It may be hard to believe, but in 1830 Jackson called for limiting the President to only one term. That’s right, Jackson urged Congress to amend the constitution making him ineligible to run again in 1832. Boy, how that would have changed history. Jackson voiced concerns that given the current constitutional process and nature of the parties “founded on sectional interests”, each election would naturally find its way to the House of Representatives the way it did in 1824. It was a sacrifice that Jackson seemed willing to make in order to take that power away from Congress, but it was a sacrifice that was unlikely to come to fruition with the next elections less than 2 years away. In this post, I will attempt to share some insight into why Jackson might make such a proposal. It has much to do with his rival John Quincy Adams and a potential resurgence of the old status quo.
In Jackson's first State of the Union address he called for abolishing the electoral college and suggested that while Congress is at it, they should limit the "limit the service of the Chief Magistrate to a single term of either 4 or 6 years". In 1830, after reiterating his concerns about the electoral college, Jackson came back to his idea of term limits for the presidency. This probably drew some eye-rolls from Congress since there was already talk of him running again in 1832 against Henry Clay. But, Jackson was clear, he was recommending to Congress "some restrictions upon the re-eligibility of that officer".
To understand why Jackson would make such an arrangement, we need to look back to the 1824 election when Jackson lost to John Quincy Adams on what he believed to be a 'Corrupt Bargain' between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams. Despite, winning a majority in the popular vote, neither Jackson nor his opponent John Quincy Adams was able to gain a majority in the electoral college, so the election went to the House of Representatives where the Speaker of the House Henry Clay's influence helped get Adams elected. After Adams took office, he appointed Clay as Secretary of State. Of special interest here, is that both Jackson and Adams were in the same Democratic-Republican party at the time. Prior to 1824, the Democratic-Republican Party had won 4 consecutive presidential elections. George Washington was unaffiliated, and John Adams was of the Federalist party. By 1824, the Federalist party had collapsed, and for the first time provided no candidate for presidency. It was clear to everyone that there was no party-system in 1824, when the Democratic-Republicans who held 88.7% of the seats bestowed the presidency on John Quincy Adams. Jackson and his followers immediately denounced it as a "corrupt bargain" and began an antagonistic campaign before Adams even took office.
To say that Jackson was angry, is an over-statement. His blood was boiling, and as these words demonstrate, he was determined never to let one party over-ride the will of the people again. In a previous post, I dug deep into Jackson’s plan to abolish the electoral college, and here I will explore his recommendation to limit the presidency to one-term. Like abolishing the electoral college, Jackson's intent was not to minimize the value of proportional representation among the states but to avoid one party from gaining a stranglehold of power on the nation and using it to obtain the executive branch as well. After all, Jackson could imagine Adams becoming president for no other reason, but to maintain the status quo of the Democratic-Republican party. Jackson warned that unless there was change to the election process, the way things were each successive election would end up being decided by the House of Representatives like it was in 1824. Jackson explained, that given the size of our country, we are bound to have parties that are founded upon sectional interests, and thus many candidates for the presidency. In order to win in the electoral college, one candidate must receive a majority, else the election is sent to the House of Representatives. Things were different back then. Like I said, in 1824 the Democratic Republican Party was in full control, and by 1828 it was splintering into several factions. There was no 2-party system, and there were no party conventions, and no restrictions on how many candidates could be from the same party. Because of this it was unlikely for any one candidate to win in the electoral college, and like Jackson pointed out it would end up in the House of Representatives. Thus, a winning strategy for the majority party in the House of Representatives was to run multiple candidates, and then coalesce the votes within the House around the one candidate they felt best represented their party. In 1824, there were four candidates and they were all from the same party, guaranteeing that they could the status quo (and stop Jackson from becoming president).
