The Pete Quiñones Show - Episode 1365: The Road to Civil War Pt. 9 - The Election of 1828 - w/ George Bagby

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

75 MinutesSafe for WorkGeorge Bagby is a content creator and publisher of long-forgotten books. George joins Pete to continue a series detailing the long lead up to America's Civil War.George's Twitter AccountGeorge's Pinned Tweet w/ Links George's YouTube ChannelPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's Substack Pete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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I want to welcome everyone back to the Pekignano show. George Bagby is back. How are you doing this evening, Mr. Bagby? I'm doing well. I'm trying to sell my house. It's been a long slog. It's been a bad time to sell a house. But I've been praying to St. Joseph for his intercessions.

He's a good patron for such things. Down here in Louisiana, there's a tradition. You bury a statue of St. Joseph at the house you're trying to sell. And this is a ritual that helps the sale of your house. So I'm planning to go by my house and bury a little statue of St. Joseph I've picked up. Interesting. I have not heard that before. Have you not? Really? That's something down in Louisiana.

People know about this. But South Louisiana is a good Catholic place. I pick up these things. I'm Eastern Orthodox, but I pray for St. Joseph's intercessions as well. the patron of fathers and providers. Oh, amazing. Well, I will pray for your, I will pray for the sale as well.

Thank you for that. Of course. All right, sir. We're going to, you're going to talk about the election of one of my favorite Americans tonight. So go, go right ahead. We're going to approach Andrew Jackson

tonight and the circumstances of his election. So Andrew Jackson really came through for America in the War of 1812. I'm not here to talk about his military career, but it is important in relation to his political rise. So he really, he was really the breakthrough success in the war of 1812, which was mostly a humiliation. Over on the East Coast, the British were able to go anywhere they wanted to and wreak havoc. They occupy parts of Long Island. They occupy what is now Maine. They raid the Connecticut Valley.

They burn some towns in the Connecticut Valley, destroy some shipyards there. Famously, they come up the Chesapeake Bay and burn Washington, D.C. and make President Madison a refugee. So Madison doesn't have a seat of government in his last years in office. And this is all important in relation to our former material about the Hartford Convention and such. But out west, Andrew Jackson is really doing incredible work. When the Creek Nation rises to support of the British designs on America, they massacre the settlers down in South Alabama at Fort Mims.

This is the largest Indian massacre in American history. And Jackson has been wounded in a street fight, almost killed by Thomas Hart Benton, of all people. Thomas Hart Benton later becomes a long-lived senator from Missouri, and one of Jackson's principal. supporters in Congress during his presidential administration. But at that point, Benton had shot Jackson in the back. And his brother had shot Jackson in the arm. And Jackson was on a bed in Nashville, Tennessee, expected to die. They had anticipated amputating his arm, but he gritted through his gauze gag. and said that he would keep his arm. And so the doctors did not amputate his arm,

though they expected that to kill him from infection. He actually recovered the use of his arm eventually. But after the Fort Mims massacre, Jackson got the news on his sickbed in Nashville, and he came up off his sickbed for the first time since his wounding and said, by the eternal, they shall. be avenged. And it's like a line from William Shatner or something. It's a really epic American line.

And he marches down into Alabama and makes war on the creeks, the red stick creeks in Alabama, who had sided with Britain and the war. He conquers Alabama. He takes Pensacola, Florida, where the creeks had their base of arms supply. and such. He beats the British at New Orleans, which is the only land battle where the Americans really face off against the British and win, and he becomes the hero of New Orleans. So he rises to national prominence and kind of redeems the military honor of the United States after several years of humiliation with the British on the East Coast and that sea. And he's conscripted into the democratic, well, the effort to elect him as president, what eventually becomes the Democratic Party.

It's kind of forming at this time. Just to give the background to the 1824 election, we talked previously about the growth of tariff policy immediately following 1812. In 1816, Monroe signs into law a temporary protective tariff, which has unusual support in southern congressmen. We also have additional funding for the National Road, which is a major internal improvement. It goes from Washington, D.C., eventually all the way to Illinois. So it goes through what is now Wheeling, West Virginia. Eventually a bridge is built there. It's the very first bridge across the Ohio River before going through southern Ohio and off to Illinois. So we have some interesting funding from those

