The First Political Campaign I Remember
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 8:42 am
Rough words on the campaign trail? No.
Think back to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. In 1776, they combined to help claim America's independence, and they had nothing but respect for one another. By 1800, though, politics distanced the pair.
Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."
Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed 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.
Martha Washington told a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind."
Think back to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. In 1776, they combined to help claim America's independence, and they had nothing but respect for one another. By 1800, though, politics distanced the pair.
Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."
Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed 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.
Martha Washington told a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind."