Brian Edgerley
Against Jackson Ad Paper
The election of 1824 is the only presidential election to have been decided by the House of Representatives. Because no candidate received a majority of the delegates, the House of Representatives voted John Quincy Adams as president by a margin of 13 states to 7 states for Andrew Jackson and 4 states for William H. Crawford. Despite receiving more delegates and having the highest percentage of the popular vote, Andrew Jackson ended up losing the election and his supporters accused Adams and Clay of cheating their way into the presidency. This controversial election initiated party politics because of the perceived unfairness of the eventual election of John Quincy Adams into the presidency.
Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams’s main opponent in the 1824 election, was popular and famous for leading a rag-tag army of about 4,000 Southerners against a well-trained British army of 8,000 soldiers. Jackson victoriously defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 and also helped acquire Florida for the United States. People viewed him as a war hero and in comparison to Adams, he was considered a man of the people. My goal was to paint a picture of Jackson’s brutality and lack of respect towards the government and law during battle. He was the General of the Army, but he disobeyed orders from the White House when fighting the Spanish for Florida, nearly creating an international incident. Also, during the Battle of New Orleans, he arrested an author who published a paper complaining of Jackson’s actions during the Battle. He then arrested a judge for granting and serving a writ of habeas corpus on Jackson. He then arrested the District Attorney who attempted to serve another writ of habeas corpus on Jackson. Jackson played beyond the law to make sure he was not told what to do and followed no orders, not even laws.
Rundown of the video:
Because I knew Jackson was a popular candidate in 1824, my goal was to portray Jackson as too aggressive and undisciplined to be President. I started with an Albert Gallatin quote, which says that Jackson is “altogether unfit for office.” Gallatin was highly respected for his time serving as Secretary of the Treasury for 14 years. Someone who was around the President for 14 years would know whether a man was fit to lead the nation. Next I showed a newspaper article from the New York Daily that stated that without any form of consent or reason, Jackson decided to take Florida from Spain. If he believed he had the kind of power to fight Spain without any governmental consent as general, imagine what he might do as President. The first picture I showed of Jackson makes him look like Napoleon, so I decided to try and make the connection and say that Jackson would become the US version of Napoleon. Next, I showed a blurb from an article in The Portsmouth Journal of Literature and Politics on August 7, 1824 talking about Jackson disobeying laws during the Battle of New Orleans. I then displayed another picture of Jackson with the phrase “Unfit for Presidential Power” on the portrait to remind the viewer of Gallatin’s quote shown at the beginning of the video. I next highlighted part of an article in the Ithaca Journal on March 31, 1824 that illustrated that his treaty with the Indians in Florida brought on another “war”. Also, I thought “author of evil” sounded strong and wanted that to stick with the viewer. The article discussing Jackson’s murder of a fellow citizen in a duel paints him as someone with little respect for others and one who enjoys killing. Putting the word “murder” on the screen resonates with how serious what he did during his duel was and how lightly he took killing his opponent. After mentioning his committing of adultery with his wife before she got divorced, I put a picture of a tired looking Jackson and described him as a murderer, an adulteress, and most importantly as someone who lived above the law.
The music was “The Liberty Song” by John Dickinson, which I played to show that voting against Jackson would preserve Liberty. I finished with Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9 in D minor” and timed up the spike in intensity with the word murder in the second half of the video.
I had trouble finding a helpful quote or reference discussing his lack of overall education and how that might hinder him and since apparently it was not an issue brought up by opponents in the election of 1824, I decided it was unnecessary for me to add to my video.
Bibliography:
Eastern Argus October 19, 1824
The Portsmouth Journal of Literature and Politics August 7, 1824
Providence Patriot August 21, 1824
New-York Daily Advertiser July 7, 1818
Ithaca Journal March 31, 1824
Jackson committed adultery with his wife, Rachel Jackson, as they lived together and attempted to get married before she had divorced her first husband.
JQA defended Jackson
http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=7
2nd picture of Jackson
Last picture of Jackson
1st photo of Jackson