When King Mob Reigned Triumphant March 4, 1829: Andrew Jackson's Wild Drunken First Inauguration Day

 

        The clouds break and temperatures rise.  Sunlight cascades down upon America’s capital city.

It is March 4, 1829--inauguration day for the seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson.

Jackson, at the head of a brand new political party, won last November’s election in a landslide over incumbent President John Quincy Adams.  It was the second time that Jackson had run for the Presidency against this same adversary.

Back in 1824, after winning a plurality of the electoral vote in a four candidate race, Jackson had lost a contingent runoff in Congress for the Presidency to John Quincy Adams when one of the other candidates, Henry Clay, agreed to throw his support in Congress behind Adams in return for an appointment to Secretary of State.

This deal in Congress for the Presidency between Adams and Clay in 1824 would be labelled by Jackson and his supporters as the “Corrupt Bargain” and, after resigning his seat in Congress in the wake of the “Corrupt Bargain” it would serve to make Jackson that much more determined to win the Presidency in 1828.  

In 1828 Jackson campaigned on a platform that sought to advance the rights of “the common man” and defeat what he saw as an inherently corrupt and wealthy aristocracy of political elites.  Years later, historians would label this as the practice of Jacksonian Democracy and at the time, Jackson and his supporters formed the predecessor to the modern Democratic Party which endures to this very day.

John Quincy Adams, and his supporters on the other hand, as representatives of what was then called the National-Republican Party sought to portray Jackson as a western country-bumpkin whose supporters were no more than uneducated ruffians who couldn’t be trusted to run the country.  

But even with John Quincy Adams standing as incumbent President, renowned lineage as son of the second U.S. President and founding father John Adams, and really vitriolic and negative campaigning, in the end, it all proved for naught.

Andrew Jackson ascended to the Presidency in 1828 as the leader of the newly formed Democratic Party having captured 56% of the popular vote (albeit an all white male property owning popular vote) and an astounding 68% of the nation’s electoral votes.

Now, as the sun cascades down on that bright morning of March 4, 1829 it looks as if the heavens truly are shining down upon Andrew Jackson and his supporters.  This day can be said to mark the beginning of a new era in American government, an era in which maybe, just maybe, the so-called “common man” will finally begin to have more of a say in the affairs of government itself.

Jackson being sworn in as President

Andrew Jackson will be the first United States President to be sworn in on the east portico of the United States Capitol building which was still under construction at the time.  It will take nearly another half century for construction on the Capitol building to finally be completed after the American Civil War, but every American President since Jackson with the exception of Lyndon Johnson in 1963 after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, has taken the oath of office at that exact same spot.

At 10:00 in the morning, March 4, 1829, the oath was administered by Chief Justice John Marshall and Andrew Jackson became the seventh President of the United States to the sound of loud and raucous applause.

Over 10,000 people from all over the United States, many from out west in Jackson’s home state of Tennessee, entered Washington D.C. just for the occasion.  This may not sound like many today, but keep in mind that 1829 is an era before the invention of the automobile, the railroad or even asphalt.  Most of Jackson’s supporters have spent days, if not weeks, traveling over dirt roads on foot and on horseback to see his inauguration.  It is no wonder then that right after he was sworn in as President of the United States this crowd of Jacksonians was ready to party.

It is believed that up to 20,000 spectators total gathered at the foot of the Capitol to hear Jackson’s inaugural address.

Francis Scott Key, author of The Star Spangled Banner, and personal acquaintance of Andrew Jackson’s from the War of 1812 said of the scene that morning at the Capitol Building, “It is beautiful; it is sublime.”

The crowd at the Capitol Building

However beautiful and sublime the moment of his swearing in may have seemed to those in attendance for Jackson the moment was touched by a feeling of extreme loss and sadness.  Only two months prior, in December of 1828 just weeks after he won the election over Adams, Jackson’s beloved wife Rachel Donelson Jackson, had died of a sudden heart attack after suffering from ill health for several weeks.

Andrew Jackson believes that it is the slanderous attacks that were launched by John Quincy Adams’ supporters against his wife’s reputation in the press that led to her heart attack and untimely death.  He vows to do everything in his power to get back at what he calls, “the murderous Washington aristocracy,” once he assumes office.