protective tariffs for internal improvements with a plurality of support. And it's important to mention that, that the Southerners were not always so sectional in their associations. They were willing to make some concessions for these projects at this period, even though the old Republicans with John Taylor and John Randolph of Roanoke kind of holding the line on the strict construction. The Southerners, even John C. Calhoun, was willing to make those special appropriations. In 1817, there is an even more expansive and permanent protective tariff regime proposed by Henry Clay of Kentucky. It gets vetoed by James Madison. And then in the pivotal year of 1824, we see more efforts to use the proceeds from those protective tariffs,

which are very sectional in their economic relations. Henry Clay has been pitching what he calls the American system, where he wants to see the federal government building internal improvements, even on credit using the new Second Bank of the United States and also implementing a permanent protective tariff regime to fund those internal improvements. In 1824, we see a bill out of Congress that has the support of Clay and his more Hamiltonian faction of the time,

a general survey bill for canals and roads. We also see a rise in debate in Congress about the constitutional question of internal improvements. The Constitution does say that Congress may build postal roads, and this is one of those elastic sort of clauses clauses. in the Constitution that Clay and other Hamiltonians say is licensed to build internal improvements generally. But we do see funding for a general survey for such improvements in 24. We also see the election, the presidential election in 24.

So this is the end of the James Monroe. period where we've seen a relative expansion of federal power. James Monroe has increased the civil service to some degree. We have these limited protective tariff regimes. So he's hired a lot of new bureaucrats and the customs houses and the port cities. He has also started a massive coastal fortifications construction program. And we've seen an increase in the Federal Civil Service up to this point. But we've also seen the demise of our first party system. So with James Monroe, we have the only other president in our history besides George Washington, who was elected without opposition for his second term.

In Monroe's case, it was his second term. And in 24, we see all of the potential candidates for the presidency proclaiming themselves what they call national Republicans, kind of representing the solidarity that Americans felt after the victory in 18, 14 over the British. We see four candidates that all call themselves national Republicans. There really is no party apparatus at this time. We see Henry Clay of Kentucky, who is the great proponent of his Hamiltonian sort of system. We see John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, who has proven himself in executive roles. He was James Monroe's Secretary of State. And the Secretary of State

office kind of became a jump-off point into the executive for a time. Madison, for instance, he was in Washington's cabinet. Jefferson was Washington's Secretary of State. Both of these cabinet officials later launched successful careers into the White House. John Quincy Adams is a very important Secretary of State. He acquires Florida from Spain, the Adams-Oniece Treaty of 1819. And he's also the son of a former president. A very remarkable figure. I've mentioned some of his special qualities previously. We also see One, William Crawford of Georgia, a really remarkable figure, a war hawk back in 1812 days, advocacy for war with Britain, had fought a couple of duels in relation to internal squabbles and Georgia politics,

a really interesting statesman of his period, who showed a lot of promise. He's kind of a favorite son candidate in 1824. We see some of these characters nominated or backed by enthusiastic supporters in their home states. And Crawford is an example of that. He ends up winning Virginia and his own native Georgia. in 24. He's kind of an unusual presidential candidate because he suffers a massive stroke, which eventually takes his life before the vote is called for the election. So he is never would have been president even if he had been elected that year. It's kind of an accident of history that he actually won electoral votes that year. And then we also see Andrew

Jackson, who is a popular candidate, mostly in the West in 24. He wins South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, but he wins several Western states, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana. Clay wins his middle states. He wins the new state of Missouri, which he had helped bring into the union through the Missouri compromise. He wins his native Kentucky. He wins Ohio. And John Quincy Adams carries New England and parts of New York. New York is splitting its electoral vote for a portion of its history, and it's split between all of the candidates in that election. But he wins the predominance of votes from New York. It is a very split election in 24, None of the candidates has the majority of electoral votes necessary to actually win the White House.

And we see two of the candidates, Adams and Clay, convene with their aides in Washington, D.C. after the electoral vote. What comes out of that meeting, which takes place at a pub in Washington, is an agreement. Clay is the Speaker of the House at that time. And the electoral vote is referred to the House. So when the electoral vote is too close to to affect the outright election of a candidate, the vote is then taken in the House of Representatives

for the president. And that's what happens in 24. We have a vote split four ways. We have two minor candidates, Crawford and Clay. Crawford is incapacitated. Clay throws his support behind Adams. So he gets his supporters to back John Quincy Adams for the presidency. And in return, once Adams is inaugurated, Clay takes the Secretary of State position, which we've seen is the typical jumping off point for a future president. This is called the corrupt bargain. So John Randolph of Roanoke makes speeches in the house against Clay and his bargaining to sway the house for Adams candidacy, though Adams actually got less electoral votes than did Andrew Jackson

in 24. So Jackson really did come very close to winning in 24. But Randolph calls out Clay's bargaining behind the scenes, Andrew Jackson himself in private correspondence accuses Clay, saying, Mr. Clay, like Judas of old, sold himself to Mr. Adams for which he was to receive appointment as secretary. So this was a believable charge, though Clay denied that there was bargain making, it does seem very probable that, in fact, that's what happened. Adams is inaugurated, and Adams announces a very expansive kind of view of federal power. Adams represents his base in New England. Adams actually survives the collapse of the Federalist Party because of his more nationalist sort of conviction.

