THE JACKSON-ADAMS-CLAY CONTESTS
1828–32
The election of Jackson to the Presidency in 1828 was not in any sense a revolution as to the general policy of the Government, but it was a decided revolution in the political methods of our national administrations. Madison, Monroe, and Adams were not confronted by the spoils system. They never entertained the question of removing men from office to reward political friends or to punish political enemies.
The civil service system of the Government under those administrations was an ideal system, but the Jackson leaders openly inspired the followers of their favorite to earnest political action by the declaration that “to the victors belong the spoils.” That slogan was first heard in the Jackson-Adams campaign of 1828, and when Jackson succeeded, for the first time Washington was overrun with a countless host of greedy spoilsmen, clamoring for the dismissal of every man who had not supported Jackson.
Jackson himself was thoroughly committed to the policy of political proscription, and from that day until the present time it has been generally accepted that a change of politics in the national administrations means a general change of the now enormous army of Federal officers, excepting as it is feebly restrained by all parties professing devotion to a civil service system with none honestly maintaining it.
When it is remembered that Jackson was defeated by Adams in 1824, although having more popular and electoral votes than Adams, it is not surprising that the friends of Jackson became intensely embittered, and they opened the campaign of 1828 immediately after the inauguration of Adams in 1825. In the Southwest, where Jackson lived and had his chief strength outside of Pennsylvania, the cockpit, the race-course and the gaming-table were favorite amusements, and the people were strongly prejudiced against what they regarded as the aristocratic power that had been maintained by the Virginia Presidents and continued by Adams. They had a candidate who enthused his followers to the uttermost, and the quiet citizens of Washington, long used to the delectable and cultivated official circles which had prevailed from Washington to the second Adams, were shocked at the mob of Democratic place-hunters who crowded into the Capitol when Jackson became President, and had access to the White House regardless of conventionality, where Jackson is reported to have smoked his corn-cob pipe during his greeting of visitors. With Jackson came the spoils system that has done so much to demoralize the politics of the Republic.
Jackson held a very strong position before the nation, not only because of his triumph over the British at New Orleans, but because of the high civil positions which he had filled with reasonable credit, but without displaying any high standard of statesmanship. He aided in framing the Tennessee Constitution in 1796, and was elected as the first Representative in Congress by the people after the admission of the State, then entitled to only one member.
He had been an ardent supporter of Jefferson in his first contest with the elder Adams, and in 1797 he was elected to the United States Senate, but he resigned a year later to become a Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, where he served until 1804, and was again elected Senator in 1823. He had filled all those important civil positions before he had attained any military distinction. He had served in the last year of the war of the revolution as a boy, and the only thing notable that is preserved of his military record of that day is the tradition that after he had been captured by the British he was wounded by an English officer because he refused to clean the officer’s boots.
It is not likely that he ever would have been a prominent candidate for President but for the fact that he defeated the English in the battle of New Orleans on the 8th of January, 1815. Had there been steamships, cables, and telegraphs at that time Jackson could never have commanded the hero worship that twice elected him President and made him practically political dictator.
The treaty of peace between England and the United States was signed at Ghent on December 24, 1814, but it required nearly a month for the Government to receive information that the treaty had been signed and that the war was ended. On January 8, 1815, more than a fortnight after England and the United States were actually at peace by their own treaty, the battle of New Orleans was fought between Jackson and Packenham, and a victory achieved over the English that then electrified the country as thoroughly as did Dewey’s victory at Manila. That victory, and that victory alone, made Jackson President, and with his rugged and indomitable will, for nearly a generation he stamped his impress upon the policy of the Government with greater emphasis than any other living man since Washington.
The Presidential contest of 1828 formally began soon after the inauguration of Adams, when the Legislature of Tennessee presented Jackson as a candidate, and the criticisms of the Adams administration revived much of the political asperities and resentments of the violent discussions between the old Federalist and Republican parties in the days of Jefferson and the elder Adams. One of the reasons strongly urged against the re-election of Adams was that his administration had become recklessly extravagant, as the expenditures of the Government under him had reached the enormous sum of nearly $14,000,000 a year.
