Vindicating Andrew Jackson: The 1828 Election and the Rise of the Two-Party System

American Presidential Elections

by Donald B. Cole

The presidential election of 1828 is one of the most compelling stories in American history: Andrew Jackson, hero of the Battle of New Orleans and man of the people, bounced back from his controversial loss four years earlier to unseat John Quincy Adams in a campaign notorious for its mudslinging. With his victory, the torch was effectively passed from the founding fathers to the people.

This study of Jackson’s election separates myth from reality to explain why it had such an impact on present-day American politics. Featuring parades and public participation to a greater degree than had previously been seen, the campaign itself first centered on two key policy issues: tariffs and republicanism. But as Donald Cole shows, the major theme turned out to be what Adams scornfully called “electioneering”: the rise of mass political parties and the origins of a two-party system, built from the top down, whose leaders were willing to spend unprecedented time and money to achieve victory.

Cole’s innovative study examines the election at the local and state, as well as the national, levels, focusing on New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia to provide a social, economic, and political cross section of 1828 America. He describes how the Jacksonians were better organized, paid more attention to detail, and recruited a broader range of workers—especially state-level party leaders and newspaper editors who were invaluable for raising funds, publicizing party dogma, and smearing the opposition. The Jacksonians also outdid the Adams supporters in zealotry, violence of language, and the overwhelming force of their campaigning and succeeded in painting their opponents as aristocratic, class conscious, and undemocratic.

Tracing interpretations of this election from James Parton’s classic 1860 biography of Jackson to recent revisionist accounts attacking Old Hickory for his undemocratic treatment of blacks, Indians, and women, Cole argues that this famous election did not really bring democracy to America as touted—because it was democracy that enabled Jackson to win. By offering a more charismatic candidate, a more vigorous campaign, a more acceptable recipe for preserving the past, and a more forthright acceptance of a new political system, Jackson’s Democrats dominated an election in which campaigning outweighed issues and presaged the presidential election of 2008.

Genres: Politics, American History

268 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Donald B. Cole was professor emeritus at Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, and the author of a number of books on early American history.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The presidential election of 1828 stands as one of the most pivotal in American history, not just, or even primarily, because of the election of Andrew Jackson that year, but because, as Donald Cole argues in this book, it marked the beginnings of the party system in American politics. While on the surface a contest between Jackson and the incumbent, John Quincy Adams, this was only the culmination of years of political maneuvering and organizing by a host of talented politicians and newspaper publishers. Cole's book details the course of this development, looking at how the two sides struggled at both the national and local level to build a party organization that would ensure their candidate's victory.

Cole's begins his examination with the aftermath of the preceding presidential election in 1824, one of the most bitter and contentious in American history. Much of the controversy over Adams's election reflected the changes the nation was undergoing, as a "rising tide of democracy" was broadening the electorate and challenging the domination of political offices by the elite. Because of this, the quest for the presidency became a contest over who could mobilize this growing population of voters. To that end, both sides worked to create organizations at the national, state, and local level that could advocate their cause and turn out their supporters. Here Jackson's camp had the advantage; though their leading members were people from lower down the social scale than their counterparts, they were hungrier for office and better able to connect with the enlarged electorate. Yet for all of their handicaps Adams's main backers, ably organized by Henry Clay and others, were no less determined to hold onto office, and Cole demonstrates that the election ultimately proved much closer than the tally indicates.

A longtime historian of the antebellum period, Cole has written a perceptive account of presidential politics in the 1820s. While never losing sight of the main protagonists, he demonstrates convincingly the decisive role that organizing at the local level played in determining the outcome. He is careful never to overstate the impact of the election, noting that the formal establishment of the political parties of the period came later, yet he make a strong case for the role of the election in enhancing democracy in the nation through the emergence of organized political camps. This combination of balance and insight make this book an excellent study not just of the presidential election of 1828, but of the emergence of the modern political process, one that can be read profitably by anyone seeking to understand party politics in our nation today.

[Andrew Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book details not only the victory of Andrew Jackson over John Quincy Adams in 1828 but most importantly describes the rise of the political party system leading up to that election. Jackson was greatly irritated at having lost the Election of 1824 because he won the popular vote but lost in the US House over electoral votes. He always claimed that a "corrupt bargain" had been formed between Adams and Henry Clay to steal the Election from him. After that election, he mostly sat home in Nashville as his supporters, mostly through the efforts of Martin Van Buren, built a political party system that would ensure his election in 1828. Jackson was a war hero like Washington but had a number of problems in his personal life including a vicious temper, a rumor of bigamy, a duel which killed his opponent, and a distaste for Indians living east of the Mississippi River. Cole does a great job in collecting all of these elements in his book to give the reader a definitive look at this pivotal election.

[Earl Ecklund III · Rating 5 out of 5]

1828 is best remembered as Andrew Jackson's election as President as the beginning of a new eea in American politics. In this book Cole shows that the changes in democracy began after 1824 as the Jacksonian forces begin organizing and building up support in different states. This wasn't initially an national effort but rather a series of state level efforts. This was the real genius of what has come to be known as "Jacksonian Democracy". In opposition to the Jacksonians was the efforts of Henry Clay to create a party to support the re-election of John Quincy Adams. Cole explores the rise of the two sides in 6 states (Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio) in fascinating detail. Cole also discusses the changing view of the importance of the election of 1828. An excellent read and highly recommended.

[Rick Varco · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is full of vivid details on the personalities and mechanics of doing politics in the early republic. Like the Jacksonians, Cole pays attention to all of the details.

[Jason S · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and concise history of both the 1824 and 1828 elections, and also of the historiography of how the 1828 election has been viewed since. Challenges the notion of this election as the emergence of mass democracy and political parties.