Rachel Donelson Jackson

Prior to his inauguration, as he was traveling from his home in Tennessee to Washington D.C. over the course of January and February 1829, Jackson let it be known that after the conclusion of his inaugural address the doors to the  White House would be open to everyone (LITERALLY EVERYONE!!) for a great big party celebrating his inauguration as the seventh President of the United States.  Talk about a President for the “common man”!

For the historical record, Jackson’s actual inaugural address is rather vague and lacklustre.  In it he makes no sweeping statements about change or reform and nowhere does he mention the plight of the common man.  Instead, for some reason, he sticks to generalizations about divine providence and the inevitable advancement of the yet newly formed American nation.

But despite his boring speech the crowd of 20,000 becomes louder and louder as it goes on.  As the inaugural address reaches its end there’s a palpable buzz of excitement that can be felt in the air.  

The crowd was so loud the entire time that according to one eye-witness report, a majority of the people there couldn’t hear a single word that Jackson uttered the whole speech!

A giant ship’s cable, a thick and heavy cast-iron chain has been stretched across the steps of the Capitol Building, to keep back the crowd, but once the inaugural address ends, after a loud round of applause, the crowd surges forward and snaps the chain.

Jackson, with the crowd surging forward, leaves the Capitol Building from the other side and begins to ride up Pennsylvania Avenue towards the White House on a great white horse.

It is customary for the newly elected President and the outgoing former President to call on one another at the White House on inauguration day to celebrate a peaceful transfer of power.  But the bitterness between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson (particularly after the death of Jackson’s wife Rachel) was so great that Adams had already left the White House, with all of his possessions in tow, just as Jackson was heading down Pennsylvania Avenue towards his new home.

Since there was then no sitting President at the White House no one had bothered to post any police officers or military security in or around the Executive Mansion and crowds of people were already climbing in through windows, streaming in through side doors and drinking out on the front lawn before Jackson even arrived.

Not to be deterred, the old general of the War of 1812 charged forward on his horse and did indeed reach the house grimly determined to meet the members of the American public in the confines of his executive home.  

But standing near the entrance to the White House Jackson was nearly trampled and crushed to death by the onrushing crowds that came to meet him.  His aides and closest friends had to form a protective circle around the President and literally fight off the crowd with swords and guns drawn so that they could whisk the president out a back door and take him away by stagecoach to the safety of nearby Alexandria, Virginia.

Photograph of Andrew Jackson

Even with Jackson out of the White House the crowd continued to descend upon the building.  All of the china was smashed and all the windows broken.  Shots were fired into the air and drunken fistfights broke out on the White House lawn.

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story, who saw firsthand what took place at the White House on March 4, 1829, described Jackson’s inauguration day as, “the reign of King Mob triumphant”.

The crowd gathered and rioted for hours.  Several thousands of dollars worth of damage (in 1829 monetary value) would be caused to the Executive Mansion that day.  Almost all of the windows in the White House would be broken and all of the furniture damaged.  The grounds themselves would be absolutely ruined and take months to repair.

In the end, the crowd would only be quieted once Presidential aides and staff members agreed to serve dozens of bowls of spiked punch out on the White House lawn to the assembled masses.  In return for the promise of lots of free booze most, if not all, of the Jacksonian revellers agreed to remain outside and to desist from looting and destroying the President’s residence.

Obviously, after Andrew Jackson’s inauguration of 1829, the American public would never again be invited to a President’s inaugural celebration at the White House.  

History may still remember Andrew Jackson as the first President who went out of his way to best represent the interests of the “common man” and as the author of Jacksonian Democracy and the founder of the modern Democratic Party.  Andrew Jackson’s place among the pantheon of great American Presidents is definitely firmly established.

However, maybe the day that King Mob reigned triumphant, March 4, 1829, should serve as a warning to all future American Presidents, that the best leaders always proceed with deliberate caution and moderation in all decisions that they make.

To learn more about Andrew Jackson and his Presidency I heartily recommend reading American Lion by Jon Meagham.  Published by Random House 2008