ANDREW JACKSON

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

"To the Polls! To the PoEs! nejmikfiil

sentinel must not'deep—Let no one stay•*••'

home—Let every man go to the PoM"

I SLEAZE-O-METER

—United States "Telegraph

T he election of 1828 begins with Andrew Jackson's anger.

Jackson—the six-foot-tall ex-frontiersman hero of New

Orleans, the man who as a boy of thirteen in the Revolutionary

War received a saber slash across the head for refusing to shine the boots

of a British officer, and who then survived smallpox and the deaths of

his mother and two brothers, and who grew up to defeat not only the

British in 1814 but also the Greeks, Seminoles, and Spanish—well,

Jackson was not a guy you wanted to piss off.

But Jackson was convinced that John Quincy Adams had entered

into a "corrupt bargain" with Henry Clay to win the presidency, and he

was determined to make things right. Enthusiastically backed by his

Tennessee delegation, which in its eagerness nominated him for presi-

dent in 1825* Jackson resigned his Senate seat and went after the pres-idency with renewed fervor.

This spelled bad news for John Quincy Adams, whose presidency

was off to a rocky start. On his inauguration day, Adams had to com-

pete for attention with a traveling circus that had come into town—not

an easy thing to do in the early l8oOs. Then he and his wife, Louisa,

discovered that the Monroes had left the White House in a shambles—

the furniture was so battered, the place such a horrible mess, that

Louisa actually invitdd members of the public in to take a look, lest shebe blamed.

Adams began his" administration with a number of blunders. In his

first State of the Union address, he focused not on foreign affairs or the

future of westward expansion, but on establishing a national observatory,

a series of astronomical outposts that would be "the lighthouses of the

sky." To his credit, Adams was far ahead of his time (he used the same

speech to lobby for a regulated system of weights and measures), but this

was akin to a contemporary president giving an hour-long State of the

Union address passionately advocating the adoption of the metric system.

Things quickly went from bad to worse. The whole Adams admin-

istration, according to a sympathetic biographer, "was a hapless failure

and best forgotten, save for the personal anguish it cost him." With

cries of "Corruption and Bargain" ringing from Jackson allies in the

West (who now included Adams's own vice president, John G.

Galhoun), Adams was on the defensive at every turn. No wonder he

began to feel that he was surrounded by "conspirators," that he was

being tried by a "secret inquisition." He was. A spiteful opposition in

Congress thwarted him in matters both foreign and domestic.

With so much conflict and strife, it's no surprise that the

Republican Party split into two factions. The National Republicans

supported Adams and his vice-presidential pick, Treasury Secretary

Richard Rush. They were the party of the old-line Republicans, the

wealthy merchant classes, and the landed aristocracy.

Opposing them were Andrew Jackson and his running mate, John

C. Calhoun; they were backed largely by the western small farmers and the

eastern laboring men. At first they called themselves the Friends of

Andrew Jackson, then Democratic-Republicans, and finally Democrats.

This group would form the core of the future Democratic Party.

And in 1828, both groups would have to contend with a major

change to the electoral process—the widespread use of the popular vote.

The election of 1828 saw four times as many people casting their vote

for president as in the election of l824- All but two states (Delaware and

South Carolina) would use this form of voting to select their candi-

dates, which meant that presidential campaigns—crazy enough to begin

with—were about to get a whole lot crazier.

* * * THE CANDIDATES * * *DEMOCRAT-REPUBLICAN: ANDREW JACKSON The gen-

eral—now sixty-one years old— was probably at the peak of his power.

Driven by a belief that the White House had been stolen from him in

l824> as well as a sincere, life-long desire to wrest power from the

privileged and place it in the hands of the people, Jackson envisioned

himself as a president for the common man, leading with his beloved

wife, Rachel, by his side. Sadly, only one part of this dream would

come true.

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NATIONAL-REPUBLICAN: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS it was

possible that John Quincy Adams—also sixty-one—was running for

president just for the sheer, stubborn pride of it, because the previous

years had been no picnic. At one point, he was stalked by the first

would-be presidential assassin, a crazed doctor who (in a day when any

citizen could and did just walk into the White House to see the presi-

dent) talked openly about killing Adams. To his credit, Adams met with

the lunatic and gave him a stern talking-to. Not surprisingly, many his-

torians now speculate that Adams was clinically depressed going into the

1828 campaign.

* * * THE CAMPAIGN * * *With one party claiming to defend the nation against "howling

Democracy" and the other battling "a lordly, purse-proud aristocracy,"

is it any wonder things soon became very, very malicious?

The campaign began in September of 1827. after both candidates

were nominated (since each party still operated without national nom-

inating conventions, Jackson and Adams were put forward in a series of

special state nominating conventions and mass meetings).

Jackson had the immediate edge because he had understood the

need for party organisations in each state. ("You must avail yourself of

the physical force of an organized body of men," he told supporters.)

Soon "Friends of Jackson" in all parts of the country were pushing for

Old Hickory, the Hero of New Orleans. These "Hurra Boys" wrote

political songs, printed pamphlets, and attacked Adams with a

vengeance. "[Adams's] habits and principles are not congenial with . . .

the notions of a democratic people," one Jackson supporter wrote.

They spread rumors about his mysterious "foreign wife" (Louisa was

English). When the president bought a billiard table and set of ivory

chessmen for the White House, Jackson supporters accused him of pur-

chasing a "gaming table and gambling furniture." They called Adams a

monarchist and anti-religious because he traveled on the Sabbath. And

of course he was smeared by his association and friendship with

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Secretary of State Henry Clay, who supposedly owed his position to the

"corrupt bargain." (Clay was not a statesman, snarled the New Hampshire

Patriot, but "a shyster, pettifogging in a bastard suit before a country

squire [Adams].")

