June 11, 2025 • 10 mins
Wild stories about a crazy party after Andrew Jackson's inauguration have been around since the weeks after it went down. But how wild was it really?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for Dave and this
is short Stuff, And Chuck, I have come to really
detest politics, in particular the American brand of zero sum
outrage politics that the entire nations have meshed in. Yeah,
are you trying not to think about it? Im?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Same?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Avoid politics as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Same.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So let's get started about this political history story.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We're talking about Andrew Jackson and his first inauguration or
his inauguration brother. They used to hold these in March
and his was held in March fourth, eighteen twenty nine.
And what happened there at the Capitol was he gave
a speech and did his thing. And what you should
know about Andrew Jackson is he was a very populous president,
so I say, the very first one, and people loved him.
(00:55):
They were like, he's for the little people, and like,
we want to go meet this guy on an inauguration day.
So he said, that's a great idea. George Washington held
these levees at the White House, which has basically come
and meet the first family on inauguration day, and I'm
going to do the same big mistake.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, there's just basically a legend of Andrew Jackson's inauguration
in eighteen twenty nine that they basically tore the roof
off the White House they partied so hard there. Yeah,
and he didn't. But that was the thing you mentioned.
He was a populis president. All of a sudden because
(01:32):
of him being a populist, and the people who supported him,
average everyday people who typically weren't into politics at all,
suddenly overran Washington, d C. In a very celebratory mood
because Andrew Jackson had beaten the Washington establishment, the elites,
John Quincy Adams, and now the people were truly represented
(01:57):
in the American government as far as they were concerned.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, but here's the thing. There are historians that say,
hold your water there. It may not have been as
well as everyone thinks. The's a guy named Daniel Feller
who was a history professor at ut Tennessee Covaals. I'll
even say that as a Georgia fan, and he was
the editor of the papers of Andrew Jackson, so he
knows a thing or two, and he's like, you know
what they talked about people, you know, wrecking the place
(02:22):
people coming there with muddy boots and turning over tables
and punch bowls. He said, take that with a grain
of salt, because all a lot of this stuff comes
from the account of this woman named Margaret Baird Smith,
who showed up like late to the party after this
stuff had evidently happened, heart tardy to the party, and
also did not like Andrew Jackson in his politics, so
probably had a pretty heavy slant on the chaos she described.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, and this was I mean, she was a good
example of how the opposition to Andrew Jackson felt like
they felt like they owned DC and Andrew Jackson and
his supporters didn't really belong there, right, and yet because
Andrew Jackson had won the presidency and these like average
(03:07):
everyday people felt represented. Finally they they showed up. The
question is, like nobody's saying like that didn't happen. It's
the degree to which it happened. And Margaret Baird Smith's
letters to her daughter in particular are essentially like one
of a very few number of first hand accounts, and
(03:27):
she's she really did not like this, and pretty much
I guess blew it out of proportion. It is a
really good way to put it.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, she writes about the majesty of the people disappearing
and and a mob of people of you know, fighting
and scrambling and what a pity, what a pity?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yes she said it twice. Yeah, yeah, And is this
how stuff works article?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
This is a Dave Ruse shorty special.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I should have known because Dave mentions like you can
almost hear Margaret her pearls in this. So you said
she was targeted to the party. She showed up a
little bit after three. And the reason she didn't go
straight from the inauguration to the party is because she
heard that there were these large crowds. The estimate that
(04:19):
has been bandied about all these years later is that
there were twenty thousand people who showed up at the
White House. It's incredible to party. So I say we
take a break and we come back and talk about
what they say happened at this twenty thousand person strong
party at the White House.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Let's do it. Sweat shot shot, stop shot shot.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So we said, chuck before we broke that. There's about
twenty thousand people estimated to have been at the White
House for Andrew Jackson's inauguration. Levy that even Margaret Bayard
said Bayard Smith said that that was probably an exaggerated number. Yeah,
she did say that there were some crazy things going.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
On though, Yeah, bloody noses several thousand dollars worth of
worth of glassware broken. But here's the thing, Like again,
some historians think she might have been exaggerating because she
was just maybe a pear clutcher and didn't like Jackson.
