Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/27

 JACKSON

JACKSOX

Jackson's action was sustained on every point by an average vote of 98 to o.l. On Feb. 11, 1819, lie left Washington and visited Baltimore, Philadel- phia and New York, and at the latter place was presented by the common council with the free- dom of the citj' in a gold box, and he was every- where hailed as the savior of the south. On Feb. 23, 1819, Secretary Adams and the Spanish minis- ter signed the treaty of the session of Florida to the United States, and after delays, vexatious to the administration, it was ratified, October, 1820, and on Feb. 22, 1821. the ratification was con- firmed by the congress of the United States, with four votes against it in the senate and thirty in the house. The army was reduced to a peace footing against the advice of General Jackson, and on May 31, 1821, he resigned his com- mission in the army, and was appointed by President Monroe governor of Florida Terri- tory'. He took up liis residence with his fam- ily at Pensacola, and organized the territorial government and planned for a period of great commercial prosperity, in which lie was disap- pointed. He found the climate and conditions of his surroundings in Florida uncongenial to liis fam- ily, and he resolved to resign and return to the Hermitage, where he arrived, Nov. 3, 1821. In 1822 he was appointed U.S. senator from Tennes- see to succeed Senator Williams, whose term ex- pired. March 4, 1823. At a meeting held in Phila- delphia to name delegates to the state convention to be held at Harrisburg, George M. Dallas pro- posed the name of Andrew Jackson for President. At the convention held at Harrisburg, Pa., March 4. 1824. after the regular caucus of the Democratic representatives in congress had nominated Craw- ford and Gallatin. Andrew Jackson was nomi- nateel a candidate for President, with John C. Calhoun for Vice-President, only one delegate, Jonathan Roberts, voted against him. In the election in November, 1824, he received 155,872 popular and 99 electoi'al votes, and was the choice of eleven states; against 105.320 popular and 84 electoral votes for John Quincy Adams and Nathan Sanford, and the choice of seven states, and 46,587 popular and 37 electoral votes for Henry Clay and Nathaniel Macon, the choice of three states. There being no constitutional choice, the house of representatives elected John Quincy Adams President, and John C. Callioun. Vice- President. In the U.S. senate Jackson advocated a judicious tariff, and favored internal improve- ments and paying Lafayette for his services to the nation. In 1825 he was nominated by the legis- lature of Tennessee as a candidate for President in 1828; in May. 1826, the nomination was endoreed at a public meeting in Pliiladtd]>hia. and in Novem- ber. 1826. in Georgia. In 1825 he resigned his seat in the U.S. senate, and in October, 1825, the

legislature elected Hugh Lawson White his suc- cessor. On Jan. 8, 1828. he visited New Orleans, and the occasion was made national, as many of the distant states sent delegations to the cele- bration held on the battle^eld of 1815, and with- out a formal national convention he was b}- state legislatures and mass meetings nominated for the Presidency, his platform being: oi)position to the administration of John Quincy Adams. The campaign was one of excessive bitterness and personality, and not only the character of Gen- eral Jackson, but even those of his wife and mother were assailed. The election resulted in Jackson's receiving 647,231 popular and 178 elec- toral votes, to 509,097 popular and 83 electoral votes for John Quincy Adams. John C. Calhoun for vice-president received 171 electoral votes, William Smith, of South Carolina, 7 electoral votes from Georgia, and Richard Rush, the candi- date on Mr. Adams's ticket, received 83 electoral votes. Thirteen states gave their undivided vote for Jackson; seven states gave Adams and Rush their undivided vote; New York gave Adams and Rush 16, and Jackson and Calhoun 20 votes; Maine gave one electoral vote to Jackson; Mary- land gave six votes to Adams and five to Jackson, and Georgia, while giving its undivided vote to Jackson, gave seven electoral votes to William Smith for vice-president, the only scattei-ed votes in the electoral college. Tennessee gave Adams and Rush less than 3000 votes, and in many of the towns every vote was cast for the Jackson and Calhoun electors. On Dec. 22, 1828, Mrs. Jackson died at the Hermitage, and when the news reached Nashville, a public banquet in Jackson's honor, planned for December 23, the anniversary of the night battle before New Orleans, was in course of preparation. The daj' was made one of mourning, all the places of business being closed. On Sunday, Jan. 18, 1829, President-elect Jackson left Nashville for Washington, by steamboat, down the Cumberland and up the Ohio to Pitts- burg. At all the landings the peoi^le turned out en masse, notably at Cincinnati and Pittsburg. He reached Washington Feb. 15, 1829, and stopped at the Indian Queen tavern. The populace of the west and south, as well as of the middle states, at once made Washington their 3Iecca, and by March 4 the city was crowded with guests as never before. In distributing his cabinet ap- pointments, he gave two to the north, two to the west, and two to the south. Martin Van Buren, of New York, was made secretary of state; Samuel G. Ingham, of Pennsylvania, secretary of the treasury; John H. Eaton, of Tennessee, secre- tary of war; John Branch, of North Carolina, secretary of the navy; John ^IcPherson Berrien, of Georgia, attorney-general: and William T. Barry, of Kentucky, postmaster-general. John