Dirty campaign: Anti-Andrew Jackson pamphlet stirs issue of militia executions

THIS JUST IN: If you think today’s political campaigns are dirty, take a look at the U.S. presidential campaign of 1828. Andrew Jackson was running against incumbent John Quincy Adams. Jackson’’s opponents published a series of handbills and pamphlets designed to smear Jackson’s reputation. They became known as the Coffin Handbills because the first ones raised the issue of Jackson’s role in having six militia men executed for desertion after the War of 1812. This pamphlet seeks to enrage voters about that issue. “These American citizens were inhumanly & illegally massacred,” the piece reads. This pamphlet is rebound in modern cloth. Other material in the Coffin Handbill series (though not in this collection) accused Jackson of adultery and called his mother a prostitute. Click the photo to enlarge it. To purchase this item, please call (727) 822-3278.