Andrew Jackson and the Protestant Irish of Philadelphia: Early Nineteenth-Century Sectarianism

Abstract

ABSTRACT Andrew Jackson has long been represented as the archetype of Scots Irish immigrants. However, by the election of 1832, Ulster Presbyterians in Philadelphia, once champions of Jacksonianism, turned against the president and his politics. Catholic Irish immigrants also began to flock to the United States around this time. In Philadelphia Andrew Jackson became the focal point of Irish sectarian differences, some of which became violent. The Irish community became divided over religion and Jacksonian political culture. Ironically, Jackson, whom some historians have identified as the archetype of the Ulster Presbyterians in America, appealed to Irish Catholics but helped spur Irish Protestants into his opponents' camps.