There was a senator from Massachusetts named Daniel Webster who
(05:46):
was not a fan of Jackson as well. But he
wrote all about this day and he didn't mention like
all this chaos going on. He said, you know, people
have come five hundred miles to see General Jackson. They
really seem to think the country is rescued from some
dreadful danger. And he also said a lot of people
were also there to like aspiring political politicos, I guess,
(06:09):
trying to maybe get a job or get some influence.
So he wrote pretty good depth about this and he
never mentioned like, you know, a party where people were
getting in fights and muddy boots and turning over tables.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, it was like he didn't mention that it was
it turned into the infield of the Kentucky Derby. Right, yeah,
that is really significant because he was there. And to
not mention like that people were just going berserk partying
at the White House and trashing the place. I think
that to me says volumes about it that it either
(06:46):
was did it happened a little bit, but it was
so insignificant that what shouldn't even think it was worth mentioning,
or that the whole thing was basically made up.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, I mean, I get the feeling it wasn't completely
made up. I bet it got a little wild. And
there are also people that say, like, you know, it
sounds like there were probably people that maybe stood on
tables and chairs to get a better look, and like
maybe a table breaks when you're doing that. But she
made it sound like they just trashed the place, right.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, exactly, and that not only did they trash the
place they were It wasn't just that there were twenty
thousand people or however many people were there that they
were just rowdy. She was basically trying to portray them
as again, people who didn't belong in Washington, let alone
the White House. And look, you can't even you can't
you can't take these supporters of Andrew Jackson anywhere. Look
(07:37):
at what they did. They rushed people carrying out the
punch bowls to get punch and free cake, and yeah,
they elbowed each other. It was like a Black Friday
sale essentially, is what Margaret Smith was describing, and again
just painting people in a very unflattering light. The problem
is that was a letter to her daughter, right, so
(07:57):
if her daughter was misled, or maybe she was even
trying to entertain her daughter, who knows, it would be
one thing. Historians would probably still have found those letters
and be talking about it. But the reason why it
became such a well known thing is that the press
picked that up too, and exactly like happens today, that
exaggeration was run with to outrage people who were opponents
(08:23):
of Andrew Jackson, because that completely satisfied their opinion of
those people.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, here's a bit from the New York Spectator that
was pretty colorful. Here was the corpulent epicure grunting and
sweating for breath, the dandy wishing he had no toes,
the tight laced miss fearing her person might receive some
permanently deforming impulse, the miser hunting for his pocketbook, the
courtier looking for his watch, and the office seeker in
(08:50):
an agony to reach the president.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Right, what does that even mean? I don't know the
part about the dandy wishing he had no toes. I
looked high and low for what that meant.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Maybe because they were getting stepped on so much. Maybe
that's the only thing I could think of that made
any sense.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
The one I came up with is that maybe it
was in fashion to have small feet.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Maybe I know that the dandy has no toes. This
is a pretty great record.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Title, yeah, for sure, one of the best deep cut. Yeah,
so the I guess. In nineteen seventy eight, the Tennessee
Historical Society, they rolled up their sleeves and they're like,
let's get to the bottom of this. And from their
research they actually said they said they considered it sheer bedlam. Yeah,
But they turned up another account from a senator named
James Hamilton of South Carolina who was a supporter of
(09:39):
Jackson's and even he said that this was a he
called it a regular saturnalia. But he also said that
most of the damage was minimal. So somewhere in between there, Yeah,
and Margaret Bayard Smith's account. It was probably the truth,
and yeah, I think it was Daniel Webster, who's probably
the most reliable.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, I agree, but who knows. It's a fun story.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
It is a fun story, and we love fun history stories.
