THE PRESIDENT'S LADY: RACHEL DONELSON ROBARDS JACKSON, PART II

their estate outside Nashville. Jackson, deeply in love with Rachel, took her death very hard. He was convinced that the strain of the personal attacks on her character, conducted on a national level, was directly responsible for her death. In his own words, “May God Almighty forgive her murderers as I know she forgave them. I never can.”

Jackson blamed the National Republicans for the attacks. When they couldn’t defeat him, they attacked his wife. He considered his wife, as with all wives of politicians, off limits for such political attacks. He also blamed John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay for not stopping their followers from making these attacks. These people killed his beloved Rachel. He resolved to remove these people from all government offices wherever possible.

All parties replaced many of the other party’s followers when they took office. Jackson did so to such a large degree that complaints were made on the floor of Congress by National Republicans. Jackson made no excuses about removing opponents and appointing only his own followers to positions in the government. One Democrat, Senator Marcy of New York, spoke for the Democrats by saying simply, “To the victor goes the spoils.” This gave the name to the new and excessive version of political patronage: the Spoils System.

Rachel Jackson was a truly American woman. She was born into a good family in Virginia, moved west as the nation expanded, and lived the life of a frontier settler. She braved Indian attacks, helped build a city and a state, and was involved in some of the greatest events in our early history. Had she lived, she would have been a unique First Lady. Her death brought dramatic changes to our government and gave us the spoils system.

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