**America Goes to the Polls**: America Goes to the Polls. Highlights of the Presidential Campaigns 1789 - 1964.
By resolution of Congress on February 27, 1815, General Andrew Jackson was awarded a gold medal for the "brave and successful repulse" of British troops who had attacked New Orleans the month before. The execution of the medal was long delayed because of Jackson's tardiness in providing the engraver with a suitable portrait, but by the time Jackson became an announced candidate for President of the United States in the election of 1824, the medal had been executed and was formally presented to him by President Monroe on March 16, 1824. Shortly thereafter Jackson's supporters were sporting from their lapels small brass discs which bore the name and likeness of the General and a reference to his victory at New Orleans. Thus was born the symbol of the American presidential election-the political campaign button.
The campaign mementos reproduced in this book are form the collection of Mr. J. Doyle Dewitt.
