RESOURCES
NARRATIVE
By the election of 1824, the Federalist Party had broken up and the US was operating under a one party system dominated by Democratic-Republicans. The four prominent candidates in the election were Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, William Crawford, and John Quincy Adams.
In the electoral vote, Jackson came out on top with ninety-nine votes, Adams with eighty-four, Crawford with forty-one, and Clay with thirty-seven. Jackson had received a plurality of both of the recorded popular vote and the Electoral vote. However, he did not meet the constitutional requirement to become President because he failed to win an electoral majority. The Twelfth Amendment says that when a candidate is not elected by a majority of the whole number of appointed electors, the decision will go to the House of the Representatives with each state allotted one vote.
Clay was eliminated from the contest because the Twelfth Amendment also states that the House will choose the President from only the top three candidates. However, as Speaker of the House, Clay controlled the proceedings in the House. He used his influential position to make it known that he would support Adams because he did not think that Jackson’s military history qualified him to be President. Clay was persuasive and the House elected Adams as President on February 9, 1825. Several days later Adams nominated Clay to be his Secretary of State.
Jackson was furious at what he perceived to be a “corrupt bargain.” Jackson claimed that the people’s voice had been distorted because the popular vote had been ignored. While this was Jackson’s perception, the fact is that the popular vote (where it existed) served the purpose of selecting electors. Jackson also overlooked the fact hardly any states had all four nominees on the ballot. Many states did not even have three. Finally, six states did not have a popular vote at all – state legislatures decided the vote.
The election of 1824 is sometimes described as a crisis. However, the constitutional procedures for electing the president were faithfully carried out.
QUESTIONS
- What does the Constitution say will happen if no candidate for President receives a majority of electoral votes?
- Why did Jackson not become President-elect after receiving the most electoral votes?
- Why was Henry Clay so influential in the election?
- What is the purpose of the Electoral College? Do you think the President and Vice President should be chosen entirely by popular instead of electoral votes? Why or why not?
ANSWERS
- Article II states, “if no [presidential candidate] have a majority [of electoral votes], then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President.” This was changed by the Twelfth Amendment, which provided for the House to choose among only the top three candidates. When an election is decided in the House of Representatives, each state has one vote.
- Jackson received the highest number of electoral votes, but did not receive a majority, or over 50%, of the appointed Electors’ votes.
- Henry Clay was the Speaker of the House. As such, he had significant influence among members of the House. He used his position and influence to openly support Adams, who was then elected President of the United States.
- The Electoral College is the body that elects the President and Vice President of the United States. It is established in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. It is made up of delegations from each state, and each state’s number of electors is equal to its total number of members of Congress.
Some students may say that the president should be elected through the popular vote, and that the electoral college is an outdated way of electing the president. They may point out that candidates may decide not to campaign-and thus, not bring their message-to a state they believe they cannot win because most voters there favor his or her opponent. Finally, they may believe there is something fundamentally undemocratic about the electoral college, and that the will of the American people as a whole should prevail.
Others may say that the president should not be elected on the basis of popular vote alone. They may point out that if candidates do not need to appeal to voters across all the states, they would only campaign in the most populous ones. Therefore, only the ideas and values of the people in those states would carry any political weight. Finally, they may support the way the Electoral College balances the federal and national character of the United States, in that individuals cast their votes as citizens of their particular state, and that the electors of the several states in turn select the President of the federal government.
EXTENSION
Even though no evidence was ever produced for “the corrupt bargain,” Jackson’s four year campaign resulted in victory in his rematch with Adams in the Presidential election of 1828. Jackson’s efforts started the tradition of personal campaigning for the Presidency. The election of 1828 forever changed the face of the American political landscape by adding the element of the campaign trail for elected officials and was a seed of the strong political parties system we see today. Andrew Jackson is said to have ushered in the modern presidential campaign.
Have students research Jackson’s campaign and compare it to the current presidential campaign. What are the similarities? Differences? Issues? How has the campaign process changed since the days of Jackson?
