American Politics: A History of Invective, Chicanery, and Mudslinging

The 2016 presidential campaign season has been exceptionally entertaining of late—not to mention disgusting, enraging, and outright maddening. So when I ran across this article that I originally posted in this space on October 31, 2012 (and we thought that campaign was appalling!), I decided it was just too applicable not to post again, with a couple of minor updates. I apologize for the rerun, but since several years have passed I hope it entertains you again as much as it did me!

Every presidential campaign season I ruminate on the history of American politics, and since the current primary race is so, um, interesting—and we haven’t even gotten to the main event yet—I thought this would be a timely and lively topic to revisit. We hear a lot of complaints about personal attack ads and dirty tricks, especially from the politicians who are themselves most guilty of using them. But you don’t have to do much digging to discover that political chicanery is a time-honored American tradition that has been exercised with glee since America was still a collection of British colonies on the course toward revolution. So let’s take a quick tour of some of the more egregious examples from our nation’s history.

Political parties didn’t exist in this country until we were well on the way to revolution. At that point, the division between those who supported the British and those who opposed them spawned the Loyalists, or Tories, and the Patriots, or Whigs. There was no such thing as neutrality between the two points of view. Anyone who didn’t support one side was automatically consigned to the opposition. Where Patriots held sway, mobs often forced Loyalists out of their homes, denying them legal counsel and trial. Loyalists might be jailed, have their property confiscated, their citizenship revoked, and even be exiled. Where Loyalists held power, Patriots suffered similar treatment. At times someone of the wrong political persuasion was even tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

Mobs played a big part in colonial politics, particularly in Boston, where Dr. Joseph Warren helped to refine mob rule into an art form. But mobs were a force to be reckoned with throughout the colonies. In June 1775, one placed the home of New Hampshire’s last royal governor, John Wentworth, under siege, demanding he turn over his guest, John Fenton, who had urged acceptance of the latest British proposals to avert the crisis. When Fenton understandably refused to comply, the crowd wheeled a cannon in front of the mansion and beat on the walls with clubs until the hapless offender finally gave himself up. Fearing for his and his family’s safety, that night the governor fled with his wife and young child to the fort in Portsmouth harbor, ending decades of British rule in that colony. Nothing like the direct approach to changing your government!

From America's earliest days as a democracy, name-calling and character assassination has been a highly popular tactic, such as when Davy Crockett accused Martin Van Buren of secretly wearing women’s corsets. In 1828, when John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson vied for president, Jackson’s campaign nicknamed Adams The Pimp, based on a rumor that as the American ambassador to Russia he had forced a young woman into an affair with a Russian nobleman. Adams’ supporters responded by circulating a pamphlet claiming that Jackson's mother had been a prostitute brought to this country by British soldiers, and that Jackson was the offspring of her marriage to a mulatto!

The name-calling in the 1800 presidential election between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, however, takes the prize for no-holds-barred mudslinging. Some of the charges and counter-charges are cited in this hilarious YouTube video. You might want to also check out some of the others that show up on the sidebar for additional entertainment. And you thought our modern politics was bad!

In 1840, American politician Thomas Elder wrote to a friend that “Passion and prejudice properly aroused and directed do about as well as principle and reason in any party contest.” Every campaign season we see the proof of that claim.

