Today I Found Out | Shadows of Power: The "Corrupt Bargain" That Changed History and What Really Happened @TodayIFoundOut | Uploaded 4 months ago | Updated 4 hours ago
This video is #sponsored by the City of Quincy. To discover more about Quincy, check out the link - discoverquincy.com
In 1824, the United States was emerging from the period of the so-called “Era of Good Feelings” during the James Monroe Presidency where there was a relative de-emphasis on party politics thanks to the Democratic-Republican Party more or less existing unchallenged during this time. But the good feelings were about to be gone, and a new era was rising where party politics would be tripled down on giving us the seeds of modern day politicking. On the one side was the decidedly hot tempered Andrew Jackson who had only 18 years before illegally killed a man in cold blood for calling him a “worthless scoundrel, ... a poltroon and a coward” but got away with it because, the past everybody. More on this in the Bonus Facts later. An orphan and perceived to be a man of the people, Jackson stood in stark contrast to the presidential candidates of yore in the country who largely came from either elite backgrounds or were groomed into politics from a young age.
Speaking of that, on the other side was John Quincy Adams. Quite literally groomed from childhood to become President someday, with his father, one-time President John Adams even writing to a young John Quincy Adams in 1794, “You come into Life with Advantages which will disgrace you, if your success is médiocre.— And if you do not rise to the head not only of your Profession but of your Country it will be owing to your own Laziness Slovenliness and Obstinacy.”
Yet a rather curious thing happened during the election of 1824. Andrew Jackson would go on to win not just the popular vote, but the electoral college, with Adams finishing well behind him on both in second place. And yet Adams, the inside man with friends in high places, was made President and Jackson nearly a footnote to history… That is, until an anonymous letter was published in the Philadelphia Columbian Observer that claimed Adams had made a secret deal with the speaker of the House Henry Clay such that if Clay would use his influence on the House to make him President, Adams would, in turn, make Clay the Secretary of State.
For context here, at the time, Secretary of State was the defacto office to have if one wanted to themselves become President someday. In fact, after the first and second Presidents in George Washington and John Adams, every President up to this 1824 election had previously served as the Secretary of State, and it was also the position John Quincy Adams presently held when he ran for President in this election.
What followed was a scandal that changed the course of United States history, helping to see Adams’ Presidency be largely ineffective and Henry Clay’s formerly insanely bright prospects at the nation’s highest office dashed, with his reputation among the general public forever sullied then and still pretty much to this day. This also saw Andrew Jackson’s star shining even brighter, with the scandal helping the otherwise largely unqualified and remarkably unstable Jackson to dethrone Adams in the next election.
But did the supposed bastion of puritanical ethics and rigidly moral to a fault John Quincy Adams, who very publicly vehemently opposed the spoils system, to the point that he even retained many officials in his administration from the previous who actively opposed and thwarted some of his efforts as President, truly throw off his normal extreme and well documented precepts and morals in his quest for the Presidency by making such a shady deal to rob the people of the United States of their chosen President?
Or was the whole thing just a 19th century viral conspiracy theory that blew up to change the course of history?
Well let’s dive into it, shall we, because this one is super fascinating.
Author: Daven Hiskey
Host: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Samuel Avila
This video is #sponsored by the City of Quincy. To discover more about Quincy, check out the link - discoverquincy.com
In 1824, the United States was emerging from the period of the so-called “Era of Good Feelings” during the James Monroe Presidency where there was a relative de-emphasis on party politics thanks to the Democratic-Republican Party more or less existing unchallenged during this time. But the good feelings were about to be gone, and a new era was rising where party politics would be tripled down on giving us the seeds of modern day politicking. On the one side was the decidedly hot tempered Andrew Jackson who had only 18 years before illegally killed a man in cold blood for calling him a “worthless scoundrel, ... a poltroon and a coward” but got away with it because, the past everybody. More on this in the Bonus Facts later. An orphan and perceived to be a man of the people, Jackson stood in stark contrast to the presidential candidates of yore in the country who largely came from either elite backgrounds or were groomed into politics from a young age.
Speaking of that, on the other side was John Quincy Adams. Quite literally groomed from childhood to become President someday, with his father, one-time President John Adams even writing to a young John Quincy Adams in 1794, “You come into Life with Advantages which will disgrace you, if your success is médiocre.— And if you do not rise to the head not only of your Profession but of your Country it will be owing to your own Laziness Slovenliness and Obstinacy.”
Yet a rather curious thing happened during the election of 1824. Andrew Jackson would go on to win not just the popular vote, but the electoral college, with Adams finishing well behind him on both in second place. And yet Adams, the inside man with friends in high places, was made President and Jackson nearly a footnote to history… That is, until an anonymous letter was published in the Philadelphia Columbian Observer that claimed Adams had made a secret deal with the speaker of the House Henry Clay such that if Clay would use his influence on the House to make him President, Adams would, in turn, make Clay the Secretary of State.
For context here, at the time, Secretary of State was the defacto office to have if one wanted to themselves become President someday. In fact, after the first and second Presidents in George Washington and John Adams, every President up to this 1824 election had previously served as the Secretary of State, and it was also the position John Quincy Adams presently held when he ran for President in this election.
What followed was a scandal that changed the course of United States history, helping to see Adams’ Presidency be largely ineffective and Henry Clay’s formerly insanely bright prospects at the nation’s highest office dashed, with his reputation among the general public forever sullied then and still pretty much to this day. This also saw Andrew Jackson’s star shining even brighter, with the scandal helping the otherwise largely unqualified and remarkably unstable Jackson to dethrone Adams in the next election.
But did the supposed bastion of puritanical ethics and rigidly moral to a fault John Quincy Adams, who very publicly vehemently opposed the spoils system, to the point that he even retained many officials in his administration from the previous who actively opposed and thwarted some of his efforts as President, truly throw off his normal extreme and well documented precepts and morals in his quest for the Presidency by making such a shady deal to rob the people of the United States of their chosen President?
Or was the whole thing just a 19th century viral conspiracy theory that blew up to change the course of history?
Well let’s dive into it, shall we, because this one is super fascinating.
Author: Daven Hiskey
Host: Daven Hiskey
Producer: Samuel Avila
