A Letter From The Editor Love in the time of Elections
FEBRUARY 2018 PARKER COUNTY TODAY
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During this election campaign season , you may have noticed some of the candidates getting a little snarky . I ’ ve had the impression that political snarkiness was something fairly new . I got this impression from my mother and grandmother . They both said that respect , common decency , and morals were on the decline with each passing generation and that such niceties were likely to become extinct if either God didn ’ t step in quickly or if I didn ’ t work each and every day to be the epitome of Christian kindness and decorum . It was my duty to set a “ good example .”
Clearly , the “ God stepping in ” is the most reassuring part , because , try as I might , I doubt I ’ m making great headway at that “ good example ” thing .
Then , I conducted a little historical research into how polite and courtly politicians were in the past and I was shocked to find that the phenomenon of snarky political candidates didn ’ t emerge along with the iPad . NEWSFLASH — Mudslinging isn ’ t new . Political people have gotten downright ugly in the past . When I refer to the past I don ’ t mean George H . W . Bush and Bill Clinton , or even Kennedy and Nixon — I ’ m talking founding fathers . Political ugliness reared its head two centuries ago .
The Election of 1800 — Adams vs . Jefferson
The United States of America was just out of its infancy . I guess you could say it was a toddler . Together ,
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had stood up to the British Empire and forged a new political system in the former colonies . One might think that these founding fathers would have been so pleased that their newly founded country had survived a stint in the world ’ s NICU , that they would spend the rest of their lives admiring each other . Right ? Well , one would be wrong . While both believed in democracy and life , liberty and the pursuit of happiness , the problem arose over their opinions on how to achieve these ideals .
The fledgling , future-worldpower was already divided into two national parties and those parties were competing for control of the presidency , Congress , and all of the states . The Federalist Party was created largely by Alexander Hamilton . Hamilton was not singing and dancing on Broadway yet . Oh , no ! He was too busy pushing for domination of the fledgling nation and fighting a man he viewed as his bitter enemy — Thomas Jefferson and his party , the Democratic-Republican Party . The party had been formed by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison , and was often referred to simply as the “ Republican Party .”
If you think President Trump has trouble with traitors on his staff , think about President John Adams . His reelection campaign was riddled with ugliness and was the first really nasty presidential campaign in U . S . history .
How nasty could it have possibly been , you might ask , in view of the fact that no one involved had a Twitter account and CNN hadn ’ t been hatched yet ? The easy answer is really nasty ! This was the only presidential election in history where the seated vice president actually ran against the president under whom he served .
Jefferson hired an opposition researcher named James Callender , a professional character assassin , to write slurs about the nation ’ s chief executive , that included referring to
President Adams as , “ hideous ,” and “ hermaphroditical .” He said that the president had neither “ the force of a man , nor the gentleness … of a woman .”
Adams ’ s supporters , the Federalists , retorted by posing the question to voters , “ Are you prepared to see female chastity violated ... children writhing on the pike ?”
Adams ’ s men called Vice President Jefferson “ a mean-spirited , low-lived fellow , the son of a halfbreed Indian squaw , sired by a Virginia mulatto father .”
As the slurs piled on , Adams was labeled a fool , a hypocrite , a criminal , and a tyrant , while Jefferson was branded a weakling , an atheist , a libertine , and a coward , who planned to invade France .
Jefferson triumphed , but the friendship he and Adams had once enjoyed turned into bitter strife .
Jefferson continued to pay the price for his nasty campaign ploys . Callender served jail time for the slander he wrote about Adams , and when he emerged from prison in 1801 , he felt Jefferson still owed him . Jefferson refused to appease him and Callender went public with a story in 1802 that had only been a rumor until then — that the President was having an affair with one of his , er … ah workers ( had the phrase interns been coined yet ?), Sally Hemings , who also happened to be the half-sister of his late wife ( ughhhh ).
Despite all of the ugliness between the two founding fathers , their story did manage to have a bittersweet ending to this tale of two gentlemen who in the heat of campaigning forgot to be genteel .
A dozen years after the bitter election of 1800 , Adams and Jefferson began writing letters to each other and renewed their friendship . They remained pen pals for the rest of their lives and died on the same day ,
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