He is very Hamiltonian in his convictions. He is a supporter of Clay's permanent protective tariffs, which are becoming a much more divisive, sectional issue. And Adams proposes even more ambitious projects based on Hamilton's interpretation of the Constitution to allow the government to do whatever they find to be convenient. So Adams proposes a national university to be based in Washington, D.C. He imagines it will be a research institution, certainly making use of the Brain Trust of New England to hire all the clever professors from Harvard and Yale to come down to the national university.

Adams hopes that they will be innovators and create a kind of national laboratory there to create inventions for the good of all humanity, Adams says. This does not come off the ground. Adams does not have a real mandate for this. So though he has really interesting ideas about where to take American politics, nothing comes of that. He's not able to organize that while he is in office, though he does pitch it. Adams wants to set up a national observatory. This eventually comes to fruition. We have a naval observatory in Georgetown in the district of Washington.

that's now where the vice president lives. He actually lives on the grounds of the naval observatory that eventually comes off the ground, not in Adams administration, but later. But Adams comes up with the idea and says, well, we need to put national resources into mapping the stars and such. And of course, this has a special military application. The ships of the Navy need to be able to identify just where in the world, they are, and that's part of the justification for the eventual Naval Observatory. But Adams has these very abstract notions of the public good, we might say, thinking that knowledge is a good in and of itself that should be supported by public policy. In 1828, during the Adams administration, we see the regular,

contensions among Clay's leadership in Congress to affect permanent protective tariffs and internal improvements. So in 1828, we see a very interesting bill come out of Congress. When the Southern congressmen realized that they may not have the numbers to block this bill, they deliberately add very onerous amendments to the bill. Among other things, they eliminate wool protective tariffs, which disproportionately impacts New England. New England has a sizable wool industry, especially in the mountains, in Vermont and such. Vermont is always very interested in wool protective tariffs.

So they eliminate those protective tariffs, which is a very interesting move. John C. Calhoun is involved here, adding amendments to the 28 tariff bill in an attempt to sabotage the passage of the bill. What Calhoun is trying to do here is he's trying to to bring over a portion of the New England congressman to go against the 28 tariff bill when the vote is finally called. They also raise protective tariffs, which would disproportionately impact the merchant centers in Boston and elsewhere in New England, in New York, just outside of New England. So this is a very interesting thing. The people in Congress at the time, they call this the tariff of abominations because it has these damaging aspects that have been added to it

in an attempt to sabotage the passage of the bill. Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, nevertheless, call for the passage of this bill to foster American industry in the growth of American manufacturers because it's going to guard through protective tariffs a number of manufacturers that are growing in the American industrial base at the time. Things like lead, glass, textiles, big one. Those industries are just getting off the ground at the time. Calhoun is hoping that the increased duties on major imports into Boston

and into New York are going to throw the passage of the bill because it's going to turn the merchant class in New England against this bill, even though the manufacturers in New England are going to really like the bill. And it is a really close vote. In addition to Calhoun doing his mechanations behind the scenes, Martin Van Buren of New York, future president and ally of Andrew Jackson, He is also working with Calhoun behind the scenes. Van Buren is trying to sway the merchant classes in New York against the bill. Nevertheless, the Mid-Atlantic states, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, portions of New York, they're very much in favor of this. They are developing their industries. They see major advantages for the bill, and they go very much. very heavily in favor of it. Although they split support in New England, and there's a pretty even

split in New England about the tariff bill in 28, the West goes very much in favor of the tariff bill. So you see a lot of support for the tariff bill in Kentucky, in Ohio, in Missouri, such. The South is overwhelmingly opposed to this bill because they import most of their manufactured goods. They don't have an industrial base. And indeed, they still have virtually no industrial base up until the time of the Civil War. So for them, they've always been very outspoken in favor of free trade because they produce commodities and they import their manufactured goods. So for them, just means increased prices. They're going to buy their manufactured goods, either from abroad where the price was cheaper before the bill, or from New England at inflated prices because of the

