1828 United States Presidential Election
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50 free 1828 United States Presidential Election trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The US presidential election of 1828 was a rematch, a grudge match and a turning point all at once. Andrew Jackson, the war hero who believed the presidency had been taken from him four years earlier, faced President John Quincy Adams in a contest remembered as one of the nastiest in American history. It was also decided by a mass electorate of ordinary white men, organized by new-style parties. This quiz covers the whole story: the disputed result of 1824 that set up the rematch, the running mates and party builders, the newspaper attacks on both men and their families, the state-by-state results, and the rowdy inauguration and political aftershocks that followed. It is written for students reviewing the Age of Jackson, for teachers who want a ready-made classroom quiz, and for history fans who enjoy a good political brawl. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What did a teenage Andrew Jackson refuse to do for a British officer during the Revolution, earning a sword slash?
Polish his boots
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.
Q 02Which item did Andrew Jackson's allies accuse John Quincy Adams of buying for the White House with public money?
A billiard table
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.
Q 03What was carried onto the White House lawn to lure the rowdy crowd outside after Andrew Jackson's 1829 inauguration?
Bowls of punch
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.
Q 04In which river did President John Quincy Adams take early-morning swims during his single term in the White House?
The Potomac
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.
Q 05Why did pro-Adams newspapers brand Andrew Jackson's wife Rachel an adulteress during the bitter 1828 campaign?
Her divorce was not final
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.
Q 06Which animal became the lasting symbol of Andrew Jackson's party after opponents twisted his surname into an insult?
The donkey
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.
Q 07John Quincy Adams, beaten by Andrew Jackson in 1828, was the first president's son to become president; who was second?
George W. Bush
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.
Q 08Which 1815 battle, fought after a peace treaty had already been signed, made Andrew Jackson a national hero?
New Orleans
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.
Q 09What did Andrew Jackson's supporters call the alleged 1825 deal that made John Quincy Adams president?
The Corrupt Bargain
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.
Q 10Which state's legislature nominated Andrew Jackson for president in October 1825, three years before the 1828 election?
Tennessee
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.
Q 11Before Andrew Jackson's 1828 win, every president had called Massachusetts or which other state home?
Virginia
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.
Q 12Andrew Jackson's 1828 victory made him the first president elected from west of which mountain range?
The Appalachians
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.
Q 13John Quincy Adams skipped Andrew Jackson's 1829 inauguration; whose swearing-in had his father also refused to attend?
Thomas Jefferson
Q 21Andrew Jackson's 1828 allies claimed John Quincy Adams had procured an American girl for the ruler of which country?
Russia
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.
Q 22Which college, John Quincy Adams's alma mater, disgusted him by giving President Andrew Jackson an honorary degree?
Harvard
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.
Q 23On which holiday in 1826 did President John Quincy Adams's father die, the same day as another former president?
Independence Day
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.
Q 14Which politician known as the Great Compromiser did Andrew Jackson blame most for the 1828 attacks on his wife?
Henry Clay
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.
Q 15Which practice of handing government jobs to loyal supporters is named from a remark about Andrew Jackson's 1828 win?
The spoils system
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.
Q 16To which body was John Quincy Adams elected two years after losing in 1828, the only former president to serve there?
House of Representatives
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.
Q 17The 1826 disappearance of William Morgan in upstate New York turned voters against which secret society?
The Freemasons
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.
Q 18Which voting requirement had most states dropped for white men by 1828, swelling the electorate behind Andrew Jackson?
Owning property
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.
Q 19Which party, whose name cast Andrew Jackson as a would-be monarch, did his opponents form in the 1830s?
The Whigs
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.
Q 20In what was Rachel Jackson buried after her sudden death, weeks before her husband Andrew took office in 1829?
Her inaugural gown
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.
Independence Day 1826 marked exactly 50 years since the Declaration was adopted, and the two men who died that day had both signed it.
Q 24Which plantation near Nashville was Andrew Jackson's home base as his allies organized the 1828 campaign?
The Hermitage
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.
Q 25Which Cabinet post, then the stepping stone to the presidency, was the prize in the 1825 deal Andrew Jackson denounced?
Secretary of State
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.
Q 26Which region, John Quincy Adams's home ground, gave him nearly all of its electoral votes in his 1828 defeat?
New England
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.
Q 27Which sitting vice president switched sides in 1828, deserting President Adams for Andrew Jackson's ticket?
John C. Calhoun
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.
Q 28Which New York senator, nicknamed the Little Magician, built the alliance behind Andrew Jackson and later succeeded him?
Martin Van Buren
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.
Q 29What did furious Southerners call the high 1828 import tax law passed months before the presidential election?
The Tariff of Abominations
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.
Q 30What name was given to the 1828 anti-Jackson broadsides about six militiamen executed under his command?
Coffin Handbills
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.