Adams supporters organized themselves and returned fire. Jackson,

they said, had aided Aaron Burr when the latter conspired against the

union in 1806, invading Florida and nearly starting an international

incident. They claimed Jackson had the personality of a dictator. And that

he couldn't spell (he supposedly spelled Europe as "Urope").

The Republicans also published an extremely nasty but delightfully

titled pamphlet called "Reminiscences; or, an Extract from the

Catalogue of General Jackson's Youthful Indiscretions between the Age

of Twenty-three and Sixty." It enumerated all of Jackson's purported

fights, duels, brawls, and shoot-outs. It described him as an adulterer,

a gambler, a cockfighter, a slave trader, a drunkard, a thief, a liar, and

the husband of a really fat wife.

There was very little serious examination of the issues, such as

rural America's desperate need of public works projects or tariff pro-

tection for New England manufacturers. Jackson was known for being

evasive about his opinions—a fact that he tried to turn into a virtue: "My

real friends want no information from me on the subject of internal

improvement and manufactories. . . . Was I now to come forward and

reiterate my public opinions on these subjects, I would be charged with

electioneering for selfish purposes."

Adams's positions were well-known—he was pro-tariff and pro-

public works—but his voice was lost in the din of battle. No wonder the

guy was depressed.

* * THE WINNER: ANDREW JACKSON* * *Balloting took place on different days in different states, from

September through November of 1828. Results indicated a clear victory

for Jackson, with 642,553 votes compared to 500,897 for Adams. The

campaign had been so bitter that neither candidate made the custom-

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ary post-election courtesy calls on the other (and John Quincy Adams

became the second American president, after his father, not to attend

his successor's inauguration).

Jackson took the oath of office in March; the streets of Washington

were filled with massive crowds of common people who had come from

hundreds of miles away to view this historic day. Jackson supporters

famously surged into the White House, wiped their feet on delicate

rugs, broke antique chairs, and ate and drank everything in sight.

Thousands of dollars worth of glass and china were broken, fights

ensued, and women feared for their virtue. In the end, the exhausted

Jackson slipped out the back door to a local inn to get some sleep.

JOHN Q. ADAMS, PIMP When people really want to get dirty, they hit below

the belt. In this case, Jackson supporters claimed with utter seriousness that the

prudish Adams, when serving as minister to the Russian court of Czar Alexander I,

had offered his wife's maid to the czar as a concubine. That there was a kernel of

innocent truth here — Adams had introduced the young woman to the czar — made

the lie easier to swallow.

ANDREW JACKSbN, BIGAMIST The Republicans returned fire with a

vengeance — targeting not only Jackson but also his wife, Rachel. She had been pre-

viously married to the abusive and pathologically jealous Lewis Robards, who had

finally left her in 1790 to 'get a divorce. Jackson had married Rachel in 1791, under

the impression that the divorce was final — only it wasn't, because Robards had

delayed getting the divorce decree. This clerical oversight went undiscovered for

nearly two years, and once it surfaced, Jackson and Rachel were forced to remarry,

just to make everything legal.

Because of this history, Rachel — whom Jackson loved deeply — fell victim to

the ugliest slanders imaginable. Republicans said that she was a "whore" and a "dirty,

black wench" given to "open and notorious lewdness." "Ought a convicted adulter-

ess and her paramour husband be placed in the highest office of this free and

Christian land?" asked the Cincinnati Gazette.

Adams supporters hoped that Jackson might lose his cool and challenge

182)

Hill

» \g RepubliCEihS destHbed Andrew Jackson's wife as a

: - v "dirty black wench" and worse.

someone to a duel—perhaps even kill one of his tormentors. But what happened

was that Rachel, who was overweight and had some health problems, took these

attacks quite literally to heart. In December 1828, after Jackson had won the elec-

tion, she died of a heart attack. Jackson grieved profoundly and was as wrathful as

an Old Testament prophet. At her funeral, he intoned: "In the presence of this dear

saint I can and do forgive all my enemies. But those vile wretches who have slan-

dered her must look to God for mercy."

MOST VICIOUS BROADSIDE Perhaps the nastiest political attack on Jackson

was the infamous Coffin Handbill, a widely circulated broadside displaying six coffins

under the headline: "Some account of some of the Bloody Deeds of General

Jackson." It went on to tell the story of the six militiamen whose order of execu-

tion Jackson had approved during the War of 1812. The men were the leaders of a

mutiny of 200 militiamen who thought their terms of service were up.The army dis-

agreed.The men were court-martialed; nearly all were merely fined, but the six ring-

leaders were sentenced to death. Jackson signed the execution papers, and at the

time, few objected. During the campaign, however, the Coffin Handbill painted

Jackson out to be bloodthirsty and merciless: "Sure he will spare! Sure JACKSON

yet /Will all reprieve but one— / O hark! Those shrieks! That cry of death! /The

deadly deed is done!"

MOST C O M P R E H E N S I V E W H Y - Y O U - S H O U L D N ' T - V O T E - F O R - H I MSTATEMENT This, from an anti-Jackson pamphlet, pretty much covers it all:"You

know that Jackson is no jurist, no statesman, no politician; that he is destitute of his-

torical, political, or statistical knowledge, that he is unacquainted with the orthography,

concord, and government of his language; you know that he is a man of no labor, no

patience, no investigation; in short that his whole recommendation is animal fierceness

and organic energy. He is wholly unqualified by education, habit, and temper for the sta-

tion of the President."

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