1828 United States presidential election

The 1828 United States presidential election was the 11th quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Friday, October 31 to Tuesday, December 2, 1828. It featured a re-match of the 1824 election, as President John Quincy Adams of the National Republican Party faced Andrew Jackson of the Democratic Party. Both parties were new organizations, and this was the first Presidential election their nominees contested. Unlike in 1824, Jackson defeated Adams, marking the start of Democratic dominance in Federal politics.

For related races, see 1828 United States elections.

1828 United States presidential election

October 31 – December 2, 1828
261 members of the Electoral College 131 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	57.6%[1] 30.7 pp
Nominee Andrew Jackson John Quincy Adams Party Democratic National Republican Home state Tennessee Massachusetts Running mate John C. Calhoun Richard Rush Electoral vote 178 83 States carried 15 9 Popular vote 642,553 500,897 Percentage 56.4% 43.6%
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Jackson and Calhoun or Smith, light yellow denotes those won by Adams/Rush. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election John Quincy Adams National Republican Elected President Andrew Jackson Democratic

In 1824, with four major candidates running for President as members of only one national party, Jackson had won a plurality both of the electoral vote and of the popular vote from among the 18 states whose voters chose Presidential electors. However, with the open support of House Speaker Henry Clay, Adams won the subsequent contingent election in the House of Representatives under the Twelfth Amendment. Many Jackson supporters perceived that his loss, though Constitutional, was unfair and contrary to the popular will, accusing Adams and Clay of having reached a "corrupt bargain" in which Clay helped Adams win the contingent election in return for the position of Secretary of State. Intensifying political rivalry between supporters and opponents of Jackson fractured the once-dominant Democratic-Republican Party. Jackson and allies such as Martin Van Buren and Vice President John C. Calhoun laid the foundations of the Democratic Party, while supporter, states had recently expanded voting rights to nearly all white men in nearly all elections.[2] For example, in 1824, state legislatures chose Presidential electors in six states, but by 1828, four had transitioned to voter choice. Also, while nationally organized parties had fielded rival candidates before, 1828 was the first election in which broadly qualified voters effectively chose the President from between nominees of two national parties, whose candidates or electors consistently appeared on all ballots. With greater perceived and real impact, voter participation grew, with 9.5% of Americans casting a vote for President, compared with 3.4% in 1824.[3]

Jackson was aided by the passage of the Tariff of 1828. Denounced by opponents as the "Tariff of Abominations," the unpopular tariff and the greater charisma and popular appeal of Jackson helped him dominate the South[4] and West. Adams swept New England but won only three other small states. Jackson became the first President whose home state was neither Massachusetts nor Virginia, while Adams was the second to lose re-election, following his father, John Adams. The election marked the rise of Jacksonian Democracy and the transition from the First Party System to the Second Party System. Historians debate the significance of the election, with many arguing that it marked the beginning of modern American politics by removing key barriers to voter participation and establishing a stable two-party system.[5]

Background

While Andrew Jackson won a plurality of electoral votes and the popular vote in the election of 1824, he lost to John Quincy Adams as the election was deferred to the House of Representatives (by the terms of the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a presidential election in which no candidate wins a majority of the electoral vote is decided by a contingent election in the House of Representatives). Henry Clay, unsuccessful candidate and Speaker of the House at the time, despised Jackson, in part due to their fight for Western votes during the election, and he chose to support Adams, which led to Adams being elected president on the first ballot.

A few days after the election, Adams appointed Clay his Secretary of State, a position was held by Adams and his three immediate predecessors prior to becoming president. Jackson and his followers promptly accused Clay and Adams of striking a "corrupt bargain," and continued to lambaste the president until the 1828 election.

In the aftermath of the 1824 election, the national Democratic-Republican Party collapsed as national politics became increasingly polarized between supporters of Adams and supporters of Jackson. In a prelude to the presidential election, the Jacksonians bolstered their numbers in Congress in the 1826 Congressional elections, with Jackson ally Andrew Stevenson chosen as the new Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1827 over Adams ally Speaker John W. Taylor.