protection of the bill. So for them, it only means increased prices and that they disproportionately pay the protective duties. For them, this is like a colonial relation with the northern manufacturers, and the merchant class. They do not like this, which is why they are so overwhelmingly opposed to it on this occasion. But we can also look to Calhoun in his misplaced confidence in trying to sabotage this bill by making it more unattractive

than it needed to be. It was a bad bet in his case. So the Mid-Atlantic and the West, they carry the vote. on the 28 tariff. There is major opposition both in New England and in the South, which is an odd coincidence based on what ends up developing. So the merchant class, which is importing a lot of these goods in New England, ends up investing their funds in the manufacturers, because that has been made more advantageous because of the tax policy. In 1828, which is also the election year for the presidency,

John C. Calhoun publishes anonymously the South Carolina exposition and protest. This is a major work by Calhoun where we see the Southern leadership coming around to the old Republican position that we had previously talked about in relation to John Taylor of Caroline. So in 28, a portion of the southern statesmen come around to conviction along the same lines

that John Randolph of Roanoke and John Taylor of Caroline had warned of previously. The South Carolina Exposition and Protest elevates the importance of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798. And I'll read some portions here from Calhoun's work. This was a pamphlet. It was circulated mostly in South Carolina and has a major role in an upcoming event that we'll talk about in a later episode. the nullification crisis of South Carolina.

So Calhoun says, the act of Congress imposed duties on imports, not for revenue, but for protection of one branch of industry at the expense of others. It is unconstitutional, unequal, and oppressive, calculated to corrupt the public morals

and to destroy the liberty of the country. Now, here he's saying, he's giving a familiar charge, that protection of certain kinds of industry is an opportunity for political corruption, because the political interest of the manufacturers are now wrapped up in special sponsorship and legislation from the federal government. And that is how he is explaining the corruption of public morals in this case. Calhoun says, the sovereign power is divided between the states and the general government, and the former holds its reserved rights in the same high sovereign capacity, which the latter does, its delegated rights.

So here he's emphasizing the states formed the federal government, and that the state's retained rights are far more expansive than the federal government's specific delegated rights, which calls to mind the old arguments between Hamilton and Jefferson way back in the Washington, administration, where Jefferson is emphasizing the specific delegated rights to the federal government, whereas Hamilton is emphasizing the expansive, interpretive nature of those delegated powers. Calhoun is emphasizing, of course, the Tenth Amendment, which says anything not specifically delegated in the Constitution is reserved to the states. Calhoun goes on

It will be impossible to deny to the states the right of deciding on the infraction of their rights and the proper remedy. This is an almost direct allusion to the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798, where James Madison and Thomas Jefferson both emphasize the large reserved rights of the states and also emphasize the state's role in interpreting what the Constitution means on controversial points.

Because the states are the parties to the contract, they are emphasizing that aspect of the state's, powers, the reserve powers, in opposition to the interpretive power of the Supreme Court, which John Marshall has claimed has the final say in the powers of the federal government, more or less that the federal government through the Supreme Court is the final judge of its own powers. Calhoun is contradicting Marshall here and saying, actually, the states are the final judge of the powers of the federal government. And the states will also be the judge of what is the best remedy in this circumstance. So South Carolina, particularly, but they end up

speaking for a particular interest in the Deep South, they are looking at this colonial kind of relation that they see developing between the manufacturers of the North and the agricultural produce of the South. And they're saying this does not work out for us. We end up paying a disproportional amount of taxes. Those taxes are going to be used to support internal improvements, which are mostly built in the North, because that's what those improvements are for. It's there to encourage domestic industry primarily. And they would certainly look to the National Road, which is built in the middle of the states.

It passes through the Mid-Atlantic states, through Maryland, through a very small sliver of what is now West Virginia, but what was then Virginia. And Ohio, going out to the Ohio Valley towards the Midwest, that's a major element in those internal improvements of the day. The South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and such, they represent a particular position on this because the internal improvements are doing other things as well, which give them a measure of support in the West.

in Louisiana. They are building out improvements in the river system in that area. They are clearing obstructions on the Ohio River. There are plans for a canal at Louisville, Kentucky to bypass the falls of the Ohio, which would greatly improve commerce in the Ohio Valley going down to New Orleans. Louisiana is a very unique southern state and that it has a large merchant political interest in New Orleans. New Orleans is a very unusual area in the south and that it has this very large merchant presence. And they're very interested in the trade on the Ohio in the Mississippi valleys. And this means that Louisiana, and to some extent, Mississippi, western Tennessee, the river counties of Arkansas, or what becomes Arkansas later, they are interested in the improvement of the waterways. And so they are not so adverse to some of these internal improvements.

