The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power, 1815-1848

6. The Corrupt Bargain

88 6 The Corrupt Bargain I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson president. He is one of the most unfit men I know of for such a place. He has very little respect for law or constitutions. . . . He is a dangerous man. Thomas Jefferson The people have a right to call for any man’s services in a republican government, and when they do, it is the duty of the individual to yield his services to that call. Andrew Jackson The Judas of the West has closed the contract and will receive the thirty pieces of silver—his end will be the same. Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson climbed back into the political ring in 1822 as much out of spite as anything else. He hated two leading politicians whose supporters were already mobilizing forces for the 1824 presidential race. Henry Clay and William Crawford had provoked his fury by criticizing his behavior during his second invasion of Spanish Florida. He especially The Corrupt Bargain 89 loathed Crawford and often quipped that he would rather “support the Devil” as president.¹ He vowed to do all in his power to bar either man from the White House, and the best way to do that was to snatch the presidency for himself. As for his other likely rivals, Jackson respected both John Quincy Adams and John Calhoun, although these feelings would drastically change during the campaign. He admired Adams’s “talents, virtue, and integrity” and thought “him a man of the first rate mind of any in America . . . and . . . never doubted of his attachment to our republican government.” He “always believed Mr. Calhoun to be a high minded and honourable man, possessing independence and virtue. . . . The nation will be well governed by Mr. Calhoun or Mr. Adams.”² Jackson’s political allies openly declared in June 1822 that they would nominate him for president. To this Jackson replied, “I have never been a candidate for office; I never will. The people have a right to call for any man’s services in a republican government, and when they do, it is the duty of the individual to yield his services to that call.”³ This statement was as politically correct as it was false. Anyone openly ambitious for public office would automatically disqualify himself in the minds of most voters. Actually, Jackson had run not once but twice to be Tennessee ’s militia general; he had been appointed the state’s representative and senator to Congress. The “people’s call” came on July 20, 1822, when Tennessee’s assembly unanimously resolved to nominate Jackson. With the next presidential election more than two years off, this was a political gesture rather than an official nomination. The intent was to dramatically bring Old Hickory back in the national mind. Jackson responded appropriately, with gratitude and coy noncommitment. The nomination shook everyone who either contemplated running or supported someone else. To avoid making a crowded, overheated race more so, Monroe tried to abort the Jackson run by offering him the post of minister to the newly independent nation of Mexico. Jackson turned it down.4 Had Jackson taken that bait, his volatility, insensitivity , racism, and aggressiveness might well have provoked a war with Mexico a quarter century before it actually erupted. The most powerful argument against electing Jackson president was his notion of power. His critics condemned him for being tyrannical by nature, a quality illustrated by his repeated violations of the Constitu- The Corrupt Bargain 90 tion and law whenever he held power. To dilute these charges, Jackson and his supporters marketed him as a virtuous and courageous defender of republican government against those who would usurp it. And the best way to prove this was to get him into a prominent public office. In August 1822 three of his of his political coterie, John Eaton, William Lewis, and Sam Houston, arranged for Tennessee’s assembly to elect Jackson to the U.S. Senate. Old Hickory accepted the call. Jackson and his entourage reached Washington on December 3, 1823, just before Congress reconvened. Two days later “the Hero of New Orleans” entered the Senate and took his seat amid the thunderous applause of his friends and even many of his foes. The changes in Jackson since his first brief appearance in this body more than a quarter century earlier were mostly physical. His leonine swept-back dark red hair had turned...