THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1824
General Character of the Presidential Contest of 1824--John Quincy
Adams--DeWitt Clinton--William H. Crawford--John C. Calhoun--Daniel
Webster--Henry Clay--Andrew Jackson--The Nomination of Presidential
Candidates in 1824--Failure of the Electors to Elect the
President--Territorial Distribution of the Electoral Vote--New York in
the Election of 1824--South Carolina in the Election of
1824--Pennsylvania in the Election of 1824--The Election in the House
of Representatives--Clay Master of the Situation--Clay's Support of
Adams, and Kremer's Charge of Bargain and Corruption--The Election of
Adams by the House of Representatives--Clay and the Secretaryship of
State--Threats of the Organization of an Anti-administration
Party--The Bargain between Clay and Adams a mere Suspicion--Clay's
Nomination to the Secretaryship of State in the Senate--The
Composition of the new Anti-administration Party.
[Sidenote: General character of the presidential contest of 1824.]
As has been pointed out, from 1820 to 1824 the political arena was
clear of the combats of principles, and furnished the tilting-ground
for the jousts of personal ambition. The "Virginia dynasty" became
extinct with the expiration of Monroe's second term, and the way was
open for anyone to enter the lists who was willing to risk the shocks
of the encounter.
At no time in our history has the roll of our political nobility been
more full of brilliant names and characters.
{132} [Sidenote: John Quincy Adams.]
First of all, there was John Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State, the
"knight without fear and without reproach," blunt, grim, almost rude,
through an unconscious suspicion that politeness might encourage the
approach of temptation; now fifty-seven years old, and trained in
statecraft and diplomacy almost from childhood; the best equipped
statesman and the most experienced statesman that America had up to
that time produced; ready to serve his country in any honorable
capacity to which that country might freely call him, and just as
ready to withdraw from that service when his country indicated the
desire to dispense with him; puritanic, austere, and to the last
degree patriotic, his one qualification for the presidential office
was the capacity to discharge its duties wisely, honestly, and
loyally, a qualification which too rarely wins in popular elections.
[Sidenote: DeWitt Clinton.]
Then, there was DeWitt Clinton, noble in personal appearance,
dignified in manners, eloquent in debate, sagacious and far-sighted in
business, a lover of science and a scientist himself; the great
promoter of the Erie Canal, which was now on the point of completion,
and which was destined to revolutionize the commerce of the country;
still only fifty-five years of age, although he had been considered
more than twenty years before as the most promising man of the nation,
and had within that period been United States Senator, mayor of New
York City, candidate for the presidency against Mr. Madison, and twice
Governor of New York.
[Sidenote: William H. Crawford.]
Then, there was William H. Crawford, a Virginian by birth and a
Georgian by education; a man of large wealth and of imposing bearing;
enjoying a very great reputation for statesmanship without any easily
discoverable foundation therefor; now {133} fifty-two years of age,
and having already been United States Senator, Minister to France,
Secretary of War, and Secretary of the Treasury, which latter office
he still held; with the exception, perhaps, of Martin Van Buren, the
most astute politician among the great men of his time. He had the
political friendship and support of Van Buren. The two seem to have
been attracted to each other by the similarity of their methods. He
was the author of the law of 1820, limiting the term of the officials
of the Treasury to four years, the first step in the direction of
making the United States civil service a political machine, such as
Van Buren and his fellows in the "Regency" had made out of the civil
service of the Commonwealth of New York. It is not astonishing that
he, rather than any of the other aspirants for the presidency,
procured the assembling of a caucus of the members of Congress, and
secured a nomination from it, thus making himself the "regular"
candidate. Not a third of the members, however, appeared at the
caucus, and the nomination did him more harm than good.
[Sidenote: John C. Calhoun.]
Then, there was Calhoun, grave, pure, and patriotic as Adams himself,
and almost as puritanic; South Carolinian by birth, Scotch-Irish by
blood, Presbyterian in religion, and New Englander by education;
great, both in dialectics and in the administration of affairs; rather
more given to introspection than to objective research; speculative,
therefore, rather than inductive in his mental processes; most
fascinating in conversation, kind and generous in his feelings, and a
gentleman everywhere and upon all occasions; a personality to be
looked up to with reverence, admiration, and confidence. He was still
only forty-two years of age, and yet he had already passed fourteen
years in public service, first as member of the South Carolina
Legislature, then as member of Congress, and {134} then as Monroe's
Secretary of War for both terms, which office he still held.