They see themselves as beneficiaries. But South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, they do not see any benefits from this. North Carolina, they see no benefits from this. They get nothing out of those internal improvements. Yet they are paying higher prices for manufactured goods. They are paying a large proportion of the duties on imported manufactured goods, or they're simply buying northern manufactured goods at higher prices. So they see this as a kind of colonial relationship,

that they have trade restrictions and higher taxes, from which they do not realize real benefits in their section. This is the origin of their dissatisfaction with these policies, and that is also why they, favor free trade. They want cheaper manufactured goods. So from the very beginning, they are drawing parallels between their particular political circumstances with these protective tariffs and trade restrictions. They're drawing a parallel between their situation in 1828 and their situation in 1776. when the British are trying to regulate trade in the colonies to require the purchase of manufactured goods,

even with additional taxes, such as we see with the Stamp Act, and in return, the American colonies, we're not getting benefits out of that as far as improvements. Most of the taxes were supposed to go to service or debts back in Britain. So they see their situation as analogous to that, and that is obviously very dangerous. We can also draw some comparisons to the position of the Federalists back in 1812, which is why they became a sectional party. Calhoun continues, South Carolina, from her climate, situation, and peculiar institutions, is and must ever be wholly dependent upon agriculture and commerce, not only for her prosperity, but for her very existence as a state, because the valuable crops of her soil are among the very few that can be cultivated, with any profit from slave labor.

So he comes out and says it directly. There are very few forms of industry that are economical with the institution of slavery. And that is why South Carolina is a commodities producer. This is why they are very invested in cotton. It's because it's one of the few high-profit industries that is conducive with slave labor. Now, we might very well remember Thomas Jefferson's image of having a tiger by the tail in relation to

the institution of slavery. John C. Calhoun is saying we have to have some way of economic or economic order. organization in this particular region because what else will we do with the chattels here? Now, this is a bigger question than a modern humanitarian might initially think of. Let's say that the question on the table is abolition, which is what the modern encounter with this matter, we'll certainly first think of. What will the Freeman do in South Carolina? John C. Calhoun says, we don't have manufacturing down here. What else are they going to do? What other economic system works for us? We would need a total change in our basic economy down here.

need a massive switchover in our capital investment and such. They don't have a labor economy. They have an agricultural economy. He mentions commerce, that is, imports and exports. The exports of the commodities of the state, the imports of manufactured goods they do not produce. So he frames it as an existential crisis? What will become of the African-American population? What will the free population of South Carolina do if their mode of life is made uneconomical? This has no easy answer, and there is certainly no proposal that's being made to them at this point. Now, this is in connection with the industrial economy, the industrial way of of life that existed at this point in history. Observers of mill towns in New England,

in New York, in Pennsylvania, write about the condition of the laboring people. These are mostly Irish immigrants at that time. They live in very crowded conditions. They work very long hours. They don't have any labor regulations so far as age or infirmity. Indeed, there is no provision for people who sicken in these mill towns or are injured at work. There is no provision for those people. Their living standards are extremely low. And this was occasion for Southern writers to contrast the industrial conditions of the time with Southern slavery. And their contrast is extremely interesting. In Southern slavery, the major busy times of the year are planting and harvest, where they're working very long hours. There is very little respite. You have to get

the crop off the field before it spoils. You have to package it and send it to market. But there are long periods of the year, the winter, the summer, where there isn't very much to do. In addition, the regulations and laws concerning slavery are such that someone who sickens in service in slavery is provided for. Their lives are the responsibility of their owners, and their owners have a major investment in their recovery. That's not to say that everyone could afford medical attention for their slaves, but they had a major interest in the recovery of their slaves

because they could not hire someone off the boat from Ireland to take the position of the slave for a slave, a dollar a day or whatever the wage was. A slave that was maimed on the job, permanently injured and disabled, lost his value as a slave, but was provided for because of the laws regulating slavery. You could not turn that slave out to fend on his own resources. This wasn't tolerated in the South. And it was also against the rule of slavery. A slave that was too sick to work, a slave that had lost a limb in service or was otherwise debilitated, was provided for. There was no such provision in American industry, or indeed anywhere where you saw industry developing. If you

