A History of the American People

with their variety of objects and purposes, is infinitely distressing.' He had many such visitors' as a Mrs. Weedon, whosaid she had rent to pay and if she could not pay it this day, her landlord
threatened to distrain upon her furniture.' Of a visit from Mrs. Willis Anderson, whose husband
was serving ten years for mail robbery, he noted: I had refused [to help] this woman three times and she had nothing new to allege. I desired her not to come to me again.' Two weeks after the importunate Mrs. Anderson, Adams had a visit from a Mr. Arnold, who said he had been traveling and found himself in Washington without money. He would bemuch obliged' if the
President would provide him with the cash to get back to Massachusetts, which I declined.' There is no indication that President Adams had much time to use his Gambling Furniture. However, the administration papers were not slow in lashing back at Jackson. The National journal asserted:General Jackson's mother was a Common Prostitute, brought to this country by
British soldiers! She afterwards married a Mulatto Man, by whom she had several children, of
which number General Jackson is one!' Jackson burst into tears when he read this statement, but
he was still more upset by attacks on the validity of his marriage to Rachel. He swore he would
challenge to a duel, and kill, anyone he could identify being behind the rumors. He meant Clay
of course. (On his deathbed, Jackson said the two things he most regretted in his life were that I did not hang Calhoun and shoot Clay.') In fact, on a quite separate issue, Clay and Randolph did fight a duel on the Potomac banks, just where the National Airport now stands: neither was hurt but Clay's bullet went through Randolph's coat (he bought the Senator a new one). When Jackson got information that a private detective, an Englishman called Day, was nosing around Natchez and Nashville looking at marriage registers, he wrote to Sam Houston that, when he got information about Clay'ssecret movements,' he would proceed to his political and perhaps his actual destruction.' Clay was certainly warned by friends that gunmen were after him. Jackson went so far as to have ten prominent men in the Nashville area draw up a statement, which filled ten columns in the Telegraph, testifying that his marriage to Rachel was valid. That did not stop the administration producing a pamphlet which asked:Ought a convicted adulteress and her
paramour husband be placed in the highest offices in the land?' The Telegraph replied by
claiming that Mr. and Mrs Adams had lived in sin before them marriage and that the President
was an alcoholic and a sabbath-breaker.
The Presidential campaign of 1828 was also famous for the first appearance of the leak' and the campaign poster. Adams complained:I write few private letters ... I can never be sure of
writing a line which will not some day be published by friend or foe.' Anti-slavery New England
was regaled by a pamphlet entitled General Jackson's Negro Speculations, and his Traffic in
Human Flesh, Examined and Established by Positive Proof. Even more spectacular was the
notorious Coffin Handbill,' printed for circulation and display, under the headlineSome
Account of Some of the Bloody Deeds of General Jackson,' listing eighteen murders, victims of
duels or executions he had carried out, with accompanying coffins. Harriet Martineau related that
in England, where these accusations circulated and were generally believed, a schoolboy, asked
in class who killed Abel, replied, General JACKSON, Ma'am.’ Campaign badges and fancy party waistcoats had made their first appearance in 1824, but it was in i8z8 that the real razzmatazz began. Jackson's unofficial campaign manager was Amos Kendall (1789-1869), editor of the Argus of Western America, who in 1827 had switched from Clay to Jackson. Jackson had long been known to his troops as Old Hickory, as that wasthe hardest wood in
creation.' Kendall seized on this to set up a nationwide network of `Hickory Clubs.' Hickory trees
were planted in pro-Jackson districts in towns and cities and Hickory poles were erected in
villages; Hickory canes and sticks were sold to supporters and flourished at meetings. There