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The Coffin Handbills were a series of pamphlets attacking Andrew Jackson during the 1828 United States presidential election. Jackson was running against incumbent John Quincy Adams. The campaign featured multiple attacks on the character and personal history of both candidates. Many of the attacks were false.[ citation needed ]
Andrew Jackson had a reputation as a national hero because of his leadership during the Battle of New Orleans that was the final action of the War of 1812. [1] His glory was turned against him when John Binns, editor and publisher of the Democratic Press in Philadelphia, published the first “coffin handbill”. The poster showcased six black coffins at the top of the pamphlet and claimed that Jackson had ordered the execution of six militiamen during the Creek War. [2] Another twelve coffins were displayed further down the page to represent regular soldiers and Indians who were put to death under Jackson's command. [3] This refers to the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, when Jackson attacked the Red Stick fortification. Roughly 800 of the 1000 Red Stick warriors were killed in the battle. [4] There also was a drawing of Jackson assaulting and stabbing Samuel Jackson “in the streets of Nashville.” [5]
A pamphlet published at a later time accused Jackson of committing adultery with his wife. Jackson's wife Rachel had applied for a divorce from a previous marriage in 1790. According to Jackson, he and his wife married in 1791 and they realized two years later that her divorce was not granted until 1793, meaning that Jackson had been “married” to another man's wife for two years. In January 1794, Jackson and Rachel were legally married in a ceremony. [6] The accusations greatly angered Jackson, which he responded to by writing to newspaper editors, suggesting how they should counter them. Jackson's wife Rachel suffered a heart attack and died before Jackson's inauguration. He blamed his political enemies and tensions for her death. [7]
A "Supplemental account of some of the bloody deeds of General Jackson", attributed to Virginia Congressman John Taliaferro, accused Jackson of "atrocious and unnatural acts"; such acts including slaughtering 1,000 unarmed Native Americans, taking a nap in the midst of their corpses, and eating a dozen of them for breakfast. The author went on to speculate about how Jackson might similarly treat American governors and Congressmen were he elected president. [8]
Tensions between Jackson and Adams had started with the 1824 presidential election, which was a four-way race between Jackson, Adams, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay. Jackson gained a plurality of both the popular vote and the electoral vote, but no candidate had an Electoral College majority. Adams eventually won the election in the House of Representatives by making a deal with Clay that Jackson supporters dubbed the "corrupt bargain."
As a result, the 1828 rematch between Jackson and Adams was unusually acrimonious. Newspaper articles and political cartoons were the center of the attacks against each man. [9] After Jackson's victory, the bitterness of the campaign resonated for years. When Jackson arrived in Washington DC, he was to pay the customary courtesy call on the outgoing president, but he refused to do so. John Quincy Adams responded by refusing to go to the inauguration of Andrew Jackson. [10]
After the “Coffin Handbill” first appeared, Jackson had his “Nashville Committee” of supporters answer the charge. [11] They accused John Quincy Adams of serving as the Czar's pimp while he was the American ambassador to Russia, claiming he had procured an American girl to sexually serve the Russian Czar. In fact, Adams, while Minister to Russia, had employed a young girl as a maid to his wife; the girl had written a letter which had been intercepted by the Russian Postal services. Alexander I had wished to meet the letter writer publicly at court, and Adams had obliged this wish.
Adams was also attacked for allegedly having charged the government to have a billiard table put in the White House. Adams did spend a fair amount of time playing billiards, but had paid for the table with his own funds. [12] However, a bill for repairing the table had been accidentally included in the White House expense accounts.
Twenty-seven different versions of the Coffin Handbills have been located to date. All have different numbers of coffins and combinations of stories accusing Jackson of murder and violence. [13] Subsequently, the term "Coffin Handbill" became synonymous with a smear attack on political candidates.
Andrew Jackson was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before his presidency, he gained fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. Often praised as an advocate for ordinary Americans and for his work in preserving the union of states, Jackson has also been criticized for his racial policies, particularly his treatment of Native Americans.
John Quincy Adams was an American statesman, politician, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diplomatic and political career, Adams served as an ambassador and also as a member of the United States Congress representing Massachusetts in both chambers. He was the eldest son of John Adams, who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801, and First Lady Abigail Adams. Initially a Federalist like his father, he won election to the presidency as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and later, in the mid-1830s, became affiliated with the Whig Party.
The 1824 United States presidential election was the tenth quadrennial presidential election. It was held from Tuesday, October 26 to Thursday, December 2, 1824. Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay and William Crawford were the primary contenders for the presidency. The result of the election was inconclusive, as no candidate won a majority of the electoral vote. In the election for vice president, John C. Calhoun was elected with a comfortable majority of the vote. Because none of the candidates for president garnered an electoral vote majority, the U.S. House of Representatives, under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment, held a contingent election. On February 9, 1825, the House voted to elect John Quincy Adams as president, ultimately giving the election to him.
