The market was unprotected and unprepared for this and businesses began to fail. Manufacturing slowed to a crawl and unemployment skyrocketed. Around this time, the Second Bank of the United States was found to be mismanaged. A new management was established and they immediately began to institute conservative lending policies. Specie flowed out of the West, leaving in its wake a trail of bankruptcies and a large debtor population unable to meet its obligations. It was against this backdrop of economic depression that Jackson was nominated to run for the presidency in the election of 1824.
In this election, Jackson ran against William H. Crawford, Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. Crawford, a Georgia man, was the nominee of the Democratic caucus. He was a Jeffersonian and thought to be the traditional successor. Henry Clay was the then Speaker of the House and was nominated for the election by the legislatures of Kentucky and Tennessee. He was an advocate of the "American System". He proposed high tariffs, which he felt, would protect America's newly blossoming industries. He also advocated steep prices for federal land, the profits of which would serve to conduct internal improvements. Clay felt that this system could bolster his support enough so that he could claim victory. The nominee of the New England legislature was John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams who was the second president of the Union. He had abdicated from the Federalists to the side of the Jeffersonians in 1807. Adams was a professional statesman with limited electoral experience but he hoped to lead the nation to rapid success as a commercial and industrial society.
The campaign for the election of 1824, proved to be very dirty. There was constant mudslinging among the candidates. A favourite tactic was to accuse a rival candidate of corruption in his Cabinet post or of actions damaging to the state or section in question.
