He was the target of the initial presidential assassination attempt

The first assassination attempt on an American president occurred on January 30, 1835. Jackson was leaving a congressional funeral conducted in the House chamber of the Capitol building when Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, approached him and fired one shot, but it missed Jackson.

Andrew Jackson, 67, confronted Lawrence and struck him multiple times with his walking cane out of rage. Lawrence was able to get a second loaded pistol out during the struggle, but when he pulled the trigger, it again shot incorrectly. The president was left unharmed but enraged and, as it turned out, paranoid after Jackson's aides successfully wrestled Lawrence away from him. It was eventually discovered that the likelihood of both guns being accidentally shot during the attempted murder was one in 125,000.

Andrew Jackson believed that Lawrence had been recruited by his Whig Party competitors to assassinate him despite the fact that Lawrence was probably a mentally unstable person with no connections to Jackson's political adversaries. Jackson's Democrats and the Whigs were at odds over his plan to abolish the Bank of the United States at the time. Martin Van Buren, his vice president, was likewise cautious and began to bring two loaded pistols with him when he went to the Senate.