Nominations

Jacksonian Party nomination

Jacksonian Party Ticket, 1828
Andrew Jackson	John C. Calhoun
for President	for Vice President
Former U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1797–1798 & 1823–1825)	7th Vice President of the United States (1825–1832)
Campaign

Within months after the inauguration of John Quincy Adams in 1825, the Tennessee legislature re-nominated Jackson for president, thus setting the stage for a re-match between these two very different politicians three years thence. Congressional opponents of Adams, including former William H. Crawford supporter Martin Van Buren, rallied around Jackson's candidacy. Jackson's supporters called themselves Democrats, and would formally organize as the Democratic Party shortly after his election.[6] In hopes of uniting those opposed to Adams, Jackson ran on a ticket with sitting Vice President John C. Calhoun. Calhoun would decline the invitation to join the Democratic Party, however, and instead formed the Nullifier Party after the election; the Nullifiers would remain largely aligned with the Democrats for the next few years, but ultimately broke with Jackson over the issue of states' rights during his first term. No congressional nominating caucus or national convention was held.[7]

Anti-Jacksonian Party nomination

Anti-Jacksonian Party Ticket, 1828
John Quincy Adams	Richard Rush
for President	for Vice President
6th President of the United States (1825–1829)	8th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (1825–1829)
Campaign

President Adams and his allies, including Secretary of State Clay and Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, became known as the National Republicans. The National Republicans were significantly less organized than the Democrats, and many party leaders did not embrace the new era of popular campaigning. Adams was re-nominated on the endorsement of state legislatures and partisan rallies. As with the Democrats, no nominating caucus or national convention was held. Adams chose Secretary of the Treasury Richard Rush, a Pennsylvanian known for his protectionist views, as his running mate. Adams, who was personally popular in New England, hoped to assemble a coalition in which Clay attracted Western voters, Rush attracted voters in the middle states, and Webster won over former members of the Federalist Party.[8]

General election

Campaign

"Some account of the bloody deeds of General Andrew Jackson", c. 1828

The campaign was marked by large amounts of nasty "mudslinging." Jackson's marriage, for example, came in for vicious attack. When Jackson married his wife Rachel in 1791, the couple believed that she was divorced, however the divorce was not yet finalized, so he had to remarry her once the legal papers were complete. In the Adams campaign's hands, this became a scandal. Charles Hammond, in his Cincinnati Gazette, asked: "Ought a convicted adulteress and her paramour husband be placed in the highest offices of this free and Christian land?"[9] Jackson also came under heavy attack as a slave trader who bought and sold slaves and moved them about in defiance of modern standards of morality (he was not attacked for merely owning slaves used in plantation work).[10] The Coffin Handbills attacked Jackson for his courts-martial, execution of deserters and massacres of Indian villages, and also his habit of dueling.

Jackson avoided articulating issue positions, instead campaigning on his personal qualities and his opposition to Adams. Adams avoided popular campaigning, instead emphasizing his support of specific issues.[7] Adams's praise of internal improvements in Europe, such as "lighthouses of the skies" (observatories), in his first annual message to Congress, and his suggestion that Congress not be "palsied by the will of our constituents" were given attention in and out of the press. John Randolph stated on the floor of the Senate that he "never will be palsied by any power save the constitution, and the will of my constituents." Jackson wrote that a lavish government combined with contempt of the constituents could lead to despotism, if not checked by the "voice of the people." Modern campaigning was also introduced by Jackson. People kissed babies, had picnics, and started many other traditions during the campaign.

Jefferson's opinion

Thomas Jefferson wrote favorably in response to Jackson in December 1823 and extended an invitation to his estate of Monticello: "I recall with pleasure the remembrance of our joint labors while in the Senate together in times of great trial and of hard battling, battles indeed of words, not of blood, as those you have since fought so much for your own glory & that of your country; with the assurance that my attempts continue undiminished, accept that of my great respect & consideration."[11]

Jefferson wrote in dismay at the outcome of the contingent election of 1825 to Congressional caucus nominee William H. Crawford, saying that he had hoped to congratulate Crawford but "events had not been what we had wished."[12]

In the next election, Jackson's and Adams's supporters saw value in establishing the opinion of Jefferson in regards to their respective candidates and against their opposition.[13] Jefferson died on July 4, 1826.

A goal of the pro-Adams press was to depict Jackson as a "mere military chieftain."[13] Edward Coles recounted that Jefferson told him in a conversation in August 1825 that he feared the popular enthusiasm for Jackson: "It has caused me to doubt more than anything that has occurred since our Revolution." Coles used the opinion of Thomas Gilmer to back himself up; Gilmer said Jefferson told him at Monticello before the election of Adams in 1825, "One might as well make a sailor of a cock, or a soldier of a goose, as a President of Andrew Jackson."[13] Daniel Webster, who was also at Monticello at the time, made the same report. Webster recorded that Jefferson told him in December 1824 that Jackson was a dangerous man unfit for the presidency.[14] Historian Sean Wilentz described Webster's account of the meeting as "not wholly reliable."[15] Biographer Robert V. Remini said that Jefferson "had no great love for Jackson."[16]

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of blue are for Jackson (Democrat) and shades of yellow are for Adams (National Republican).