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 repetition 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. This election saw the second rematch in presidential history, something that would not occur again until 1840.
Henry Clay Sr. was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state. He unsuccessfully ran for president in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party. For his role in defusing sectional crises, he earned the appellation of the "Great Compromiser" and was part of the "Great Triumvirate" of Congressmen, alongside fellow Whig Daniel Webster and Democrat John C. Calhoun. Clay died at the age of 75 in 1852.
The Tariff of 1828 was a very high protective tariff that became law in the United States in May 1828. It was a bill designed to fail in Congress because it was seen by free trade supporters as hurting both industry and farming, but it passed anyway. The bill was vehemently denounced in the South and escalated to a threat of civil war in the Nullification Crisis of 1832–33. The tariff was replaced in 1833, and the crisis ended. It was called the "Tariff of Abominations" by its Southern detractors because of the effects it had on the Southern economy. It set a 38% tax on some imported goods and a 45% tax on certain imported raw materials.
Rachel Jackson was the wife of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States. She lived with him at their home at the Hermitage, where she died just days after his election and before his inauguration in 1829—therefore she never served as first lady, a role assumed by her niece, Emily Donelson.
Three events in American political history have been called a corrupt bargain: the 1824 United States presidential election, the Compromise of 1877, and Gerald Ford's 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon.
John Taliaferro was a 19th century politician, lawyer and librarian from Virginia, serving several non-consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives in the early 19th century.
Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson is a comedic historical rock musical with music and lyrics written by Michael Friedman and a book written by its director Alex Timbers.
The presidency of John Quincy Adams, began on March 4, 1825, when John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1829. Adams, the sixth United States president, took office following the 1824 presidential election, in which he and three other Democratic-Republicans—Henry Clay, William H. Crawford, and Andrew Jackson—sought the presidency. Adams was not a strong president, and he was under continuous attack from Jackson who easily defeated him in the 1828 presidential election, after one term in office.
The inauguration of John Quincy Adams as the sixth president of the United States took place on Friday, March 4, 1825, in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The inauguration marked the commencement of the only four-year term of John Quincy Adams as president and the first term of John C. Calhoun as vice president. Adams was the first president to have been the son of a former president–John Adams; and Calhoun, at age 42 on Inauguration Day, was the second-youngest vice president.
The 1828 United States presidential election in Kentucky took place between October 31 and December 2, 1828, as part of the 1828 United States presidential election. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
The 1828 United States presidential election in Louisiana took place between October 31 and December 2, 1828, as part of the 1828 United States presidential election. Voters chose five representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
The 1828 United States presidential election in Maine took place between October 31 and December 2, 1828, as part of the 1828 United States presidential election. Voters chose nine representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for the president and vice president.
The 1828 United States presidential election in Maryland took place between October 31 and December 2, 1828, as part of the 1828 United States presidential election. Voters chose 11 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
The 1828 United States presidential election in Mississippi took place between October 31 and December 2, 1828, as part of the 1828 United States presidential election. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
The 1828 United States elections elected the members of the 21st United States Congress. It marked the beginning of the Second Party System, and the definitive split of the Democratic-Republican Party into the Democratic Party and the National Republican Party. While the Democrats cultivated strong local organizations, the National Republicans relied on a clear national platform of high tariffs and internal improvements. Political scientists such as V.O. Key Jr. consider this election to be a realigning election, while political scientists such as James Reichley instead see the election as a continuation of the Democratic-Republican tradition. Additionally, this election saw the Anti-Masonic Party win a small number of seats in the House, becoming the first third party to gain representation in Congress.
In 1828, Andrew Jackson, who had lost the 1824 election in a runoff in the United States House of Representatives, despite winning both the popular vote and the electoral vote by significant margins, ran for President of the United States. He had been nominated by the Tennessee state legislature in 1825, and did not face any opposition from Democratic candidates. Jackson launched his campaign on January 8, 1828, with a major speech on the 13th anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans from 1815, thus marking the birth of the Democratic Party. Jackson accepted John C. Calhoun, incumbent vice president under John Quincy Adams, as his running mate.
American politician John Quincy Adams served as President of the United States (1825–1829) and United States Secretary of State (1817–1825). Prior to being president, he had served as United States Senator from Massachusetts (1803–1808) and had diplomatic experience as United States Minister to United Kingdom (1815–1817), Russia (1809–1814), Prussia (1797–1801) and the Netherlands (1794–1797). After losing the 1828 presidential election, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts for 17 years. He is the only American president to be elected to the House of Representatives after leaving office.
