playing in the mud
think trump vs clinton is bad? Wait until you get a load of jefferson vs adams
July 14, 2016 - Surely it wasn’t supposed to be like this. Surely the founding fathers didn’t intend for Donald Trump to ride his racy twitter account to the White House, or for Hillary Clinton to build a political machine that was so effective and well organized that it could overcome its greatest weakness, Hillary Clinton. If we were to magically raise the founders from the dead and transport them to the present, would they question how we let their bold experiment in constitutional democracy fall apart like this?
Well, their first question would probably be ‘what the hell is twitter?’ and their second would be ‘what’s a woman doing on the ballot?’, but their third question would surely be ‘how did you let our bold experiment in constitutional democracy fall apart like this?”
Upon further analysis, though, there is a chance that they might feel pride rather than horror. They might read the headlines of the past few months and pronounce the campaign a model of virtue compared to the elections of their day.
Don’t believe us? Consider, for a moment, the election of 1800, when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams competed for the presidency. Jefferson and Adams had been long-time friends; they’d defeated the British Empire together and happily shared their powdered-wig styling products with each other. But when they squared off against each other in what was effectively the first competitive presidential election in American history, political rules of decorum went out the window.
Well, their first question would probably be ‘what the hell is twitter?’ and their second would be ‘what’s a woman doing on the ballot?’, but their third question would surely be ‘how did you let our bold experiment in constitutional democracy fall apart like this?”
Upon further analysis, though, there is a chance that they might feel pride rather than horror. They might read the headlines of the past few months and pronounce the campaign a model of virtue compared to the elections of their day.
Don’t believe us? Consider, for a moment, the election of 1800, when Thomas Jefferson and John Adams competed for the presidency. Jefferson and Adams had been long-time friends; they’d defeated the British Empire together and happily shared their powdered-wig styling products with each other. But when they squared off against each other in what was effectively the first competitive presidential election in American history, political rules of decorum went out the window.
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Political pamphlets and backroom gossip began circulating that tore Adams and Jefferson’s friendship apart, and neither man would speak to the other for decades. Adams was excoriated in print for having a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” As a rebuttal, Adams’ supporters went after Jefferson’s religious beliefs—the Reverend John Mason, among others, called him an “infidel” to Christianity. Even worse, the 19th-century birther movement was also suspicious of Jefferson’s heritage. Was he the “son of a half-breed Indian squaw and sired by a Virginia mulatto father?” Where’s his birth certificate, anyway?
If personal attacks weren’t enough, some of the dirty pool revolved around issues. Rumors began circulating that if Adams won the election, he would swiftly match his son with King George III’s daughter and thus create a new American monarchy! No less dire were the implications of a Jeffersonian presidency, which would “see our wives and daughters the victims of legal prostitution.” Not only that but Jefferson would also foment a “civil war and a national orgy of rape, incest, and adultery.” |
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Now, it’s important to realize that, unlike today, Jefferson and Adams didn’t actually say any of these things themselves. Campaigning for office was seen as being very undignified and unworthy of such a high post, and it was better to have the voters decide the issue themselves. But historians are quite certain that both Adams and Jefferson were in on the smear tactics—at best, all these personal slanders were a 19th-century version of retweeting.
Over two centuries later, it’s obvious that this campaign was full of hot air. Jefferson won the election and, despite his detractors’ fears, the total number of national orgies of rape, incest, and adultery still stands at 0. In fact, both Adams and Jefferson rank high on any list of all-time greatest American presidents. |
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But the real story here is about the karmic retribution of negative campaigning—and both Trump and Clinton should take heed. During the 1800 campaign, Jefferson hired a man named James Callender to run his smear campaign against Adams. Callender’s attacks were so blistering and vile that Adams successfully sued Callender for slander and had him thrown in prison. When released, Callender went to Jefferson for a job. Jefferson, now President, no longer wanted to be associated with his former hatchet man and pretended not to know him. Callender’s next job was as a journalist and he promptly broke the story about Jefferson having an affair with one of his slaves (Sally Hemmings).
And the moral? Thomas Jefferson’s most damaging political scandal, the one that dogged him for the rest of his political career and made family reunions at Monticello super awkward for the rest of time, didn’t come from his political opponents, but from his own reliance on dirty tricks.
And the moral? Thomas Jefferson’s most damaging political scandal, the one that dogged him for the rest of his political career and made family reunions at Monticello super awkward for the rest of time, didn’t come from his political opponents, but from his own reliance on dirty tricks.