The race gained national attention largely because Douglas was widely presumed to be the Democrats’ next presidential nominee, and he was. This was the year when a former one-term House member, Republican Abraham Lincoln, gained national prominence for his failed Senate bid against the incumbent Democrat, Stephen Douglas. senators were not directly elected at the time, Senate candidates campaigned and state legislative races served as proxy Senate elections. This would be the last midterm congressional election before the Civil War. Although Republicans were four seats shy of a majority, they formed a governing coalition. The American Party and the Whigs had nearly collapsed, but still managed to elect some members in 1858. This made room for the infant, anti-slavery Republican Party to win a pluralityin the House of Representatives-enough to take control. President James Buchanan’s Democratic Party was divided over the issue of slavery, even as Buchanan backed the new state of Kansas having a pro-slavery constitution. In 1826, Democrats won 113-100 majority in the House and also took a majority in the Senate, which at the time was not directly elected. Jackson’s political forces targeted House members who voted for Adams in the House showdown but whose constituents voted for Jackson-making 1826 a referendum on 1824. Adams, son of the nation’s second president, represented the National Republicans Jackson supporters called themselves Democrats.
New factions were born, replacing the old Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties. Jackson and his supporters called it a “corrupt bargain” when Adams named Clay his secretary of state. House Speaker Henry Clay threw his support behind John Quincy Adams in his victory over Andrew Jackson.
Because no candidate had a majority of electoral votes, the election went to the House of Representatives. The public had a bad taste in its mouth from the deadlocked 1824 presidential election.