Gilmer accused Coles of misrepresentation, for Jefferson's opinion had changed, Gilmer said. Jefferson's son-in-law, former Virginia Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., said in 1826 that Jefferson had a "strong repugnance" to Henry Clay.[13] Randolph publicly stated that Jefferson became friendly to Jackson's candidacy as early as the summer of 1825, perhaps because of the "corrupt bargain" charge, and thought of Jackson as "an honest, sincere, clear-headed and strong-minded man; of the soundest political principles" and "the only hope left" to reverse the increasing powers assumed by the federal government.[17] Others said the same thing, but Coles could not believe Jefferson's opinion had changed.[13]

In 1827, Virginia Governor William B. Giles released a letter from Jefferson meant to be kept private to Thomas Ritchie's Richmond Enquirer. It was written after Adams's first annual message to Congress and it contained an attack from Jefferson on the incumbent administration. Giles said Jefferson's alarm was with the usurpation of the rights of the states, not with a "military chieftain."[13] Jefferson wrote, "take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines of the President, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact acted on by the legislature of the federal bench, and it is but too evident, that the three ruling branches of that department are in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions foreign and domestic." Of the Federalists, he continued, "But this opens with a vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who, having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of '76, now look to a single and splendid government of an aristocracy, founded on banking institutions, and moneyed incorporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures, commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry."[18] The Jacksonians and states' rights men heralded its publication; the Adams men felt it a symptom of senility.[13] Giles omitted a prior letter of Jefferson's praise of Adams for his role in the embargo of 1808. Thomas Jefferson Randolph soon collected and published Jefferson's correspondence.

Results

The selection of electors began on October 31 with elections in Ohio and Pennsylvania and ended on November 13 with elections in North Carolina. The Electoral College met on December 3. Adams won almost exactly the same states that his father had won in the election of 1800: the New England states, New Jersey, and Delaware. In addition, Adams picked up Maryland, but Jackson won everything else, which resulted in a landslide victory for him in the electoral college.

The Democratic Party in Georgia was hopelessly divided into two factions (Troup vs. Clark). Both factions nominated Jackson for President, and the election was primarily a test of strength of these two factions, with the JQA Electors running a poor third. The winning slate, which received a 3,000 vote majority,[19] was not pledged to any Vice Presidential Candidate. Consequently, seven of the nine Presidential Electors who voted for Jackson for President chose William Smith for Vice President.

With this in mind, Jackson won the popular vote by 12.3%, but the result was far closer than it appeared, as a shift of 20,000 votes in Kentucky, New York and Ohio would have won Adams the election, while a shift of 12,500 votes in New York, Ohio and Louisiana would have left both Calhoun and Rush short of the 131 electoral votes required to win the vice-presidency, forcing a contingent election for vice-president in the Senate.

This was the last election in which the Democrats won Kentucky until 1856 and the last in which the Democrats won South Carolina until 1840. It is also the only election where Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Vermont voted for the National Republicans and the last time that New Hampshire voted against the Democrats until 1856 and the last time Maine did so until 1840. It was also the only election in which an electoral vote split occurred in Maine until the election of 2016.

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote^(a)		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Andrew Jackson	Democratic	Tennessee	642,553	55.97%	178	John Caldwell Calhoun (incumbent)	South Carolina	171
						William Smith	South Carolina	7
John Quincy Adams (incumbent)	National Republican	Massachusetts	500,897	43.63%	83	Richard Rush	Pennsylvania	83
Other			4,568	0.40%	—	Other		—
Total			1,148,018	100%	261			261
Needed to win					131			131

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1828 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 27, 2005. Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005.

^(a) The popular vote figures exclude Delaware and South Carolina. In both of these states, the Electors were chosen by the state legislatures rather than by popular vote.

