50 Fun Facts About 1828 United States Presidential Election

What did a teenage Andrew Jackson refuse to do for a British officer during the Revolution, earning a sword slash?

Polish his boots, the officer ordered; Jackson's refusal left scars on his hand and head, and he and his brother then caught smallpox in a British prison camp.

Which item did Andrew Jackson's allies accuse John Quincy Adams of buying for the White House with public money?

A billiard table did stand in the White House, but Adams had paid for it himself; a charge entered in the official accounts by mistake handed his enemies a gambling scandal.

What was carried onto the White House lawn to lure the rowdy crowd outside after Andrew Jackson's 1829 inauguration?

Bowls of punch, laced with whiskey, drew the well-wishers back outdoors after they had climbed in through windows and smashed several thousand dollars' worth of china.

In which river did President John Quincy Adams take early-morning swims during his single term in the White House?

The Potomac swim was part of a rigid routine: Adams rose at five, lit his own fire and read his Bible first, and kept swimming even after his wife and doctor objected.

Why did pro-Adams newspapers brand Andrew Jackson's wife Rachel an adulteress during the bitter 1828 campaign?

Her divorce was not final when she first wed Jackson, so the couple had to marry again in 1794; thirty-four years later, rival editors revived the story to call her a bigamist.

Which animal became the lasting symbol of Andrew Jackson's party after opponents twisted his surname into an insult?

The donkey began as a slur, with enemies turning Jackson into 'jackass' to paint him as stupid and stubborn; cartoonist Thomas Nast later made the animal the party's emblem.

John Quincy Adams, beaten by Andrew Jackson in 1828, was the first president's son to become president; who was second?

George W. Bush took office in 2001, 176 years after Adams; both sons also lost the popular vote in the election that first made them president.

Which 1815 battle, fought after a peace treaty had already been signed, made Andrew Jackson a national hero?

New Orleans was fought 15 days after the Treaty of Ghent was signed, because news of peace had not yet crossed the Atlantic; the win earned Jackson the Thanks of Congress.

What did Andrew Jackson's supporters call the alleged 1825 deal that made John Quincy Adams president?

The Corrupt Bargain charge gave Jackson a four-year grievance: he resigned his Senate seat and his allies began organizing for the 1828 rematch almost at once.

Which state's legislature nominated Andrew Jackson for president in October 1825, three years before the 1828 election?

Tennessee lawmakers acted within months of Jackson's defeat in the 1825 vote in Congress, and he gave up his Senate seat and went home to run a campaign of unprecedented length.

Before Andrew Jackson's 1828 win, every president had called Massachusetts or which other state home?

Virginia had supplied four of the first six presidents and the Adams family the other two; Jackson's win ended that two-state hold on the office.

Andrew Jackson's 1828 victory made him the first president elected from west of which mountain range?

The Appalachians had been the frontier of the original states; Jackson, 61 when he took the oath, was also the oldest man yet to assume the presidency.

John Quincy Adams skipped Andrew Jackson's 1829 inauguration; whose swearing-in had his father also refused to attend?

Thomas Jefferson was sworn in 28 years earlier without the defeated John Adams; in 1829 the snub ran both ways, since Jackson had refused to pay the customary call on his rival.

Which politician known as the Great Compromiser did Andrew Jackson blame most for the 1828 attacks on his wife?

Henry Clay, Adams's chief lieutenant, drew more of Jackson's blame than Adams himself after Rachel died in December 1828; the two men faced each other for the presidency in 1832.

Which practice of handing government jobs to loyal supporters is named from a remark about Andrew Jackson's 1828 win?

The spoils system took its name from New York senator William L. Marcy, who argued that an election's prizes belonged to the victor; it lasted until civil service reform in 1883.

To which body was John Quincy Adams elected two years after losing in 1828, the only former president to serve there?

House of Representatives service suited him: bored by retirement, Adams won a seat in 1830 and stayed 17 years, becoming a leading congressional opponent of slavery.

The 1826 disappearance of William Morgan in upstate New York turned voters against which secret society?

