On this episode of Our American Stories, when Andrew Jackson arrived in Washington for his inauguration in 1829, thousands of Americans came with him. He was unlike the presidents who had come before, an orphan from the frontier who had risen from humble beginnings to become a general and the self-proclaimed champion of the common man. To his supporters, his election represented a changing of the guard in American politics.

Then Jackson opened the White House to the people. The crowd poured inside, climbed onto furniture for a glimpse of the new president, broke china, spilled refreshments, and packed the rooms so tightly that Jackson's friends feared he might be crushed. Keith Hardison, former director of interpretation at Jackson's home, The Hermitage, shares the story of the rowdy inauguration that announced the arrival of the "People's President."

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