Andrew Jackson And The Would-Be Assassin With Two Misfiring Guns
Public DomainA depiction of Richard Lawrence’s attempted assassination of Andrew Jackson.
When Richard Lawrence set out to assassinate Andrew Jackson on January 30, 1835, he meant business. Lawrence brought not one but two Derringer pistols — fully loaded and ready to kill.
As politicians gathered in the Capitol Building to mourn the death of a South Carolina congressman, Lawrence waited. He skulked behind a pillar on the East Portico and kept an eye out for the president. When Jackson finally emerged, hobbling and clutching his cane, Lawrence aimed his gun.
He shot once at the president’s retreating back. But though the gun went off with a crack and a puff of smoke, it had — incredibly — misfired. Jackson whipped around and charged his attacker. Raising his cane, the former soldier shouted: “Let me alone! Let me alone! I know where this came from.”
Library of CongressRichard Lawrence was the first person in history to attempt to assassinate an American president.
As Jackson began swinging his cane, Lawrence pulled out his second pistol and shot at the president again. But this gun also misfired.
Naval lieutenant and Tennessee congressman Davy Crockett — yes, that Davy Crockett — managed to pull Lawrence and Jackson apart, holding Lawrence and ushering the president to safety in the White House.
A subsequent investigation found that Lawrence’s guns “fired afterwards without fail, carrying their bullets true and driving them through inch boards at thirty feet.” It was later determined that the odds of both guns misfiring was just one in 125,000. In other words, Jackson got very, very lucky.
Richard Lawrence was later deemed not guilty by reasons of insanity. He spent the rest of his life in the Government Hospital for the Insane.