Results by state

		Andrew Jackson Democratic			John Quincy Adams National Republican			Margin		State Total
State	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	#
Alabama	5	0001361816,736	89.89	5	000486691,878	10.09	-	14,858	79.80	18,618	AL
Connecticut	8	4,448	22.95	-	13,829	71.36	8	-9,381	-48.41	19,378	CT
Delaware	3	no popular vote			no popular vote		3	-	-	-	DE
Georgia	9	19,362	96.79	9	642	3.21	-	18,720	93.58	20,004	GA
Illinois	3	9,560	67.22	3	4,662	32.78	-	4,898	34.44	14,222	IL
Indiana[20]	5	22,201	56.62	5	17,009	43.38	-	5,192	13.24	39,210	IN
Kentucky	14	39,308	55.54	14	31,468	44.46	-	7,840	11.08	70,776	KY
Louisiana	5	4,605	53.01	5	4,082	46.99	-	523	6.02	8,687	LA
Maine	9	13,927	40.03	1	20,773	59.71	8	-6,846	-19.68	34,789	ME
Maryland	11	22,782	49.75	5	23,014	50.25	6	-232	-0.50	45,796	MD
Massachusetts	15	6,012	15.39	-	29,836	76.36	15	-23,824	-60.97	39,074	MA
Mississippi	3	6,763	81.05	3	1,581	18.95	-	5,182	62.10	8,344	MS
Missouri	3	8,232	70.64	3	3,422	29.36	-	4,810	41.28	11,654	MO
New Hampshire	8	20,212	45.90	-	23,823	54.10	8	-3,611	-8.20	44,035	NH
New Jersey	8	21,809	47.86	-	23,753	52.12	8	-1,944	-4.26	45,570	NJ
New York	36	139,412	51.45	20	131,563	48.55	16	7,849	2.90	270,975	NY
North Carolina	15	37,814	73.07	15	13,918	26.90	-	23,896	46.17	51,747	NC
Ohio[20]	16	67,596	51.60	16	63,453	48.40	-	4,143	3.20	131,049	OH
Pennsylvania[20]	28	101,457	66.66	28	50,763	33.34	-	50,694	33.32	152,220	PA
Rhode Island[20]	4	820	22.91	-	2,755	76.96	4	-1,935	-54.05	3,580	RI
South Carolina	11	no popular vote		11	no popular vote			-	-	-	SC
Tennessee	11	44,293	95.19	11	2,240	4.81	-	42,053	90.38	46,533	TN
Vermont[20]	7	8,350	25.43	-	24,363	74.20	7	-16,013	-48.77	32,833	VT
Virginia	24	26,854	68.99	24	12,070	31.01	-	14,784	37.98	38,924	VA
TOTALS:	261	642,553	55.97	178	500,897	43.63	83	141,656	12.34	1,148,018	US
TO WIN:	131

John Quincy Adams received a similar number of electoral college votes in 1824 and 1828.

John Quincy Adams Electoral College Votes

State	1824	1828
Massachusetts	15	15
Connecticut	8	8
New Hampshire	8	8
Rhode Island	4	4
Vermont	7	7
Maine	9	8
New York	26	16
New Jersey	0	8
Maryland	3	6
Delaware	1	3
Illinois	1	0
Louisiana	2	0
Total	84	83

Popular vote Jackson   55.97% Adams   43.63% Other   0.40%

Electoral vote—President Jackson   68.20% Adams   31.80%

Electoral vote—Vice President Calhoun   65.52% Rush   31.80% Smith   2.68%

Aftermath

Rachel Jackson had been having chest pains throughout the campaign, and she was traumatized by the personal attacks on her marriage. She became ill and died on December 22, 1828. Jackson accused the Adams campaign, and Henry Clay even more so, of causing her death, saying, "I can and do forgive all my enemies. But those vile wretches who have slandered her must look to God for mercy."[9]

Andrew Jackson was sworn in as president on March 4, 1829. After the inauguration, a mob entered the White House to shake the new president's hand, damaging the furniture and lights. Jackson escaped through the back, and large punch bowls were set up to lure the crowd outside. Conservatives were horrified at this event, and held it up as a portent of terrible things to come from the first Democratic president.[21]

Electoral College selection

Method of choosing electors	State(s)
Each Elector appointed by state legislature	Delaware South Carolina
State is divided into electoral districts, with one Elector chosen per district by the voters of that district	Maryland Tennessee
Two Electors chosen by voters statewide One Elector chosen per Congressional district by the voters of that district	Maine
One Elector chosen per Congressional district by the voters of that district Remaining two Electors chosen by the other Electors	New York
Each Elector chosen by voters statewide	(all other states)

