Which 1824 republican

Quincy Adams, representing New England, had separated with the Federalists in the early s and served on various diplomatic missions, including the assignment to secure peace with Great Britain in A second candidate, John C. Eventually, he dropped out of the Presidential race to run for Vice President.

A third candidate, Henry Clay of Kentucky, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, represented the western states. He favored an active federal government committed to internal improvements and infrastructure in order to strengthen national economic development and settlement of the West.

William H. Crawford, a slaveholder from Georgia, suffered a stroke in that left him more or less incapacitated, but he continued his campaign with the support of the New York machine led by Martin Van Buren.

Jackson was popular for his military victories in the War of and in wars against the Creek in and the campaigns against Choctaws, Cherokees, and Chickasaws and his conduct of the First Seminole war in Florida.

He had been elected to the Senate in , and his popularity soared as pro-Jackson newspapers promoted the narrative of his courageous exploits. The election was as much a match of favorite sons as it was a struggle over policy. In general, the candidates were favored by different sections of the country, with Adams 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. With tens of thousands of new voters in the United States, the older system of having members of Congress assemble congressional caucuses to determine who would run was no longer tenable.

It became clear that voters had regional interests and for the first time, the popular vote had significant implications in a Presidential election. Electors were chosen by popular vote in 18 states, while the 6 remaining states employed the older system in which state legislatures selected electors.

The Electoral College, however, was another matter. Henry Clay was from the West and supported Western needs like roads and canals. A Kentucky slaveholder, he was speaker of the House of Representatives. Clay saw that the election would likely go to the House, where as speaker he would have the inside track. The outsider among the top candidates was Andrew Jackson from Tennessee. He was famous as the general who had beaten the British at New Orleans in He was a senator from Tennessee, but his political views were largely unformed and unknown.

The campaign quickly heated up, becoming America's first great mudslinging contest. Jackson was called a gambler, duelist, adulterer and military tyrant. Clay was called a drunkard and gambler. Adams was ridiculed for his slovenly dress. Crawford was attacked for dishonesty and mismanaging the budget. When the votes of the 24 states were finally tallied, to no one's surprise, there was no majority winner.

In popular vote, Jackson came in first with 42 percent, Adams took 32 percent, and Clay and Crawford had 13 percent each. In the crucial electoral vote, Jackson led with 99 electors from 11 states, 32 votes short of a needed majority. Adams had 84 electors from seven states. Crawford had 41, and Clay was last with Following the procedures of the 12th Amendment, the House of Representatives now had to choose the president from the top three: Jackson, Adams, and Crawford.

At the time, Inauguration Day was in March, and the first months of became a frenzy of lobbying and back-room bargaining. Rumors spread that representatives were trading their votes for ambassador posts and cabinet jobs. Henry Clay's fourth place finish shut him out of the presidency. He tried to use his post as speaker of the House to play kingmaker. He called in favors and worked behind the scenes to influence the vote. Jackson was a fellow Westerner, but Clay suspected that he would be a rival in future presidential races.

Clay disliked Adams, but the two met privately a month before the House election. Both men denied making any bargains. But rumors said that Adams had promised to make Clay secretary of state. As the vote neared, Clay worked hard for Adams. He won over some Western representatives whose states had voted solidly for Jackson. He even promised the votes of his own Kentucky, which had not cast a single popular vote for the Yankee Adams.

The House met to vote on February 9, After more than a month of arm twisting and bargaining, John Quincy Adams took exactly the 13 states he needed to win, Jackson won seven, and Crawford four. The public galleries in the house broke into such an uproar of booing and hissing that Speaker Clay ordered them cleared. Three days later, the new president nominated Henry Clay as his secretary of state. Charges of making a "corrupt bargain" would dog Henry Clay for the rest of his life. The Jackson supporters were furious.

After all, he had won by far the largest share of popular votes with 42 percent. In the popular press, the rhetorical attacks reached a level of cruelty and misrepresentation not seen since the election of Jackson was accused of multiple murders, of extreme personal violence, and of having lived in sin with his wife, Rachel, who herself was attacked as a bigamist.

Adams, on the other hand, was attacked for his legalistic attitudes, for his foreign-born wife, and for reportedly having procured young American virgins for the Russian czar as the primary achievement of his diplomatic career.

Adams's critics referred to him as "His Excellency" while Jackson came under attack as an ill-mannered, barely civilized, backwoods killer of Indians. In a masterstroke of popular politics, the Jacksonians made good use of the general's nickname, Old Hickory. He had earned the name because he was reputed to be as tough as hickory wood.

To publicize his image, Jackson supporters put hickory poles all over the country, distributed hickory toothpicks and canes, and served up barbecues fired by hickory chips. The branding of Jackson's wife as an "American Jezebel" and convicted adulteress—because she had married Jackson before her divorce from an earlier marriage had been finalized—surprisingly backfired as an election strategy. It unleashed a backlash against Adams for humiliating a woman who had lived for 40 years as the devoted wife of General Jackson, for grossly violating the general's privacy and honor, and for applying narrowly legalistic pronouncements in place of common sense.

To countless Americans, Jackson's duels, brawls, executions, and unauthorized ventures represented the victory of what was right and good over the application of stiff-minded and narrowly construed principles. The attacks simply enhanced Jackson's image as an authentic American hero who had drawn upon his natural nobility and powerful will to prevail against unscrupulous political foes, educated elitists, the pride of the British army, and "heathen savages"—often at the same time.

The campaign turned out more than twice the number of voters who had cast ballots in —approximately 57 percent of the electorate. Jackson won the election in a landslide, and by a wide margin of 95 electoral votes. Jackson carried the remaining fifteen states of the South, Northwest, mid-Atlantic, and West.

Incumbent Vice President John C. Calhoun won electoral votes to 83 for Richard Rush of Pennsylvania, Adams's running mate. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Help inform the discussion Support the Miller Center.

University of Virginia Miller Center. John Quincy Adams: Campaigns and Elections. Breadcrumb U. The Campaign and Election of Although John Quincy Adams should have been the heir apparent to the presidency as James Monroe's secretary of state, the year was a political turning point in which none of the old rules applied. Four Democratic-Republican Candidates In the summer of , an unofficial caucus of less than a third of the congressmen eligible to attend nominated Crawford for President.

A "Corrupt Bargain"? Personal Campaign Battles Although issues clearly separated the candidates along lines more distinct than any since the election of , the campaign itself was highly personal. Margaret A. Life Before the Presidency. Campaigns and Elections Current Essay. Domestic Affairs. Foreign Affairs. Life After the Presidency. Family Life.