"Mr. Adams is the Constitutional President and as such I would myself be the last man in the Commonwealth to oppose him upon any other ground than that of principle. How he reached the office is an inquiry for the succeeding canvass, when the principles of the Constitution, apart from his ministerial acts, or at least without necessary opposition to them, will sanction the investigation." 

—Andrew Jackson (October 1825) 

William H. Crawford and the Election of 1824 

Crawford Square in the Historic District of Savannah might be as good as any location to reflect upon controversial American elections. 

I immigrated to the United States in the Fall of 1999. In four of the six elections since my arrival to these beautiful shores — in 2000, in 2004, in 2016, and in 2020 — I witnessed my fellow American citizens challenging the Presidential electoral results, and watched with fascination and alarm as subsequent investigations of election 'irregularities' set one American citizen against another. 

Still, it is fair to say that the challenging elections I have witnessed do not hold a candle to the Presidential election of 1824. William Harris Crawford was an essential participant in that election. 

The 1824 election was the tenth such Presidential election held every four years in the United States. After counting the ballots, none of the four candidates — John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William Harris Crawford, or Henry Clay — had managed to win a majority of the electoral votes. 

The highest percentage of the popular vote (41%) went to Andrew Jackson. Jackson also led in the electoral votes. Interestingly, all four candidates were from the same party: the Democratic-Republican. 

But the 1824 American election marked the end of what became known as the Era of Good Feelings following The War of 1812. The 1824 election began a realignment of political parties, with contenders building strident national coalitions. Political populism became more prevalent. In many respects, the political realignments would lead straight to both the Trail of Tears and the American Civil War. 

Georgia’s favorite son, William Harris Crawford, landed third in electoral votes, with Henry Clay of Kentucky bringing up the rear in the 1824 election results. With no electoral college majority, the United States Constitution directed the U.S. House of Representatives to decide the Presidential winner. 

Henry Clay was the Speaker of the House and negotiated a deal to make John Quincy Adams President of the United States. When Adams took over the White House, Clay became his Secretary of State. That political arrangement led to another fiercely contested election in 1828, when Andrew Jackson defeated John Quincy Adams, while accusing his Presidential nemesis of striking a ‘corrupt bargain.’ 

The election of 1824 remains the only U.S. Presidential election in which the candidate with the most electoral votes did not subsequently win the election. And it remains one of only five such elections wherein the man who took over the Presidential office did not win the highest number of votes. 

William Crawford suffered a severe stroke in 1823, which kept him from running a more active 1824 election campaign. Adams asked Crawford to remain the U.S. Secretary of Treasury, but Crawford declined the position and ultimately chose to serve as a Georgia State Superior Court Judge instead. 

At his death in 1834, Crawford owned a 1300-acre plantation and enslaved forty-five human beings. 

This scene is another view of the Gazebo at the center of Crawford Square, painted en Plein air while looking over an old cistern long used to collect rain water for the residents living nearby the square.