See also

• First inauguration of Andrew Jackson
• History of the United States (1789–1849)
• Jacksonian democracy
• 1828 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1828 and 1829 United States Senate elections

References

1. "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara.
2. "White Manhood Suffrage". National Museum of American History. 3 May 2017.
3. Kish, J.N. "U.S. Population 1776 to Present". Google Fusion Tables. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
4. The Causes of the Civil War. 3rd ed. New York: Touchstone, 1991
5. David Waldstreicher, "The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828./Vindicating Andrew Jackson: The 1828 Election and the Rise of the Two Party System," Journal of the Early Republic, Winter 2010, Vol. 30 Issue 4, pp 674-678
6. Yenne, Bill (2016). The Complete Book of US Presidents. Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0-7603-5007-2.
7. Deskins, Donald Richard; Walton, Hanes; Puckett, Sherman (2010). Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan Press. pp. 88–90.
8. Waldstreicher, David (2013). A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams. John Wiley & Sons. p. 320.
9. McClelland, Mac (October 31, 2008). "Ten Most Awesome Presidential Mudslinging Moves Ever". Mother Jones. Retrieved April 10, 2014.
10. Mark Cheathem, "Frontiersman or Southern Gentleman? Newspaper Coverage of Andrew Jackson during the 1828 Presidential Campaign," The Readex Report (2014) 9#3 online
11. Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Jackson, December 18, 1823 Retrieved on November 21, 2006.
12. Thomas Jefferson to William H. Crawford, February 15, 1825. Retrieved on November 21, 2006.Transcript.
13. Peterson, Merrill D.. The Jefferson Image in the American Mind, p. 25-27
14. Webster, Daniel (1857). Webster, Fletcher (ed.). The Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 371.
15. Wilentz, Sean. Andrew Jackson (2005), p. 8.
16. Remini, Jackson 1:109
17. Peterson, Merrill D.. The Jefferson Image in the American Mind, p. 26. See also: Andrew Stevenson's Eulogy of Andrew Jackson: B. M. Dusenbery, ed. (1846). Monument to the Memory of General Andrew Jackson. Philadelphia: Walker & Gillis. pp. 250, 263–264.
18. Thomas Jefferson to William Branch Giles, Dec. 26, 1825. Peterson characterized this letter as "one of the most influential that Jefferson ever wrote."
19. Norwich Courier, December 3, 1828
20. vote tallies from Counting the Votes website by G. Scott Thomas
21. Maldwyn A. Jones, The Limits of Liberty, American History, 1607-1992, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, p.139.

Bibliography

• Bemis, Samuel Flagg (1956). John Quincy Adams and the Union. vol. 2.
• Cheathem, Mark. "Frontiersman or Southern Gentleman? Newspaper Coverage of Andrew Jackson during the 1828 Presidential Campaign," The Readex Report (2014) 9#3 online
• Cole, Donald B. Vindicating Andrew Jackson: The 1828 Election and the Rise of the Two Party System (2009) excerpt and text search
• Holt, Michael F. (1992). Political Parties and American Political Development: From the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln.
• Howell, William Huntting. "Read, Pause, and Reflect!!", Journal of the Early Republic, Summer 2010, Vol. 30 Issue 2, pp 293–300; examines the campaign literature of 1828
• McCormick, Richard P. (1966). The Second American Party System: Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era.
• Parsons, Lynn H. The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828 (2009) excerpt and text search
• Remini, Robert V. (1959). Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party.
• Remini, Robert V. (1981). Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822-1832.
• Swint, Kerwin C. (2006). Mudslingers: The Top 25 Negative Political Campaigns of All Time. Praeger Publishers.
• Watson, Harry L. (1990). Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America. ISBN 0-374-52196-4.
• Wilentz, Sean (2005). The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln.

Further reading

• "A Brief Biography of Andrew Jackson 1767-1845: The Election of 1828". From Revolution to Reconstruction. Archived from the original on 2008-02-22. Retrieved November 15, 2004.
• "Election of 1828". U-S-History.com. Retrieved November 15, 2004.
• "A Historical Analysis of the Electoral College". The Green Papers. Retrieved March 20, 2005.

External links

• United States presidential election of 1828 at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Presidential Election of 1828: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• Historian James Parton describes election
• The 1828 Campaign of Andrew Jackson and the Growth of Party Politics
• OurCampaigns overview of the popular vote and electoral vote
• Election of 1828 in Counting the Votes