The presidential election of 1828 featured one of the dirtiest campaigns in American history. The Jacksonian press portrayed incumbent John Quincy Adams as an out-of-touch elitist and spread a rumor that, as ambassador, Adams offered an American girl to the Russian czar for sexual favors. On the other side, pro-Adams newspapers attacked the reputation of Andrew Jackson's wife, Rachel, who had run away from her previous husband to marry Jackson. "Ought a convicted adultress and her paramour husband be placed in the highest offices of this free and Christian land?" asked a Cincinnati newspaper. In the end, Adams' own Vice President, John C. Calhoun, joined Jackson's ticket, and Jackson won in a landslide.

After his inaugural speech on March 4, 1829, Jackson invited the public to the White House, where his supporters held a raucous party. Thousands of spectators overwhelmed the White House staff, and minor damage was caused to fixtures and furnishings. Jackson's populism earned him the nickname "King Mob". He was also given the nickname "Old Hickory" by his soldiers for being as "tough as old hickory."

Jackson faced the threat of secession by South Carolina over what opponents called the "Tariff of Abominations". The crisis was defused when the tariff was amended, and Jackson threatened the use of military force if South Carolina attempted to secede.

The controversy surrounding his marriage to Rachel remained a sore point for Jackson, who deeply resented attacks on his wife's honor. In May 1806, Charles Dickinson, who, like Jackson, raced horses, published an attack on Jackson in the local newspaper, and it resulted in a written challenge from Jackson to a duel. Since Dickinson was considered an expert shot, Jackson determined it would be best to let Dickinson turn and fire first, hoping that his aim might be spoiled in his quickness; Jackson would wait and take careful aim at Dickinson. Dickinson did fire first, hitting Jackson in the chest. The bullet that struck Jackson was so close to his heart that it could not be removed. Under the rules of dueling, Dickinson had to remain still as Jackson took aim and shot and killed him. Jackson's behavior in the duel outraged men in Tennessee, who called it a brutal, cold-blooded killing.

Rachel had been under extreme stress during the election, and began experiencing physical symptoms. Jackson described her symptoms as "excruciating pain in the left shoulder, arm, and breast." After struggling for three days, Rachel finally died of a heart attack on December 22, 1828. A distraught Jackson had to be pulled from her so the undertaker could prepare the body. He felt that the abuse from Adams's supporters had hastened her death and never forgave him. Rachel was buried at the Hermitage on Christmas Eve. "May God Almighty forgive her murderers," Jackson swore at her funeral. "I never can."

Jackson vetoed twelve bills (five regular vetoes and seven pocket vetoes) -- more than any other president until Andrew Johnson vetoed 29 bills in just four years.

On January 1, 1835, Jackson paid off the entire national debt, the only time in U.S. history that has been accomplished. The objective had been reached in part through Jackson's reforms aimed at eliminating the misuse of funds and through his vetoes of legislation which he deemed extravagant.

Jackson's presidency marked a new era in Indian-Anglo American relations initiating a policy of Indian removal. On May 26, 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which relocated most members of the Native American tribes in the South to Indian Territory in order to allow white settlement of their ancestral lands. Although many tribes resisted, they were forcibly removed by the United States government in a march to the west that later became known as the Trail of Tears. This legislation is considered an act of genocide by many historians as the relocated peoples suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while en route to their newly-designated reserve, and approximately 4,000 died before reaching their destinations or shortly after from disease.

On January 30, 1835, what is believed to be the first attempt to kill a sitting president of the United States occurred just outside the United States Capitol. When Jackson was leaving through the East Portico after the funeral of South Carolina Representative Warren R. Davis, Richard Lawrence, an unemployed house painter from England, aimed a pistol at Jackson, which misfired. Lawrence then pulled out a second pistol, which also misfired. Jackson, infuriated, attacked Lawrence with his cane, while others present, including Davy Crockett, intervened to restrain and disarm Lawrence.

Jackson devoted a considerable amount of his presidential time during his early years in office responding to what came to be known as the "Petticoat affair". Washington gossip circulated among Jackson's cabinet members and their wives concerning Secretary of War John Eaton and his wife Peggy. Salacious rumors held that Peggy, as a barmaid in her father's tavern, had been sexually promiscuous or had even been a prostitute. Controversy also ensued because Peggy had married soon after her previous husband's death, and it was alleged that she and her husband had engaged in an adulterous affair while her previous husband was still living. The cabinet wives insisted that the interests and honor of all American women was at stake. Jackson, who was reminded of the attacks that had been made against his wife, eventually demanded the resignations of every cabinet member but Postmaster General William T. Barry.