Nadene Goldfoot
Throughout American history, there have been 18 direct assaults against presidents and presidential candidates. Five of those incidents resulted in death.
In total, four American presidents have been assassinated—Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy—and there have been fourteen other attempted assassinations (two of which were on Gerald Ford, within weeks of each other). Here’s a look at the history of one presidential assassination attempt in the United States:
Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He rose to fame as a U.S. Army general and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. His political philosophy, which dominated his presidency, became the basis for the rise of Jacksonian democracy.
The first presidential assassination attempt took place in January 1835, when Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, hid behind a pillar near the entrance of the Capitol and fired at Andrew Jackson. The pistol misfired, and when Lawrence tried again, bystanders tackled him to the floor. He was declared insane during his trial; per the U.S. Senate, “Lawrence was convinced that he was the rightful King of England and that ‘King Andrew’ alone stood in the way of his claiming his crown.”
During the 1820s, many Southern Jews supported Andrew Jackson, seeing him as a defender of their interests and a continuation of Jeffersonian democracy, although this support was often linked to shared interests in slavery. Key figures like journalist Isaac Harby campaigned for him, helping to integrate Jews into Jacksonian politics. Charleston-based Jewish writer and editor Isaac Harby was a prominent "Jackson stan," backing him during the 1824 election under the pseudonym "Junius".Southern Jews, similar to their Christian neighbors, hoped Jackson would protect their regional interests, including the institution of slavery, according to research from the College of Charleston.
Despite being a minority, Jews like Harby actively carved out space within the rise of Jacksonian democracy, cooperating in its conception, notes Project MUSE.In a 2018 Jewish Journal In a 2018 Jewish Journal article, the concept of "Jacksonian Jews" is referenced to describe a perspective that views the world as dangerous, necessitating a strong friend in the White House to fight antisemitism. (Even then Jews faced anti-Semitism)l
While Jewish individuals supported Jackson, his presidency was marked by the Indian Removal Act, which resulted in the devastation of Native American tribes. Andrew Jackson did not include Native Americans in his Jacksonian Democracy because he viewed them as inferior, non-citizen "wards" who hindered white expansion and state sovereignty. Driven by the desire for land and westward expansion, Jackson pursued a policy of forced removal—most notably the Indian Removal Act of 1830—to relocate tribes west of the Mississippi River.
Economic Desire for Land: Southern and western white settlers coveted the rich, agricultural lands occupied by the Five Civilized Tribes, especially after gold was discovered in Cherokee territory.
Ideology of White Supremacy: Jackson regarded Native Americans as "savages" whose civilization was lower than that of whites. He believed they could not coexist with white settlers and needed to be moved for their own survival, yet viewed them as obstacles to national progress.
State Sovereignty Interests: Jackson argued that independent Indian nations existing within state boundaries (such as Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi) violated state sovereignty. He did not consider them sovereign entities, but rather subjects to the laws of the states and the federal government .This was one assassination attempt that occurred without any political reason.
The most serious incident took place at a Pennsylvania campaign rally in 2024 while Trump was running for a second term. The attempt resulted in two deaths, that of the would-be assassin and a spectator. Trump was injured by a bullet that struck his right ear, the only injury he sustained in these attempts.
A suspected lone gunman was stopped over the weekend after trying to carry out what authorities described as an assassination attempt ...The earliest known attempt occurred at a campaign rally in Las Vegas shortly before he secured the nomination of the Republican Party in the 2016 presidential election. Throughout Trump's first term in office, he was targeted but unharmedhttps://www.biography.com/political-figures/g62474988/presidential-assassination-atttempts-history-explained?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=mgu_ga_bio_md_pmx_prog_mix_us_23680186279&gad_source=1&gad
