Party People

BRIAN: America’s early tradition of mob violence instilled a fear of the people among the country’s political elite. Career politicians viewed the masses as dangerous, and they thought the government should be in the hands of what they called the natural aristocracy.

But that began to change in the 1820s when General Andrew Jackson rode into politics. He argued that the power of the government shouldn’t reside with politicians but with the people. Billing himself as a Washington outsider, the war hero catered to white male working class voters. Jackson humbly bowed to crowds, and his supporters threw massive rallies in his honor.

Jackson’s appeals to the working class helped them capture the White House in 1828. But outgoing president John Quincy Adams and his supporters feared the potential downfall of the republic. The reins of power, after all, would be in the hands of the uncouth masses. For proof, Jackson’s opponents looked no further than day 1 of his presidency and a legendary White House party.

HARRY WATSON: The inauguration of Andrew Jackson is one of the great pieces of American political folklore. It’s the sort of thing that if you don’t remember anything else about Andrew Jackson, you probably remember all the stories about the bash as the White House.

JASON OPAL: There was a huge crowd that came to see Andrew Jackson, this controversial popular champion, actually being sworn in, like is it actually going to happen kind of thing.

HARRY WATSON: My name is Harry Watson. I’m a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

JASON OPAL: My name is Jason Opal. I teach history at McGill University here in Montreal, Quebec, and I’m just finishing a book on Andrew Jackson.

HARRY WATSON: The inauguration was held on March 4, 1829. All the reports are that thousands upon thousands of people poured into the city. All social classes were represented, taking up all the available hotel rooms. They were sleeping in their wagons and everything else.

JASON OPAL: That day, people came in to see their great hero. They would frequently say, Jackson is a general. He’s on the field of battle for the people.

HARRY WATSON: And they all jammed into the area in front of the US capitol. He read his inaugural address, which almost nobody could hear.

JASON OPAL: He give a boring speech that’s very, very vague, and he rode a horse back to the White House down Pennsylvania Avenue.

HARRY WATSON: At the White House, the custom was to have a reception after the inauguration, and everyone expected that the people who would attend were people from the natural aristocracy– office holders, judges, congressmen, that sort of thing. And all those people did come. But it didn’t stop there.

JASON OPAL: A huge throng of people just went into the White House who had not been personally invited but who felt personally invited, because Andrew Jackson is their personal her. And that’s really the key– they feel a personal connection to him. And there’s a real electric energy between Jackson and the people.

HARRY WATSON: There was no guard to hold them back. There were no police. Nobody had planned for 20,000 people. And that sounds like an awful lot. It sounds like an exaggeration to me. But still, the crowd took over the house.

They all wanted to see him, of course, so they stood on the chairs and they ruined the upholstery and they tracked mud all over the carpets. The china crashed to the floor, the glasses crashed to the floor. And the people who were there said that poor President Jackson was almost squashed to death by the press of people trying to come in and shake his hand.

JASON OPAL: Jackson himself was a very frail person, fairly old man. He had terrible injuries, most of which were from duels, actually.

HARRY WATSON: And it was so bad that President Jackson had to be helped out, some say through a window, and hustled back to his hotel. And then the stewards, the people who were in charge of giving the party, had to carry the alcoholic punch out on the lawn so that the crowd would stream out there to get its free drinks and the house could finally be restored to order.

JASON OPAL: And this is much exaggerated. I think people say– one person said it’s kind of like the storming of the Bastille Prison or it’s like the French Revolution. No. Some carpet was damaged, and some furniture was damaged. Things got rowdy, but nothing too crazy. But the reason it becomes so significant is that some of Jackson’s opponents–

HARRY WATSON: Said oh my God. Civilization was teetering and on the verge of collapse. The rabble have really roused.

From then on, the enemies of populism– that is, the rule of the ordinary folks– have pointed to Jackson, and especially this chaotic party, as a demonstration that the popular will by itself is not the way to run anything.

JASON OPAL: But I think this is the whole thing in the larger conversation about populism– so what? So people went into the White House and had a good time. Then they went home, and the next day, they were hung over. So what? Are they really more powerful? This is why, to some extent, I’m skeptical of something that’s mostly about a style, how someone addresses you, and not how public resources are going to be used, how the government is actually going to function.

BRIAN: In the end, the republic didn’t collapse as Jackson’s opponents had feared. But at the same time, the people didn’t exactly rule the White House either. The white working class men who helped vote Jackson into office still faced economic difficulties in the years ahead. Governing on behalf of the masses, it turned out, wasn’t as clear cut as speaking for them.

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PETER: We had help on that story from Harry Watson, a historian at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He’s the author of Liberty and Power: the Politics of Jacksonian America. We also heard from historian Jason Opal at McGill University and author of the forthcoming book Avenging the People: Andrew Jackson, the Rule of Law, and the Ordeal of American Nationhood, 1760s to 1830.