Election campaigns
During the mid-1800s, election campaigns could be very exciting.
All white males over the age of 21, no matter the amount of land they owned, could now vote, and politicians actively worked to attract their support.
Politicians organized parades, rallies, and even barbeques in order to increase their popularity. At times violence could break out at such events, which often supplied free alcohol to supporters. Fights also occurred between supporters of opposing candidates at polling stations, which were sometimes located in saloons.
Stump speaking became increasingly used at such events during local elections. It was called stump speaking because candidates would speak on a raised platform, often no more than a tree stump, and address an audience during a campaign.
During the 1841 Tennessee gubernatorial campaign between James K. Polk and James Chamberlain, the two candidates would agree to stump speaking in a particular town on the same day. Residents usually gathered near the courthouse, town square, church, or in a large field to cheer their favorite candidate and jeer the other.
Presidential candidates, on the other hand, generally did not appear in public during the campaign. Electioneering or actively campaigning in public could be associated with manipulating voters and was seen as unbecoming of a future president. Instead some candidates, such as Andrew Jackson during the 1828 presidential election, would write letters to newspapers detailing their qualifications for the office.
Prior to this period presidential candidates were very cautious about revealing their stance on a particular issue. Such practices could be viewed as catering to the whims of voters and generally was considered unfitting of a president. Instead candidates mostly engaged in personal attacks against one another with voters being left to decide between the two based primarily upon ideas about their character.
By the end of the Jacksonian era, however, these practices gradually became less acceptable as national issues divided more and more Americans. Many voters demanded to know a candidate’s political policies.
Mudslinging, or condemning a political opponent, was very widespread. During the 1828 presidential election, Andrew Jackson charged John Quincy Adams with being an elitist, politically corrupt, and said that his wife, Louisa Catherine Adams, was born out of wedlock (which was not true).
Adams charged Jackson with being a gambler, uneducated, and that he and his wife, Rachel Donelson Jackson, had been illegally married.
Candidates publicized their good character as a means of countering the attacks from political opponents. In an effort to connect with the common man , Andrew Jackson was referred to as “Old Hickory” in order to remind voters about his military accomplishments as a war hero and his life on the frontier.
Advertisements such as political buttons, songs, and slogans allowed voters to show their support for a particular candidate. The slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too,” taken from the victory of General William Henry Harrison at the Battle of Tippecanoe during the Mexican American War and from his Vice President John Tyler, was very popular in the 1840 presidential election.
During the mid-1800s voter indifference, fraud, and intimidation were common. Some voters did not participate in elections because of religious beliefs. Others voted for a candidate solely in exchange for political favors and were not genuinely interested in the issues of the day.
Voter registration laws did not exist and some candidates cheated by using illegal immigrants to vote, having an individual vote more than once, stuffing the ballot box, or openly paying for votes. Despite these practices, voter participation during the Jacksonian era increased as the public became increasingly involved and entertained by elections of the day.
Age of Jackson >> Tennessee's Presidents >>
Sponsored by: National Endowment for the Humanities