1823, as a U.S. senator from Tennessee, he had been positioned to run for the presidency. Though he won the most electoral votes in the four-man race of 1824, his lack of a plurality meant the contest was decided in the House of Representatives, where John Quincy Adams prevailed. The vote left a sour taste in Jackson’s mouth: another of the candidates, the former Ghent negotiator Henry Clay, had thrown his support to Adams and soon thereafter been named secretary of state.
