Distribution of votes in the 1828 US presidential election

The 1828 US presidential election was the first election to feature the Democratic Party, which was represented by Andrew Jackson, who competed against the incumbent President John Quincy Adams of the new National Republican Party (not to be confused with the current Republican Party). Both candidates had competed with one another in the previous race (as members of the same party), however both political and personal rifts, particularly between Jackson and Adams, caused the Democratic-Republican Party to split into two new major parties. This election is often seen as a pre-cursor to the current election system in the US, as it was the first time that a significant number of US citizens voted between two candidates from two major parties.

Results

As in the 1824 election, Jackson received the highest number of both popular and electoral votes, however this time he received over fifty percent of both, and was automatically named president. Overall, Jackson received 56 percent of the popular votes, compared to Adams' 43.6 percent, and this translated to more than 68 percent of the electoral votes for Jackson. This meant that John Quincy Adams became just the second incumbent US President to fail in his attempt to gain re-election (the first was his father, John Adams, in 1800).

Tariff of 1828

Adams' cabinet introduced the Tariff of 1828, which placed heavy tariffs on European imports to the US, in order to protect businesses in the northern states. While these measures benefited industry in the north, the tariffs angered businessmen in the south, who relied on cheap imports of raw materials from Europe. Jackson was able to use this resentment to garner support in the agricultural southern and western states, even though he personally supported the bill. US tariff policies would go on to dominate US politics over the next few decades, and even led to the resignation of Jackson's Vice President, John C. Colhoun, in 1832.