No one who knew Jackson and his political managers expected them to accept the anomalous electoral results of 1825 as expressing the real will of the nation, and it was a foregone conclusion not only that the General would again be a candidate, but that the campaign of 1828 would at once begin.  The defeated Senator remained in Washington long enough to present himself at the White House on Inauguration Day and felicitate his successful rival.  Then he set out on the long journey homeward.  Every town through Pennsylvania and along the Ohio turned out en masse to greet him, and at Nashville he was given a prodigious reception.  To friends and traveling companions he talked constantly about the election, leaving no doubt of his conviction that he had been defeated by intrigue.  To a sympathetic group of passengers traveling down the Ohio with him on board the General Neville he declared emphatically that, if he had been willing to make the same promises and offers to Clay that Adams had made, he would that minute be in the presidential chair.  If he should yet attain that dignity, he added significantly, he would do it “with clean hands.”  It is reported that as he spoke there was in his eye the fire of determination, such as his soldiers had seen there as he strode up and down the breastworks at New Orleans.

To this point Jackson had sought the presidency rather at the instigation of his friends than because of personal desire for the office.  Now all was changed.  The people had expressed their preference for him, and their will had been thwarted.  Henceforth he was moved by an inflexible purpose to vindicate both his own right to the position and the right of his fellow citizens to choose their chief executive without hindrance.  In this determination he was warmly backed up by his neighbors and advisers, and the machinery for a long, systematic, and resistless campaign was speedily put into running order.  One group of managers took charge in Washington.  Another set to work in New York.  A third undertook to keep Pennsylvania in line.  A fourth began to consolidate support in the South.  At the capital the United States Telegraph, edited by Duff Green of Missouri, was established as a Jackson organ, and throughout the country friendly journals were set the task of keeping up an incessant fire upon the Administration and of holding the Jackson men together.  Local committees were organized; pamphlets and handbills were put into circulation; receptions and public dinners were exploited, whenever possible, in the interest of the cause.  First, last, and always, Jackson’s candidacy was put forward as the hope and opportunity of the plain people as against the politicians.

In October the Tennessee Legislature again placed its favorite formally in nomination, and a few days later the candidate resigned his seat in the Senate in order to be more advantageously situated for carrying on his campaign.  For more than a year he remained quietly at the Hermitage, dividing his attention between his blooded horses and dogs and his political interests.  Lewis stayed at his side, partly to restrain him from outbreaks of temper or other acts that might injure his interests, partly to serve as an intermediary between him and the Washington manipulators.