Adams was attacked also because of his liberal views on the questions of protection and public improvements, although Jackson had sustained nearly or quite the same views by his votes in Congress. Adams had no trained political leaders; his Cabinet was divided even on the question of supporting himself, and the ideal statesmanship that Adams worshipped was not calculated to school and equip great politicians. Chiefly through the efforts of Martin Van Buren the supporters of Crawford were brought into the support of Jackson, a feat that was probably not difficult from the fact that Clay, the Secretary of State under Adams, was not friendly with Crawford.
The Congressional caucus was not thought of, and Adams became a candidate to succeed himself by resolutions of Legislatures and mass-meetings. Calhoun, who was the Vice-President under Adams, was accepted by the friends of Jackson and received nearly as large an electoral vote as his chief. It was a contest between the dignified statesmanship of that day and the Democratic element of the country. Adams was accepted as the National Republican candidate and Jackson was supported under the flags of Republican Democracy, and in some sections of Democracy alone. It was this contest and the success of Jackson that crystallized the Republican party of Jefferson into the Democratic party that then had the ablest political leaders of the nation.
The friends of Adams seem to have been confident of his re-election, and a majority of the States chose their electors by popular vote. It was a battle between the Democratic hero of New Orleans, the friend of the people, and the aristocratic power of the Republic. With Jackson’s great prestige and Adams’s feebleness in resources to support himself in the great contest before the people, it is not surprising that Jackson was elected by a very large popular and electoral majority. The following is the popular vote where a direct vote was had in the several States between Jackson and Adams:
| STATES. | Jackson. | Adams. |
|---|---|---|
| Maine[8] | 13,927 | 20,733 |
| New Hampshire | 20,922 | 24,134 |
| Vermont | 8,350 | 25,363 |
| Massachusetts | 6,016 | 29,876 |
| Rhode Island | 821 | 2,754 |
| Connecticut | 4,448 | 13,838 |
| New York[8] | 140,763 | 135,413 |
| New Jersey | 21,951 | 23,764 |
| Pennsylvania | 101,652 | 50,848 |
| Delaware[9] | ——— | ——— |
| Maryland[8] | 24,565 | 25,527 |
| Virginia | 26,752 | 12,101 |
| North Carolina | 37,857 | 13,918 |
| South Carolina[9] | ——— | ——— |
| Georgia[9] | 19,363 | No opposition. |
| Alabama[9] | 17,138 | 1,938 |
| Mississippi[9] | 6,772 | 1,581 |
| Louisiana[9] | 4,603 | 4,076 |
| Kentucky[9] | 39,397 | 31,460 |
| Tennessee[8] | 44,293 | 2,240 |
| Missouri | 8,272 | 3,400 |
| Ohio | 67,597 | 63,396 |
| Indiana | 22,257 | 17,052 |
| Illinois | 9,560 | 4,662 |
| Totals | 647,276 | 508,064 |
The majority for Jackson was so decisive both in popular and electoral votes that the verdict was accepted by the country, and the vote was counted and declared by Congress without any incident worthy of note. The following table presents the vote in detail for President and Vice-President in the Electoral College:
| STATES. | President. | Vice-President. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Jackson, Tenn. | John Quincy Adams, Mass. | John C. Calhoun, S. C. | Richard Rush, Penn. | William Smith, S. C. | |
| Maine | 1 | 8 | 1 | 8 | — |
| New Hampshire | — | 8 | — | 8 | — |
| Vermont | — | 7 | — | 7 | — |
| Massachusetts | — | 15 | — | 15 | — |
| Rhode Island | — | 4 | — | 4 | — |
| Connecticut | — | 8 | — | 8 | — |
| New York | 20 | 16 | 20 | 16 | — |
| New Jersey | — | 8 | — | 8 | — |
| Pennsylvania | 28 | — | 28 | — | — |
| Delaware | — | 3 | — | 3 | — |
| Maryland | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | — |
| Virginia | 24 | — | 24 | — | — |
| North Carolina | 15 | — | 15 | — | — |
| South Carolina | 11 | — | 11 | — | — |
| Georgia | 9 | — | 2 | — | 7 |
| Alabama | 5 | — | 5 | — | — |
| Mississippi | 3 | — | 3 | — | — |
| Louisiana | 5 | — | 5 | — | — |
| Kentucky | 14 | — | 14 | — | — |
| Tennessee | 11 | — | 11 | — | — |
| Ohio | 16 | — | 16 | — | — |
| Indiana | 5 | — | 5 | — | — |
| Illinois | 3 | — | 3 | — | — |
| Missouri | 3 | — | 3 | — | — |
| Totals | 178 | 83 | 171 | 83 | 7 |
The campaign of 1832 resulting in the triumphant re-election of Jackson developed a more confused condition of politics in the nation than had ever been presented. The Federal party was dead, and did not even pretend to maintain its organization in any of the States. The Republican party was divided between the National Republicans and the Democratic Republicans, who followed Jackson, and finally adopted the flag of Democracy. Jackson’s first administration had been anything but a peaceful one. An open quarrel had broken out between Jackson and Vice-President Calhoun, and Jackson was not only a good hater, but a good fighter. He was largely influenced by Van Buren, who was his Secretary of State, and who was one of the most sagacious political managers of his day. He aimed to succeed Jackson as President by having the Jackson administration enlisted in his favor, and his first step toward that end was to overthrow Calhoun, and Jackson emphasized his hostility to Calhoun by dictating the nomination of Van Buren for Vice-President.
