Assassination!: The Brick Chronicle of Attempts on the Lives of Twelve US Presidents (2 page)

Several others assist in subduing the attacker, including Congressman Davy Crockett.

Richard Lawrence thus stepped into history as the first person to attempt to assassinate a US president.

Born in England, Lawrence came to the United States with his family at age twelve, and settled in Washington, DC. He was described as a mildmannered, well-behaved boy.

He worked as a house painter until his early thirties, when those who knew him say his personality underwent a radical transformation.

Quitting his job, Lawrence grew a mustache and began purchasing extravagant outfits that he would silently model in his doorway for passersby, sometimes changing outfits three or four times a day.

He would also rent pairs of horses and hire a prostitute to accompany him on regal processions through the streets of Washington.

Believing himself to be King Richard III of England, he explained to his bewildered sister and her husband that there was no longer any need for him to work, as the US government owed him a vast sum of money.

Lawrence saw President Jackson’s opposition to the establishment of a national bank as holding up this payment. In the weeks before his attack, Lawrence was overheard talking to himself in his paint shop, saying, “Damn him, he does not know his enemy; I will put a pistol . . . Erect a gallows . . . Damn General Jackson! Who’s General Jackson?”

At his trial, Lawrence was prone to wild rants and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the proceedings, at one point saying solemnly to the courtroom, “It is for me, gentlemen, to pass upon you, and not you upon me.”

In the end, the judge, jury, and even his prosecutor, famed composer of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Francis Scott Key, were convinced that Lawrence could not be held criminally responsible for his crime.

He was therefore acquitted but confined until the end of his life to the Government Hospital for the Insane in Washington, DC, now known as St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.

Later testing of the pistols used by Lawrence in the attack found them to be in perfect working order, firing successfully and accurately. It has been said that the odds of both pistols misfiring is 125,000 to 1. It is likely the damp weather contributed to their failure.

President Jackson was seemingly unperturbed by the attempt on his life and had become accustomed to receiving death threats by mail. One such letter read: “You dam’d old Scoundrel . . . I will cut your throat whilst you are sleeping. I wrote to you repeated Cautions, so look out or damn you I’ll have you burnt at the Stake.”