It was one of the most controversial elections in American history. Negative campaigning had reached an all time high. The Incumbent, having grown increasingly unpopular in his previous four years as President, had been labeled as a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant. His opponent, who had tried to work in the President’s administration, was accused of being a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward.
The entourage of the opposing candidate accused the President of having a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” Hardly flattering. As a rebuttal, the President’s representatives released statements that his opponent was a “mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a mulatto father.” This infuriated the President’s opponent so much that he hired a hatchet man named to spread damaging information about the President. This employee’s information about the Commander in Chief spread so quickly and was considered so insidious that the man later served jailed time for slander.
In the end, Thomas Jefferson defeated President John Adams in the election of 1800. Thomas Jefferson served two terms as president. He and John Adams eventually put their differences behind them, and wrote a series of friendly letters for the last decade of their lives. They both died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.’
JohnJFrady.com 