Corrupt Bargain: How Andrew Jackson Drained the Swamp
Guest post by Rolf Lindgren
The former US President who most resembles Donald Trump is Andrew Jackson. Both were rough and tumble political brawlers who fought the swamp, ran for president three times, and won twice.
Their biggest similarity might be their claims of a rigged election and then vindication in the next election.
We all know President Trump said the 2020 election was stolen, was pooh-pooed by the “experts”, and then came back to win in 2024.
But did you know a very similar thing happened 200 years earlier with Andrew Jackson?
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Jackson lost the 1824 election in what he called the “Corrupt bargain”.
The star-studded election of 1824 was dubbed “War of the Giants” featuring presidential candidates Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, William Crawford and John Calhoun. Of these five, Crawford is the only one you’re probably not familiar with, but he was famous enough to have Crawford County, Wisconsin, named after him.
Calhoun dropped out and ran for Vice-President. Crawford suffered a stroke, which left him partially blind and paralyzed.
When the Electoral votes were counted, we had these results;
99 electoral votes for Jackson
84 for JQA
41 for Crawford
37 for Clay
No one had a majority.
Under the Constitution, the House of Representatives had to vote state-by-state delegation for one of the top three finishers. That meant Jackson, Adams, or Crawford. Clay was out and Crawford was disabled by a stroke.
So Adams cut a deal with Henry Clay. Clay directed his supporters in the House to vote for Adams, and President Adams would then make Clay the Secretary of State (which he did in 1825). Adams beat Jackson 13 states to seven, with Crawford winning four states. Jackson was outraged!
Andrew Jackson spent four years denouncing the corrupt bargain, and in 1828, he crushed Adams 178-83 to become the 7th President of the United States!
Part Two: How Andrew Jackson Drained the Swamp
It was early July in the summer of 1832. The US Congress had just voted to renew the charter of the National Bank, which was set to expire in 1836. A bank war was brewing just before the election of 1832, in which Senator Henry Clay was running against President Andrew Jackson.
According to President Jackson, the National Bank was a swamp-dwelling hydra-like monster with multiple tentacles. According to Henry Clay it was good for the economy.
The National Bank had a complicated history.
James Madison and Thomas Jefferson had argued against the first national bank in 1791. But President George Washington wanted the bank because he needed it to pay off the national debt from the Revolutionary War.
Then, in 1811, President James Madison allowed the bank to die just prior to the War of 1812 (sometimes called the Second War of Independence).
After the War of 1812, in 1815, Congress again passed a national bank bill. But President Madison vetoed it because it contained additional powers not found in the 1791 bank.
Then, in 1816, Congress passed another bank bill almost identical to the original 1791 bank bill. President Madison signed it because the federal government needed money to pay off debts from the War of 1812.
But by 1832, the national debt was far lower. President Andrew Jackson was a great crusader against corruption, very much like President Trump is today. President Jackson decided we didn’t need the national bank anymore, and on July 10, 1832, he delivered his veto message. Jackson said the bank was both unnecessary and unconstitutional.
Then, President Jackson crushed Henry Clay 219-49 in the fall of 1832 election.
And in January of 1835, President Jackson paid off the entire national debt, down to zero!
President Andrew Jackson had drained the swamp!
Interesting Historical Note – By coincidence, a madman named Richard Lawrence, who thought he was King Richard III of England, tried to assassinate Jackson on January 30, 1835. His gun misfired twice and then 67-year-old Jackson beat him with his cane. Bystander Davvy Crocket helped subdue the gunman. Lawrence was prosecuted by Francis Scott Key and found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Philosophical note on revolution:
Andrew Jackson ended our revolutionary & founding era with great success. The greatest economic boom in the history of the world ensued, and by the 1880s, we overtook Great Britain as the world’s largest economy.
In most revolutionary attempts, the military is defeated. When the military does succeed, massive debts ensue, and often the military takes over the government. Or sometimes the banking cartels take over the government. And sometimes a dictator takes over everything.
Our Founding Fathers led possibly the greatest revolution of all time. We avoided these fates in our first 250 years. But we need an army of Patriots to succeed for another 250 years if we want to match the glorious Roman Republic.
Rolf Lindgren is the Pints & Politics Director of the Republican Party of Dane County