Campaign issues
American System
Economic nationalism and the need for internal improvements were important issues in the campaign. Clay was strongly associated with the American System, a protectionist economic program that called for tariffs on foreign manufactures to boost domestic industry and raise revenue for the construction of roads and canals in the West. Adams's perceived weakness on the tariff and his reluctance to voice support for internal improvements damaged his standing with voters in the Old Northwest who prioritized the need for economic development. The candidate was viewed as personally sympathetic to nationalist policies, but unwilling to break with New England merchants who opposed federal spending to benefit the Western states. Jackson's surrogates also sought to strengthen their candidate's regional appeal by associating him with popular calls for protection and internal improvements. While Clay believed his position on the tariff would deliver the state, the unpopularity of his support for the Second Bank of the United States following the Panic of 1819 created an opening for Jackson to position himself as a nationalist alternative to the Kentuckian.
Caucus system
The congressional nominating caucus was increasingly the object of disapproval by 1824, as critics argued the practice of selecting candidates in a closed meeting of members of the United States Congress was undemocratic and potentially unconstitutional. William H. Crawford's nomination by the Democratic-Republican congressional caucus in February disqualified him in the eyes of many Indiana voters, and by spring he had dropped out of the race in the state altogether. Sensitivity to the stigma attached to the caucus led Clay's supporters to forgo his nomination by the Indiana General Assembly. Tickets pledged to Adams and Clay were instead nominated informally through the press, while the Jackson electors were nominated by a state convention. Clay's backers attempted to make an issue of the fact that the Adams ticket originated with a meeting of friendly legislators; the Clay ticket, however, was similarly the product of a conference of Clay's allies in the legislature.
Slavery
Opposition to slavery played an important role in the early politics of Indiana. The Northwest Ordinance outlawed slavery in the territory north of the Ohio River from 1787, but extralegal slavery and legally-sanctioned involuntary servitude persisted into the 1820s. In the aftermath of the Missouri Compromise, many Indiana voters, particularly Quakers in the southeastern part of the state, demanded that the election of an antislavery candidate from the Northern United States should take priority after decades of domination of the presidency by Virginian enslavers. Adams was the principal beneficiary of anti-Southern sentiment as the only available Northern candidate following the withdrawal of DeWitt Clinton. Clay's status as a slaveholder and his role in securing the admission of Missouri as a slave state damaged his candidacy with voters for whom abolitionism was an issue of primary importance.
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