Not a Ragged Mob; The Inauguration of 1829
On March 4, 1829, many in the crowd filling the city thought that Providence was smiling on the country in general and on Washington, D.C., in particular, for t...
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1. Margaret Bayard Smith, The First Forty Years of Washington Society in the Family Letters of Margaret Bayard Smith, ed. Gaillard Hunt (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1965), 295.

2. Senator James Hamilton Jr. of South Carolina to Martin Van Buren, March 5, 1829, Martin Van Buren Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., microfilm edition.

3. William Seale, The President’s House: A History, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society, 2001), 1: 178–79; Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom, 1822–1832 (New York: Harper and Row, 1981), 177; Larry Gragg, “The Reign of King Mob, 1829,” History Today 28 (April 1978): 240; Edwin A. Miles, “The First People’s Inaugural—1829,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 37 (Fall 1978): 305.

4. Hamilton to Van Buren, March 5, 1829, Van Buren Papers, microfilm.

5. B. O. Tayloe to Robert W. Carter, January 19, 1825, Carter Family Papers, Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.

6. Andrew Jackson to John Coffee, January 5, 1825, Jackson to Coffee January 6, 1825, Jackson to James Buchanan, July 15, 1827, Jackson to Carter Beverly, June 5, 1827, all in The Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, ed. John Spencer Bassett, 7 vols. (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1927–28), 3:272, 273, 355, 373–74; John C. Calhoun to John McLean, September 3, 1827, The Papers of John C. Calhoun, ed. W. Edwin Hemphill and Clyde N. Wilson, 28 vols. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1959–2003), 10:306–7; Benjamin Estill to James Barbour, Tyler Family Scrapbook, Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library.

7. Jackson to William B. Lewis, February 7, 1825, Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:276.

8. Clay perhaps detested Jackson more, the enmity stretching back to Clay’s leading the House fight to have Jackson censured for his unauthorized attack on Spanish posts in Florida in 1818. See David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, Old Hickory’s War: Andrew Jackson and the Quest for Empire (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1996; reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003), 214–18. Further, Clay had no real knowledge of where Jackson stood on such important national issues as the Bank of the United States, internal improvements, and a protective tariff, all of which were crucial in Clay’s view to the proper development of the country. For the election of 1824, see Henry Clay to Francis Preston Blair, January 8, 1825, The Papers of Henry Clay, ed. James F. Hopkins and Mary W. M. Hargreaves, 11 vols. (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1959–92), 4:9–10; Everett S. Brown, “The Presidential Election of 1824–1825,” Political Science Quarterly 40 (September 1925): 399–401.

9. Jackson to Lewis, February 14, 1825, Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:276.

10. John Campbell to David Campbell, January 28, 1825, Campbell Family Papers, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

11. Clay to George William Featherstonhaugh, January 21, 1825, and Clay to Francis Preston Blair, January 29, 1825, Papers of Henry Clay, ed. Hopkins and Hargreaves, 4:34, 47.

12. William H. Crawford had been chosen by the Republican caucus in 1824, a mark of distinction in previous elections but a harmful designation in the new political climate of participatory democracy.

13. Merrill D. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 128; John Campbell to James Campbell, February 1, 1825, Campbell Family Papers; Gurdon S. Mumford to James Monroe, February 25, 1825, James Monroe Papers, Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library; Brown, “Presidential Election of 1824–1825,” 398; Tom W. Smith, “The First Straw? A Study of the Origins of Election Polls,” Public Opinion Quarterly 54 (Spring 1990): 23–24.

14. Jackson to James Buchanan, June 25, 1825, Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:287.

15. Robert P. Hay, “John Fitzgerald: Presidential Image-Maker for Andrew Jackson in 1823,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly 42 (1983): 143–46; Peterson, Great Triumvirate, 147.

16. Thomas Dobyns to Robert W. Carter, February 4, 1828, Carter Family Papers; Daniel Feller, The Jacksonian Promise: America, 1815–1840 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), 74; Glyndon Van Deusen, The Jacksonian Era, 1828–1848 (New York: Harper & Row, 1959), 29; Henry Lee to Jackson, July 1, 1826, and Arthur P. Hayne to Jackson, July 20, 1826, Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:305–6.

17. Jackson to Samuel Swartwout, March 5, 1825, Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:280–81.

18. Seale, President’s House, 1:166, 170; Nathaniel Macon to Bartlet Yancey, February 8, 1818, Bartlet Yancey Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.

19. G. S. Altmore to John H. Bryan, January 14, 1826, John Heritage Bryan Papers, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.; Charles Cocke to Thomas W. Gilmer, November 19, 1827, Tyler Family Scrapbook.

20. Post Office Account on Newspapers, May 4–November 3, 1825, Jackson to John Coffee, July 23, 1825, Jackson to Tennessee Legislature, October 12, 1825, Jackson to Stephen Simpson, November 23, 1825, James K. Polk to Jackson, April 3, 1826, all in Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:288, 293–97, 6:483–84; Edward Pessen, Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics (Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press, 1969; rev. ed., 1979), 165, 175; Peterson, Great Triumvirate, 143.

