I know it's election time and the anger, furious disagreement over policy, and threats of violence are pretty upsetting to stay the least, But nothing we're experiencing now even comes close to what went on in the US in the eighteen hundreds. I'm Patty Steele. Legal murder in the world of politics. That's next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. You think we've got it rough right now. When it comes to politics, there were a slew of political parties in the early eighteen hundreds, but by eighteen sixty it was pretty much Republicans and Democrats doing battle. They fought over race, class, religion, immigration, inequality, and whatever else they could think of. Sound kind of familiar, Well it got really crazy. Take a look at Andrew Jackson, the seventh US President. I believe it or not, this guy during his political career was super thin skinned and quick tempered, and that danger combo resulted in Jackson constantly challenging people he didn't like to duel him. I get this. He may have been involved in as many as one hundred duels. Most of them were just a couple of hotheads firing their guns into the air trying to show their brilliant courage by not turning down the challenge, but in at least one case, it took a deadly turn. It all started when Jackson's fellow horse breeder and longtime political rival, Charles Dickinson, publicly insulted Jackson, calling him a worthless scoundrel and a coward wow harsh words. He also twisted the knife by calling Jackson's wife a bigamist, among other things. The pair had married before Rachel Jackson was granted a divorce from her first husband. So it's May thirtieth, eighteen oh six. Jackson and Dickinson meet up at a farm in a Dareville, Kentucky. It's pretty intense. Dickinson is considered to be one of the best shots in the country. They take aim. Jackson's gun jams and Dickinson gets off the first shot, wounding Jackson in the chest, breaking some ribs, and just missing his heart. But Jackson stands tall. He quickly reloads and shoots. He hits Dickinson's square on. Witnesses rushed to his side, but Dickinson begins bleeding out. He asks those around him why the lights are being turned off. Charles Dickinson is dead within five minutes. Jackson, on the other hand, barely escapes with his own life. The bullet, again lodged near his heart, was never removed, and he carried it with him for the rest of his life, though he did have constant pain from it until he died almost forty years later. Duels were not really all that uncommon. Everybody knows about the Aaron Burr Alexander Hamilton duel, right, but that duel cost Burr his political career, even though he was never prosecuted for killing somebody. As for Jackson, his political career thrived in the aftermath, despite the continued attacks on his wife and some of his military exploits. He was elected president in eighteen twenty nine, and he served two terms. The courts just didn't go after folks that took part and mutually agreed upon duels. Yes, it was considered a manly response to having your honored question. But believe it or not, women dueled as well. In one case, they used guns first and then switched to swords. But things got even more violent later in the nineteenth century. In fact, in the years between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, US politics was more violent and corrupt than ever was before or has been since. The violence wasn't just between politicians, but among everyday Americans too, because they deeply cared about the direction the country was taking. It was unlike anything we've experienced in our lifetime. There were regular fistfights, murders, threats, and proven claims of stolen elections. Visiting Europeans were shocked and fascinated at the same time. I keep in mind, for the most part, none of them got to choose their leaders, so watching this was pretty interesting. They wrote about American elections, watching people living as far apart as folks in Paris were from Saint Petersburg, Russia, all involved in the same political debate. It's a big country. One reporter from London talked about what he called the Festival of Diversity, with working class, young white marchers alongside groups of African Americans, Cubans, Italians, Irish, Mexican and Chinese. Others wrote about American women who weren't legally allowed to vote, but who marched for what they believed in and were fiercely opinionated. They were amazed to even watch schoolgirls argue politics on street cars, so imagine this. It was very much like our twenty twenty election, but on steroids, and it happened every four years for over forty years. Literally thousands of people died in political warfare in that period, after all, three of the four presidential assassinations in American history happened between eighteen sixty five and nineteen oh one. On the upside, the passion people felt about politics meant there were record turnouts on election day. As America finally calmed down and there was some political reform, we eventually lost the fire and passion that saw every citizen wrapped up in politics. Political participation and enthusiasm crashed once we got into the twentieth century, So while it was much more civil, we lost something in the process. How great would it be if we could embrace the passion of participating and running this beautiful country, but also allow other people to have their own point of view without resorting to nastiness and violence. I hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and by the way, feel free to DM me if you have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premier Networks, the Elvis Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.