And I guess Chuck short Stuff is out correct.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
there's Chuck and Jerry sitting in for Dave and this
is short Stuff, And Chuck, I have come to really
detest politics, in particular the American brand of zero sum
outrage politics that the entire nations have meshed in. Yeah,
are you trying not to think about it? Im?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Same?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Avoid politics as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Same.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So let's get started about this political history story.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
We're talking about Andrew Jackson and his first inauguration or
his inauguration brother. They used to hold these in March
and his was held in March fourth, eighteen twenty nine.
And what happened there at the Capitol was he gave
a speech and did his thing. And what you should
know about Andrew Jackson is he was a very populous president,
so I say, the very first one, and people loved him.
(00:55):
They were like, he's for the little people, and like,
we want to go meet this guy on an inauguration day.
So he said, that's a great idea. George Washington held
these levees at the White House, which has basically come
and meet the first family on inauguration day, and I'm
going to do the same big mistake.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, there's just basically a legend of Andrew Jackson's inauguration
in eighteen twenty nine that they basically tore the roof
off the White House they partied so hard there. Yeah,
and he didn't. But that was the thing you mentioned.
He was a populis president. All of a sudden because
(01:32):
of him being a populist, and the people who supported him,
average everyday people who typically weren't into politics at all,
suddenly overran Washington, d C. In a very celebratory mood
because Andrew Jackson had beaten the Washington establishment, the elites,
John Quincy Adams, and now the people were truly represented
(01:57):
in the American government as far as they were concerned.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Yeah, but here's the thing. There are historians that say,
hold your water there. It may not have been as
well as everyone thinks. The's a guy named Daniel Feller
who was a history professor at ut Tennessee Covaals. I'll
even say that as a Georgia fan, and he was
the editor of the papers of Andrew Jackson, so he
knows a thing or two, and he's like, you know
what they talked about people, you know, wrecking the place
(02:22):
people coming there with muddy boots and turning over tables
and punch bowls. He said, take that with a grain
of salt, because all a lot of this stuff comes
from the account of this woman named Margaret Baird Smith,
who showed up like late to the party after this
stuff had evidently happened, heart tardy to the party, and
also did not like Andrew Jackson in his politics, so
probably had a pretty heavy slant on the chaos she described.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, and this was I mean, she was a good
example of how the opposition to Andrew Jackson felt like
they felt like they owned DC and Andrew Jackson and
his supporters didn't really belong there, right, and yet because
Andrew Jackson had won the presidency and these like average
(03:07):
everyday people felt represented. Finally they they showed up. The
question is, like nobody's saying like that didn't happen. It's
the degree to which it happened. And Margaret Baird Smith's
letters to her daughter in particular are essentially like one
of a very few number of first hand accounts, and
(03:27):
she's she really did not like this, and pretty much
I guess blew it out of proportion. It is a
really good way to put it.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, she writes about the majesty of the people disappearing
and and a mob of people of you know, fighting
and scrambling and what a pity, what a pity?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yes she said it twice. Yeah, yeah, And is this
how stuff works article?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
This is a Dave Ruse shorty special.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I should have known because Dave mentions like you can
almost hear Margaret her pearls in this. So you said
she was targeted to the party. She showed up a
little bit after three. And the reason she didn't go
straight from the inauguration to the party is because she
heard that there were these large crowds. The estimate that
(04:19):
has been bandied about all these years later is that
there were twenty thousand people who showed up at the
White House. It's incredible to party. So I say we
take a break and we come back and talk about
what they say happened at this twenty thousand person strong
party at the White House.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Let's do it. Sweat shot shot, stop shot shot.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So we said, chuck before we broke that. There's about
twenty thousand people estimated to have been at the White
House for Andrew Jackson's inauguration. Levy that even Margaret Bayard
said Bayard Smith said that that was probably an exaggerated number. Yeah,
she did say that there were some crazy things going.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
On though, Yeah, bloody noses several thousand dollars worth of
worth of glassware broken. But here's the thing, Like again,
some historians think she might have been exaggerating because she
was just maybe a pear clutcher and didn't like Jackson.
