The world of politics is an ugly and vapid world and the most common sentiment seems the world has been stretched even thinner, unable to support the weight of statesmen and cowardly tactic known as compromise. In the last twenty years perhaps this is a fair feeling, but in the context of American political history, it is simply not true. Political discourse, as regrettably as predictably, breaks down in a democracy. The strength of the United States has been the ability to repeatedly correct itself (albeit for short amounts of time). This is not to say hatred, unintelligible reasoning or violence surrounding politics is condonable, but rather I’d like to take us back to a time in American history where modern schemes and tactics would first become recognizable to modern talkers. We’re going back to 1828.
In 1828, President John Quincy Adams (also referred to as JQA or Q-Ball) was not so excited about campaigning for a re-election. His last four years had been marred by inaction, not entirely from his own ineptitude but from the venomous opposition he faced. In a way, JQA never had a chance to be wholly productive during his first term despite a focus on domestic issues and disinterest in foreign affairs. Since FDR, the hyper-media has a heart attack from the excitement of a President's First 100 Days. John Quincy Adams didn't have a First 100 Days, he had an Only 100 Days. From that, his first term was decided by all and he was thrown into a perpetual campaign presidency almost 150 years before Nixon would get Congress to finance the practice by creating an "Office of Communications" in the White House.
In 1824, JQA came to the presidential throne after the first, of several, highly controversial presidential elections. The national election results, via the Electoral College, were split four ways: between Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William Harries Crawford and Henry Clay. Jackson easily had the most of the four but did not achieve an Electoral majority—so the House of Representatives were put in charge of voting among the top three candidates. Crawford went and had a heart attack, so he was out. And Clay, while dropped as the fourth horse in the race, took his original seat as Speaker of the House. Clay stemmed discussion of the issue and (secretly?) campaigned for JQA, who won the Representatives’ votes and became president. JQA’s first order of business was to name Clay as the Secretary of State, which was about the political equivalent of handing somebody a sack with a dollar sign on it during the Inaugural speech, as nearly every president to that point had previously been the Secretary of State.
Jackson and his people went berserk. They were “the voice of the people” and had their power usurped by the coastal elitists. Months after the elections, Andrew Jackson resigned in the middle of his unfinished term as U.S. Senator and began a speaking tour that lasted for about four years. JQA, after appointing Clay, was concerned about appearances and so appointed several political rivals to cabinet positions and other offices. This half-hearted conciliatory gesture backfired, as JQA was constantly fighting his own administration—and still trying to respond to the regular criticism from Jackson and others.
Jackson, meanwhile, found more political strength in not being a politician for those years. He had strong military credentials for booting the Seminole Indians out of Florida and defending the city of New Orleans in 1814. Jackson also stayed “a man of the people” despite being a practicing lawyer, land speculator, slave-owner and one of the founders of Memphis, Tennessee.
For the actual election of 1828, the mudslinging reached new, and arguably unmatched to this day, lows. No longer were the opponent’s politics bad for the nation, but the man’s morality was bad for the nation, if said morality existed at all. Jackson was accused of marrying, Rachel Robards (true)—who was a bigamist (technically true, at one point) and a whore (not true). Jackson, in turn, accused JQA of being a pimp. A not-so-cool (at the time) accusation that came from the rumor that the president gave a visiting Russian czar his choice of American virgins at the Executive Mansion. Jackson was accused of not being a Christian, an apparent disqualification for the presidency. JQA was accused of a gambling addiction—as he liked playing billiards. Jackson called JQA’s government spending lavish and contemptuous to all good Americans. Daniel Webster, in JQA’s camp, called Jackson a dangerous man. Thomas Jefferson called Jackson a clear-minded man. Adams' people called Jackson “a jackass”—which Jackson liked and made it the mascot of his new political party.
Are you joking with me!?
JQA’s polished political career and academic knowledge did little to negate the perception he was too egocentric to properly govern. Furthermore, the election had an incumbent this time, making the politics more two-sided and scaring away pesky third-party challengers. Jackson won in a landslide. Weeks later, Rachel died—in Jackson’s view from a broken heart after all the personal attacks against her. Andrew Jackson told Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams to pray to God for mercy, because neither of them would find it from the new president.
The inaugural party for Jackson, thrown by a bunch of pirates and yahoos from New Orleans and Memphis, caused such a ruckus late into the night that the 61-year old Jackson was not able to sleep in the Executive Mansion for the first night of his presidency.
Indeed, for the first time ever, the Democrats were in power.
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