On this day in history 1853-- In the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol, President Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, survives the first attempt against the life of a U.S. president. President Andrew Jackson attended a congressional funeral in the Capitol building. As he exited, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter, fired two derringers at Jackson. The bullets did not discharge. The enraged Jackson raised his cane to throttle his attacker, but an army officer wrestled the man to the floor before Jackson could attack. The sixty-seven-year-old president escaped unharmed. The deranged Lawrence believed Jackson had conspired to keep him poor and out of work. Jackson was convinced that Lawrence was hired by his political enemies, the Whigs, to stop his plan to destroy the Bank of the United States. Lawrence was found insane. He was confined in a mental institution for the rest of his life. Sparknotes has an abbreviated biography that is interesting.
(Originally posted on my Yahoo 360 blog)
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