21. Jackson to Calhoun, July 26, 1826, Jackson to John Coffee, September 25, 1826, Sam Houston to Jackson, January 5, 1827, Jackson to Richard K. Call, May 3, 1829, all in Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:307, 314, 330, 354–55; Thomas E. Waggamon to ?, November 29, 1828, Tyler Family Scrapbook. When Jackson and Rachel Donelson Robards married, they assumed that her abusive first husband had obtained a divorce, only to learn several years later that this was not the case. When Lewis Robards finally received his divorce, by then on the grounds of bigamy and adultery, the Jacksons quietly married again. These events had occurred more than 30 years earlier on a frontier with more relaxed attitudes toward such matters. The attacks on Rachel Jackson, a pious, elderly matron of impeccable character, seemed beyond the bounds of decency to many people, especially to her husband who had killed to protect her virtue.

22. John Campbell to David Campbell, January 12, 1825, Campbell Family Papers; John Eaton to Jackson, February 8, 1827, James Hamilton Jr. to Jackson, February 16, 1827, James K. Polk to Jackson, April 15, 1828, John Eaton to Jackson, August 21, 1828, all in Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:342, 344, 428–29, 6:499.

23. Jackson to Edmund P. Gaines, December 4, 1828, Andrew Jackson Papers, Library of Congress, microfilm edition; Butler Maury to James Iredell, December 8, 1828, James Iredell Sr. and Jr. Papers, Duke University Library.

24. Clay to David Lee Child, November 20, 1828, Henry Clay Papers, Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, N.C.

25. Committee of House and Senate to Jackson, December 4, 1828, Jackson Papers, microfilm.

26. Central Committee of Correspondence of Pennsylvania to Jackson, December 9, 1828, Jackson Papers, microfilm.

27. James K. Polk to Jackson, December 1, 1828, Correspondence of Jackson, ed. Bassett, 3:447–49.

28. The best account of Rachel Jackson’s final days is in Remini, Jackson and Course of American Freedom, 150–53.

29. Ibid., 157; Miles, “First People’s Inaugural,” 295.

30. Jackson delayed his trip until Monday so as not to anger anyone by traveling on the Christian Sabbath. In fact, a prominent Washington minister admonished him against such a practice, though he did not receive the letter until after he had commenced his journey. Ezra Stiles Ely to Jackson, January 28, 1829, Jackson Papers, microfilm.

31. Emily Donelson to her mother, Mary Donelson, January 29, 1829, in Pauline Wilcox Burke, Emily Donelson of Tennessee, ed. Jonathan M. Atkins (Richmond, Va.: Garrett and Massie, 1941; reprint, Knoxville: University Press of Tennessee, 2001), 124; Remini, Jackson and Course of American Freedom, 158.

32. Paul F. Boller Jr., Presidential Inaugurations: From Washington’s Election to George W. Bush’s Gala (New York: Harcourt, 2001), 33–35; Seale, President’s House, 1:76; Remini, Jackson and Course of American Freedom, 158–59.

33. Quoted in John F. Marszalek, The Petticoat Affair: Manners, Mutiny, and Sex in Andrew Jackson’s White House (New York: Free Press, 1997), 52.

34. Miles, “First People’s Inaugural,” 297; John Marshall to Thomas Marshall, March 20, 1829, John Marshall Papers, Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library.

35. Donald B. Cole, The Presidency of Andrew Jackson (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993), 6–7.

36. For interesting discussions of the social and political ramifications of what was also dubbed the “Petticoat Affair,” see Marszalek, Petticoat Affair; Catherine Allgor, Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2000).

37. C. C. Cambreleng to Van Buren, March 1, 1829, Van Buren Papers, microfilm; Remini, Jackson and Course of American Freedom, 163–65; Miles, “First People’s Inaugural,” 297–98.

38. Niles’ Weekly Register, March 21, 1829, 49; Benjamin Perley Poore, Perley’s Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, 1886), 1:92–98; Boller, Presidential Inaugurations, 222–23; Remini, Jackson and Course of American Freedom, 172; Seale, President’s House, 1:176; Amos Kendall, Autobiography of Amos Kendall, ed. William Stickney (New York: Peter Smith, 1949), 308.

39. Henry Brown Jr. to Henry Brown, March 24, 1829, Brown, Coulter, Tucker Papers, Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library.

40. Perley Poore, Perley’s Reminiscences, 1:92; Remini, Jackson and Course of American Freedom, 172–73; Van Deusen, Jacksonian Era, 30; Frances Brown to Henry Brown, 1828, Frances Brown to Henry Brown, February 8, 1829, Brown, Coulter, Tucker Papers.

41. Andrew Jackson Donelson was Rachel Jackson’s nephew, but the distinction meant little to Andrew Jackson, who had always treated the young man as a son. Donelson served as Jackson’s private secretary and his wife, Emily, was hostess in the White House, at least until the Eaton Affair temporarily estranged the couple from the president.

42. Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society, 293.

43. Quoted in ibid., 293–94.

44. Ibid., 295.

45. Ibid., 174–76; Perley Poore, Perley’s Reminiscences, 94; Gragg, “Reign of King Mob,” 239; Van Deusen, Jacksonian Era, 31.

46. Daniel Webster to Achsah Pollard, March 4, 1829, The Papers of Daniel Webster, ed. Charles M. Wiltse and Harold D. Moser, 14 vols. (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1974–89), 2:405.

47. George R. Gilmer, Sketches of Some of the Settlers of Upper Georgia (New York: D. Appleton and Company; reprint, Americus, Ga.: Americus Book Company, 1926), 244–45.

48. Seale, President’s House, 1:179.

49. Boller, Presidential Inaugurations, 162.

50. Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society, 295.

51. Niles’ Weekly Register, March 7, 1829, 28.

52. Washington City Chronicle, March 7, 1829.

53. Washington Daily National Intelligencer, March 6, 1829.

54. Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society, 296.