Before the election of 1824 electors from each state were chosen by different ways, according to specific state constitutions. The state legislatures were in charge of choosing the electors, but everything changed with this election. 

By 1824 states allowed the voters to choose who the presidential electors would be, this is in contrast to what they did in earlier elections where congressmen from the states chose the nominee and electors, thus creating little or no challenge. 

Opposition in the Election of 1824 within the Democratic-Republican party signaled the end of the caucus system (see above). During the election, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and Andrew Jackson challenged the nominee William H. Crawford.

Andrew Jackson received the greatest number of votes - both popular and electoral - but since none of the four won a majority of the votes, according to the Constitution, the election was now put in the hands of the House of Representatives.

In the House, Henry Clay, who was Speaker of the House, supported John Quincy Adams, thus in essence, handing Adams the presidency. Adams then made Clay Secretary of State, which was then considered a stepping-stone to the office of the president. This is known as the "Corrupt Bargain."

However not all went well for the president. There was Congressional opposition to his agenda, since many congressmen supported Jackson instead of Adams, and that opposition was furthered due to Adams' obnoxious personality. Since he was a former Federalist congressman, and the son of the only Federalist president, many of his maneuverings to centralize government was viewed with great suspicion.

Jackson on the contrary, was a strong supported of States' Rights, and his supported were an impediment to Adams' efforts. He wanted to put in protective tariffs, build the interstate highway system, establish federal education and research centers, yet none came to fruition.

What the 1824 election started, the 1828 election finished. This is known by many as the beginning of the modern political party system.

Between those four years the elapsed, Jackson began to weave his candidacy for 1828 garnering the support of influential men which would assure his the presidency. State political organizations, newspapers, and community leaders all backed Andrew Jackson. This is known as the beginning of the Democratic Party.

Throughout the campaign, Jackson and Adams were very adversarial. Jackson said that Adams was a corrupt politician, Adams fired back saying that Jackson was stupid, violent, and a drunk.

Jackson won the election by a huge margin in 1828. Among his first items in is agenda, he took out those government officials which made a career out of governmental work, and replaced them with his own supporters. However, the five presidents before him did almost the same thing, yet he was the first to be criticized for it. Jobs for political support is now known as the "spoils system."

Jackson is the father of Jacksonian Democracy, the next evolution from Jeffersonian Democracy.

In Jefferson's Democracy: Nation governed by Middle and Upper Class property holders who were educated, and government have a balance with the service that it provided.

In Jackson's Democracy: Universal Male Suffrage (Meaning all white males can vote). Also Jackson had a strong presidency that continuously challenged the other two branches of government.

Jackson's base came from the western frontier states, which were all for expansion.

Jackson began the Indian Removal Program to take the Indians out of those states, securing white expansion.

In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia, the Supreme Court guaranteed Native American rights to their lands, yet Jackson still kicked them out of their lands. 

Removal Act of 1830 began what would be known as the Trail of Tears, which was a forced deportation of Cherokees to the west that ended in thousands of deaths.

Jackson also wanted to down-size the federal government. He opposed the Second Bank of the United States, and he made sure it failed by taking away federal funds, and giving them to state banks instead. He was also an opponent of the Reform movements of the time, and also opposed Clay's American System.

One of the biggest issues during his presidency was nullification.

Nullification, as written by Jefferson and Madison in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions was the idea that the states have to right to decide on the constitutionality of federal laws, and they had the right to disobey those laws - nullify - if they thought that they were unconstitutional.

The Tariff of 1828 - Tariff of Abominations - was passed at the end of the Second Adams Administration, but some states considered nullifying them in 1830. Even though Jackson greatly supported States' rights, he thought that the process of nullification would endanger the Union and that it was too radical.

The nullification convention of 1830 failed, but when the Tariff of 1832 was up for approval, the opposition movement gained strength. South Carolina nullified the 1832 Tariff. Yet Jackson fixed up a compromise that was part of the Olive Branch and Arrows.

Jackson was also suspicious of paper money, saying that he preferred "hard currency" like gold and silver.

His program of "Specie Circular" ended the selling of government land on credit, meaning that the buyers would now have to pay with "hard currency", it caused a shortage of money, a decrease in the treasury, and ushered in the way for the Panic of 1837.

In 1834 there were almost the same numbers of members of the Whig Party as the Democratic Party. There were too many fragments within the Democratic Party that broke away, and many solidified into the Whig Party. And that was the Platform of the Whig, since they didn't have a central political theme, they were more often than not, the Not-Democratic-Party.

Whigs did believe in government activism when it came to social issues, and many were religious supporting the temperance movement and holding the Sabbath holy.

In the Election of 1836, Jackson supported his second vice-president, Martin Van Buren, the first president to be born in the country known as the "United States of America" since all presidents before him were born when the United States was part of the British Empire.

Yet Van Buren's presidency was mired by the economic downturn and effect caused by Jackson's Specie Circular program. The Panic of 1837 lasted throughout the majority of his presidency, and because of it, his was a very unsuccessful presidency.

In 1841, former General and hero, William Henry Harrison, became the first Whig President, yet he died thirty days after his inauguration because he had pneumonia. Vice-President John Tyler, a former Democrat, then became President, and he was a champion of States' rights. Tyler vetoed many legislations from the Whig Party, and many in the Whig leadership did not support him, then his entire Whig cabinet resigned in protest, his presidency lasted only one term, and has gone down in the books as the "president without a party."