A considerable number of prominent old Republicans who had supported Jackson had become alienated from him because of the intensely partisan qualities of his administration and because of his aggressive interference in the Cabinet scandal resulting from Mrs. Eaton’s social ambition as the wife of a Cabinet minister. Scandals were multiplied in Washington about the Jackson Kitchen Cabinet, of which Amos Kendall was regarded as the chief, but with all the disturbance in the National Capitol, the people of the country were sturdy in their devotion to Jackson, as was proved by his large majority, both in popular and electoral votes, over Clay, who was confessedly the ablest leader of the opposition.
This contest brings us to the introduction of the National Convention. The first political national convention held in this country was called to meet in Philadelphia in September, 1830, by a number of prominent anti-Masonic leaders. The anti-Mason party had sprung up suddenly and attained great power in the North, as it was the only outlet for the old Federalists, most of whom were in sympathy with the opposition of the new party to Masonic and all other secret societies.
The death of William Morgan, who, it was claimed, had been murdered by the Masons for revealing the secrets of the order, was most dramatically presented in the political organs of the day, and the new party speedily absorbed most of the opposition elements to the Democracy in the Northern States. The anti-Masonic national convention that met in Philadelphia in 1830 was presided over by Francis Granger, of New York, and was composed of 96 delegates, representing New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, and the Territory of Michigan. This convention was held more than two years before the Presidential election, for which it was expected to nominate candidates for President, but instead of making nominations, it adjourned to meet in Baltimore in September, 1831, when it had 112 delegates, with Indiana and Ohio added to the States presented. John C. Spencer was its president, and William Wirt, of Maryland, was nominated for President, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. Instead of passing a platform, as is now common, the convention issued an elaborate address to the people of the Union.
This action of the anti-Masons was followed by the National Republicans, who met in national convention at Baltimore, on December 12, 1831, with 17 States, represented by 157 delegates. Henry Clay was nominated for President and John Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. No platform was adopted by this convention, but it followed the anti-Masons by issuing an address to the people of the country in which it was stated that “the political history of the Union for the last three years exhibits a series of measures plainly dictated in all their principal features by blind cupidity or vindictive party spirit, marked throughout by a disregard of good policy, justice, and every high and generous sentiment, and terminating in a dissolution of the Cabinet under circumstances more discreditable than any of the kind to be met with in the annals of the civilized world.”
The Democrats followed the anti-Masons and National Republicans by calling a National Democratic convention, to meet in Baltimore in May, 1832, to nominate a candidate for Vice-President. Jackson was so universally accepted as the candidate of the Democrats for re-election that the convention was not allowed to make a nomination for the first office, but a resolution was passed declaring that the convention “cordially concurred in the repeated nominations that General Jackson had received in various parts of the country for re-election as President.” The convention adopted the two-thirds rule that has prevailed in every Democratic convention from that day until the present time, requiring that “two-thirds of the whole number of the votes in the convention shall be necessary to constitute a choice.”
Van Buren was nominated for Vice-President, receiving 208 votes to 26 for Richard M. Johnson and 49 for Philip P. Barbour. No platform of principles was adopted, nor was an address issued by the convention to the people, but a resolution was passed declaring that “in place of a general address from this body” the delegations should address their respective constituents on the political issues of the day.
