US History

U.S. History Study Guide

9.18 The Election of 1824 By this time most states eliminated the property qualifications for voting. The new Massachusetts state constitution of 1820 had led the way to this idea, influencing other Northern states. This movement for reformwas much slower in the Southern states. Free blacks were excluded from voting across the South, and even in most of the Northern states. In those areas, they were gradually excluded from the social and economic mainstream as well as from the political arena in the early years of this period. National elections had never attractedmuch enthusiasmuntil 1824. Legislative committees hadmade the presidential nominations and kept the ruling groups in power by excluding the voters from the process: however, this year the system failed and the powers were bypassed. The members of the Electoral College were now being elected by the people, rather than by the state legislatures, as in the early days. The Candidates All four candidates claimed to be democratic-republicans. This would be the last president of the Democratic-Republican Party as new parties formed and gained strength. • William H. Crawford, Secretary of the Treasure, was the pick of the Congressional caucus. • John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, held the job which traditionally had been the stepping stone to the executive office. • Henry Clay who was Speaker of the House and Father of the American System, provided a high tariff on imports to finance an extensive internal improvement package. • Andrew Jackson of Tennessee presented himself as a war hero from the 1812 conflict. The Election Results Go to Congress Jackson won forty-three percent of the popular vote, but the four-way split meant that he only received thirty-eight percent of the electoral votes. Under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment, the top three candidates were voted on by the House of Representatives. This left Henry Clay out of the running, and he threw his support to Adams. The votes had no sooner been counted, the new president, Adams appointed Henry Clay as his Secretary of State. The Corrupt Bargain Andrew Jackson and his supporters immediately accused Clay of making a deal for his vote. The rallying cry of “corrupt bargain” became the impetus for their immediate initiation of the campaign for the 1828 election.

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