Andrew Jackson’s Inauguration

From the many rash and careless remarks of General Jackson some readers have inferred that the General was not, at all times, master of his tongue.

Continuing Andrew Jackson Becomes President,
our selection from Life of Andrew Jackson by James Parton published in 1860. The selection is presented in five easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Andrew Jackson Becomes President.

Time: 1829
Place: Washington, DC

While General Jackson was receiving hundreds of visitors daily at his rooms in the Indian Queen Tavern, commonly styled the “Wigwam,” the White House, we are informed, was nearly deserted. Judge Joseph Story mentions, in one of his letters to his wife, that the “birth-night ball” (February 22d) was thinly attended this year. “Adams has no more favors to bestow, and he is now passed by with indifference by all the fair-weather friends. They are all ready to hail the rising sun. Never have I felt so forcibly the emptiness of public honors and public favor.” Eight years later there was a setting sun who was not” passed by with indifference” by friend or foe.

From the many rash and careless remarks of General Jackson some readers have inferred that the General was not, at all times, master of his tongue. Such an inference is incorrect. When it was his cue to be silent no man could keep his own counsel better. All Washington was busied, during these weeks, with conjectures as to the course of the President-elect, and, above all, as to his intentions with regard to appointments and removals. But all conjecturing was vain. Nothing was ascertained until he chose to reveal it. Daniel Webster wrote home just before the General’s arrival: “General Jackson will be here about February 15th. Nobody knows what he will do when he does come. Many letters are sent to him; he answers none of them. His friends here pretend to be very knowing; but, be assured, not one of them has any confidential communication from him. Great efforts are making to put him up to a general sweep as to all offices, springing from great doubt whether he is disposed to go it.”

A few days after General Jackson’s arrival, Webster resumed his observations upon the scene around him. “Of course,” said he, “the city is full of speculation and speculators. ‘A great multitude,’too many to be fed without a miracle, are already in the city, hungry for office. Especially, I learn, that the typo graphical corps is assembled in great force -— from New Hamp shire, our friend Hill; from Boston, Greene; from Connecticut, Norton; from New York, Noah; from Kentucky, Kendall; and from everywhere else, somebody else. So many friends ready to advise, and whose advice is so disinterested, make somewhat of a numerous council about the President-elect; and, if report be true, it is a council which only ‘ makes that darker which was dark enough before.’ For these reasons, or these with others, nothing is settled yet about the new Cabinet. I suppose Van Buren will be Secretary of State; but beyond that I do not think anything is yet determined.” This was written on February 19th.

General Jackson, meanwhile, so closely concealed his intentions that, as late as March 2nd, Webster still wrote home that nobody in Washington knew whether many or any changes in the subordinate offices of the Government would be made. “Probably,” he wrote, ” General Jackson will make some removals, but I think not a great many immediately. But we shall soon see.” Yes, we shall soon see.

The day of the inauguration was one of the brightest and balmiest of the spring. An eye-witness shall describe to us the memorable scene:

No one who was at Washington at the time of General Jackson’s inauguration is likely to forget that period to the day of his death. To us, who had witnessed the quiet and orderly period of the Adams Administration, it seemed as if half the nation had rushed at once into the capital. It was like the inundation of the northern barbarians into Rome, save that the tumultuous tide came in from a different point of the compass. The West and the South seemed to have precipitated themselves upon the North and overwhelmed it. On that memorable occasion you might tell a ‘Jackson man’ almost as far as you could see him. Their every motion seemed to cry out ‘Victory!’ Strange faces filled every public place, and every face seemed to bear defiance on its brow. It appeared to me that every Jackson editor in the country was on the spot. They swarmed, especially in the lobbies of the House, an expectant host, a sort of Praetorian band, which, having borne in upon their shields their idolized leader, claimed the reward of the hard-fought contest. His quarters were as sailed, surrounded, hemmed in, so that it was an achievement to get into his presence.

On the morning of the inauguration, the vicinity of the Capitol was like a great agitated sea; every avenue to the fateful spot was blocked up with people, insomuch that the legitimate pro cession which accompanied the President-elect could scarce make its way to the eastern portico, where the ceremony was to be per formed. To repress the crowd in front, a ship’s cable was stretched across about two-thirds of the way up the long flight of steps by which the Capitol is approached on that side, but it seemed, at times, as if even this would scarce prove sufficient to restrain the eagerness of the multitude, every man of whom seemed bent on the glory of shaking the President’s hand. Never can I forget the spectacle which presented itself on every side, nor the electrifying moment when the eager, expectant eyes of that vast and motley multitude caught sight of the tall and imposing form of their adored leader, as he came forth between the columns of the portico ; the color of the whole mass changed, as if by miracle; all hats were off at once, and the dark tint which usually pervades a mixed mass of men was turned, as by a magic wand, into the bright hue of ten thousand upturned and exultant human faces, radiant with sudden joy. The peal of shouting that arose rent the air and seemed to shake the very ground. But when the Chief Justice took his place and began the brief ceremony of ad ministering the oath of office, it quickly sank into comparative silence; and as the new President proceeded to read his inaugural address, the stillness gradually increased; but all efforts to hear him, beyond a brief space immediately around, were utterly vain.”

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