Seth Kaller, Inc.

Two former presidents—James Madison and James Monroe—were selected to serve as electors for John Quincy Adams in Virginia in a desperate attempt to prevent the election of Andrew Jackson. Both Madison and Monroe declined to serve, preferring electoral neutrality, and Jackson went on to win in Virginia by a landslide.

[ANDREW JACKSON]. Printed Document, The Virginia Address, anti-Jackson convention address to the people of Virginia, 1828. 8 pp.

Inventory #27022       Price: $400

Excerpts
“A Convention of Delegates, appointed by Public Meetings in the several Counties of the Commonwealth of Virginia, for the purpose of adopting measures to prevent the election of General Jackson to the Presidency, assembled, to the number of 220, in the Capitol, in the city of Richmond, on Tuesday the 8th of January. The Convention, being organized, proceeded to the discharge of the interesting duty for which it had assembled, and continued to sit, from day to day, deliberating on, and maturing, the requisite measures, until Saturday, the 12th, when the Committee appointed to prepare an Address, (comprising several of the ablest and most eminent men in the State,) reported the following Address and Resolutions, which, have been read through, were unanimously adopted....” (p1)

“We feared the most pernicious consequences from the election of General Jackson, and we have come to consult about the means of averting this calamity from our country. We believe that the only means of effecting this great object is the re-election of the present Chief Magistrate, and have formed an Electoral Ticket for that purpose, which we earnestly recommend to the support of the People of Virginia.

“We know that many of you strongly disapprove some of the leading measures of the present Administration,—have not confidence in it, and would be exceedingly unwilling to sanction the principles of construction applied by the present Chief Magistrate to the Constitution of the United States. But we do not perceive, in these circumstances, any sufficient reason for withholding your support from the ticket we have recommended.” (p1)

“We are left to the alternative of choosing between Jackson and Adams; and however we may differ in opinion as to the merits of the latter, we heartily concur in giving him decided preference over his competitor.” (p1)

“The opinions of Mr. Adams, and his recommendations to Congress, in relation to internal improvement, are unpopular in Virginia, and have been urged against him with much earnestness, and perhaps with some effect, even though it cannot, with any color of reason, be contended, that his competitor, Gen. Jackson, is not exposed to precisely the same objection.” (p4)

“while we yield our confidence to the present Chief Magistrate in very different degrees, we are unanimous and unhesitating in the opinion that Andrew Jackson is altogether unfit for the Presidency, and that his election would be eminently dangerous...we must, in the most solemn manner, protest against a claim to civil rule, founded exclusively upon military renown....” (p4)

“We appeal to the People of Virginia, to say what there is in the present party politics, so alluring on the part of the Opposition, so frightful on the part of the Administration, as to seduce them to the fraternal embrace, or drive them under the protection, of such a man as Andrew Jackson?” (p7)

“1. Resolved, That JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, of Massachusetts, be recommended to the People of the United States, as a fit person to be supported for the Office of President.” (p7)

“8. Resolved, That at least thirty thousand copies of the proceedings and address of this Convention be printed and circulated, under the direction of the Central Committee, through the several counties and corporations of the Commonwealth.” (p8)

Historical Background
The election of 1828 was largely a rematch of the 1824 presidential election with incumbent President John Quincy Adams of the National Republican Party again facing Andrew Jackson of the Democratic Party. Both parties were new, each formed out of factions within the Democratic-Republican Party that had produced four presidential candidates in 1824. Because Andrew Jackson had won substantially more popular votes and carried more states than Adams in that election, he was shocked when the House of Representatives elected Adams as president in a contingent election on February 9, 1825. When Adams offered fellow presidential candidate Henry Clay the position of Secretary of State, Jackson and his supporters charged Adams and Clay with making a “corrupt bargain” to give Adams the Presidency.

Four years later, this charge formed a central part of the presidential campaign of 1828. Within months of the 1824 presidential election, the Tennessee legislature re-nominated Andrew Jackson for president, and other opponents of Adams soon rallied around Jackson and became known as the Jacksonian Democrats. Sitting Vice President John C. Calhoun became Jackson’s vice-presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, President Adams and his supporters, including Secretary of State Henry Clay and Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, became known as the National Republicans. Because there were no national nominating conventions, President Adams chose his Secretary of the Treasury Richard Rush of Pennsylvania as his vice-presidential running mate.

In Virginia, delegates opposed to Jackson convened in Richmond in January 1828 to try to persuade fellow Virginians to support Adams. When they selected former Presidents James Madison and James Monroe as members of the state electoral ticket for Adams, supporters of Jackson were outraged and charged that their names had been used without permission. Ultimately, both Madison and Monroe declined to serve as electors, preferring instead to remain neutral in the contest. Due to a delay in the official notification, Presidents Madison and Monroe did not decline to serve until late February. Their silence led to speculation by newspapers on both sides.[1]

The campaign was marked by vicious personal attacks on both candidates. In response to Jackson’s charge of a “corrupt bargain,” supporters of Adams publicized the scandal that when Jackson married Rachel Donelson Robards in 1791, her divorce from her husband was not finalized, forcing them to remarry quietly in 1794. A series of “Coffin Handbills” also attacked Jackson for his execution of army deserters, massacres of Native American villages, and penchant for duels.

In the election held from October 31 to December 2, 1828, Jackson won a resounding victory with 55.5 percent of the popular vote to Adams’s 44 percent. Jackson carried 15 states with 178 electoral votes, while Adams won 9 states with 83 electoral votes. Jackson captured Virginia’s 24 electoral votes by an even greater margin, winning 69 percent of the popular vote to 31 percent for Adams. Jackson carried all of the states of the South and West and also carried Pennsylvania and won a majority of the electoral votes in a divided New York. Adams carried all the states of New England and the mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.

Soon after the election, supporters of Jackson formally organized the Democratic Party, though Vice President John C. Calhoun declined to join, instead forming the Nullifier Party. Democrats and Nullifiers remained aligned for several years until they divided over states’ rights in Jackson’s first term. Opponents of Jackson gradually coalesced into the Whig Party by 1833.