Andrew Jackson vs. John Quincy Adams: The Birth of American Political Warfare | The American Story | Ep 13

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal.
So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:21)
Up from payment of $45 for three months, $90 for six months, or $180 for 12 month plan required, $15 per month equivalent, taxes and fees extra, initial plan term only, greater than 50 gigabytes flow when network is busy, see terms.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:35)
By 1806, John Quincy Adams had already served under George Washington as ambassador to Holland, then under his own father as ambassador to Prussia. Now elected by the Massachusetts state legislature, he's a US. Senator.
And just to keep things interesting, he's taken on a new gig as a professor of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard.
Adams is 39 years old, he finds himself in somewhat of a transition phase in his already prolific career. He can see the writing on the wall. He's way too independent minded for his own good. Federalists put him in the US. Senate, but he backs many of President Jefferson's policies, even when they clash with his party's line. Massachusetts is about to vote him out, but John Quincy Adams is all about principles over politics, Constitution over convenience. He's really never been much of a party man. His life as a Senator and Professor could hardly contrast more with the life of Andrew Jackson, who at the very same time, 1,100 miles west in Kentucky, is getting ready to shoot a man.
The frontier had its own code of honor. Words carry weight and are often answered with bullets. Jackson has been publicly insulted by a man named Charles Dickinson, who accused him of going back on a horse racing bet. It escalates when Dickinson insults Jackson's wife, Rachel, questioning her honor in ways that hit too close to home. Jackson, ever the hothead, demands a duel. When whispers reach him that Dickinson might skip town, Jackson snarls to a friend.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:24)
It will be in vain, for I'll follow him over land and sea.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:30)
Seven o'clock in the morning, May 30th, 1806 Jackson and Dickinson face each other. Twenty-four feet apart, pistols loaded.
Jackson playing it cool, or maybe strategic. Let's Dickinson fire first. The shot cracks the air, slamming into Jackson's chest, lodging near his heart. Blood begins to soak his shirt, running down into his boot. But Jackson steadies himself, levels his pistol, click. The hammer catches halfway, re-cocks, aims again, and fires. Dickinson is struck in the abdomen, and crumples to the ground. By sundown, he's dead. Jackson walks away.
That bullet remained buried in his chest for the rest of his life. Later, he boasts to a friend.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:28)
If he had shot me through the brain, sir, I should still have killed him.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:33)
It would not be Jackson's last duel, nor the last time he would take a bullet in one. Violence shadowed his entire life. The statesman, John Quincy Adams, and the duelist, Andrew Jackson, both born in the same year, 1767
Two sides of the same wild American coin, one modeled by books and diplomacy, the other by war and frontier grit. These two men are on a collision course, moving slowly but inevitably toward an election that will redefine power, politics, and the presidency itself.

**SPEAKER_5** (4:13)
This is the American story, The Beginnings. Adapted from the book of the same title by David Barton and Tim Barton.
Episode 13, The Birth of American Political Warfare.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:33)
John Quincy Adams grew up with the weight of the Republic pressing on his small shoulders when his father was sent to Europe as a diplomat during the Revolutionary War. 10-year-old John Quincy went with him and served as his father's secretary. There he learned diplomacy before he learned how to shave.
He didn't really have a typical childhood. Expectations were very high. In a letter from his mother Abigail written to him when he first went to Europe with his dad, she wrote, You have constantly been upon my heart and mind.

**SPEAKER_6** (5:06)
Great learning and superior abilities, should you ever possess them, will be of little value and small estimation, unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity are added to them. Adhere to those religious sentiments and principles which were early instilled into your mind, and remember that you are accountable to your maker for all your words and actions.

**SPEAKER_3** (5:31)
Young Adams became something of a prodigy.
By his teenage years, he spoke eight languages and translated for diplomats. By adulthood, he had studied across Europe and then at Harvard, where he graduated second in his class. He trained as a lawyer. He served in diplomatic post under George Washington, who said this about him.