lost your arm in the machinery of the mill where you worked, then you would hope that your family cared enough about you that they wouldn't let you starve to death. There was no provision for you. There was no workman's compensation. If you died on the job, there was no provision for you. It was a very different world, and this led some writers like George Fitzhue to talk about the relative humanity of slavery as opposed to industrial labor in northern cities. That's a very interesting aspect here. to refer to a previous lesson in our series, the lifestyle of slaves in the South was something that none of us can well imagine, but I'm not trying to conjure horrors in your imagination here. Most slaves lived in close proximity with their owners. It was only a minority. of slaves in the South. Typically, the slaves that lived in the largest estates, the special

elite planters of the South that owned large numbers of slaves, they may not interact with their slaves so often, but most slave owners lived with smaller groups of slaves, and they lived in very close proximity with them. The norm in Southern slavery was these people ate together. They lived under the same roof together. They worked side by side together. Now, this is not the case on the Gone with the Wind plantation of our imaginations. But we must remember that that is a special variety of slavery.

These are some of the richest people in North America. And they have, they form a special. faction, a special leadership class in the South. They're very important for a number of reasons. They are also the people who can afford doctors when their slaves get sick and are most likely among all slave owners to procure doctors and obstetricians and whatever else. But they are a minority in the institution of slavery. Most people who own slaves, in very close proximity with them for their entire lives. That is the norm. That is not at all the norm with factory owners, with mill owners in the north. And so this is an interesting contrast,

and Calhoun does bring that up. So in 1828, we see the South Carolina exposition and protest where these particular states in the Deep South, which do not see any potential advantage from internal improvements are making their statement. This becomes kind of the seat of what becomes later the Democratic Party. In 1828, we see the election of Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson runs against John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. Adams is running for a second term. Once again, Adams has electoral votes from New England. And some of the New York's electoral votes. And I also believe New Jersey voted for John Quincy Adams. Andrew Jackson sweeps the rest of the country. So it's a landslide in 28. The slogans at the time

are the tariff of abominations and the corrupt bargain allegedly made between Henry Clay and Adams. The corrupt bargain has has its own interesting story. You remember John Randolph of Roanoke is calling out Clay in the house about his dealmaking with Adams. Clay challenges Randolph to a duel over those accusations defending his honor that he's not a corrupt backroom dealer and such. they have a duel. John Randolph of Roanoke deliberately shoots into the air, does not aim at Clay. Clay does shoot to kill, but he misses John Randolph. And that's the inconclusive duel. But Clay does have some revenge on John Randolph. John Randolph is this very strange character. He never marries. He's very devoted to his dogs. He brings them to Washington, D.C. He takes them onto the floor of Congress, and Clay, as a parting shot against Randolph, passes a rule in the House prohibiting dogs from the House of Representatives. So kind of pointedly denying Randolph his canine companions, just kind of funny.

But in 28, we see the formation of the coalition that comes to be the Democratic Party. So we see the deterioration of the so-called national Republicans. They don't really have a party organization, but it's kind of a one-party phase. It doesn't really represent clear ideas about. policy. It seems to be more animated by personalities in that phase. The historian Glendon Van Dusen, who wrote a very valuable book about the Jacksonian era, he says it was a coalition of entrepreneurs, mechanics, laborers, and small farmers against an eastern establishment, like a business establishment, bigger businesses, bigger merchant interests, the financial interests,

especially the Bank of the United States, the second bank, and also an older landed class. So Van Dusen says that the Jackson Coalition, it has a lot of support in cities, laboring people and the like, has support with small businessmen, has a lot of support with small farmers, the yeomen of the west, of the south, who carry their estates for Jackson. Adams and his coalition, they represent the establishment. They also represent what becomes the Whig Party, which is headed by Clay, advocating for the protective tariffs, advocating for the National Bank, Internal Improvements, Policies. And Adams does fail in 28, and Jackson is brought in.

So Jackson's sweep, it's outside of these establishment areas, there is a very bitter campaign in journalism. And this is the typical feature of presidential campaigns of the time. A declared candidate for president did not openly campaign for office. Instead, he brought in surrogates in journalism to campaign in his stead. The surrogates that Adams and Jackson conscripted for their causes, they were extremely bitter in their attacks on the different candidates. Jackson's circumstances of his marriage, his several combats and duels,

his lack of a formal education, all of these things are discussed in the establishment press, and Jackson's wife is attacked very bitterly in the press. This sends Jackson's wife certainly into a kind of depression during the campaign, and she does die. Jackson is very bitter about this, that Adams' supporters, presumably with his his nod, at least according to Jackson, he blames Adams personally for this.

