and a “convicted adulteress” whose ungoverned passions made her unfit to be First Lady of a “Christian nation.”
The Adams strategy backfired. Many voters did agree that only a man who
strictly obeyed the law was fit to be president and that Jackson’s “passionate”
nature disqualified him, but many others criticized Adams for making Jackson’s private life a public issue. Some claimed that Adams’s rigid legalism left no room for privacy or for local notions of justice. Whatever the legality of their marriage, Andrew and Rachel Jackson had lived as models of fidelity for nearly 40 years.
Their neighbors had long ago forgiven whatever transgressions they may have com-
mitted. Thus, on the one hand, Jackson’s supporters accused the Adams campaign
of a gross violation of privacy and honor. On the other, they defended Jackson’s
marriage—and his duels, brawls, executions, and unauthorized military forays—as
a triumph of what was right and just over what was narrowly legal. The attempt to brand Jackson as a lawless man, in fact, enhanced his image as a melodramatic
hero who battled shrewd, unscrupulous, legalistic enemies by drawing on his natu-
ral nobility and force of will.
The campaign caught the public imagination. Voter turnout was double what it
had been in 1824, totaling 56.3 percent. Jackson won with 56 percent of the popu-
lar vote (a landslide unmatched until the 20th century) and with a margin of 178 to 83 in electoral votes. Adams carried New England, Delaware, and most of
Maryland, and took 16 of New York’s 36 electoral votes. Jackson carried every
other state. It was a clear triumph of democracy over genteel statesmanship, of limited government over expansive nationalism, and of the South and the West over
Future Boundar
NH
y
VT 8
ME
7
A-8
OREGON
J-1
COUNTRY
MA
NY
15
J-20
UNORGANIZED
A-16
RI
MI TERR.
TERRITORY
4
PA
CT
NJ
28
OH
8
8
IL
IN
16
DE
3
5
VA
3
MO
KY
24
MD A-6
3
14
J-5
NC