Video: 'The Election of 1824'

(Wednesday, February 9, 1825, during the 1824 presidential campaign) — The U.S. House of Representatives elected Secretary of State John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts president today after no candidate had received a majority of electoral votes in the general election.

Adams was elected on the first ballot with 13 states, followed by Andrew Jackson with 7, and William Crawford with 4 in what was termed by some individuals a “Corrupt Bargain” with the promise to make Henry Clay the next secretary of state.

Jackson had received more electoral (99) and popular votes than any other candidate in the general election, but not the majority of 131 electoral votes needed to win the election. Jackson was followed by Adams (84), Secretary of the Treasury William Harris Crawford of Georgia (41) and House Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky (37; Clay was not considered by the House as only the top three candidates qualified).

Since no candidate had 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.

There had been, 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.

Adams and Calhoun would be inaugurated on Mar. 4, 1825.

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