And now, in 1830 there was again talk of John Quincy Adams running in 1832. With both John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay gearing up for the election, it would be sure to spread out the electoral votes. The supporters of Jackson currently held a majority in the house, but upcoming elections could change that before 1832. The potential existed for the Anti-Jacksonians to gain enough seats in the house, create a toss-up in the electoral college and steal the presidency. To Jackson, this would be nothing less than thwarting the will of the people. Thus to safeguard our liberty, it was important to make amends and remove this temptation from our system. Jackson proposed that along with an amendment to abolish the electoral college, there also be an amendment to render the president ineligible after 1 term of service. This would mean that Jackson himself, could not run again for president, but it would also mean that John Quincy Adams would be ineligible as well. It was a self-sacrifice that Jackson was willing to make to in order that the "appointment" of president "may as far as possible be placed beyond the reach of any improper influences". It was a noble gesture, but one at the end of 1830, that Jackson must have known could not possibly be passed prior to the 1832 election.
Here is the full excerpt on the subject from Andrew Jackson's 1830 State of the Union".
"Liable as the Confederacy is, from its great extent, to parties founded upon sectional interests, and to a corresponding multiplication of candidates for the Presidency, the tendency of the constitutional reference to the House of Representatives is to devolve the election upon that body in almost every instance, and, what ever choice may then be made among the candidates thus presented to them, to swell the influence of particular interests to a degree inconsistent with the general good. The consequences of this feature of the Constitution appear far more threatening to the peace and integrity of the Union than any which I can conceive as likely to result from the simple legislative action of the Federal Government.
It was a leading object with the framers of the Constitution to keep as separate as possible the action of the legislative and executive branches of the Government. To secure this object nothing is more essential than to preserve the former from all temptations of private interest, and therefore so to direct the patronage of the latter as not to permit such temptations to be offered. Experience abundantly demonstrates that every precaution in this respect is a valuable safe-guard of liberty, and 1 which my reflections upon the tendencies of our system incline me to think should be made still stronger.
It was for this reason that, in connection with an amendment of the Constitution removing all intermediate agency in the choice of the President, I recommended some restrictions upon the re-eligibility of that officer and upon the tenure of offices generally. The reason still exists, and I renew the recommendation with an increased confidence that its adoption will strengthen those checks by which the Constitution designed to secure the independence of each department of the Government and promote the healthful and equitable administration of all the trusts which it has created.
The agent most likely to contravene this design of the Constitution is the Chief Magistrate. In order, particularly, that his appointment may as far as possible be placed beyond the reach of any improper influences; in order that he may approach the solemn responsibilities of the highest office in the gift of a free people uncommitted to any other course than the strict line of constitutional duty, and that the securities for this independence may be rendered as strong as the nature of power and the weakness of its possessor will admit, I can not too earnestly invite your attention to the propriety of promoting such an amendment of the Constitution as will render him ineligible after 1 term of service."Congress never did take any action on this, but 1832 was the first time National Party Conventions were held to decide on each party's nomination. The National Republican Party nominated Henry Clay, while Andrew Jackson represented the newly formed Jackson party. Jackson won 219 votes in the Electoral College to Henry Clay's 49, while John Floyd and William Writ grabbed just a handful each. Never again, would any candidate fail to receive a majority of the electoral college votes. We came close in the year 2000, when it took a month-long series of legal battles in the Supreme Court to reach a decision of Bush v. Gore that would end the recount. In 1830, the concern was that the Legislative branch of government had too much control over the presidential elections, but by the turn of the millennium the concern turned to the Judicial branch. Perhaps, it is just the ebb and flow of power between the three branches, or perhaps not.
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Second Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/second-annual-message-3 [Accessed 2 Mar. 2019].En.wikipedia.org. (2019). 18th United States Congress. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_United_States_Congress [Accessed 2 Mar. 2019].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). 1824 United States presidential election. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1824_United_States_presidential_election [Accessed 2 Mar. 2019].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). 1828 United States presidential election. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1828_United_States_presidential_election [Accessed 2 Mar. 2019].
Ushistory.org. (2019). The 1824 Election and the "Corrupt Bargain" [ushistory.org]. [online] Available at: http://www.ushistory.org/us/23d.asp [Accessed 2 Mar. 2019].
Wagner, D. (2019). 1829 Andrew Jackson - The Plan to Abolish the Electoral College. [online] Stateoftheunionhistory.com. Available at: http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2018/09/1829-andrew-jackson-plan-to-abolish.html [Accessed 2 Mar. 2019].
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