[Sidenote: Daniel Webster.]
Then, there was Webster, of the same age with Calhoun, though as yet
only five years in public service; the most majestic personality which
America has ever produced, though born of the hardy yeomanry of New
England; profound in thought, grandly eloquent in speech, and royally
impressive in bearing; full of good cheer, in spite of the puritanism
of his ancestry, enjoying his friends and adored by his friends; a
splendid lawyer, a great statesman, and an incomparable orator--in a
word, a demigod; by no means so austere in character as in appearance;
liable, as genius too often is, to sometimes break over the restraints
of customary morality, but doing it in so grand and natural a manner
as to make the rule which he had broken seem narrow, insignificant,
and mean.
[Sidenote: Henry Clay.]
And then, there was Clay, the most genuine American of them all;
rather superficial in thought, entrancing in his oratory, with a voice
as winning as the siren's song, elegant and gallant in his manners,
perfectly irresistible in conversation, jovial and cheery and happy,
the prince of good fellows, loved and worshipped by everybody who knew
him; enthusiastic in his patriotism, seeking to make his country not
only independent of the world in all its policies but the leader of
the world in civilization, a zealous propagandist of American
republicanism, the "lion-hearted knight" of American statesmen. He was
now in the prime of his manhood, forty-seven years of age. He had been
a member of the Senate of the United States at thirty, but it was upon
the floor of the House of Representatives, and as Speaker of the
House, which office he again held, that he had won his most brilliant
laurels. He was at the moment the great champion of the {135} tariff,
of national internal improvements, and of the cause of the South
American States in their struggle for independence against Spain and
Portugal--of what he called the American system of political and
industrial independence. Of his competitors only Crawford differed
with him in regard to these principles in anything more than a slight
degree. Crawford was considered as rather more particularistic,
especially in his views on the question of internal improvements. But
Clay, with his genial self-confidence and irresistible self-assertion,
had assumed in the popular mind, as well as in the Congress, the part
of the leading representative of these policies. He had the advantage
or the disadvantage of that, whichever it might prove to be.
[Sidenote: Andrew Jackson.]
And lastly, Jackson, the noblest Roman of them all; ignorant and
irascible indeed, but virtuous, brave, and patriotic beyond any cavil
or question; faithful and devoted in his domestic life, absolutely
unapproachable by pecuniary inducements; the best of friends and the
most implacable of enemies; quick, hasty in forming his judgments and
tenacious beyond expression in holding to them; prone to elevate every
whim and impulse to a behest of conscience; earnest, terrible in the
inflexibility of his purposes; excited by opposition to an
ever-increasing degree of determination; unflinching and recklessly
daring in the performance of what he felt to be his duty; restless
under the legal restraints which might appear to hinder him in the
discharge of duty and the accomplishment of any great enterprise
intrusted to him; hostile to all gradations of power and privilege,
and inclined to break through any official net-work interposed between
himself and the rank and file subject to his command; a great soldier,
and yet a man of the people; the military hero of the country and a
martyr to the persecutions of the {136} politicians--here were
certainly qualities calculated to rouse the enthusiasm of the masses,
if not of the classes. He was now fifty-seven years of age, and was
not in strong health. He had shown no qualities of statesmanship,
although he had been twice a member of the Senate of the United
States, and was at the moment holding that most advantageous position
for a display of civic talent; but he had the fortune to live at a
time and in a country when and where the lower strata of society were
just coming to a full participation in political power, and when and
where high qualifications simply to discharge the duties of an office
were beginning to be regarded by the majority of the people as
disqualifications for holding the office.
These were by no means all of the great characters from among whom the
nation had its choice in 1824, but they were unquestionably the first
on the list. Different as they were in personal qualities, they were
not yet far apart in political opinions. Crawford leaned more toward
"States' rights" than the others. Clay was more pronounced in the
opposite direction. While Jackson was rather more uncommitted.
[Sidenote: The nomination of presidential candidates in 1824.]
