You Think Bush / Gore Was Close!

A One-Vote Oddity

You Think Bush vs Gore Was Close!

 

Few elections in the history of the country were more rancorous than that of 1824. Indeed, that election makes modern so called “negative politics” look like a pillow fight between two year olds!

The main players were the eloquent William H. Crawford from Georgia, (the favorite of outgoing president Monroe and former Presidents Jefferson and Madison), Henry Clay from Kentucky, Andrew Jackson, (a senator and former war hero from Tennessee, known as “Old Hickory,”) and John Quincy Adams, the son of the 2^nd President, from Massachusetts.

The election began on October 29 and ended on November 22 but the results were not known until mid December. There were just twenty-four states. Eighteen states selected their electors by popular vote. Six selected their Electoral College representatives in the state legislatures.

Adams carried only one state but came in second in the popular vote. Jackson carried the most States (11) and also come in first in the popular vote. In the Electoral College, the vote totals were Jackson 99, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. No candidate received a majority of all electoral votes and according to the 12^th Amendment, the House of Representatives had to choose the President from the three highest totals.

Clay began to work for Adams’ candidacy. Each state would cast one vote, which meant that the majority of the Congressman had to be won first and then the vote for the state would be cast. Balloting began on February 9, 1825 and with Clay’s help Adams won 12 of the 24 states. Adams had only one state’s popular vote but now he was one vote shy of becoming President!

New York was the swing state and was evenly divided between Crawford and Adams. General Stephen Van Rensselaer was the swing vote in the New York House delegation and was a staunch Crawford man. At the last minute, Clay and Daniel Webster whisked Van Rensselaer into the Speaker’s office and told him that the ill health of Crawford (he had had a series of strokes) meant that the “safety of the country depended on the election of Adams.”

(Continued in next post)