The Freemasons were blamed for kidnapping Morgan, who had announced a book exposing their rituals; the uproar bred the Anti-Masonic Party, whose followers mostly backed Adams in 1828.

Which voting requirement had most states dropped for white men by 1828, swelling the electorate behind Andrew Jackson?

Owning property no longer decided who could vote in most states, and it showed at the polls: about three times as many votes were cast in 1828 as in 1824.

Which party, whose name cast Andrew Jackson as a would-be monarch, did his opponents form in the 1830s?

The Whigs took the name to compare Jackson to George III; much of the coalition that had backed Adams in 1828 moved into the new party.

In what was Rachel Jackson buried after her sudden death, weeks before her husband Andrew took office in 1829?

Her inaugural gown, a white dress bought for the celebrations, became her burial dress; Jackson blamed the campaign's slanders for the heart attack that killed her at 61.

Andrew Jackson's 1828 allies claimed John Quincy Adams had procured an American girl for the ruler of which country?

Russia was where Adams had served as American minister; the girl was in truth his wife's maid, whom a curious Tsar Alexander I had simply asked to meet at court.

Which college, John Quincy Adams's alma mater, disgusted him by giving President Andrew Jackson an honorary degree?

Harvard made Jackson a Doctor of Laws in 1833; Adams refused to attend, writing in his diary that his college was disgracing itself by honoring a barbarian.

On which holiday in 1826 did President John Quincy Adams's father die, the same day as another former president?

Independence Day 1826 marked exactly 50 years since the Declaration was adopted, and the two men who died that day had both signed it.

Which plantation near Nashville was Andrew Jackson's home base as his allies organized the 1828 campaign?

The Hermitage grew into a 1,000-acre cotton plantation worked by enslaved people; Jackson retreated there after his 1825 defeat to plan his return.

Which Cabinet post, then the stepping stone to the presidency, was the prize in the 1825 deal Andrew Jackson denounced?

Secretary of State was the office each of the four most recent presidents had held on the way up, so the appointment looked to Jackson's men like a purchased succession.

Which region, John Quincy Adams's home ground, gave him nearly all of its electoral votes in his 1828 defeat?

New England was the heart of the same short list of states his father had carried in losing in 1800, a map far too small to stop Jackson's sweep of the South and West.

Which sitting vice president switched sides in 1828, deserting President Adams for Andrew Jackson's ticket?

John C. Calhoun thus served as vice president under two different presidents, then fell out with Jackson as well and in 1832 became the first to resign the office.

Which New York senator, nicknamed the Little Magician, built the alliance behind Andrew Jackson and later succeeded him?

Martin Van Buren even ran for governor of New York in 1828 to strengthen the ticket there, then quit the post within weeks to join Jackson's Cabinet.

What did furious Southerners call the high 1828 import tax law passed months before the presidential election?

The Tariff of Abominations began partly as a scheme by Jackson's own allies, who loaded the bill with duties meant to hurt Adams's supporters and expected it to fail; it passed anyway.

What name was given to the 1828 anti-Jackson broadsides about six militiamen executed under his command?

Coffin Handbills began with Philadelphia editor John Binns, whose poster of six black coffins blamed Jackson for the men's deaths in the Creek War; further rows stood for soldiers and Indians.

Which Treasury Secretary from Pennsylvania ran for vice president alongside John Quincy Adams in 1828?

Richard Rush was a son of Benjamin Rush, the Philadelphia physician and Founding Father; Adams hoped his protectionist views would hold the middle states.

By what party name were John Quincy Adams's supporters known as they fought the 1828 presidential campaign?

National Republicans had shared a party with Jackson's men until 1824; many of their leaders disliked the new style of popular campaigning and were far less organized than their rivals.

Which state split its electoral votes between the candidates in 1828, something it would not do again until 2016?

Maine chose some electors by district, and Jackson took one of them while Adams won the rest; its next split came when Donald Trump carried the state's second district.

Which state joined South Carolina in 1828 as the last two whose legislatures, not voters, chose presidential electors?

Delaware lawmakers gave the state's electoral votes to Adams; four years earlier six states had still denied voters a direct say, New York among them.