Webster was not put forward by anybody, and did not offer himself as a
candidate. Clay was nominated by the legislature of Kentucky. Jackson
was nominated by the legislature of Tennessee, and by two Pennsylvania
conventions. While Adams had the advantage of the precedent which, for
nearly a quarter of a century, had pointed to the Secretary of State
as the natural successor to the presidential office.
[Sidenote: Failure of the electors to elect the President.]
As was to be expected, the electors did not choose any one of the
four, since the Constitution requires a majority of the whole number
of the electors for a choice. Jackson led with ninety-nine votes;
Adams was next with eighty-four; {137} Crawford followed with
forty-one; and Clay came last with thirty-seven.
[Sidenote: Territorial distribution of the electoral vote.]
The electoral vote was distributed territorially as might have been
naturally anticipated, except in two particulars. These were, the
failure of Van Buren to secure the electoral vote of New York for
Crawford, and the solid vote of Pennsylvania and South Carolina for
Jackson. These facts had some significance in connection with
subsequent developments, and require a little explanation.
[Sidenote: New York in the Election of 1824.]
New York was one of the Commonwealths which, down to 1824, permitted
the legislature to choose the presidential electors. In 1823 the
legislature was still under the control of Van Buren and his
colleagues in the "Regency," the Albany machine, and had the election
taken place in 1823 he could doubtless have delivered the electoral
vote entire to Crawford. But one of Jackson's shrewdest supporters,
probably Clinton, started the scheme for transferring the choice of
the electors from the legislature to the voters. This, if successful,
would destroy the control of the "Regency" over the electoral vote.
The opposition of the "Regency" to the bill, when it appeared in the
legislature, caused its rejection by that body; but the popular
indignation was roused to such a pitch against the "Regency" and its
adherents in the legislature, in consequence of this act, that, in the
Commonwealth elections of 1824, the "Regency" party was driven from
power, and the new legislature chose electors who cast the electoral
vote of the Commonwealth chiefly for Adams, as the Northern candidate.
[Sidenote: South Carolina in the Election of 1824.]
The fact that South Carolina cast her electoral vote for Jackson
instead of for Crawford is good evidence that there was still no
question of "States' rights" versus the powers of the Union at issue,
or that South {138} Carolina was still nationally disposed; and that,
either there was no tariff question at issue, or South Carolina had
not yet clearly discovered the hostility of the tariff to her
interests, or she believed Jackson to be opposed to the tariff.
Jackson, or rather his manager, William B. Lewis, a most astute
politician, had written a letter to a Dr. Coleman, of Warrenton, Va.,
upon the subject of the tariff. The letter was ostensibly a reply to
one from Dr. Coleman, inquiring of Jackson his views upon this
question. Very probably, however, Dr. Coleman's letter was also
dictated by Mr. Lewis. Jackson's reply contained nothing definite in
regard to the subject. It was a first-class political document, that
is, it was a document which could be interpreted to mean anything
which might be made necessary or desirable by time, place, and
circumstances. In a word, Lewis had made for Jackson a sort of _tabula
rasa_ record on the subject of the tariff. In such a state of things
it is certainly reasonable to ascribe South Carolina's preference for
Jackson to the facts that he claimed to be her son by birth, and that
Calhoun, rightly discerning Jackson to be the coming man, withdrew
from the race for the presidency, and was regarded as running for the
vice-presidency on the Jackson ticket.
[Sidenote: Pennsylvania in the Election of 1824.]
