The history of American presidential elections reveals a number of close elections. In the early days of the Republic the election of 1824 stands out as one of the most unique and reflects the uniqueness of the poplar vote Electoral College System of electing presidents.
In the 1824 presidential race, five men, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Crawford, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun were all candidates for the presidency. At the time, Andrew Jackson was Secretary of State and the hero of the War of 1812. William Crawford was the Secretary of the Treasury. Henry Clay a representative from the state of Kentucky and was the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a position of great prominence. John C. Calhoun was from the state of South Carolina.
John C. Calhoun chose to drop out of the race early in the contest leaving Adams, Jackson, Crawford and Clay.
The presidential race became a battlefield as the candidates waged a bitter campaign for the presidency. Charges of drunkeness, gambling and even malfeasance in office were leveled. Because Andrew Jackson had authorized the executions of mutineers during the War of 1812, Henry Clay accused him of murder.
When the election was held, Jackson won the popular vote with a total of 152, 901 and led in the electoral vote count with 99. Adams came in second with a poplar vote count of 114,023 and had garnered 84 electoral votes. Crawford was third with 49,979 popular votes and 41 electoral votes. Clay had accumulated only 37 electoral votes.
Since no candidate had a clear majority of the Electoral College votes, the 12th Amendment fo the Constitution required that the House of Representatives, with one vote for each state, elect the new president. There were twenty-four states in the Union at the time.
As speaker of the House, Henry Clay had enormous influence in Congress. Rumors were rife that Clay was willing to cut a deal to give his support to whatever candidate named him secretary of state. It was a well known fact that every secretary of state since James Madison in 1809 had become president and it was feared that Clay would use this as a stepping stone to the White House in the subsequent election. Andrew Jackson's supporters were particularly fearful of this scenario.
Clay denied that he was up to anything and a special House committee found no proof of any deal making.
In the House of Representatives, when voting to elect a president, each state has only one vote. A simple majority is all that is required.
When the House voted, it took only one ballot. Thirteen states voted for Adams, seven for Jackson and four for Crawford.
Jackson's supporters were less than pleased with the results of the election in the House. Their anger turned to fury three days later when Adams named Clay his secretary of state.
Throughout Adams' term in office the Jackson supporters kept up a steady drumbeat that there was a "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Clay. It became a major issue in the 1828 presidential election in which Andrew Jackson defeated the incumbent John Quincy Adams.
