United States presidential election, 1824
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The United States presidential election of 1824 is considered a realigning election. 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 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, but instead had the state legislature choose their electors.
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[edit] General election
[edit] Campaign
The election was a contest between:
- General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, a charismatic hero of the War of 1812, a former United States Representative, and a 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 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,” 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.
The election was more a contest of favorite sons than a conflict 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 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.
[edit] 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.
| Presidential Candidate | Party | Home State | Popular Vote(a) | Electoral Vote | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | ||||
| Andrew Jackson | Democratic-Republican | Tennessee | 151,271 | 41.3% | 99 |
| John Quincy Adams | Democratic-Republican | Massachusetts | 113,122 | 30.9% | 84 |
| William Harris Crawford | Democratic-Republican | Georgia | 40,856 | 11.2% | 41 |
| Henry Clay | Democratic-Republican | Kentucky | 47,531 | 13.0% | 37 |
| (Massachusetts unpledged electors) | (n/a) | (n/a) | 6,616 | 1.8% | 0 |
| Other | 6,437 | 1.8% | 0 | ||
| Total | 365,833 | 100.0% | 261 | ||
| Needed to win | 131 | ||||
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.
| Vice Presidential Candidate | Party | State | Electoral Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| John Caldwell Calhoun | Democratic-Republican | South Carolina | 182 |
| Nathan Sanford | Democratic-Republican | New York | 30 |
| Nathaniel Macon | Democratic-Republican | North Carolina | 24 |
| Andrew Jackson | Democratic-Republican | Tennessee | 13 |
| Martin Van Buren | Democratic-Republican | New York | 9 |
| Henry Clay | Democratic-Republican | Kentucky | 2 |
| Total | 260 | ||
| Needed to win | 131 | ||
Source: Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 30, 2005).
[edit] Breakdown by ticket
| 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 |
(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.
[edit] 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.”[1] 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. John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, on the first ballot.[2][3]
Adams' victory 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 |
[edit] Electoral college selection
| 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 |
|
Maine |
[edit] 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
- William Harris Crawford
[edit] Notes
- ^ Henry Clay to Francis Preston Blair, January 29, 1825.
- ^ Adams, John Quincy, Adams, Charles Francis (1874). Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848. J.B. Lippincott & Co., 501–505. ISBN 0-8369-5021-6. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
- ^ United States Congress (1825). House Journal, 18th Congress, 2nd Session, February 9, 219–222. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
[edit] References
- A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College. The Green Papers. Retrieved on March 20, 2005.
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