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Donald Trump Meets Andrew Jackson: Don’t Let History Repeat Itself

By Amanda Gardner
Published on: 21:16 PST, Jun 8, 2016

If you think Donald Trump is the answer to all of America’s problems, now is the time to brush up on your U.S. history. The last time a right-wing anti-establishment candidate made it to the White House, the result was a division in the United States that ran so deeply civil war broke out. If you are seriously considering voting for Donald Trump, just remember: those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

The year was 1828, and John Quincy Adams was president of the United States. Adams, the country’s sixth president and son of former President John Adams, came from a New England patrician family that had been part of the nation’s political elite since the time of the American Revolution. In fact, he and the five presidents that preceded him had all come from either his family or the Virginia planter aristocracy.

By 1828, the United States had changed greatly since the Revolution. It had grown substantially in area thanks to westward expansion in the Ohio Valley, Jefferson’s deal with France that secured the Louisiana Purchase’s 827,000 square miles for a mere $15 million, and the Adams-Onís Treaty between the United States and Spain that added Florida to the new country’s domain.

The rapidly expanding borders of the United States resulted in friction between the New Englanders and those living in the South and West. As more territory was added to the South, the elite in New England became concerned about losing political power to southern slaveholders. Meanwhile, the southern aristocracy became concerned about the New England elite putting an end to slavery, which would lead to economic disaster for the South.

At the time of the 1828 presidential election, the country was deeply divided. As a result, John Quincy Adams failed to win a second term, and Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States. The new President Jackson, although born in the Carolinas, claimed Tennessee as his home, which, coupled with his propensity for brawls and duels, gave him the reputation of a wild man of the frontier. Jackson’s presidency would usher in a new political era in America.

Prior to his presidency, Andrew Jackson had served his country in the military, rising to the rank of major general in the U.S. Army, fighting first in the American Revolution and, most famously, in the War of 1812’s Battle of New Orleans. It was his 1815 victory over British forces that earned him the nickname “Old Hickory” and made him a national hero. Andrew Jackson went on to fight in the First Seminole War and led the negotiations that resulted in the U.S. acquisition of Florida.

During the late 1700s he began his political career, which would intertwine with his military career for more than 20 years. Andrew Jackson served his home state as the first U.S. Representative from Tennessee and as a U.S. Senator. In 1801, Jackson became a colonel in the Tennessee militia, which took him back into military life, where he remained until then-President James Monroe appointed him the first U.S. military governor of Florida in 1821. Following that appointment, Andrew Jackson returned to the U.S. Senate until his first presidential bid in 1824.

It was during the 1824 election that the political breakdown began. At that time, the Democratic-Republican party was the only national party in the country. The party’s caucus nominated William H. Crawford, but Andrew Jackson’s supporters claimed the caucus “ignored the voice of the people,” as written in Robert A. Rutland’s book, The Democrats.

Refusing to accept the nomination, Jackson’s supporters held their own convention, during which, as no surprise, they nominated Jackson. When the popular votes were tallied, Andrew Jackson had defeated Crawford, Henry Clay, and Adams, but the electoral votes were split, giving no candidate a majority, so the House of Representatives chose the president — the House chose Adams.

Andrew Jackson’s simultaneous victory and defeat not only made him determined to win in 1828, but it also made him determined to change the American political landscape. Over the next four years, Jackson built a persona meant to separate him from the country’s political past. He projected himself as a man of the people and his newly formed party as the party of the people. Jackson also spread what can only be called lies about the Adams’ administration, claiming it was both extravagant and corrupt.

In 1828, Andrew Jackson’s hard work paid off. He won the presidential election in a landslide, and he was inaugurated on March 4, 1829. It did not take long for issues that were dividing America to take center stage, and one of the first was religion. In the book Empires Apart: A History of American and Russian Imperialism, author Brian Landers recounts one of the fear-mongering claims of the time.

“Rumours circulated, such as the claim that the Pope intended to send millions of immigrants to take over the country, and would then relocate the Vatican to the Mississippi Valley.”

This rumor, coupled with a bestselling book titled Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery in Montreal, spread anti-Catholicism through the United States like wildfire. Andrew Jackson not only had a complete disregard for America’s Catholics, but he was also a vehement supporter of slavery and of the Indian Removal Act, which led to the Trail of Tears and the deaths of thousands of Cherokee.

Paradoxically, Andrew Jackson, who had believed Adams was corrupt, is actually the source of the spoils system in American politics. He is the one who first rewarded his cronies with public offices, with the expectation that they would work to ensure his reelection in 1832. Jackson also became a fan of the presidential veto and the executive order and demanded investigations into executive branch departments. Jackson’s many unsupported actions gave him his other nickname “King Andrew” and led to a Congressional censure.

To again quote Landers, during Andrew Jackson’s presidency, “politics dumbed down.” Today, we see the same trend. Donald Trump’s speeches may inspire some, but to many, they are meaningless rambles. Trump, by spreading a distrust of Mexicans (of whom the majority are Catholic) has also targeted one specific ethnic group, just as Jackson targeted the Native Americans.

Donald Trump’s litters his speeches with “I,” “me” and “my.” Comments like “The beauty of me is that I’m very rich” or “I will build a great wall…I will make Mexico pay for that wall” abound. Donald Trump’s campaign is not about America; it’s all about Donald Trump. King Donald, perhaps?

An understanding of history is always important, but today, an understanding of history could save us from making a decision that will divide us. Events that occurred during Andrew Jackson’s presidency, which he won by pitting Americans against Americans, started the country on the path toward the Civil War. If you don’t want to see America go down that road again, now is the time to stop history from repeating itself.

[Photos by Ethan Miller and Hulton Archive/Getty Images]

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