Corrupt Bargain: Adams Chosen by the House
Andrew Jackson won the popular vote and the most electoral votes in the 1824 presidential election, but no candidate secured a majority, throwing the election to the House of Representatives. Speaker Henry Clay, who had finished fourth, threw his support behind John Quincy Adams, who was elected president on the first ballot on February 9, 1825. When Adams then appointed Clay as Secretary of State, Jackson's supporters erupted with accusations of a 'Corrupt Bargain.' No evidence of an explicit deal has ever surfaced, but the optics were devastating. Jackson spent the next four years building a political machine dedicated to unseating Adams, which he accomplished in a landslide in 1828. The controversy permanently split the Democratic-Republican Party into two factions: Jackson's Democrats and Adams's National Republicans, who later became the Whigs. The modern two-party system in American politics traces directly to this disputed election.
February 9, 1824
202 years ago
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