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Wanted: Ambitious individual for leadership position. Be prepared for difficult application
process and stressful work environment. Challenges: many. Rewards: numerous. Failure: possible.
Your employer: the American people. The few chosen have been the presidents. During the
first years of the American presidency, serving as Secretary of State was a stepping stone
to the White House. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe had blazed that
trail. In 1824, John Quincy Adams stood to follow. But in this historic election year,
other ambitious men wanted the job. You have the Treasury Secretary William Crawford. Got
a Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. In Congress, you have the Speaker of the House Henry Clay.
And is also a rising national hero: Andrew Jackson. The hero of New Orleans. Old Hickory.
Tremendously popular. Very, very popular. Significantly 1824 was the first election
in which states began to count the popular vote in presidential elections. This meant
that a national candidate could accurately measure his popularity with the common man.
In 1824, Andrew Jackson was the clear choice of the people. But the presidency was still
decided by t decided by the Electoral College and that
race was too close to call. The way the four of them finish is that: Andrew Jackson is
first, John Quincy Adams is second, William Crawford is third, and Henry Clay is fourth.
But Andrew Jackson does not get the a majority of the electoral votes. Now according to the
Constitution, the top three go the House of Representatives which must pick among them,
so Clay is dropped. But Clay is the Speaker of th William Crawford had a stroke. So the
contest came down to two men: Adams vs. Jackson. With
e House of Representatives. The unknown quantity in this election is Henry Clay. Then
Henry Clay presiding on the pulpit of the House of Representatives. Clearly, some deal
was made. The House picks John Quincy Adams on the first ballot and John Quincy Adams
picks Henry Clay as Secretary of State. Now Andrew Jackson screams blood *** at this
and he says this is a "corrupt bargain." It is a scandal. It is a scandal and John Quincy
Adams enters office under this cloud of this 'corrupt bargain.'' Shortly after his election,
John Quincy Adams received a note from his father. It said: ''No man whoever held the
office of president would congratulate a friend upon obtaining it.'' Number 6: John Quincy
Adams. Democratic-Republican. 1825-1829.57 years old from Massachusetts. Adams came into
office with many lofty goals. He wanted Americans to explore the western territories, he wanted
to fund public education. He promoted scientific advancement and discovery and he
proposed vast internal improvements, such as roads and canals across the nation. Now
the problem is that he doesn't get do any of it. Because the politics of his term are
just so rancid and he is so unable to manage them. Before the oath of office had fully
passed his lips, Congress began thwarting everything Adams wanted to do. This would
say that the Jackson followers in both the House and the Senate waged a war of obstructionism
in the four years that follow so it's a very ill-fated presidency. Adams' personality did
nothing to help his presidential agenda. Yes, he was the son of a Founding Father and acutely
aware of it. But he was also his father's son. John Quincy Adams tends to be somebody
with a very strong self-righteous streak. Adams was physically short, pudgy, and stubborn
like his father. And like Lyndon B. Johnson, he was a skinny dipper. Although Adams took
his morning swim in the Potomac River. He was also the first president to wear long
trousers instead of knee breeches. John QuincyAdams came to the White House much like George W.
Bush did 175 years later, hoping to exercisehis father's political demons and retrieve a lost
presidency. It is not as easy if he went into it by saying "I can do a better job than my
dad by being more diplomatic"or whenever quite the contrary. It was more like: "I going to
prove those guys that my father was right." And of course, he went down the drain the
same way his father did.More than anything, John Quincy Adams believed that he rise above
the charge that he gained the presidency through a corrupt bargain with Henry Clay. He did
not worry whether he himself had been corrupt and I think that was part of his undoing.
Seeking to prove his political purity, Adams refused to play the patronage game in Washington.
This meant he would not hire people who were for him or fire people who against him. The
result was devastating. John Quincy Adams endures probably four years on what may be
the most miserable presidency that any president has ever experienced. It is four years of
unremitting attacks on him by the Jacksonians. In 1828, John Quincy Adams ran for a second
term. But once again, Andrew Jackson stood in his way. In this election, American political
opinion was sharply split. Those for Adams who believed he deserved four more years and
those for Jackson who believed their man had been robbed in 1824, victim of the 'corrupt
bargain." The one person who believed the charges absolutely utterly was Andrew Jackson
himself and he went home swearing eternal revenge and he got it. The election of 1828
was the dirtiest campaign in history. I don't need any other question about that. It was
brutal. Jackson campaigned on his impressive war record. He was hero of New Orleans, the
conquer of Florida, and a bonafide veteran of the American Revolution. But Jacksons'
past also included some unsavory behavior which the Adams camp brazenly exposed.They
accused of him being a gambler, a military tyrant. John Quincy Adams called him a 'barbarian.''
In this contentious election, character was the main issue. The people on each side did
everything they could to smear the character of the other man. And in the case of Andrew
Jackson, they are really beyond the pale. They attack Jackson and they attack his wife
Rachael and the attacks on Rachael Jackson are really merciless. The dirt on Rachael
Jackson was that she had married Jackson in 1791 before obtaining a legal divorce from
a previous marriage. The charge was true but so old that no one expected it to be an issue.
But in the heat of the campaign, a Cincinnati newspaper published the damning story. When
that Cincinnati editor exposed the details of
the fact that Rachael lived in bigamy and Andrew lived in sin, you know that tore his
soul. He blamed Henry Clay for that. Henry Clay was a close friend of the editor and
Clay denied it. Jackson never believed the denial. He despised Henry Clay for the "corrupt
bargain but came to despise him even more because of that attack on his wife. The Jackson
people responded with equally outrageous charges against Adams. They would reply that he lived
with his wife before they were married
