Symbolic Violence Against U.S. Presidents

Kansas Republicans came under fire last week for offering party members the opportunity to pummel an effigy of President Joe Biden.

This type of political activity is nothing new. While researching Who Is James K. Polk, I was surprised at the symbolic violence Americans expressed against President John Tyler during August 1841. Tyler vetoed a banking bill passed by Congress, and Americans, many of them from the very same party that had elected him on the Whig ticket, exploded in anger.

The August 30 issue of the Nashville Union reported that Franklin, Tennessee, citizens hanged and burned Tyler in effigy, an act replicated even in Lebanon, the small town where my university is located. In Paducah, Kentucky, Whigs used “six pounds of gunpowder” (a bit of overkill perhaps) to blow up an effigy of Tyler sitting on a throne. A drunken crowd of Washingtonians marched to the White House in the middle of the night, burned an effigy of Tyler nearby, and, to add insult to injury, spread human feces on a White House door handle.

In the aftermath of these symbolic political expressions of violence, Tyler’s popularity, which had never been high, tanked. Most of his cabinet resigned, and the Whigs kicked him out of their party. Congressional Whigs loathed Tyler so much, they even explored the possibility of impeaching him. To say that the political well was poisoned for Tyler for the remainder of his administration would be an understatement. A president without a party, he floundered until he latched on to a political goal–Texas annexation–that he thought gave him hope for political victory. Even that issue failed to salvage Tyler’s attempt to win the presidency in 1844, however; he dropped out of the race in August of that year, disappointed and bitter.

Expressions of political violence against U.S. presidents are nothing new, then. What’s concerning is the current climate. A 2023 poll suggested that 23% of Americans believe “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” This trend is especially troubling since it is “the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%,” according to Public Religion Research Institute. In a time when Qanon believers act on their conspiratorial worldview to commit murder and imprisoned January 6th insurrectionists are described as “patriotic, non-violent political protesters,” the nation’s “natural predilection towards violence” is something to pay careful attention to.

Americans have the constitutional right to exercise their free speech by punching a sparring dummy wearing a Biden mask or by posting photos of themselves holding a fake severed Donald Trump head. But it’s not healthy for the body politic. Just ask John Tyler.