The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race
Winner: American Politics Group Richard E Neustadt Prize

Winner: Sally and Morris Lasky Prize


The election of 1824 is commonly viewed as a mildly interesting contest involving several colorful personalities—John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and William H. Crawford—that established Old Hickory as the people's choice and yet, through "bargain and corruption," deprived him of the presidency. In The One-Party Presidential Contest, Donald Ratcliffe reveals that Jackson was not the most popular candidate and the corrupt bargaining was a myth. The election saw the final disruption of both the dominant Democratic Republican Party and the dying Federalist Party, and the creation of new political formations that would slowly evolve into the Democratic and National Republicans (later Whig) Parties—thus bringing about arguably the greatest voter realignment in US history.

Bringing to bear over 35 years of research, Ratcliffe describes how loyal Democratic Republicans tried to control the election but failed, as five of their party colleagues persisted in competing, in novel ways, until the contest had to be decided in the House of Representatives. Initially a struggle between personalities, the election evolved into a fight to control future policy, with large consequences for future presidential politics. The One-Party Presidential Contest offers a nuanced account of the proceedings, one that balances the undisciplined conflict of personal ambitions with the issues, principles, and prejudices that swirled around the election. In this book we clearly see, perhaps for the first time, how the election of 1824 revealed fracture lines within the young republic—and created others that would forever change the course of American politics.
1121713879
The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race
Winner: American Politics Group Richard E Neustadt Prize

Winner: Sally and Morris Lasky Prize


The election of 1824 is commonly viewed as a mildly interesting contest involving several colorful personalities—John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and William H. Crawford—that established Old Hickory as the people's choice and yet, through "bargain and corruption," deprived him of the presidency. In The One-Party Presidential Contest, Donald Ratcliffe reveals that Jackson was not the most popular candidate and the corrupt bargaining was a myth. The election saw the final disruption of both the dominant Democratic Republican Party and the dying Federalist Party, and the creation of new political formations that would slowly evolve into the Democratic and National Republicans (later Whig) Parties—thus bringing about arguably the greatest voter realignment in US history.

Bringing to bear over 35 years of research, Ratcliffe describes how loyal Democratic Republicans tried to control the election but failed, as five of their party colleagues persisted in competing, in novel ways, until the contest had to be decided in the House of Representatives. Initially a struggle between personalities, the election evolved into a fight to control future policy, with large consequences for future presidential politics. The One-Party Presidential Contest offers a nuanced account of the proceedings, one that balances the undisciplined conflict of personal ambitions with the issues, principles, and prejudices that swirled around the election. In this book we clearly see, perhaps for the first time, how the election of 1824 revealed fracture lines within the young republic—and created others that would forever change the course of American politics.
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The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race

The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race

by Donald Ratcliffe
The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race

The One-Party Presidential Contest: Adams, Jackson, and 1824's Five-Horse Race

by Donald Ratcliffe

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Overview

Winner: American Politics Group Richard E Neustadt Prize

Winner: Sally and Morris Lasky Prize


The election of 1824 is commonly viewed as a mildly interesting contest involving several colorful personalities—John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, and William H. Crawford—that established Old Hickory as the people's choice and yet, through "bargain and corruption," deprived him of the presidency. In The One-Party Presidential Contest, Donald Ratcliffe reveals that Jackson was not the most popular candidate and the corrupt bargaining was a myth. The election saw the final disruption of both the dominant Democratic Republican Party and the dying Federalist Party, and the creation of new political formations that would slowly evolve into the Democratic and National Republicans (later Whig) Parties—thus bringing about arguably the greatest voter realignment in US history.

Bringing to bear over 35 years of research, Ratcliffe describes how loyal Democratic Republicans tried to control the election but failed, as five of their party colleagues persisted in competing, in novel ways, until the contest had to be decided in the House of Representatives. Initially a struggle between personalities, the election evolved into a fight to control future policy, with large consequences for future presidential politics. The One-Party Presidential Contest offers a nuanced account of the proceedings, one that balances the undisciplined conflict of personal ambitions with the issues, principles, and prejudices that swirled around the election. In this book we clearly see, perhaps for the first time, how the election of 1824 revealed fracture lines within the young republic—and created others that would forever change the course of American politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780700632473
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Publication date: 01/09/2021
Series: American Presidential Elections
Pages: 368
Sales rank: 700,953
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Donald Ratcliffe is emeritus reader in history at the University of Durham and supernumerary research and teaching fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. His many publications include Party Spirit in a Frontier Republic: Democratic Politics in Ohio, 1793–1821 and The Politics of Long Division: The Birth of the Second Party System in Ohio, 1818–1828.

Table of Contents

Editors’ Foreword

Acknowledgments

1. Myth and Reality

Part I: Candidates and Constituents

2. The Virginia Candidate

3. A Northern Man

4. The Dread of Apollo

5. The Western Interest

6. Enter the General

Part II: Campaigns and Coalitions

7. A Season in Washington

8. Popular Battlegrounds

9. Legislators Take a Hand

10. The Corrupt Bargain

Epilogue

Appendix 1: Electoral and Popular Votes

Appendix 2: John Quincy Adams’s Inaugural Address, March 4, 1825

Notes

Bibliographic Essay

Index

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