John Quincy Adams
|
John Quincy Adams |
Single Party Dominance
Both Adams and Jackson chose Calhoun as a running mate; he must have
seemed a good ticket balancer for this northerner and this
westerner. Clay chose the former New York Senator Nathan Sanford
while Crawford chose party elder Albert Gallatin, until Van Buren persuaded
Gallatin not to run
(see Foreign-born Presidents) or maybe because
he lacked sufficient support.
Crawford chose North Carolina Senator Nathaniel Macon
(see Macon Bill Number 2).
Prior to the election Crawford suffered a stroke that significantly
hurt his chances.
In the election, Calhoun won the Vice Presidency easily. But none of
the presidential candidates earned the 131 electoral votes required to win the
election. Totals were as follows:
This is well known. But what is less well known is the breakdown of
the electoral vote by ticket (see table).
While the official tickets took the first four positions, we find a number of
oddities in the lower portion of the table (highlighted in blue). An
Adams-Jackson ticket? Clay and Jackson? Clay and Calhoun? Crawford
and Clay? Crawford and Jackson? Crawford and Sanford? Adams and no one? And how did Martin Van Buren collect 9 votes when he wasn't even on the ballot?
What we need to remember is that while in our times members of the
Electoral College are almost always faithful to the voters' wishes,
in earlier times that was not always the case. The post-12th amendment Single Party Dominance rules make these
kinds of results possible in the game as well.
By the time of the 10th presidential election in 1824,
the Federalist party was moribund and the Jeffersonian Republicans
had achieved, in game terms, Single Party Dominance. Initially five nominees
from this party contended for the presidency, a crowded field. But
Secretary of War John C. Calhoun, not liking his chances, decided to
withdraw and set his sights on the vice presidency. This left
westerners General Andrew Jackson and House Speaker Henry Clay,
northerner Secretary of State John Quincy Adams,
and southerner Secretary of Treasury, William H. Crawford.
(Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins was overwhelmingly unpopular and
suffered from major health problems that would claim his life in the
next year.)
Presidential Candidate Running Mate Electoral Vote
Andrew Jackson John C. Calhoun 99 John Quincy Adams John C. Calhoun 74 Henry Clay Nathan Sanford 28 William H. Crawford Nathaniel Macon 24 John Quincy Adams Andrew Jackson 9 William H. Crawford Martin Van Buren 9 Henry Clay John C. Calhoun 7 Henry Clay Andrew Jackson 3 William H. Crawford Nathan Sanford 2 William H. Crawford Henry Clay 2 William H. Crawford John C. Calhoun 2 William H. Crawford Andrew Jackson 1 John Quincy Adams none 1
Created: 30 June 2015
