alternatehistory.com

Shooting Yourself in the Foot
The Election of 1824

In the United States presidential election fo 1824, Andrew Jackson was elected President on February 9, 1825, after the election was decided by the House of Representatives.​

The one-party government that had persisted in the United States since the collapse of the Federalist Party was finally over as the Democratic-Republican Party splintered itself between four separate candidates, although said splintering had not yet led to organised political parties, which would emerge in time for the election of 1828.
The election is notable for being one of only two elections since the passage of the Twelfth Amendment to be decided by the House of Representatives, since no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes (a similar situation would occur in 1836).​

Candidates
The election was contested between:
- General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee
- Secretary of State John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts
- Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford of Georgia
- Speaker of the House of Representatives Henry Clay of Kentucky [1]

Results
The results of the election showed no candidate receiving the necessary majority in the Electoral College (although Jackson won a plurality), and also highlighted the regional divisions within the nation; with Adams winning the New England states, Clays votes coming from states in the west, Crawford's in the east and Jacksons from throughout the nation. Due to the inconclusive nature of the electoral votes, the election was to be decided by the House of Representatives.
Also, John C. Calhoun of South Carolina won 182 electoral votes without serious competition to become the Vice President of the United States.

Crawford's Death
The election suffered a further complication when on the 25th of December, 1825, candidate William H. Crawford dropped dead of a stroke in his home. [2]
Under the terms of the Twelfth Amendment, when a presidential election resulted in no candidate receiving a majority of electoral votes, the election would be decided by the House of Representatives as a contest between the three candidates with the highest number of electoral votes. In the election of 1824, Andrew Jackson received 99 electoral votes, John Quincy Adams received 84, William H. Crawford received 41, and Henry Clay received 37.
Therefore one of the candidates who should have been in the contingent election had died; a situation which the Twelfth Amendment did not have a provision for. Two solutions emerged for the contingent election: that the contest would be between the two remaining candidates with the highest numbers of electoral votes (Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams) or that the candidate with the next highest number of electoral votes (Henry Clay) would replace Crawford in the contingent election. The latter solution was unsurprisingly supported by followers of Clay.
With Clay in control of the House of Representatives he managed to swing the contingent election into a three-way contest between himself, Jackson and Adams. This decision led to Vice-President Elect John C. Calhoun being convinced that the federal government was subject to manipulation by Clay [3], and resolved to thwart the election for him (and Adams, whom Calhoun believed would be subject to extreme manipulation by Clay) by supporting Andrew Jackson in the states that had voted for Crawford in the election. [4]

Contingent Election
Contingent election 1825.png
The contingent election delivered a victory to Andrew Jackson, who won thirteen states (all he won in the election sans Maryland and Crawford's states of Virginia and Georgia). In second place came John Quincy Adams with eight states (retaining those he won in the election and Maryland from Jackson), with Clay coming in third with three states (those he won in the original election).
It is believed that Calhoun's support of Jackson was instrumental in Jackson winning those states that had formerly been won by Crawford, and also that Clay's decision to run in the contingent election may have doomed him from the start; as a two-way election between Jackson and Adams may have allowed Clay to throw both his and Crawford's states to Adams.

Therefore, on March 4th, 1825, Andrew Jackson was inaugurated as the sixth President of the United States.

[1] John C. Calhoun was originally a fifth candidate in the election, but after viewing Crawford's popularity in the South chose instead to seek the Vice Presidency and back Andrew Jackson [5]
[2] The point-of-divergence: OTL Crawford lived until 1834 but had been in poor health since a stroke in 1823.
[3] OTL Calhoun came to believe this during his term as Adams' Vice President (leading him to support Jackson in the election of 1828), ITTL Clay's manipulation to throw himself into the contingent election means Calhouns decides to do support Jackson against Adams and Clay earlier.
[4] i.e. by convincing representatives who would have voted for Crawford to vote for Jackson.
[5] Both Adams and Jacksons supporters OTL supported Calhoun for the Vice Presidency.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

My first timeline, all comments welcolme.

Contingent election 1825.png
Top