In 1828, Jackson ran again. The old Democratic-Republican Party (of which all four candidates in 1824 had been members) had split into two new parties, the Democrats led by Jackson and the National Republicans led by John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay. Jackson won the election of 1828 by a large majority to become the 7th President of the United States.
The election of 1828 was one of the dirtiest campaigns in our history. Dirty campaigning, attacks ads and negative publicity are nothing new. But few campaigns have been as vicious as in 1828.
The National Republicans had their share of problems, some of their own creation. President John Quincy Adams felt that campaigning was begging for votes and beneath the dignity of a President. He said simply, “If my country wants my services, she must ask for them.” In addition, the Democrats made some outrageous charges against Adams personally. During his term, he had purchased a billiard table and an ivory chess set with his own money. The Democrats turned this into a charge against the New England Puritan of purchasing “gaming tables and gambling furniture” with government funds. Perhaps the wildest accusation was that when Adams was minister to Russia, he had procured a young American prostitute for Czar Alexander I.
But the worst charges were made against Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel. Knowing that their only chance of winning was to discredit Jackson with the voters, they heaped every charge of immoral conduct, wanton violence and debauchery against him that they could create. Of course, the old stories of Rachel’s accidental bigamy had even greater value because they were actually true. Stories of Rachel’s adultery were published in every National Republican newspaper in the country. One asked, “Ought a convicted adultress and her paramour husband to be placed in the highest offices of this free and Christian land?” Another questioned whether such a woman should be placed “at the head of the female society of the United States.”
One of the National Republican strategies was to have Jackson lose his temper, proving their warning that he was a savage and violent beast with an uncontrollable temper. To this end, when Rachel accompanied Jackson to a rally early in the campaign, there were insulting signs (such as “Don’t Put A Whore In The White House!”) and hecklers shouting comparable insults. They succeeded and Jackson started to lunge into the crowd. His supporters caught him just as he was about to jump off the stage to go after one of the hecklers.
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