So what do you think about the current presidential election? Has the political scene improved any since this article was posted in 2012 or has it degraded even further? What are your main (nonpartisan only!) gripes about American political campaigns? What, if anything, can be done to change things?

~~~

J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers, an author, editor, and publisher, and a lifelong student of history. Her novel Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won ForeWord Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the Year.

An Intriguing Character Emerges in the Revolutionary War’s Southern Campaign

The British were convinced that their southern campaign strategy would bring them victory and an end to what had become an expensive and an increasingly unpopular war in Parliament. There were still many Loyalists in the Carolinas and the British counted on the antagonism between the Patriots and the Loyalists to prove their strategy successful.

British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton left New York in late December 1779 with fourteen warships and 8500 troops on ninety transports. Winter storms off the Outer Banks of North Carolina significantly scattered the ships, but by mid February they had arrived within thirty miles of Charleston. 

This is the story of a lesser known character, a strong and courageous woman by the name of Elizabeth Jackson. Elizabeth and her husband had come from Ireland and settled in the Waxhaws settlement near the North Carolina and South Carolina border. In 1767, after her young husband died unexpectedly, Elizabeth and her three sons moved into the home of her sister and brother-in-law. Her sister had been ailing since moving from Ireland was now an invalid. Elizabeth provided nursing care and housekeeping for the large Scots-Irish immigrant extended family.

All three of Elizabeth’s sons, the youngest being only thirteen, joined the Patriot cause. Her oldest was killed in 1779. After the bloody Battle of Waxhaws her remaining two sons were injured, captured and held prisoner where they became infected with smallpox. Elizabeth arranged a prisoner transfer. The older of  the two died after returning home, and her remaining son took several weeks before he regained enough strength to leave his bed.

The Siege at Charleston began on April 2, 1780 and lasted six weeks. In 1776 and again in 1779 the British had unsuccessfully tried to capture the city of Charleston, but the city’s natural defenses were too strong. But this new campaign would change that ― for awhile.

Charleston Harbor

The Americans suffered their worst defeat of the revolution. Major General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered to British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton. Of the American forces, 92 were killed, 148 were wounded, and 5,266 were captured. Those that were captured were sent to British hulk ships in Charleston Harbor, and some of them were later sent to do service in Jamaica.

The disease and plight of the captives touched many local residents. Many of the women of Charleston began visiting the prison ships bringing food, medicine and comfort to the prisoners; one of these ladies was Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth’s two nephews were captured in the Siege at Charleston, she made trips to the prison ships to bring food, medicine, and to nurse them and other prisoners. She became known as an angel of mercy before herself falling victim to the cholera that swept through the prison ships.

Elizabeth was buried in an unmarked grave. While her youngest and only surviving son promised to locate her remains and rebury her alongside his father and brothers, he was never able to locate her grave. That young man was Andrew Jackson who would one day become the seventh President of the United States.

Jean Lafitte – Pirate, Gentleman, or American Hero?

Jean Lafitte is one of the most fascinating figures in American History. Though he first appeared in New Orleans in 1803, no one knows where he came from. A fugitive from the slave revolts in Haiti? The son of aristocrats guillotined during the French Revolution? He gave different accounts to different people depending on his mood and need. However, it is undisputed that he must have at least grown up in the New Orleans area due to his knowledge of its marshes and bayous and his ability to speak French, Spanish, English, and Italian!

By all accounts, Jean Lafitte was a pirate, although he claimed to have a letter of marque from Columbia to act as a privateer against Spain. He created a haven for pirates on Barataria, a tiny islet south of New Orleans, where he built houses, a café, gambling den, and a brothel. He was the leader of close to 1000 men on that colony and even devised a set of rules for them to live by. Hanging for murder, being cast adrift for molesting a woman, etc. . .  Lafitte prized the American Constitution for the freedom it gave its people and he, therefore, prohibited his men from attacking American ships on pain of death.

Regardless of his loyalty to America, the governor of Louisiana, William C.C. Claiborne,  offered a $500 reward for Lafitte's arrest. Within a week of the notices, new wanted posters appeared, offering $1500 to anyone who delivered the governor to Barataria!!  Signed by Jean Lafitte, of course!

When the War of 1812 ravaged through America, Jean Lafitte sought out Andrew Jackson and offered his assistance.  Though Jackson initially was against accepting help from the “hellish banditti”  he relented because of the vast amount of ammunition and men Lafitte offered. As it turned out, the British would not have captured New Orleans without the pirate’s help. For this, President Madison pardoned Lafitte and his men.

After the war, New Orelanians became less accepting of privateers and smugglers and Lafitte moved his colony to Galveston island. Though the colony initially prospered, by its very nature, it attracted villains and fugitives who refused to obey Lafitte's laws. In 1821, the American Navy demanded the renegades leave the island or be blown to bits. Lafitte set his stronghold aflame and disappeared under the cover of night.

What happened to Jean Lafitte? Did he continue on with his piracy in other parts of the world? Did he retire and raise a family in some obscure town in Virginia? No one knows.  Which simply adds to the mystic and allure of the legend.

American Politics: A History of Invective, Chicanery, and Mudslinging

Every presidential campaign season I ruminate on the history of American politics, and since we’re coming down to the wire in the current race, I thought this would be a timely—and lively—topic for discussion. We hear a lot of complaints about personal attack ads and dirty tricks, including from the politicians who are guilty of using them. But you don’t have to do much digging to discover that political chicanery is a time-honored American tradition that has been exercised with glee since America was still a collection of British colonies on the course toward revolution. So let’s take a quick tour of some of the more egregious examples from our nation’s history.

Political parties didn’t exist in this country until we were well on the way to revolution. At that point, the division between those who supported the British and those who opposed them spawned the Loyalists, or Tories, and the Patriots, or Whigs. There was no such thing as neutrality between the two points of view. Anyone who didn’t support one side was automatically consigned to the opposition. Where Patriots held sway, mobs often forced Loyalists out of their homes, denying them legal counsel and trial. Loyalists might be jailed, have their property confiscated, their citizenship revoked, and even be exiled. Where Loyalists held power, Patriots suffered similar treatment. At times someone of the wrong political persuasion was even tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

Mobs played a big part in colonial politics, particularly in Boston, where Dr. Joseph Warren helped to refine mob rule into an art form. But mobs were a force to be reckoned with throughout the colonies. In June 1775, one placed the home of New Hampshire’s last royal governor, John Wentworth, under siege, demanding he turn over his guest, John Fenton, who had urged acceptance of the latest British proposals to avert the crisis. When Fenton understandably refused to comply, the crowd wheeled a cannon in front of the mansion and beat on the walls with clubs until the hapless offender finally gave himself up. Fearing for his and his family’s safety, that night the governor fled with his wife and young child to the fort in Portsmouth harbor, ending decades of British rule in that colony. Nothing like the direct approach to changing your government!

From America's earliest days as a democracy, name-calling and character assassination has been a highly popular tactic, such as when Davy Crockett accused Martin Van Buren of secretly wearing women’s corsets. In 1828, when John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson vied for president, Jackson’s campaign nicknamed Adams The Pimp, based on a rumor that as the American ambassador to Russia he had forced a young woman into an affair with a Russian nobleman. Adams’ supporters responded by circulating a pamphlet claiming that Jackson's mother had been a prostitute brought to this country by British soldiers, and that Jackson was the offspring of her marriage to a mulatto!


The name-calling in the 1800 presidential election between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, however, takes the prize for no-holds-barred mudslinging. Some of the charges and counter-charges are cited in this hilarious YouTube video: Election of 1800 Attack Ads. And you thought our modern political chicanery was bad!

In 1840, American politician Thomas Elder wrote to a friend that “Passion and prejudice properly aroused and directed do about as well as principle and reason in any party contest.” Every campaign season we see the proof of that claim!

So what do you think? Has the political scene improved any today? What are your main (nonpartisan only!) gripes about American political campaigns? What, if anything, can be done to change things?