Never were two candidates presented for the first office of the nation who so widely differed in their chief qualities. Jackson was a clear-headed man of rugged intellect, of inflexible purpose, a relentless opponent and a devoted friend, while Clay was the most magnetic of all the popular leaders this country has ever produced. No one before or since Clay’s time has approached him in that peculiar quality but James G. Blaine. The hero-worship of Jackson was earnest and always aggressive when summoned to battle, but Clay was beloved and idolized beyond that accorded to any leader of any party in the history of the Republic. He was a most brilliant orator, imposing in presence and gifted in every grace that attracted the multitude, and he was imperious as Cæsar in his leadership. His friends battled for him with matchless enthusiasm, but Jackson was so strongly entrenched in the confidence of the masses that he won an easy victory over the Sage of Ashland.
The contest was one of unusual violence and defamation, and it was doubtless aggravated by the personal enmity that existed between Jackson and Clay. The veto of the bill rechartering the Bank of the United States had greatly disturbed financial circles, and it was believed in the early part of the struggle that the financial and business interests of the country would endanger Jackson’s success, but the popular prejudice against banks in that day was so great that Jackson largely profited by the open opposition of his former supporters who were interested in maintaining a national financial institution. The anti-Masonic electoral ticket was adopted by the National Republicans in several of the States, and it is specially shown in the popular vote of Vermont, where Clay appears to have carried the State, and yet the electoral vote was given to William Wirt, the anti-Masonic candidate. Had it been possible for the electoral vote of that State to elect Clay President, it would have been cast for him.
The number of electors had been enlarged by the new apportionment, and Delaware had provided for the choice of electors by a popular vote, leaving South Carolina as the only State to appoint electors by the Legislature. That State continued the system of the legislative choice of electors without interruption until the civil war of 1861. Several of the States also abandoned the election of delegates by the district system, Maryland alone adhering to it. In Alabama there was no electoral ticket opposed to Jackson, and the popular vote is not attainable. Georgia was also without an anti-Jackson electoral ticket, while Missouri, that was friendly to Clay in 1824, seems to have made no battle for him against Jackson. The following is the popular vote, as nearly as it can be ascertained:
| STATES. | Jackson. | Clay. |
|---|---|---|
| Maine | 33,291 | 27,204 |
| New Hampshire | 25,486 | 19,010 |
| Vermont | 7,870 | 11,152 |
| Massachusetts | 14,545 | 33,003 |
| Rhode Island | 2,126 | 2,810 |
| Connecticut | 11,269 | 17,755 |
| New York | 168,497 | 154,896 |
| New Jersey | 23,856 | 23,393 |
| Pennsylvania | 90,983 | 56,716 |
| Delaware | 4,110 | 4,276 |
| Maryland | 19,156 | 19,160 |
| Virginia | 33,609 | 11,451 |
| North Carolina | 24,862 | 4,563 |
| South Carolina | ——— | ——— |
| Georgia | 20,750 | ——— |
| Alabama | ——— | ——— |
| Mississippi | 5,919 | ——— |
| Louisiana | 4,049 | 2,528 |
| Kentucky | 36,247 | 43,396 |
| Tennessee | 28,740 | 1,436 |
| Missouri | 5,192 | ——— |
| Ohio | 81,246 | 76,539 |
| Indiana | 31,552 | 15,472 |
| Illinois | 14,147 | 5,429 |
| Totals | 687,502 | 530,189 |
There was some ragged voting for President and much more for Vice-President. Jackson received 219 votes in the Electoral College to 49 for Clay, 11 for Floyd, and 7 for Wirt, given by Vermont, and which would have gone to Clay had they been needed. South Carolina, under the influence of Calhoun, refused to vote for either Jackson or Van Buren, but cast the electoral vote for John Floyd, of Virginia, for President, and for Henry Lee, of Massachusetts, for Vice-President. Van Buren was not acceptable to all the friends of Jackson, as the Pennsylvania Democratic Convention positively instructed the electors to vote for William Wilkins for Vice-President, which instructions were obeyed in the Electoral College, and a convention of Jackson men had been held in June, in Charlottesville, Va., and nominated P. P. Barbour, of that State, for the Vice-Presidency, with Jackson for President. A like convention was held, composed of delegates from a number of counties in North Carolina, in which Jackson and Barbour were nominated, but Barbour did not reach the dignity of support in the Electoral College.
