January 27, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Andrew Jackson's inauguration says a lot about what he represented at the time to many—a changing of the guard from the established Virginian 'elite' to the rough and tumble of the frontier, and his party afterward certainly drove that point home...literally. Here's the story!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next a
story from Keith Partisan, the former director of interpretation at
the Hermitage Andrew Jackson's home in Nashville, Tennessee. Today. Keith
shares the story of Jackson's rowdy inauguration Take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Jackson has all of these what we would call the
burst constituencies that were supporting him. He was running against
the quote unquote Eastern establishment. And this feeds into what
happened in the election, but then in Washington afterwards. Now,
(00:51):
in eighteen twenty eight, Quincy Adams was running for re election,
and Jackson had been campaigning all along, building his support
and so forth. And the term, of course we had
used in twentieth century now twenty first century politics is
mud slinging. Now I would suggest to you an election
of eighteen twenty eight mud slinging rose to the level
(01:14):
of using shovels to sling it. It was harsh the
issue with Jackson and Rachel's marriage, and that the nicest
thing that was said about Rachel from those opposing Jackson
was said by John Quincy Adams himself when he said
a divorced woman was not fit to live in the
White House, and it went down from there. Rachel heard
(01:39):
and read some of these things, and ultimately Rachel would
die within weeks of them being notified that Jackson had
won the election and had won it overwhelmingly. And the
symptoms Jackson records, although there was not an autopsy, but
the Jackson records is indicative or I would say consistent
(02:03):
of a massive coronary event, so it's likely a heart attack.
This was the situation in terms of the election, very bitter,
and that was from both sides and name calling and
insinuations about certain things. John Quincy Adams, of course, was
(02:26):
not particularly happy at the result and was somewhat embittered
towards Jackson, and Jackson pretty much felt the same way
about John Quincy Adams. So there's no love lost there.
But what did happen? Jackson was called the People's President.
(02:48):
I see it twofold. It was because of Jackson's humble beginnings.
Jackson genuinely felt a tie with common folk because he
had lived it for a good part part of his life,
had been orphaned by his family at fourteen. He's the
only president to have fought the British in both the
Revolution and the War of eighteen twelve, had been captured
(03:09):
in the War of eighteen twelve at age fourteen, making
him the only POW's ever been president of this country.
And he's the first person who was not born an
aristocrat or born into an aristocratic family that became president
of the United States. So the people in large measure
embraced him as one of them. Jackson would say, I'm
(03:33):
champion of the common man. We would say the average joe.
Of course, he's been elected, he's been certified. But in
between that, his wife has died and he is mourning her,
and he receives a letter could be found in the
papers of Andrew Jackson. But they're writing a letter how
soon can you get to Washington? And they, in essence
(03:53):
are saying, we've never had somebody elected as president wasn't
living in the Washinga along the coast, and didn't have
all of these connections with the establishment, and they were
real concerned about what was gonna happen. You know, it's
the system going to break down because we've got a
(04:13):
totally different guy from a totally different place. Is it
gonna break down? Is he gonna actually show and come
from there to here? Is he gonna be on time
for the inauguration. Home is he going to be received?
And so forth? He comes, and he comes certainly in time.
But he didn't just win the election and go right
(04:33):
up there because he's dealing with his family situation, with
the death of his wife and so forth. But he
gets there and there is a scene that had not
been seen in America up until that time. This was
the people's president, and the people showed up. Now I
(04:55):
have heard tales of there were forty thousand people in Washington,
but a reasonable estimate it's fifteen to twenty thousand people
showed up for the inauguration. This is the first large
scale inauguration. This is the first inauguration that set a
(05:15):
trend for inaugurations after that. This was done outside off
on the east wing of the capital. Jackson's inaugural speech
was about ten minutes long, and thankfully so, because while
it was a pretty decent speech, there's no amplification. You
(05:35):
got fifteen to twenty thousand people. I'm not sure who
heard it, if anybody, except those immediately around him, because
there was no means of projecting it. Of course, the
leader only was published in the papers and received for
the most part, very positive reviews. But Jackson did that
and then they went and exited out the west side.
(05:57):
A horse was provided for Jackson, carriages, their wagons, their carts.
There's a group of Revolutionary War soldiers, and of course
the Inaugural Committee and others that this is just a
mass movement of people to the White House. Now, Jackson
(06:19):
had no intention of attending the inaugural ball or anything
like that because he was still in mourning. He had
black crape armband, black cope, black top hat that was
a sign of mourning for his wife, Rachel. He didn't
feel in the mood, but he also did not feel
(06:40):
that it was appropriate to engage in celebration of that
sort during the morning period for his wife. But Jackson
did feel it was necessary and important to hold a
reception because the number of people who had shown up,
(07:02):
the variety of people who had shown up, and for
the first time America had elected a president from those people.
