1828 was a comeback election for Andrew Jackson.

Having lost to what he described as a ‘corrupt bargain’ in 1824, he became determined to win both the popular vote and the majority electoral college vote, defeating John Quincy Adams this time around. This election would be a tough one for Jackson and his family, though. Not only was Jackson running against the man who had defeated him four years prior, he was running against an anti-Jackson campaign, one that was fueled by rumors put out against him in newspapers and pamphlets.

Jackson had one enemy in particular that sought to destroy both him and his wife’s reputation. In his monthly pamphlet, Truth’s Advocate and Monthly Anti-Jackson Expositor, Charles Hammond published over three hundred pages attacking Andrew Jackson’s politics, personhood, as well as family.

The pamphlet reads, “we deem it proper that the public should be acquainted with the offences of Gen. Jackson, against morals, law, and decency, the commission of which, spreads over his whole life from the seduction of Mrs. Robards to the slander of Mr. Clay” . Hammond’s jab is a reference to the rumor that Andrew Jackson had relations with his now wife Rachel Jackson while she was previously married to Lewis Robards. Calling Rachel Jackson by the last name of another man acted as an innate attack on the Jackson family values, and in turn, Andrew Jackson’s values as a presidential candidate as well as a man.

 Truth’s Advocate and Monthly Anti-Jackson Expositor (June 1828), 235

 

Further, in a piece titled Groanings within the pamphlet, the legitimacy of Andrew and Rachel Jackson’s relationship is again challenged, this time blatantly accusing the couple of engaging in adultery. The pamphlet reads,

Truth’s Advocate and Monthly Anti-Jackson Expostior (June 1828), 235

“And then about that Mrs. Robards affair–

That too, they’ve told Adams and Clay–

Had it never leaked out, I’ll make bold to de-

clare,

‘Twould not be known to this day.”

 

By means of combating these attacks on his values, Andrew Jackson positioned himself amid the everyman. With his nickname, Old Hickory, Jackson made himself seem familiar to the American people, something the anti-Jackson campaign had been trying to further him away from. For example, on the ‘Jackson Ticket’, Jackson’s image is replaced by a tree, signifying him as sturdy, rooted, and down to Earth.

 Andrew Jackson, “Jackson ticket. ‘Firm united let us be, rallying round our Hickory tree’” (1828), courtesy Library of Congress

Much like the mudslinging in the 1828 election, modern day elections are no stranger to this kind of abuse. Most recently, as seen in the presidential debate between President Trump and Vice President Harris, name calling and rumors still manage to find a place on the election stage. During the debate, both members used the word ‘weak’, among other things, to describe one another. In addition, moderators questioned President Trump’s on his comments about Harris’s identification as a Black woman. It is interesting how in both the 1828 and 2024 election, women are both at the forefront of criticism.

While 1828 was one of the first elections that political opponents engaged in mudslinging, it is clear that even almost two hundred years later, this same sort of smearing remains, such messiness characterizing what we understand today as simply: politics. In this day and age, though, pamphlets are pushed to the side in exchange for viral twitter rants, as social media created a brand new platform for politicians to engage in mudslinging.