From the USS Constitution Museum "Off with his head" by Margherita M. Desy and Kate Monea.
I wrote about this episode in a blog entry earlier.
When the USS Constitution entered Dry Dock 1 in the Charlestown Navy Yard (Boston) on June 24, 1833, her docking had been delayed so that President Andrew Jackson and Vice President Martin Van Buren could be in attendance. However, Jackson was too unwell to attend it.
Jackson was generally liked by the people of New England at the time, but fell out of favor less than a year later after he vetoed a bill to recharter the Second Bank of the United States, resulting in financial hardship for merchants.
Just prior to Jackson's fall in popularity, the commandant of the Charlestown Navy Yard, Jesse Elliott had hired a local carver named Leban S. Beecher to create a figurehead of President Jackson, a hero of the War of 1812.
When news of this figurehead got out, Bostonians were enraged. A call went out to save the famous ship "from this foul disgrace" and threats were made to Beecher.
After the figurehead was installed, the Constitution was refloated from the dry dock and placed under the protective cover of the USS Independence and Columbus.
However, this did not deter one brave local captain named Samuel Worthington Dewey, who took it upon himself to decapitate the offending figurehead.
--Brock-Perry
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