He says that this resulted in his wife's early death. So his wife does die just a couple of months before his inauguration. And Jackson attends the inauguration in mourning. He is dressed in black. there is a widespread expectation here that Jackson will use the executive role against the 1828 tariff. When Jackson shows up for his inauguration, there is a huge number of people that come from the back country to attend Jackson's inauguration. This is a very spirited showing of Jackson's supporters. They pour into Washington, D.C. to celebrate his inauguration.

And the establishment press goes, they lose their cool over Jackson's supporters. They say, well, Jackson, he never went to college, you know. He never had even a high school education. He was self-educated for the most part and then tutored by a lawyer for the bar. He did pass the bar and does serve as a lawyer and also a federal judge before his political career. They point to Jackson's supporters and they say, look at all these dirt farmers. Look at all these pioneers. Look at all these unsophisticated people who are going to come in here and they're going to rip down the sophisticated administrative apparatus.

from our highly educated former president, John Quincy Adams. He has vision. He has education. He has experience and so on. And now we have these country bumpkins who are coming in here to rip it all down. And so they make fun of Jackson's inauguration, especially his inauguration party, where his supporters come into the White House to celebrate. are climbing up on the furniture and ripping the curtains off the windows and such, trying to get a view of their hero. They make a wreck of the White House. It's misbranded as a riot in the press. The Eastern Press, Jackson's Press, or Adams's Press, I should say. They call it the reign of

King mob, and they mock Jackson and his less sophisticated supporters. But Jackson is taking a very interesting line when he comes into the executive mansion. He is very subdued. He is in mourning for his wife. There's a curious episode of Jackson's journey towards his inauguration. Fannie Trollope, the mother of the novelist Anthony Trollope. She's traveling through America at the time that Jackson is elected. She's actually on a riverboat on the Ohio River, and she's stayed for a few weeks in Cincinnati.

She writes a very interesting account of all of this. It's a very delightful book. It's called the Domestic Manners of the Americans, and it's her travel log through America. Andrew Jackson comes aboard Fannie Trollope's Riverboat in Cincinnati, Ohio, and she meets him and watches his interaction with others. She says that he is very sober, very gentlemanly, he looks very driven. She notes that he's dressed in black, and she records of a funny encounter with a keelboat man on the Ohio, a deck hand, a rough fellow, a riverman. This young fellow, he meets Andrew Jackson. He doesn't introduce himself, but he walks up and he shakes the president elects hand.

And he says, are you Andrew Jackson? And he says, yes, I am. the deck hand, he says, I thought you was dead. And Jackson says, no, I am alive, thanks to God. And the deck hand says, well, is it your wife that was dead? And Jackson, of course, blanches and looks down and says, yes, she has just recently died. And the deck hand says, I thought it was one of you. But Fannie Trollope records that interaction, which I think is funny.

Jackson takes his oath of office and he gives his inaugural address. I'll conclude with some quotes here from his inaugural address by way of wrapping up. No one really knows what Jackson will propose for policy for his administration when he takes the oath of office. He is not campaigning. He's not traveling the country, giving speeches, making proposals. He has journalists that are doing that in his stead. They're his surrogates. But everyone is waiting for Jackson to make his statement about what he proposes to do in his administration.

And he says several very interesting things at this juncture. He says, In administration of the laws of Congress, I shall keep steadily in view. the limitations as well as the extent of the executive power, trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority. That's kind of interesting in retrospect because he's known to be a very powerful and willful executive. But he begins his inaugural address by talking about the limitations of executive authority. He says,

in such matters, or such measures as I may be called on to pursue in regard to the rights of the separate states, I hope to be animated by a proper respect for those sovereign members of the Union, taking care not to confound the powers they have reserved to themselves with those they have granted to the Confederation. Now, that's a very interesting choice of words, he refers to the general government as a confederation, emphasizing with the term, the equal sovereign powers of the states, which is what confederation means. He makes mention of their reserve powers, which we have no way of knowing if this was any nod towards Calhoun's exposition. It's interesting to note,