There was still a limited constituency compared to what we experience,
but it was certainly greatly broadened and energized since the
election of eighteen twenty four. So Jackson was going to
(07:24):
hold a reception in the White House. It turned out
to be one of the most talked about offense of
American history because so many people showed up, because this
is a reception, not for dignitaries. This is a reception for
the people of the United States to meet and greet
their new president. By the time Jackson got back to
(07:48):
First flour the White House was full. There was a
crush of people when he came in to see him,
so much so there was fear for the fact that
he might physically be crushed to death in that house.
So at one point a ring of his friends encircled
him to keep that from happening. But in the meantime,
(08:09):
as they were trying to bring out refreshments, people were
trying to get a view of Jackson. Many of the
refreshments were spilled. I've seen one report that said every
piece of White House china was broken, but we know
certainly there were considerable breakage to the china, the serving pieces.
(08:32):
Now there's the typical story, you hear, the guy with
the muddy boots got on the beautifully upostered expensively a
poster chair to stand to see Jackson. Whether his boots
were muddy or not, I don't know, but people were
getting up on the furniture trying just to get a
glimpse of the man they had just elected, not had
been elected, but they had elected. And so finally they
(08:56):
got the food and drink, as far as drink were
barrels of it out onto the lawn, and by that
time most of the crowd followed, including some who apparently
jumped out of some of the windows to get there.
Some people wrote in amazement about that, some people wrote
in horror because America had never witnessed to day like
(09:22):
that day. America had become a different place with that
election and with that man, and for all of his
good and bad, he had broken the mold of what
founding fathers had conceived of as the type of person
(09:44):
who should be president.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And a special thanks to Gavin Leestrow for producing this
piece and Caleb Robinson for the editing, and a special
thanks also to Keith Hartison, former director of Interpretation at
the Irmity. And that is Andrew Jackson's home in Nashville, Tennessee.
And this is the first time somebody like Jackson was
(10:08):
elected to become president, someone who didn't come from the
blue bloods, did not come from the aristocracy came from
the people, voted by the people in the People's President,
and from all places Nashville, Tennessee. And up he comes,
and the party starts, and let's just say the party
gets well, a little out of control to some and
(10:30):
just a good time to others. The story of the
bash that became well more than a bash, the routing
inauguration of the People's President Andrew Jackson. Here on our
American Stories.
And we returned to our American stories. Up next a
story from Keith Partisan, the former director of interpretation at
the Hermitage Andrew Jackson's home in Nashville, Tennessee. Today. Keith
shares the story of Jackson's rowdy inauguration Take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Jackson has all of these what we would call the
burst constituencies that were supporting him. He was running against
the quote unquote Eastern establishment. And this feeds into what
happened in the election, but then in Washington afterwards. Now,
(00:51):
in eighteen twenty eight, Quincy Adams was running for re election,
and Jackson had been campaigning all along, building his support
and so forth. And the term, of course we had
used in twentieth century now twenty first century politics is
mud slinging. Now I would suggest to you an election
of eighteen twenty eight mud slinging rose to the level
(01:14):
of using shovels to sling it. It was harsh the
issue with Jackson and Rachel's marriage, and that the nicest
thing that was said about Rachel from those opposing Jackson
was said by John Quincy Adams himself when he said
a divorced woman was not fit to live in the
White House, and it went down from there. Rachel heard
(01:39):
and read some of these things, and ultimately Rachel would
die within weeks of them being notified that Jackson had
won the election and had won it overwhelmingly. And the
symptoms Jackson records, although there was not an autopsy, but
the Jackson records is indicative or I would say consistent
(02:03):
of a massive coronary event, so it's likely a heart attack.
This was the situation in terms of the election, very bitter,
and that was from both sides and name calling and
insinuations about certain things. John Quincy Adams, of course, was
(02:26):
not particularly happy at the result and was somewhat embittered
towards Jackson, and Jackson pretty much felt the same way
about John Quincy Adams. So there's no love lost there.
But what did happen? Jackson was called the People's President.
(02:48):
I see it twofold. It was because of Jackson's humble beginnings.
Jackson genuinely felt a tie with common folk because he
had lived it for a good part part of his life,
had been orphaned by his family at fourteen. He's the
only president to have fought the British in both the
Revolution and the War of eighteen twelve, had been captured
(03:09):
in the War of eighteen twelve at age fourteen, making
him the only POW's ever been president of this country.
And he's the first person who was not born an
aristocrat or born into an aristocratic family that became president
of the United States. So the people in large measure
embraced him as one of them. Jackson would say, I'm
(03:33):
champion of the common man. We would say the average joe.
