Harris

 Corrupt Insiders and Opposing Beliefs: The Story Behind the Creation of Two New Parties

 **Research Question:** Why did the Democratic- Republicans split up?

 **Objective:** The student will be able to investigate why the two parties formed and determine if Adams and Clay were corrupt. Trigger Words: Investigate and Determine




 * Conclusion: In the 1824 election, there was only the Democratic- Republican party. There were four candidates running from that party. They were William Crawford, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. Jackson received a plurality of electoral votes but not a majority. Because of that, the House of Representatives had to decide between him and second place John Quincy Adams. Henry Clay knew that he was losing, so he dropped out of the race and supported Adams. Adams won and made Clay his secretary of state. Every president besides George Washington had been the secretary of state at the time, so Adams essentially made Clay the "heir to the presidency" in Jackson's opinion. The reason that Clay supported Adams and not Jackson is that Adams was more like a Federalist and Jackson was like a Democratic- Republican. Adams and Clay wanted the national bank and to use federal funds to maintain roads. Jackson vetoed the bank recharter and the Maysville Road Bill, which would have used funds to maintain roads. He believed that doing that was unconstitutional. Throughout Adam's presidency, Jackson campaigned by saying that Clay supporting Adams and Adams in turn naming Clay as his secretary of state was a "corrupt bargain" and that they put their own will above the will of the people. He won the 1828 election because of this.**
 * Was this action corrupt? Jackson certainly felt so. In my opinion, I believe that this was legal but somewhat corrupt and in bad taste. In their defense, would people complain about corruption if Newt Gingrich dropped out of the race and supported Santorum, then having Santorum appointing Gingrich as secretary of state if he won? It is up to you to decide if the "corrupt bargain" was actually corrupt.**



Citations: Whitson, James R. "President Elect 1828." //http://presidentelect.org/// //e1828.html//. N.p., 1999. Web. 15 Mar. 2012.

"Democratic- Republican Party (1792-c.1824)." //www.angelfire.com//. Lycos Inc, 2012. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

Here is a link to my best and most detailed source, []. It goes into great detail about the corrupt bargain and the people involved. I got most of the information I used in my speech from this site. If it works normally, it will show up white on a black screen and look normal. On my computer, though, it had everything, but made it very hard to read. It worked perfectly on school computers, though.