Corrupt Bargains Shaped American Politics

In American political history, “corrupt bargain” refers to three controversial moments when critics accused Congress or the president of violating the clearly expected legal or democratic course. The first came after the 1824 presidential election, when the House of Representatives chose John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson, and Adams then made Henry Clay his secretary of state. The term later attached to the Compromise of 1877, which helped settle the disputed 1876 election for Rutherford B. Hayes, and to President Gerald Ford’s 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal. In each case, opponents used the phrase to suggest that political insiders traded power, protection, or office while shielding corruption from normal accountability.

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