Adams Lost A Brutal Reelection Campaign To Andrew Jackson
One of the cruelest, dirtiest presidential campaigns in American history took place in 1828. Adams' wealthy upbringing made him appear "elitist," and Jackson supporters disseminated a rumor that Adams had given the Russian czar a young American woman in exchange for sexual favors while serving as ambassador. A Cincinnati newspaper questioned whether a convicted adulteress and her paramour spouse should be appointed to the highest positions in this free and Christian country after learning about Rachel Jackson's prior marriage due to Henry Clay's involvement in the campaign against her. Adams was humiliated.
The election signaled the emergence of Jacksonian democracy and the changeover to the second party system from the first. Many historians think that the election, by removing significant barriers to voting and establishing a stable two-party system, signaled the birth of modern American politics. Adams was the second president to lose the election after his father John Adams, and Jackson became the first president whose home state was neither Massachusetts nor Virginia. Adams was the first of three elected presidents—the other two were Benjamin Harrison in the late 19th century and Donald Trump in the early 21st century—to lose the popular vote in back-to-back elections. After winning the popular and electoral votes in the 1836 US presidential election, Martin Van Buren also lost the popular vote twice, in 1840 and 1848.