It is somewhat more difficult to account for the attitude of
Pennsylvania. We are now so accustomed to consider Pennsylvania the
"tariff State" _par excellence_, that it is difficult to conceive of a
time when she was not such. She was indeed, in 1824, for the tariff,
but her interests had not then become so completely linked together
with it as after 1840. In 1824 her vast beds of anthracite had not
been applied to the preparation of her iron ores, in fact {139} had
hardly been discovered. Pennsylvania west of the Alleghanies was then
an agricultural country, and was filled with a population intensely
democratic and almost lawless. So far as they had any political
science it was based upon the most radical postulates of the French
philosophy. The principal "plank" of the platform of the Harrisburg
convention of March 4th, 1824, which nominated Jackson, read as
follows: "This artificial system of cabinet succession to the
presidency is little less dangerous and anti-republican than the
hereditary monarchies of Europe. If a link in this chain of successive
secretary dynasties be not broken now, then may we be fettered by it
forever. Andrew Jackson comes pure, untrammelled, and unpledged from
the people." Adams, Crawford, and Calhoun were then members of
President Monroe's cabinet, and Clay was Speaker of the House of
Representatives. Jackson alone of all the candidates seemed to possess
the qualifications required by the Harrisburg doctrine. While this may
explain the attachment of the Pennsylvania Republicans to Jackson, we
must not forget that the remnant of the Pennsylvania Federalists were
also for him. In 1816 Jackson had written some letters to President
Monroe advising him not to ignore the Federalists in his appointments
to office, but to unite the country by showing himself superior to the
distinctions of party in his Administration. These letters were now
drawn forth and published by Jackson's manager, and the inference
which they conveyed was that Jackson would follow this policy, in case
he should be chosen to the presidency. Even Webster was inclined to
him, and Mrs. Webster was entirely won by his gallantry. Jackson in
the role of a fascinating gentleman and a popular ladies' man is
hardly the usual character under which the imagination of this
generation pictures him. It is, {140} nevertheless, strictly true that
the "Old Hero" knew how to make himself very acceptable to the ladies.
Pennsylvania was, chiefly, by this conjunction of influences, carried
for Jackson by an overwhelming majority.
[Sidenote: The Election in the House of Representatives.]
The failure of the electors to give a majority to any one of the
candidates threw the election into the House of Representatives, which
is empowered by the Constitution to choose, in such a case, one of the
three who shall have received the highest number of electoral votes.
[Sidenote: Clay master of the situation.]
From the day when it became known that the new President must be
chosen in this manner to the day of the election by the House, that
is, from about the middle of December to the ninth day of February,
the politicians in Washington were "laying pipe," "pulling wires," and
"making deals." It soon became manifest that Clay, while he could not
be chosen himself, since he could not be legally voted for, was the
master of the situation. So great was his popularity with the House
that, it is almost certain, he would have been chosen to the great
office himself had he been among the three having the highest number
of electoral votes. Everybody reasoned, therefore, that not only the
Representatives from the Commonwealths which had given their electoral
votes to Clay would follow his lead in voting in the House, but that
many others from other Commonwealths would act under inspiration from
him. After a good deal of talk among the members of the House and the
politicians generally as to whether the members were bound to vote as
the electors from their respective Commonwealths had voted, and as to
whether the legislatures of the respective Commonwealths possessed any
power to instruct the members of the House of Representatives from the
several Commonwealths in regard to {141} the casting of their votes,
the opinion finally prevailed that each Representative was entirely
free to vote according to his own judgment and preference; and that
meant that the popular and persuasive Speaker would be able to carry
enough votes with him to elect the candidate upon whom his favor might
fall.
[Sidenote: Clay's support of Adams, and Kremer's charge of bargain and
corruption.]
Propositions were made to him from the friends of the different
candidates, but he held them all at arm's length. It might have been
easily foreseen that he would support Adams. Crawford was a man of
exhausted powers, unfit physically and mentally to discharge the
duties of the great office. Jackson was only a military chieftain,
according to Clay's view a very dangerous character for the
presidency. There remained only Adams, probably the best-fitted man in
the country for the office. It was generally felt, for several days
before the election, that these considerations would determine Clay's
course of action. There were those, however, who were ready to ascribe
Clay's supposed attitude to other, and more selfish, motives. An
insignificant member from Pennsylvania, Kremer by name, gave it out in
public print that there was a bargain between Adams and Clay,
according to which Clay was to support Adams, and to receive in return
the secretaryship of State. This happened on January 28th, 1825, just
after the delegations from Ohio and Kentucky in the House had declared
their intention of supporting Adams. The small mind of Kremer could
not conceive of this attitude on the part of Clay save from the point
of view of selfish interests. Clay immediately called for an
investigation of the charge by the House, but Kremer sneaked out of
it.
[Sidenote: The election of Adams by the House of Representatives.]
On February 9th, 1825, the two Houses of Congress met in joint
assembly to count the electoral vote. It {142} was immediately found
that no candidate had a majority, and that, therefore, the choice lay
with the House. The House, on the same day, and on the first ballot,
elected Adams. The delegations from thirteen of the twenty-four
Commonwealths voted for him. The delegations from seven voted for
Jackson; and those from four for Crawford. Adams received the votes of
the delegations from all of the Commonwealths which had given their
electoral votes, or the majority of their electoral votes, to himself
and to Clay, and from three of the Commonwealths which had given the
majority of their electoral vote to Jackson.
