What Is The Role Of Political Change In The 1800's

The 1828 election was unlike any other before it; it introduced lots of things that evolved into what elections are like today, including economic and social changes, who can vote, how many people vote, how candidates portray themselves, and the different backgrounds of the candidates.

In the 1800’s, not many people could vote compared to today. In the elections before the 1828 election, the only ones that could vote were white males who were at least 21 years old, educated, and owned property. If you didn’t meet these qualifications, you couldn’t vote. These criteria changed in the 1828 election; most requirements got dropped, meaning that the majority of white men could vote. In turn, this raised the number of people who voted from 356,038
A significant change in the nation was population, there was a bigger population in general, but the western states gained more population and got more political power. Furthermore, there was universal suffrage for white males, and there was a notion that anyone could become president. The campaign was for the popular vote and electors were chosen by the popular vote. Most of the economic changes that happened have continued and grown and have a lasting effect on today’s elections. Along with these social changes, there were also some economic changes that occurred in the nation. The invention of the cotton gin substantially increased the amount of cotton that could be produced. This led to much more slaves needed to maintain the cotton fields, and more cloth making mills in the north. New canals and roads were allowing easier transportation of goods to the northern part of the nation, thus increasing the wealth in those
The biggest difference between the 1828 election campaigns and the ones before it was the introduction of ‘mudslinging.' Mudslinging is when a candidate purposefully does things that hurt the other candidate's campaign, like spreading bad rumors and trash talking them. John Adams himself didn’t participate in mudslinging Jackson, but his supporters did. They spread bad rumors about Jackson's mom and wife and called Jackson a murderer for his brawls and duels. Jackson was even worse than Adams followers though. Jackson attacked Adams by calling him a corrupt aristocrat and attacking him about his large salary over the years. He also accused him of gambling in the White House because he bought a chess board and a billiards table. Aside from the mudslinging, Jackson presented himself as the common man to gain more voters, and both candidates had campaign songs and slogans. Previous candidates didn’t have anything to do with these new campaign techniques, they were more, ‘civilized,' elections you could say. These campaign techniques greatly affected how elections go today; the ‘mudslinging’ has gotten progressively worse since then, with the U.S.’s last election having lots of these techniques implemented by both