The Presidential Election 1828

By the 1820s, great changes were convulsing the country. New factories were opened, particularly in New England, and an urban working class was emerging. New states such as Ohio adopted the Constitution, which extended the vote to all white adult males. Expansion of the franchise still had far to go, since women and most free blacks were excluded, but the nation was gradually approaching universal white male suffrage. Against this background Andrew Jackson, an expansionist, opposed John Quincy Adams who as a diplomat had negotiated many key treaties. Jackson’s triumph reflected enduring sectional divisions in America. Adams won the old Federalist stronghold of New England and some mid-Atlantic states. However, Jackson dominated the South and the West, as well as Pennsylvania, and swept to victory, giving the country its first president from a state other than Virginia or Massachusetts.