When No Candidate Won the 1824 Presidential Election, the House of Representatives Was Given the Rare Task of Deciding the Victor A “corrupt bargain” that delivered John Quincy Adams the ...

The Election of 1824 Today, Jackson would be declared the winner. But in 1824, the rules were that a candidate needed not just more electoral votes to win, they needed a majority of electoral votes.

In the 1824 election, none of the candidates - John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William Crawford - received a majority of votes, which led to an unprecedented situation.

John Quincy Adams ultimately won the 1824 election, but it was certainly a process. One of his competitors, Andrew Jackson, won the popular vote and got more electoral votes, too, but not enough ...

The Madison-Jefferson letters presaged the 1824 election which, thrown to the House, resulted in the election of John Quincy Adams, even though Andrew Jackson had won both the Electoral College.