Final answer:
The 1824 presidential election was decided by the House of Representatives since no candidate received a majority in the Electoral College. Andrew Jackson, despite having the most electoral and popular votes, did not secure a majority, leading the House to elect John Quincy Adams as president.
Step-by-step explanation:
The election of 1824 was decided in the House of Representatives because no candidate received a majority of the votes in the Electoral College. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the framers had created the Electoral College to elect the president and vice president, with a provision that if no candidate achieved a majority, the election would then be decided by the House.
This unique situation came into play during the 1824 election when Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay ran for presidency. Since none of them secured a majority of the electoral votes, the House was tasked with choosing among the top three candidates.
Party politics had transformed the political landscape by the time of this election; with a growing number of voters, the old system of congressional caucuses was abandoned. Electoral votes were chosen differently across states, with most using popular vote and some via state legislatures.
In the end, although Jackson had the most popular and electoral votes, he did not have the requisite majority. Consequently, the House elected John Quincy Adams as president, marking the second time in history that the presidency decision fell to the House, the first being in 1800 due to a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.