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. The campaign featured multiple attacks on the character and personal history of both candidates. Many of the attacks were false.
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.[1] 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.[2] Another twelve coffins were displayed further down the page to represent regular soldiers and Indians who were put to death under Jackson's command.[3] 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.[4] There also was a drawing of Jackson assaulting and stabbing Samuel Jackson “in the streets of Nashville.”[5]
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 married in 1791 and they realized two years later that her divorce was not granted until 1793, meaning that Jackson had been “married” to another man's wife for two years. In January 1794, Jackson and Rachel were legally married in a ceremony.[6] The accusations greatly angered Jackson, which he responded to by writing to newspaper editors, suggesting how they should counter them. Jackson's wife Rachel suffered a heart attack and died before Jackson's inauguration. He blamed his political enemies and tensions for her death.[7]
A "Supplemental account of some of the bloody deeds of General Jackson", attributed to Virginia Congressman John Taliaferro, accused Jackson of "atrocious and unnatural acts"; such acts including slaughtering 1,000 unarmed Native Americans, taking a nap in the midst of their corpses, and eating a dozen of them for breakfast. The author went on to speculate about how Jackson might similarly treat American governors and Congressmen were he elected president.[8]
Tensions between Jackson and Adams had started with the 1824 presidential election, which was a four-way race between Jackson, Adams, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay. Jackson gained a plurality of both the popular vote and the electoral vote, but no candidate had an Electoral College majority. Adams eventually won the election in the House of Representatives by making a deal with Clay that Jackson supporters dubbed the "corrupt bargain."
As a result, the 1828 rematch between Jackson and Adams was unusually acrimonious. Newspaper articles and political cartoons were the center of the attacks against each man.[9] After Jackson's victory, 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 do so. John Quincy Adams responded by refusing to go to the inauguration of Andrew Jackson.[10]
After the “Coffin Handbill” first appeared, Jackson had his “Nashville Committee” of supporters answer the charge.[11] They accused John Quincy Adams of serving as the Czar's pimp while he was the American ambassador to Russia, claiming he had procured an American girl to sexually serve the Russian Czar. In fact, Adams, while Minister to Russia, had employed a young girl as a maid to his wife; the girl had written a letter which had been intercepted by the Russian Postal services. Alexander I had wished to meet the letter writer publicly at court, and Adams had obliged this wish.
Adams was also 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 had paid for the table with his own funds.[12] However, a bill for repairing the table had been accidentally included in the White House expense accounts.
Twenty-seven different versions of the Coffin Handbills have been located to date. All have different numbers of coffins and combinations of stories accusing Jackson of murder and violence.[13] Subsequently, the term "Coffin Handbill" became synonymous with a smear attack on political candidates.