[Sidenote: Clay and the Secretaryship of State.]
The twelfth day of February, 1825, is the date in Mr. Adams' diary
under which he recorded his offer of the secretaryship of State to Mr.
Clay. We find in the diary, for the day before this, an account of a
visit from a Mr. G. Sullivan, who told Mr. Adams "that the Calhounites
said that if Mr. Clay should be appointed Secretary of State, a
determined opposition to the administration would be organized from
the outset; that the opposition would use the name of General Jackson
as its head; and that the administration would be supported only by
the New England States--New York being doubtful, the West much
divided, and strongly favoring Jackson as a Western man, Virginia
already in opposition, and all the South decidedly adverse."
[Sidenote: Threats of the organization of an anti-administration
party.]
Exactly who the Calhounites were at that moment, as distinct from the
followers of Adams and Clay, is difficult to determine, since all the
electors who voted for Adams for President also voted for Calhoun for
Vice-President, except eight electors from Connecticut and one from
New Hampshire, and of the thirty-seven electors who voted {143} for
Clay, at least seven of them voted also for Calhoun. It was Crawford's
supporters who had opposed Calhoun for the second place, not one of
them having voted for him. This declaration made by Mr. Sullivan
meant, therefore, that Jackson's friends were going to organize an
opposition party to the Adams-Clay Administration and that the
Vice-President was going to cast his lot with them.
This was certainly a threat of danger, but Adams was not the man to be
frightened from the course which he had chosen as just and politic. He
immediately offered the first position in the cabinet to Clay, and,
after some six days of reflection and of consultation with friends,
Clay accepted.
[Sidenote: The bargain between Clay and Adams a mere suspicion.]
No sufficient evidence has ever been produced to convince a judicial
mind that Adams and Clay had come to any understanding in regard to
this matter either before Clay announced publicly that he should
support Adams, or afterward. But men generally do not have judicial
minds. "Diffused distrust and indiscriminate suspicion" mark the
attitude of the vulgar mind toward personages in high station.
Politicians know only too well that this is one of the most potent
forces which can be called into play, and they know only too well how
to take advantage of it. Conscious as both Adams and Clay doubtless
were of their own rectitude, they did not sufficiently appreciate the
proneness of the masses to believe in the corruption of their
superiors. Neither did they correctly appreciate the ungenerous and
uncandid spirit of the leaders among their opponents in clinging to
this charge, and reiterating it, after they had failed to substantiate
it by any credible evidence. They certainly did not comprehend that
they had given their opponents a shibboleth which would lead them to
certain victory.
{144} [Sidenote: Clay's nomination to the secretaryship of State in
the Senate.]
The opposition began at once their attack in the Senate under the
issue of Clay's appointment. Fifteen of the forty-one Senators present
voted against it. Among the fifteen was Jackson, who, upon his way, a
few days later, from Washington to his home in Tennessee, repeated and
re-enlivened the charge of "bargain and corruption." It is more than
probable that Jackson believed in it himself. He was so convinced of
his own honesty that he believed every one who differed with him to be
dishonest. This is a trait of character frequently met with, and it is
a most dangerous force with which to deal. The "Old Hero" possessed it
in an extraordinary degree.
[Sidenote: The composition of the new Anti-administration party.]
Despite the fact that there were no material differences in political
principles, and the further fact that Adams retained Monroe's cabinet
so far as he could, appointing new members only to positions made
vacant therein by his own and Calhoun's promotion to the presidency
and the vice-presidency, and by Crawford's refusal to accept the
Treasury for another term, it was now perfectly evident that Jackson,
Calhoun, and Crawford, with their followers, were determined upon an
organized opposition to the Adams-Clay Administration, no matter what
principles and policies that Administration should follow; that
Jackson would, on account of his popularity with the masses, be put
forward as the head of the new party; and that the cry of "bargain and
corruption" between the President and the chief officer of his
Administration, for robbing the "Old Hero" of his rights and the
people of their choice, was to be their watchword in the conflict.
{145}