I know it's election time and the anger, furious disagreement over policy, and threats of violence are pretty upsetting to stay the least, But nothing we're experiencing now even comes close to what went on in the US in the eighteen hundreds. I'm Patty Steele. Legal murder in the world of politics. That's next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory. You think we've got it rough right now. When it comes to politics, there were a slew of political parties in the early eighteen hundreds, but by eighteen sixty it was pretty much Republicans and Democrats doing battle. They fought over race, class, religion, immigration, inequality, and whatever else they could think of. Sound kind of familiar, Well it got really crazy. Take a look at Andrew Jackson, the seventh US President. I believe it or not, this guy during his political career was super thin skinned and quick tempered, and that danger combo resulted in Jackson constantly challenging people he didn't like to duel him. I get this. He may have been involved in as many as one hundred duels. Most of them were just a couple of hotheads firing their guns into the air trying to show their brilliant courage by not turning down the challenge, but in at least one case, it took a deadly turn. It all started when Jackson's fellow horse breeder and longtime political rival, Charles Dickinson, publicly insulted Jackson, calling him a worthless scoundrel and a coward wow harsh words. He also twisted the knife by calling Jackson's wife a bigamist, among other things. The pair had married before Rachel Jackson was granted a divorce from her first husband. So it's May thirtieth, eighteen oh six. Jackson and Dickinson meet up at a farm in a Dareville, Kentucky. It's pretty intense. Dickinson is considered to be one of the best shots in the country. They take aim. Jackson's gun jams and Dickinson gets off the first shot, wounding Jackson in the chest, breaking some ribs, and just missing his heart. But Jackson stands tall. He quickly reloads and shoots. He hits Dickinson's square on. Witnesses rushed to his side, but Dickinson begins bleeding out. He asks those around him why the lights are being turned off. Charles Dickinson is dead within five minutes. Jackson, on the other hand, barely escapes with his own life. The bullet, again lodged near his heart, was never removed, and he carried it with him for the rest of his life, though he did have constant pain from it until he died almost forty years later. Duels were not really all that uncommon. Everybody knows about the Aaron Burr Alexander Hamilton duel, right, but that duel cost Burr his political career, even though he was never prosecuted for killing somebody. As for Jackson, his political career thrived in the aftermath, despite the continued attacks on his wife and some of his military exploits. He was elected president in eighteen twenty nine, and he served two terms. The courts just didn't go after folks that took part and mutually agreed upon duels. Yes, it was considered a manly response to having your honored question. But believe it or not, women dueled as well. In one case, they used guns first and then switched to swords. But things got even more violent later in the nineteenth century. In fact, in the years between the Civil War and the turn of the twentieth century, US politics was more violent and corrupt than ever was before or has been since. The violence wasn't just between politicians, but among everyday Americans too, because they deeply cared about the direction the country was taking. It was unlike anything we've experienced in our lifetime. There were regular fistfights, murders, threats, and proven claims of stolen elections. Visiting Europeans were shocked and fascinated at the same time. I keep in mind, for the most part, none of them got to choose their leaders, so watching this was pretty interesting. They wrote about American elections, watching people living as far apart as folks in Paris were from Saint Petersburg, Russia, all involved in the same political debate. It's a big country. One reporter from London talked about what he called the Festival of Diversity, with working class, young white marchers alongside groups of African Americans, Cubans, Italians, Irish, Mexican and Chinese. Others wrote about American women who weren't legally allowed to vote, but who marched for what they believed in and were fiercely opinionated. They were amazed to even watch schoolgirls argue politics on street cars, so imagine this. It was very much like our twenty twenty election, but on steroids, and it happened every four years for over forty years. Literally thousands of people died in political warfare in that period, after all, three of the four presidential assassinations in American history happened between eighteen sixty five and nineteen oh one. On the upside, the passion people felt about politics meant there were record turnouts on election day. As America finally calmed down and there was some political reform, we eventually lost the fire and passion that saw every citizen wrapped up in politics. Political participation and enthusiasm crashed once we got into the twentieth century, So while it was much more civil, we lost something in the process. How great would it be if we could embrace the passion of participating and running this beautiful country, but also allow other people to have their own point of view without resorting to nastiness and violence. I hope you're enjoying the Backstory with Patty Steele. Follow or subscribe for free to get new episodes delivered automatically, and by the way, feel free to DM me if you have a story you'd like me to cover. On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premier Networks, the Elvis Duran Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know.