Which man did Andrew Jackson kill in an 1806 duel, a death his opponents recalled to voters in 1828?

Charles Dickinson, an expert marksman, fired first and hit Jackson in the chest; Jackson re-cocked his pistol, shot him dead, and lived on with the bullet still lodged inside him.

What nickname did critics give the unofficial advisers, several of them editors, around President Andrew Jackson?

The Kitchen Cabinet included the editors Amos Kendall and Francis Preston Blair; the official department heads were dubbed the parlor cabinet by contrast.

Which scandal over a Cabinet wife's reputation split Andrew Jackson's first administration soon after the 1828 election?

The Petticoat Affair saw Washington's political wives shun Peggy Eaton, wife of the War Secretary; Jackson, sure that campaign gossip had killed his own wife, took the Eatons' side.

Which 1832–33 showdown grew from South Carolina's refusal to pay the import duties set in the 1828 election year?

The Nullification Crisis ended in March 1833, when Congress on a single day armed Jackson with a Force Bill to make the state obey and passed a lower, compromise schedule of duties.

Which one-party calm did the rivalry of Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams bring to an end?

The Era of Good Feelings was coined by a Boston newspaper in 1817 during James Monroe's goodwill tour; by 1828 two organized camps were again trading insults.

Which Chief Justice, a public critic of Andrew Jackson during the 1828 campaign, swore him in the following March?

John Marshall thought Jackson a dangerous demagogue, yet it fell to him to administer the oath; when he died in 1835, Jackson chose Roger Taney to replace him.

Which song about frontier riflemen in Andrew Jackson's 1815 victory became his campaign song in 1828?

The Hunters of Kentucky, written by Samuel Woodworth in 1821, was first sung on stage to a crowd of river boatmen who made the performer repeat it twice more.

Which New York governor and Erie Canal champion, a possible running mate for Andrew Jackson, died in February 1828?

DeWitt Clinton was the alternative some wanted for the second spot on the ticket; a rival New York politician worked to block him, and death removed him nine months before the vote.

What were the 'lighthouses of the skies' that John Quincy Adams asked Congress to fund, to his opponents' ridicule?

Observatories were one item in an ambitious program that also sought a national university and a naval academy; Congress never voted on the idea, and critics turned the phrase against him.

Which constitutional rule on counting enslaved people gave the South extra electoral votes for Andrew Jackson in 1828?

The Three-Fifths Clause inflated the South's share: Jackson drew about twice as many popular votes in the North, yet the South supplied 105 of his 178 electoral votes.

Which niece of the late Rachel Jackson took over as White House hostess when Andrew Jackson became president in 1829?

Emily Donelson was 21 when she moved in; she later refused to call on Peggy Eaton, a Cabinet wife shunned by Washington society, and the rift kept her away from the White House for much of 1830 and 1831.

In which Ohio city did editor Charles Hammond print his Gazette's 1828 attacks on Andrew Jackson's marriage?

Cincinnati's Gazette asked readers whether a convicted adulteress and her husband belonged in the nation's highest offices; Hammond had edited the paper since 1825.

Which political machine, led by Andrew Jackson's chief New York organizer, ran that state's government in 1828?

Albany Regency was a label coined by an opponent, the editor Thurlow Weed, who admitted he had never known a body of men who held so much power and used it so well.

Which Massachusetts senator, famed as an orator, helped build John Quincy Adams's party before the 1828 election?

Daniel Webster had an uneasy relationship with Adams, who detested him, but he was counted on to bring former Federalists over to the president's ticket.

Which faith, held by John Quincy Adams, did Presbyterian minister Ezra Stiles Ely attack while backing Andrew Jackson?

Unitarianism made Adams unfit in Ely's eyes; the minister, a friend of Jackson, urged Christians to vote for the general and had called for a 'Christian Party' in politics.

Which editor bought the United States Telegraph in 1826 and made it the chief press voice of Andrew Jackson's campaign?

Duff Green was rewarded with government printing worth an estimated $50,000 a year, then lost it in 1831 after siding against Jackson in a feud with the vice president.