Of course, he's been elected, he's been certified. But in
between that, his wife has died and he is mourning her,
and he receives a letter could be found in the
papers of Andrew Jackson. But they're writing a letter how
soon can you get to Washington? And they, in essence
(03:53):
are saying, we've never had somebody elected as president wasn't
living in the Washinga along the coast, and didn't have
all of these connections with the establishment, and they were
real concerned about what was gonna happen. You know, it's
the system going to break down because we've got a
(04:13):
totally different guy from a totally different place. Is it
gonna break down? Is he gonna actually show and come
from there to here? Is he gonna be on time
for the inauguration. Home is he going to be received?
And so forth? He comes, and he comes certainly in time.
But he didn't just win the election and go right
(04:33):
up there because he's dealing with his family situation, with
the death of his wife and so forth. But he
gets there and there is a scene that had not
been seen in America up until that time. This was
the people's president, and the people showed up. Now I
(04:55):
have heard tales of there were forty thousand people in Washington,
but a reasonable estimate it's fifteen to twenty thousand people
showed up for the inauguration. This is the first large
scale inauguration. This is the first inauguration that set a
(05:15):
trend for inaugurations after that. This was done outside off
on the east wing of the capital. Jackson's inaugural speech
was about ten minutes long, and thankfully so, because while
it was a pretty decent speech, there's no amplification. You
(05:35):
got fifteen to twenty thousand people. I'm not sure who
heard it, if anybody, except those immediately around him, because
there was no means of projecting it. Of course, the
leader only was published in the papers and received for
the most part, very positive reviews. But Jackson did that
and then they went and exited out the west side.
(05:57):
A horse was provided for Jackson, carriages, their wagons, their carts.
There's a group of Revolutionary War soldiers, and of course
the Inaugural Committee and others that this is just a
mass movement of people to the White House. Now, Jackson
(06:19):
had no intention of attending the inaugural ball or anything
like that because he was still in mourning. He had
black crape armband, black cope, black top hat that was
a sign of mourning for his wife, Rachel. He didn't
feel in the mood, but he also did not feel
(06:40):
that it was appropriate to engage in celebration of that
sort during the morning period for his wife. But Jackson
did feel it was necessary and important to hold a
reception because the number of people who had shown up,
(07:02):
the variety of people who had shown up, and for
the first time America had elected a president from those people.
There was still a limited constituency compared to what we experience,
but it was certainly greatly broadened and energized since the
election of eighteen twenty four. So Jackson was going to
(07:24):
hold a reception in the White House. It turned out
to be one of the most talked about offense of
American history because so many people showed up, because this
is a reception, not for dignitaries. This is a reception for
the people of the United States to meet and greet
their new president. By the time Jackson got back to
(07:48):
First flour the White House was full. There was a
crush of people when he came in to see him,
so much so there was fear for the fact that
he might physically be crushed to death in that house.
So at one point a ring of his friends encircled
him to keep that from happening. But in the meantime,
(08:09):
as they were trying to bring out refreshments, people were
trying to get a view of Jackson. Many of the
refreshments were spilled. I've seen one report that said every
piece of White House china was broken, but we know
certainly there were considerable breakage to the china, the serving pieces.
(08:32):
Now there's the typical story, you hear, the guy with
the muddy boots got on the beautifully upostered expensively a
poster chair to stand to see Jackson. Whether his boots
were muddy or not, I don't know, but people were
getting up on the furniture trying just to get a
glimpse of the man they had just elected, not had
been elected, but they had elected. And so finally they
(08:56):
got the food and drink, as far as drink were
barrels of it out onto the lawn, and by that
time most of the crowd followed, including some who apparently
jumped out of some of the windows to get there.
Some people wrote in amazement about that, some people wrote
in horror because America had never witnessed to day like
(09:22):
that day. America had become a different place with that
election and with that man, and for all of his
good and bad, he had broken the mold of what
founding fathers had conceived of as the type of person
(09:44):
who should be president.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And a special thanks to Gavin Leestrow for producing this
piece and Caleb Robinson for the editing, and a special
thanks also to Keith Hartison, former director of Interpretation at
the Irmity. And that is Andrew Jackson's home in Nashville, Tennessee.
And this is the first time somebody like Jackson was
(10:08):
elected to become president, someone who didn't come from the
blue bloods, did not come from the aristocracy came from
the people, voted by the people in the People's President,
and from all places Nashville, Tennessee. And up he comes,
and the party starts, and let's just say the party
gets well, a little out of control to some and
(10:30):
just a good time to others. The story of the
bash that became well more than a bash, the routing
inauguration of the People's President Andrew Jackson. Here on our
American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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