Photo courtesy of the University of Tennessee

Staff Reports

Shots were fired in the United States House of Representatives’ chambers in Washington D.C. on January 30, 1835.  President Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, survived the first assassination attempt against the life of a U.S. president.

Jackson, nicknamed “Old Hickory” for his determination and drive, was one of the leading generals of the War of 1812.  Although the Treaty of Ghent had called a formal end to the war in December of 1814, neither General Jackson nor British forces had heard the news.  The British launched an attack against New Orleans on January 8, 1815.  General Andrew Jackson and his troops delivered a crushing defeat to the British and Jackson became a war hero.

After serving as a United States Senator, Jackson was elected to the presidency in November of 1828, winning in a landslide against John Quincy Adams.  According to biography.com, Jackson had become the first frontier president and the first chief executive who resided outside of either Massachusetts or Virginia

During a funeral service honoring the late Representative Warren R. Davis of South Carolina, a man identified as Richard Lawrence discharged two separate pistols in the direction of President Jackson. Both weapons misfired, and the infuriated Jackson charged the shooter and hammered him with his cane while bystanders subdued the attempted assassin. During the subsequent criminal investigation, the suspect was found to be insane and was sent to a mental prison.

Three decades later, on April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln would become the first president to be assassinated.