Presidential election thrown to U.S. House 190 years ago today (Dec 1 1824)


Video: 'Election of 1824'

(Wednesday, December 1, 1884, during the 1824 presidential campaign) — The results of U.S. presidential election of 1824 were announced today (although voting continued until Dec. 2, 1824), but since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the House of Representatives was given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution (which it would do on Feb. 9, 1825, less a month before inauguration day).

Andrew Jackson received more electoral (99) and popular votes than any other candidate, but not the majority of 131 electoral votes needed to win the election. Jackson was followed by U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts (84), Secretary of the Treasury William Harris Crawford of Georgia (41) and House Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky (37).

There was, however, a clear winner in the vice presidential election: U.S. Secretary of War John C. Calhoun of South Carolina was elected over former U.S. Senator Nathan Sanford of New York 182-30 electoral votes.

All of the major candidates mentioned here considered themselves part of the Democratic-Republican Party.