By 1824, the absence of a clear front-runner expands the list to five contenders. The most obvious successor to Monroe is John Quincy Adams, 55 years old, son of an ex President, serving in government for over three decades, and supremely qualified after working alongside Monroe for eight years as Secretary of State. The problem with Adams is his personality, or lack thereof. He is in the mold of the old-time Puritans, hard-working to an extreme, prone to signaling superior moral rectitude, stern and mostly humorless. All admire his talents and accomplishments; few count him a close friend. His political strength is centered in New England, especially his home state of Massachusetts. Monroe’s Treasury Secretary, William Crawford of Georgia, enjoys support from two critical centers of electoral gravity – the Virginian trio of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and the so called “Albany Regency” in New York. The latter is controlled by Martin Van Buren, a political mover and shaker from age seventeen onward, and serving since 1821 in the U.S. Senate. His “city hall machine,” is built on patronage, and can be counted on to deliver the bulk of New York’s electors. Van Buren lines these up behind Crawford. Adams and Crawford are joined in the race by two other powerful Washington men — Secretary of War, John Calhoun, and House Speaker, Henry Clay. Calhoun is respected for his brilliant intellect, but, along with Adams, is seldom well-liked at the personal level. Many regard his demeanor as unpleasantly messianic, as if he alone were capable of discerning what is right for the country, while being held back by lesser men around him. His overt ambitiousness leads to questions about his motivations and trustworthiness, and Northerners suspect that his agenda is skewed toward southern rather than national interests. Unlike Calhoun and Adams, Henry Clay is a comfortable figure, ever ready to drink and gamble and party with his fellow politicians, and flexible about meeting them half way on most contentious issues. He also comes with a “platform” of sorts, in the form of what he calls his “American System” of government, focused on accelerating economic growth through federally funded infrastructure initiatives, a protective tariff and a strong central bank. According to his supporters, Clay is a symbol of America’s future – born in the east (Virginia), venturing to the west (Kentucky), linking the old with the new in search of a strong, enduring Union. The fifth contender for president, Andrew Jackson, differs from the others. He is a military man rather than a politician — but also a national hero, first for his stunning defeat of the British in 1815 at New Orleans, and more recently for various victories over Indian tribes in Georgia and Florida. As an outsider to Washington, he is initially dismissed as a serious candidate until astute handlers in Tennessee get the state legislature to officially nominate him for the presidency in 1822, and then elect him to the Senate in 1823. From that point forward he bursts on the scene as the frontrunner, and the common target to be stopped by his four competitors.