These
reformers were unable to secure a popular nomination for presidential
candidates in the election of 1824. Precedent and the office-holders
were too strong. Nominations were made as before by congressional
caucus and State Legislatures; but this agitation, dating directly
from the rebirth of Americanism, bore full fruit within a score of
years.
The case of the people against the politicians was aided by the peculiar
circumstances attending this election of 1824. At the preceding
election, there had been but one candidate. At this election, there
were so many that no one of them had the required majority. Electors
had been pledged in advance, so that it was not a return to the original
idea of a free choice of the best man. Fortunately, the framers of the
Constitution had provided against this contingency by allowing the
House of Representatives, voting by States, to choose the President
from the three candidates having received the highest number of
electoral votes. Jackson, the war hero, headed the list in both popular
and electoral votes. John Quincy Adams, "the secretarial successor,"
had the second highest number of electoral votes, and Crawford, the
candidate of the caucus, the next.
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