John C. Calhoun is Andrew Jackson's vice president in his first term. They're not running together. It's not really working that way at this stage, but he is his vice president. So Jackson may have taken some interest in Calhoun's statements up to this point. He does make allusion to the same principles Calhoun mentioned. He says, the management of the public revenue is among the most delicate and important trusts in ours, and it will, of course, demand no inconsiderable share of my official solicitude. Advantage must result from strict economy. He goes on to say his goal is to extinguish the national debt, which he says is incompatible with real independence. This is one of Jackson's most notable achievements as president. He is the only executive

to retire the national debt. So this is something he makes point of mentioning in his initial inaugural speech, and he does fulfill that promise. He says that he intends to curtail public and private profligacy and corruption. He says that there should be specific appropriations of public money and accountability for public officers. This is in response to a major outcry of concern among Jackson's faction in the lead-up to his election about, widespread corruption in the Adams administration. In the post office, in the treasury, there have been an awful lot of federal patronage up to this point, a major expansion in federal offices, and Jackson's supporters were quite taken with reports of sinecure sorts of positions

where jobs would be handed out to political functionaries who were not expected to do very much in their capacities in the government. They read novels while they're supposed to be on duty, embezzle funds or are otherwise corrupted by private interests. these kinds of stories are circulating widely in the press that supports Andrew Jackson. Jackson promises investigations and accountability on these grounds. And indeed, he begins a major audit of the civil service, which he puts his postmaster general in charge of, among other things. The postmaster general has a very important office in that, He presides over the largest section of the Civil Service at the time.

About tariffs, which no doubt everyone was waiting to hear word about, Jackson promises compromise between the sections in the union. He doesn't say much beyond that, and there were those that expected him to condemn the 28 tariff of abominations. They proved to be disappointed, and we will return to that in a later episode. Jackson says standing armies are dangerous to free governments in time of peace, and he promises to keep the military subordinate to the civil power. Indeed, Andrew Jackson was always an advocate of the volunteer militia over the professional army, though he had reasons not to be in the Creek War, where his volunteer militia were frequently mutinous,

and he was unable to adequately provide for them for vittles and everything. he faced down several mutinies in Alabama during the Creek War until the regular army actually arrives. And that's how he wins his great victory at Horseshoe Bend, incidentally. But he was still always a major outspoken advocate over the volunteer force raised in time of war, the militia, over the standing army. So in that respect, he has a lot in common with anti-federalist concerns back at the founding era. He says also his sincere and constant desire is to observe towards the Indian tribes a just and liberal policy and to give that humane and considerate attention to their rights and wants, which is consistent with the habits of our government and the feelings of our people.

A very interesting reference, even at this very early stage, to the widespread humanitarian concerns of American citizens towards the Indian nations. No doubt we have many in the audience who would immediately think of Andrew Jackson in relation to the military expulsion of several Eastern tribes at a later date, the famous Indian Removal Act, and so on. We will talk of that, though it's not our main focus here, I'll mention it later on in the career of Andrew Jackson. That is my overview of Jackson's election and inauguration. We have lots of, lots more very exciting elements to come. in the Jackson administration. It is such a pivotal time in the history of sectional conflict

that I'll be devoting several more episodes to this. We have a number of incredible statesmen in Congress at this time. There is a major debate in Congress about the nature of the Union during the Jackson administration. And of course, there's also the nullification crime. crisis to cover, which greatly concerns the nature of reserve powers of the states and also the national authority assertions that Andrew Jackson later makes in his career. So Jackson is a really extraordinary time in our presidential politics and we'll have much more to save him in future episodes. But that's what I have for you all tonight. Thanks a lot for having me. Excellent. Excellent. Thank you so much. I can't wait to hear more about the Jackson

administration. The probably, what would you say? Before FDR, the closest thing we had to a true executive borderline king. Yeah. A, a, uh, a, uh, a very willful executive, a man with a vision for the country, and it remains a very influential vision, even though most of what he contended for is kind of off the table these days. It's a really remarkable achievement, and he remains one of my favorite figures. Well, remind everybody how they can support your work and buy your books. Indeed. You can find my work at www.tallmanbooks.com. I've mentioned a couple of episodes that I do have books about. If you want to learn more about Jackson's early career, I have a biography of Chief Red Eagle and the Creek War of Alabama that you can find on my website. that outlines Jackson's success in the Creek War.

Much concerns Jackson and his Creek opponents in Alabama. I also have the reign of Andrew Jackson by Frederick Aug, part of the Chronicles of America series, which you can also find at Tallmanbooks.com. Thank you very much, Mr. Bagby. Until we talk again. My pleasure. Thank you.