Left to right: Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson
According to the Constitution of the United States, this throws the election into said House. This had happened only once before, in 1800, when John Adams lost, but it wasn't clear as to whom: Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr finished in a tie, and the House chose Jefferson.
February 9, 1825, 200 years ago today: The election is held. Crawford dropped out due to ill health, but didn't throw his support to anyone. Clay knew he didn't have a chance, and that he didn't like either remaining man. But he at least trusted Adams, and despised Jackson. So he threw his support to Adams, who won, 87-74, making him the 6th President of the United States.
Adams then appointed Clay to be his Secretary of State. At the time, this, rather than the Vice Presidency, was tantamount to being chosen as heir apparent. Adams had served as Secretary of State under Monroe, Monroe had so served James Madison, Madison had so served Jefferson, and Jefferson had so served George Washington, though was not his immediate successor.
Jackson and his supporters cried foul: The term "corrupt bargain" entered the American lexicon.
Jackson and his supporters cried foul: The term "corrupt bargain" entered the American lexicon.
But despite his anger, Jackson did the right thing: Instead of acting like an ass, like Donald Trump did, he went home, and said little, and let his supporters paint him as the wronged man. This allowed him to remake the Democratic-Republican Party, whose members had usually called themselves "Republicans" to this point, as the Democratic Party, and to paint himself as the reasonable alternative, provided that Adams' Presidency did not go well.
It didn't. By most standards, Adams' Presidency was a disaster. He called for an ambitious agenda that included federally funded infrastructure projects, the establishment of a national university, and engagement with the countries of Latin America, but Congress refused to pass many of his initiatives. With other countries, he may have been the greatest diplomat America has ever had; with Congress, diplomacy did him no good. Sadly, both traits were inherited from his father.
It didn't. By most standards, Adams' Presidency was a disaster. He called for an ambitious agenda that included federally funded infrastructure projects, the establishment of a national university, and engagement with the countries of Latin America, but Congress refused to pass many of his initiatives. With other countries, he may have been the greatest diplomat America has ever had; with Congress, diplomacy did him no good. Sadly, both traits were inherited from his father.
Jackson rode a wave of popular frenzy, and won the rematch in 1828. This was despite a very dirty campaign, in which both he and his wife were libeled. Rachel Jackson died between the election and the Inauguration, and "Old Hickory" swore revenge against his enemies, thinking them responsible.
His 1st term was dominated by "The Petticoat Affair." Led by Floride Calhoun, wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun, the wives of Jackson's Cabinet members socially ostracized Secretary of War John Eaton and his wife, Peggy Eaton. Their private history, to put it politely, resembled that of Andrew and Rachel Jackson.
Thinking of Rachel, Jackson took the Eatons' side. Hoping to quell the controversy, Secretary Eaton resigned in 1831, and Jackson ended up firing and replacing every other member of his Cabinet -- except for his Secretary of State, who was a widower, and had stood up for the Eatons. His name was Martin Van Buren. In 1832, running for re-election, Jackson dumped Calhoun from the ticket, and got Van Buren nominated for Vice President. They overwhelmingly beat Clay in the election. Jackson later appointed Eaton to be Military Governor of Florida and U.S. Minister to Spain. Clay would run for President again in 1844, losing for a 3rd time, to James K. Polk.
One unintended consequence of all this: Jackson's 2nd Attorney General, and later his 4th Secretary of the Treasury, was Roger Taney. In 1836, Jackson appointed him Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1857, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, Taney ruled that black people were not American citizens, even if born free. Taney died before the abolition of slavery.
But the Taney appointment might not be Jackson's worst decision. In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which displaced tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands east of the Mississippi, and resulted in thousands of deaths. It was a horrible thing to do, and Native Americans have hated him ever since. Some won't take a $20 bill, because his picture is on it. They'll take two tens, or four fives, or a ten and two fives, or even twenty singles, but not a twenty.
It's worth mentioning, though, that, at the time, while the Indian Removal Act was opposed by such Congressional figures as Clay and Jackson's Tennessee rival, David Crockett (despite his status as a folk hero thanks to a 1950s TV show, he was never called "Davy" in his lifetime), nobody came up with a better idea. And Jackson's justification was that, had the Natives stayed, they would have been wiped out by white men, anyway. There was no good answer, including doing nothing.
Jackson faced a challenge to the integrity of the federal union when South Carolina threatened to nullify a high protective tariff set by the federal government. Jackson threatened the use of military force to enforce the tariff, but the crisis was defused when the tariff was amended.
In 1832, he vetoed a bill by Congress to reauthorize the Second Bank of the United States, correctly arguing that it was a corrupt institution. In 1835, Jackson became the only President to pay off the national debt, and the 1st to survive an assassination attempt. When he left office after 2 terms on March 4, 1837, he was still immensely popular, but also widely hated. And he still was both when he died on June 8, 1845.
Four different men who held the Presidency have called Jackson their favorite President: Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson and Donald Trump. Trump put a portrait of Jackson in the Oval Office. It was suggested that he did so because Jackson was a fellow racist.
What would Jackson have thought of Trump? A big businessman? A dealer with big banks? A draft dodger? A man who treated his wives badly? A crook? A traitor? When he left office, Jackson was asked if he had any regrets. He said, "I regret I was unable to shoot Henry Clay or to hang John C. Calhoun." The distinction being that he considered Clay a common criminal, worthy of being shot; and Calhoun a traitor, where the traditional penalty is hanging.
Many locations in America have been named for Jackson, including the capital of Mississippi; Jacksonville, the largest city (but not the seat of the largest metropolitan area) in Florida; a city in Tennessee, whose name became the title of a hit song by country music legends June Carter & Johnny Cash; the town in Ocean County, New Jersey, where Six Flags Great Adventure, one of the country's leading theme parks, is located, including a frontier theme that Jackson himself might have appreciated; and Jackson Heights, a neighborhood in Queens, New York City. Counties in 21 States have been named for him, including in Missouri, which also has a Hickory County, named for his nickname.
New York City has a high school and an elementary school named for Jackson. Oddly, neither is in Jackson Heights: The high school is in Cambria Heights, and the public school is in Flushing. There are also Andrew Jackson High Schools in Miami and, as you might expect, in Jacksonville, Florida; and in his home State of South Carolina, in Kershaw, in the Waxhaws from whence he came.
The USS President Jackson was an attack transport that served the U.S. Navy from 1941 to 1955. The USS Andrew Jackson was a submarine, in service from 1963 to 1989. A Jackson Highway ran from Chicago to New Orleans, although it has mostly been phased out.
Among the actors who have played Jackson: Lionel Barrymore twice, in The Gorgeous Hussy in 1936, with Joan Crawford as Peggy Eaton, and Lone Star in 1952; Hugh Sothern in The Buccaneer, a film about the Battle of New Orleans and the pirate Jean Lafitte, in 1938; Brian Donlevy in The Remarkable Andrew in 1942; Charlton Heston twice, in The President's Lady in 1953, with Susan Hayward as Mrs. Eaton, and in a 1958 remake of The Buccaneer; Basil Ruysdael in Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier in 1955; Wesley Addy in The Adams Chronicles in 1976; and Kris Kristofferson in Texas Rising in 2015.
In 2008, Michael Friedman created the musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, a comedic look at the man and the myth. It reached Broadway in 2010, starring Benjamin Walker, who would double down in 2012, taking the title role in the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Jackson's portrait has appeared on the $20 bill since 1928. Since 2016, there has been a plan to replace him on the bill with abolitionist Harriet Tubman. It hasn't happened yet.
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