... but the election of 1828 truly was unique.
In his latest article in U.S. News & World Report, Kenneth Walsh writes that the 1828 election, which installed Andrew Jackson into the White House, "changed the way Americans thought of the presidency."
In more ways than one.
For starters, the 1828 election was the 11th time that a president was elected. In each of the previous 10 elections, the winner came from Virginia or Massachusetts. And, frequently, one of those states provided the No. 2 vote-getter as well.
But Jackson was born in modern-day South Carolina and, in the eyes of the nation, he was the heroic leader (from his adopted home of Tennessee) who was responsible for the American victory in the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812.
He was the first president who was linked to the frontier.
Jackson also received the most popular votes in 1824 — the first time that popular votes were counted — but he lost the election to John Quincy Adams, the son of a former president, in the Electoral College. Does the scenario sound familiar?
"Jackson and his supporters simmered for four years," Walsh writes. "But in 1828, they pulled out all the stops in what became, for all sides, one of the toughest and dirtiest campaigns ever, setting the precedent for future negative campaigns."
(Walsh doesn't mention it, but the 1828 election may have been responsible for making the donkey the mascot for the Democratic Party.
(Jackson's foes called him a "jackass." Jackson liked the name and used the jackass as a symbol, but it apparently died out for awhile — until renowned cartoonist Thomas Nast, who was born in Germany 12 years after the 1828 election, revived it in 1870.)
Jackson won in 1828. And the man of the people opened the White House to his supporters on Inauguration Day.
"[H]undreds of them pushed and shouted their way through the building in search of conviviality as they celebrated their hero's victory," Walsh writes (I suspect that, if he were to teach a class on presidential elections, Walsh would enjoy the lecture on this campaign the most). "Many were rough men in muddy boots who climbed on the chairs and devoured the food and drink provided by uniformed waiters."
In the history books, Jackson's first term is noteworthy for several reasons.
He established the veto as a presidential weapon. He made unprecedented use of the "spoils system." He signed the Indian Removal Act, which led to the infamous "Trail of Tears." A congressional compromise on tariffs enabled him to avoid being the first president to face the secession of one of the states.
(A personal postscript: For nearly 10 years now, whenever I think of the Jackson presidency, I am reminded of a first-season episode of "The West Wing," in which the chief of staff assigns each member of his staff to meet with a "crackpot" who normally wouldn't be given the opportunity to speak to someone from the White House about his or her special interest — as part of his "Big Block of Cheese Day."
(The name is derived from an actual event during the Jackson administration. Jackson received a 1,400-pound block of cheese as a gift and invited ordinary people to come to the White House to sample it. The event was heavily attended, and the cheese was consumed in about two hours.)
Andrew Jackson truly did change the relationship Americans have with their president.
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