ACADUS 2011
NOTES: Corrupt Bargain of 1824
After the votes were counted in the US presidential election of 1824, no candidate had received
a majority of the Presidential Electoral votes, thereby putting the outcome in the hands of the
House of Representatives. To the surprise of many, the House elected John Quincy Adams over
rival Andrew Jackson. It was widely believed that Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House at the
time, convinced Congress to elect Adams, who then made Clay his Secretary of State.
Supporters of Jackson, a Senator from Tennessee at the time, who won a plurality of those
popular votes which had been counted (though not necessarily of all votes) as well as the
greatest number of electoral votes, denounced this as a "corrupt bargain.”
More recently, mathematical analysis has proposed that, contrary to the assertions of Jackson,
and his supporters, the results of the election were consistent with so-called "sincere voting"—
that is, those Members of the House of Representatives who were unable to cast votes for their
most-favored candidate apparently voted for their second- (or third-) most-favored candidate,
as the Constitution requires. This suggests that the result was not a consequence of any
"corrupt bargain" between Adams and Clay, but was instead a natural consequence of an
electoral field that was fundamentally divided between those who supported Jackson and those
who would support anyone other than Jackson. The latter united behind Adams—who was the
natural alternative to Jackson, since third place candidate William H. Crawford was in poor
health and had no realistic chance of winning the House vote—and so prevailed. Clay was also
from the same subdivision of the Democratic-Republican Party as Adams, making him the
natural choice. The persistence of the "corrupt bargain" charge appears, therefore, to be the
subject of serious dispute.
Regardless of the various theories concerning the matter, John Quincy Adams was a one-term
President, and his rival, Jackson, was elected President by a large majority of the Electors in the
Election of 1828. The corrupt bargain theory, however, still carries sufficient merit not because
of the decision of electing John Quincy Adams, but as a result of the agreement to give the
Secretary of State position to Henry Clay. While it had occurred in a few previous elections that
the incumbent President had been succeeded by his Secretary of State, this result was not
inevitable. Still, it is possible that Clay saw his installation in this office as likely to enhance the
likelihood of his someday becoming President. Clay being offered the position of Secretary of
State may be the strongest indication that he might have made an agreement with Adams to
secure his election in return for the post.
Votes in the Electoral College, 1824.
The voting by state in the House of Representatives, 1825. Note that all of Clay's states voted for Adams.
ACADUS
NOTES: Jacksonian Democracy
Jacksonian democracy is the political philosophy of politician Andrew Jackson and his supporters. Prior
to and during Jackson's time as President, his supporters, the beginnings of the modern Democratic
Party, were resisted by the rival John Quincy Adams and Anti-Jacksonian groups, which later gave rise to
the Whig Party. The term refers to the period of the Second Party System, mid-1830s to 1854, when
Jacksonian philosophy was ascendant as well as the spirit of that era. It can be contrasted with the
characteristics of Jeffersonian democracy. During the Jacksonian era, the electorate expanded to include
all white male adult citizens, rather than only land owners in that group.
In contrast to the Jeffersonian era, Jacksonian democracy promoted the strength of the presidency and
executive branch at the expense of Congress, while also seeking to broaden the public's participation in
government. They demanded elected, not appointed, judges and rewrote many state constitutions to
reflect the new values. In national terms the Jacksonians favored geographical expansion, justifying it in
terms of Manifest Destiny. There was usually an agreement among both Jacksonians and Whigs that
battles over slavery should be avoided. The Jacksonian Era lasted roughly from Jackson's 1828 election
until the slavery issue became dominant after 1850.
Jacksonian democracy was built on political principles:
 Expanded Suffrage
o Jacksonians believed that voting rights should be extended to all white men.
o 1840- universal white male suffrage was commonplace
 Nearly all requirements to own property had been removed
 Manifest Destiny
o Belief that white Americans had a “destiny” to settle the American West and expand
control from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean
 New territories should be settled by the yeoman farmers
 The Whigs generally opposed Manifest Destiny
 Believed the nation should be build upon its cities
 Patronage
o Spoils System (Rotation in Office)
 A policy of placing political supporters into appointed offices
 Believed it was the right and duty of winners in political contests because it
would encourage political participation by the common man and a politician
would be more accountable for poor government service by his appointees
 Jacksonians believed that a long tenure in the civil service was
corrupting so civil servants should be rotated out at regular intervals
o The policy often led to the hiring of incompetent and sometimes corrupt officials
 Strict Constructionist
o Jacksonians initially favored a federal government of limited powers
 Jackson stated the he would guard against “all encroachments upon the
legitimate sphere of State sovereignty”
 This position was the justification for Jacksonians’ opposition to the 2nd
BUS
 It was also used to argue against South Carolina’s demands during the
Nullification Crisis
o As the Jacksonians consolidated power they advocated expanding federal power,
particularly Presidential power.
 Laissez Faire Economics
o Jacksonians generally endorsed a “hands-off” approach to the economy


Opposed the Whig program for the government to sponsor railroad and banking
industry modernizations to stimulate economic growth
Banking
o Andrew Jackson was opposed to all banks because he believed they were used to cheat
the common man
 He and many of his followers believed that only gold and silver should be
trusted as currency
o Jacksonians opposed government granted monopolies to banks, especially the national
bank (2nd BUS)
 Jackson declared war on the BUS, headed by Nicholas Biddle
Reforms
Jackson fulfilled his promise of broadening the influence of the citizenry in government, although not
without vehement controversy over his methods. Jacksonian policies included ending the bank of the
United States, expanding westward, and removing Native Americans from the Southeast. Jackson was
denounced as a tyrant by opponents on both ends of the political spectrum such as Henry Clay and John
C. Calhoun. With Congress controlled by his enemies, Jackson relied heavily on the power of the veto to
block their moves. One of the most important of these was the Maysville Road veto in 1830. A part of
Clay's American System, the bill would have allowed for federal funding of a project to construct a road
linking Lexington and the Ohio River, the entirety of which would be in the state of Kentucky. His
primary objection was based on the local nature of the project. He argued it was not the Federal
government's job to fund projects of such a local nature, and or those lacking a connection to the nation
as a whole. The debates in Congress reflected two competing visions of federalism. The Jacksonians saw
the union strictly as the cooperative aggregation of the individual states, while the Whigs had a deeper
conception of the "general welfare" that was greater than the sum of the nation's parts.]
Jacksonian Presidents
In addition to Jackson, his second vice president and one of the key organizational leaders of the
Jacksonian Democratic Party, Martin Van Buren, served as president. Van Buren was defeated in the
next election by William H. Harrison who died just 30 days into her term and was replaced by his Vice
President, John Tyler. Tyler was then succeeded by James Polk, a staunch Jackson supporter, and the last
of the true Jacksonian Presidents.