There were no disputes as to the return of the electoral colleges, and the vote was declared by Congress as follows:
| STATES. | President. | Vice-President. | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Jackson, Tenn. | Henry Clay, Ky. | John Floyd, Va. | William Wirt, Md. | Martin Van Buren, N. Y. | John Sergeant, Penn. | William Wilkins, Penn. | Henry Lee, Mass. | Amos Ellmaker, Penn. | |
| Maine | 10 | — | — | — | 10 | — | — | — | — |
| New Hampshire | 7 | — | — | — | 7 | — | — | — | — |
| Vermont | — | — | — | 7 | — | — | — | — | 7 |
| Massachusetts | — | 14 | — | — | — | 14 | — | — | — |
| Rhode Island | — | 4 | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — |
| Connecticut | — | 8 | — | — | — | 8 | — | — | — |
| New York | 42 | — | — | — | 42 | — | — | — | — |
| New Jersey | 8 | — | — | — | 8 | — | — | — | — |
| Pennsylvania | 30 | — | — | — | — | — | 30 | — | — |
| Delaware | — | 3 | — | — | — | 3 | — | — | — |
| Maryland | 3 | 5 | — | — | 3 | 5 | — | — | — |
| Virginia | 23 | — | — | — | 23 | — | — | — | — |
| North Carolina | 15 | — | — | — | 15 | — | — | — | — |
| South Carolina | — | — | 11 | — | — | — | — | 11 | — |
| Georgia | 11 | — | — | — | 11 | — | — | — | — |
| Alabama | 7 | — | — | — | 7 | — | — | — | — |
| Mississippi | 4 | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — | — |
| Louisiana | 5 | — | — | — | 5 | — | — | — | — |
| Kentucky | — | 15 | — | — | — | 15 | — | — | — |
| Tennessee | 15 | — | — | — | 15 | — | — | — | — |
| Ohio | 21 | — | — | — | 21 | — | — | — | — |
| Indiana | 9 | — | — | — | 9 | — | — | — | — |
| Illinois | 5 | — | — | — | 5 | — | — | — | — |
| Missouri | 4 | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — | — |
| Totals | 219 | 49 | 11 | 7 | 189 | 49 | 30 | 11 | 7 |
Jackson’s second administration was even more tempestuous than the first. His nullification proclamation that convulsed the country from centre to circumference, and the first “pocket veto” in the history of the country by which he had killed the Land bill, were among the later acts of his first administration, and entered very largely into the bitterness of political dispute that continued during his second term. Both were denounced as violent usurpations, and it is doubtful whether any but Andrew Jackson could have made the record he left on both of those vital issues.
He had vetoed the recharter of the United States Bank during his first term, and supplemented that hostility to the institution early in his second term by the removal of the Government deposits from the bank. His Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Duane, resolutely opposed the removal of the deposits, but Jackson would not brook opposition, and in order to carry out his new financial policy, he accepted Duane’s resignation and appointed Roger B. Taney, who was in accord with the President, and who was finally rewarded by his promotion to the Chief Justiceship of the United States.
He had devoted followers in Congress; he was absolute master of Congressional action during his second term, and he was heartily supported by the great mass of the people, a very large portion of whom regarded him as the model patriot and the infallible political oracle of the nation. They loved his courage and his pugnacity, and as he always was the winner, they had every inspiration to rejoice over the triumphs of their devotedly worshipped leader.
Strange as it may seem, the first evidence of the weakness of Jackson’s popular strength was exhibited in his own State of Tennessee, where Hugh L. White, a Senator from that State, was nominated to succeed Jackson as President by the Tennessee Legislature. Jackson was much disturbed by it. When the question was before the Legislatures of Alabama and Tennessee, copies of the Washington Globe, the organ of the administration, containing severe assaults upon Senator White, were franked to the members of those Legislatures by the President himself; but notwithstanding all Jackson’s efforts to make Van Buren his successor, Tennessee voted for Judge White by 10,000 majority.
Upon his retirement from the Presidency in 1837, he imitated Washington by a farewell address to the American people, that was received by a large majority as second in reverence only to the farewell address of Washington. His health was feeble when his stormy eight years of Presidential rule were ended, and after the inauguration of Van Buren he retired to “The Hermitage,” his home, near Nashville, in Tennessee, where he died on the 8th of June, 1845.
MARTIN VAN BUREN