There was a senator from Massachusetts named Daniel Webster who
(05:46):
was not a fan of Jackson as well. But he
wrote all about this day and he didn't mention like
all this chaos going on. He said, you know, people
have come five hundred miles to see General Jackson. They
really seem to think the country is rescued from some
dreadful danger. And he also said a lot of people
were also there to like aspiring political politicos, I guess,
(06:09):
trying to maybe get a job or get some influence.
So he wrote pretty good depth about this and he
never mentioned like, you know, a party where people were
getting in fights and muddy boots and turning over tables.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, it was like he didn't mention that it was
it turned into the infield of the Kentucky Derby. Right, yeah,
that is really significant because he was there. And to
not mention like that people were just going berserk partying
at the White House and trashing the place. I think
that to me says volumes about it that it either
(06:46):
was did it happened a little bit, but it was
so insignificant that what shouldn't even think it was worth mentioning,
or that the whole thing was basically made up.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, I mean, I get the feeling it wasn't completely
made up. I bet it got a little wild. And
there are also people that say, like, you know, it
sounds like there were probably people that maybe stood on
tables and chairs to get a better look, and like
maybe a table breaks when you're doing that. But she
made it sound like they just trashed the place, right.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, exactly, and that not only did they trash the
place they were It wasn't just that there were twenty
thousand people or however many people were there that they
were just rowdy. She was basically trying to portray them
as again, people who didn't belong in Washington, let alone
the White House. And look, you can't even you can't
you can't take these supporters of Andrew Jackson anywhere. Look
(07:37):
at what they did. They rushed people carrying out the
punch bowls to get punch and free cake, and yeah,
they elbowed each other. It was like a Black Friday
sale essentially, is what Margaret Smith was describing, and again
just painting people in a very unflattering light. The problem
is that was a letter to her daughter, right, so
(07:57):
if her daughter was misled, or maybe she was even
trying to entertain her daughter, who knows, it would be
one thing. Historians would probably still have found those letters
and be talking about it. But the reason why it
became such a well known thing is that the press
picked that up too, and exactly like happens today, that
exaggeration was run with to outrage people who were opponents
(08:23):
of Andrew Jackson, because that completely satisfied their opinion of
those people.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, here's a bit from the New York Spectator that
was pretty colorful. Here was the corpulent epicure grunting and
sweating for breath, the dandy wishing he had no toes,
the tight laced miss fearing her person might receive some
permanently deforming impulse, the miser hunting for his pocketbook, the
courtier looking for his watch, and the office seeker in
(08:50):
an agony to reach the president.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Right, what does that even mean? I don't know the
part about the dandy wishing he had no toes. I
looked high and low for what that meant.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Maybe because they were getting stepped on so much. Maybe
that's the only thing I could think of that made
any sense.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
The one I came up with is that maybe it
was in fashion to have small feet.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Maybe I know that the dandy has no toes. This
is a pretty great record.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
Title, yeah, for sure, one of the best deep cut. Yeah,
so the I guess. In nineteen seventy eight, the Tennessee
Historical Society, they rolled up their sleeves and they're like,
let's get to the bottom of this. And from their
research they actually said they said they considered it sheer bedlam. Yeah,
But they turned up another account from a senator named
James Hamilton of South Carolina who was a supporter of
(09:39):
Jackson's and even he said that this was a he
called it a regular saturnalia. But he also said that
most of the damage was minimal. So somewhere in between there, Yeah,
and Margaret Bayard Smith's account. It was probably the truth,
and yeah, I think it was Daniel Webster, who's probably
the most reliable.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Yeah, I agree, but who knows. It's a fun story.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
It is a fun story, and we love fun history stories.
And I guess Chuck short Stuff is out correct.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff You Should Know News
Hosts And Creators
Chuck Bryant
Josh Clark
Show Links
AboutOrder Our BookStoreSYSK ArmyRSSPopular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.