1824, the deadlocked 1824 presidential election involving four candidates-John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Harris Crawford, and Andrew Jackson-was turned over for settlement to the United States House of Representatives pursuant to the Constitution. It was the result of the seemingly clear but actually ambiguous method of electing the president of the United States also stipulated in the Constitution.
In 1787, following lengthy debate, the framers of the Constitution agreed on a certain method: “Each State shall appoint, in such a manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled.” It was expected that the electors would, since there was no constitutional provision for a national slate of announced candidates, cast their ballots for individual choices. It was also assumed that only rarely would any one candidate obtain a majority of all the electoral votes cast. The House of Representatives, voting by states with one vote per state, was therefore empowered to elect the president from among the five candidates who had amassed the greatest number of electoral votes. “After the choice of the President,” the constitutional provision continued, “the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice -President.”
During the course of the early political history of the United States, the electoral system was increasingly subjected to stresses and strains. At first electing the president was very simple since in 1788 and 1792 George Washington was the only candidate seriously considered. However, as political parties began to emerge starting in the mid-1790s, congressional party caucuses began to decide upon a candidate and recommend him to the electors. There was generally an undisputed electoral majority.
In 1800, for the first time, the election procedures stipulated in the Constitution were put to a test and the vote went to the House of Representatives. The Constitution provided that the “electors shall…vote by ballot for two persons” without providing that they stipulate whether the votes they cast were for the president or vice-president. Seventy-three electoral votes had been cast for Thomas Jefferson, around whom the new Democratic-Republican Party was formed, and seventy-three votes had gone to Aaron Burr, Jefferson's fellow party member. A prolonged and exhausting House deadlock was broken only on the 36th ballot, on February 17, 1801, and Jefferson was declared president.
The 12th Amendment, which was ratified in 1804, required the electors to vote separately for president and vice-president and also reduced to three the number of candidates from among whom the House decision was to be made.
The election of 1824 reflected several new trends in American politics: increased opposition to the congressional caucus as a means of selecting the presidential candidate, dissolution of former party distinctions and the gradual transition to new party groupings, and mounting sectionalism as seen in the candidates themselves and in voter alignment. John C. Calhoun, President James Monroe's secretary of war, declared his candidacy as early as 1821. In July of the following year, the Tennessee legislature nominated Andrew Jackson, a popular military personality who represented the interests of the west and the “common man” everywhere. After doing so, the legislature charged in a formal complaint that the congressional caucus procedure was invalid because the Constitution had not empowered Congress to endorse a candidate for electoral approval. Other states imitated Tennessee's action. The Kentucky legislature nominated a native son, longtime Speaker of the House Henry Clay, in November 1822. New Englander John Quincy Adams, son of the second president and Monroe's secretary of state, was subsequently nominated in Boston, Massachusetts.
When the congressional caucus finally assembled in early 1823, only 66 representatives met. This rump assembly nominated Georgia politician William Harris Crawford, Monroe's secretary of the treasury. The Crawford selection did not meet with the approval of the state legislatures. Support for Crawford was further weakened when he suffered a stroke several months later and became physically unfit for the presidency.
The candidates, who were outspoken on the issues of cheap public land, tariffs, and internal improvement, waged a lively campaign. Since a uniform election day in all of the states had not yet been set by federal law, the election extended from October 29 to November 22. Andrew Jackson received the highest number not only of popular votes but also 99 of electoral votes, Adams second with 84, and Crawford and Clay trailing with 41 and 37, respectively. John Calhoun, who had decided to run as vice -president on both the Adams and Jackson tickets, amassed a clear majority of 182 electoral votes out of the 260 cast (with one elector failing to vote). However, Jackson had received only a plurality, not the required majority of electoral votes.
On December 1, 1824, the presidential election went to the House of Representatives for the second time in the nation's history. Henry Clay, who was automatically eliminated from the race as the holder of fourth place, nevertheless wielded enough power to decide the election outcome by swinging his congressional support in favor of one of the remaining three contenders. Although Clay was ardently wooed by all of the candidates, he favored Adams. Crawford's bad health and Jackson's popularity in the west, which competed with Clay's own popularity, weighed against them in his eyes. Moreover, Adams's nationalist politics most closely conformed to Clay's political ideals.
Early in January 1825, Clay advised his supporters to cast their ballots for Adams. On February 9, 1825, the House of Representatives, with a vote of 13 for Adams, seven for Jackson, and four for Crawford, chose Adams as the sixth president of the United States.
The controversial 1824 election had several important side effects. The Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party split into two factions, with the Adams-Clay group becoming the National Republicans, and the supporters of Jackson retaining the old name as Democratic-Republicans. Jackson, particularly chagrined at having been deprived of the presidency after initially winning the largest number of electoral and popular votes, began to lay plans for the 1828 presidential election. Adams's appointment of Clay, whose support had won him the presidency, as secretary of state gave currency to the allegations made earlier that Clay and Adams had made a “corrupt bargain.” Although the charges were never substantiated, the accusation cast a shadow on Clay's public image during the rest of his career.