He ran for the presidency

One of the interesting facts about John Caldwell Calhoun is that he ran for the presidency. Calhoun was a candidate for President of the United States in the 1824 election. Andrew Jackson, Adams, Crawford, and Henry Clay were the other candidates. Calhoun did not receive the South Carolina legislature's endorsement, and his supporters in Pennsylvania decided to forsake his campaign in favor of Jackson's, instead supporting him for vice president. Other states quickly followed, and Calhoun permitted himself to be considered for vice president rather than the president. On December 1, 1824, the Electoral College unanimously elected Calhoun vice president. He obtained 182 of the 261 electoral votes cast, with the remaining votes going to five other men.

No presidential candidate earned a majority in the Electoral College, and the election was finally decided by the House of Representatives, where Adams was pronounced the winner over Crawford and Jackson, who had led Adams in both popular vote and electoral vote in the election. After Adams appointed Clay, the Speaker of the House, as Secretary of State, Jackson's supporters denounced what they saw as a "corrupt bargain" between Adams and Clay to give Adams the presidency in exchange for Clay receiving the office of Secretary of State, the holder of which had traditionally been the next president.