Coffin Handbills

Part of a Coffin Handbill.

The Coffin Handbills were a series of pamphlets attacking Andrew Jackson during the 1828 United States presidential election. Jackson was running against incumbent John Quincy Adams, who decided to attack Jackson's ethics and moral character.

Content of the First Handbill

Andrew Jackson had a reputation as a national hero, because of his leadership during the Battle of New Orleans that was the final action of the War of 1812. His glory was turned against him when John Binns, editor and publisher of the Democratic Press in Philadelphia, published the first “coffin handbill”. The poster showcased six black coffins at the top of the pamphlet and claimed that Jackson had ordered the execution of six militiamen during the Creek War. Another twelve coffins were displayed further down the page to represent regular soldiers and Indians who were put to death under Jackson’s command. This refers to the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, when Jackson attacked the Red Stick fortification. Roughly 800 of the 1000 Red Stick warriors were killed in the battle. There also was a drawing of Jackson assaulting and stabbing Samuel L Jackson “in the streets of Nashville.”

Accusations of Adultery in a Handbill

A pamphlet published at a later time accused Jackson of committing adultery with his wife. Jackson’s wife Rachel had applied for a divorce from a previous marriage in 1790. According to Jackson, he and his wife got married in 1791 and they realized two years later that her divorce was not granted until 1793. This does mean that Jackson had been “married” to another man’s wife for a couple of years. January of 1794, Jackson and Rachel were legally married in a ceremony. Jackson was furious about the attacks and got further involved by writing to newspaper editors giving them guidelines on how to counter the attacks. Jackson’s wife Rachel suffered a heart attack and died before Jackson’s inauguration. He blamed his political enemies and tensions for her death.

1824 and 1828 US Presidential Election Background

The 1824 Presidential election was the start of tensions leading up to the 1828 election. At the time four men were running for office: John Quincy Adams, William Harris Crawford, Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson. Once the election came around, Jackson led in both popular vote and electoral vote; however all the men lacked a majority in the Electoral College. The House of Representatives was to cast one vote to decide the election by the state’s delegation. Henry Clay was eliminated from the vote, he moved his House influence to support John Quincy Adams. John Quincy Adams landed the presidency with the majority in the Electoral College and appointed Henry Clay as Secretary of State. People objected in the country and Jackson’s supporters called it a “corrupt bargain.”

The controversial results of the 1824 carried over to one of the nastiest elections in our history. A rematch between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson occurred for the 1828 election. Newspaper articles and political cartoons was the center of the attacks against each man.

Andrew Jackson won the election of 1828 and the bitterness of the campaign resonated for years. When Jackson arrived in Washington DC he was to pay the customary courtesy call on the outgoing president, but he refused to go. John Quincy Adams responded by refusing to go to the inauguration of Andrew Jackson.

The Two Way Attacks

After the “Coffin Handbill” first appeared, Jackson had his “Nashville Committee” of supporters answer the charge. They accused John Quincy Adams of serving as the Czar’s pimp while he was the American ambassador to Russia. It claimed that he had procured an American girl to sexually serve the Russian Czar. John Quincy Adams was attacked for allegedly having charged the government to have a billiard table put in the White House. Adams did spend a fair amount of time playing billiards, but he did pay for the table with his own funds.

Today

Twenty-seven different versions of the Coffin Handbills have been located to date. They all have different numbers of coffins and story configurations accusing Jackson of murder and violence. The result of allegations, the term "Coffin Handbill" became synonymous with a smear attack on political candidates.

See also

• Andrew Jackson presidential campaign, 1828

References

• Heidler, David Stephen and Heidler, Jeanne T. "Creek War," in Encyclopedia of the War of 1812, Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, 1997. ISBN 978-0-87436-968-7
• Meacham, Jon. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. New York: Random House Trade Paperback Edition, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8129-7346-4