Why was john adams elected for president?
There were four runners. Two, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, had the highest electoral votes, but neither had the actual number to become decisive president. (JQA had less than Jax, by the way) So the decision was thrown to the House of representatives. Henry Clay, the speaker of the house at the time, also ran for president, but was nowhere near to being elected. So he dropped out of the election and made a deal with JQA. In return for JQA promising him a prominent post as secretary of state, Clay would use his influence as the Speaker of the House to rig the election in JQA’s favor. As a result, JQA got elected, but got very little done, as no one wanted to listen to him suspecting his involvement.
