Historical Political Smears

Source: h2g2.com This article is the work of the website and the blogger makes no claims to authorship
Early on, the US was as politically divided as it ever has been. There were two camps, two parties, known as the Republicans and the Federalists, both with that mindset, an anything-to-win mentality. Newspapers were widely read, which is not surprising, because they were highly entertaining focused on opinions, rants and analysis. Most were highly partisan, and they spared no effort in attacking and attempting to destroy their political opponents. Dripping with vitriol and colorful accusations, the editors tended to favor the technique of throwing everything negative they could think of at an enemy, to see what would stick.
Some of the earliest partisan newspapers were little more than acts of ventriloquism by the political titans of the day. Alexander Hamilton (Federalist) created a newspaper called The Gazette of the United States. Thomas Jefferson put a man on the payroll of the State Department, which allowed him to start a Republican opposition newspaper, called, confusingly the National Gazette. Through these two papers, they exchanged accusations of corruption, anarchism, monarchism, aristocracy and amoralism.
The most interesting Republican newspapermen was James Callendar — a 'scandalmonger' had been run out of his native Scotland, emigrated to the US . Jefferson helped him secure writing work for The Aurora. His exposure of Alexander Hamilton's affair with a woman named Maria Reynolds (and her husband's subsequent blackmail of him) helped to destroy the former Federalist leader. Callendar called Adams, a 'hideous hermaphroditical character which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman', a 'repulsive pedant', a 'gross hypocrite' and 'that strange compound of ignorance and ferocity, of deceit and weakness'. For these words, he was found in violation of the notorious Sedition Act, and was imprisoned for nine months.
When Jefferson was elected partly due to Callendar's work as a hatchet-man against Adams), Callendar hoped to get a government job. Jefferson refused him, and in retaliation, Callendar printed a story alleging an affair between Jefferson and one of his slaves named Sally Hemings. He wrote:
“It is well known that the man whom it delighteth the people to honor [Jefferson], keeps, and for many years past has kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves. Her name is SALLY.... The name of her eldest son is TOM. His features are said to bear a striking, although sable resemblance to those of the President himself.
The Federalists tried to destroy President Jefferson. Lines of doggerel appeared in Federalist newspapers:
Of all the damsels on the green
On mountain or in valley
A lass so luscious ne'er was seen
As Monticellan Sally
Callendar ended up as a miserable drunk — loathed by both sides of the political spectrum. In June, 1803, his dead body was found floating on the James River. No one knows exactly what happened to him, but it's not difficult to guess.
1800 — Atheist versus Aristocrat
Adams and his allies seized upon the concept of Jefferson making his slaves into sex servants. They called him 'a mean-spirited low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father'. Jefferson was also attacked for being an Athiest.
The Jeffersonian forces smeared Adams (or 'Old Rotundity' as they called him) with everything they could think of. Republicans asserted that Adams was an aristocrat who wanted to be made into an American King. They claimed that Adams would have his family intermarry with British Royalty.
A Jefferson Presidency was envisaged by one Federalist paper: Murder, robbery, rape, adultery and incest will be openly taught and practiced, the air will be rent with the cries of the distressed, the soil will be soaked with blood and the nation black with crimes.
Anderw Jacksonian Democracy
Oh, Andy! Oh, Andy, How many men have you hanged in your life? How many weddings make a wife?
He did not like it when the women in his life were attacked. One Adams partisan described him as a 'gambler, a cock-fighter, a slave trader, “and the husband of a really fat wife'. A Kentucky paper called Jackson's wife a 'dirty, black wench!'. Additionally, one widely distributed handbill claimed that Jackson's mother was a prostitute.
Jackson's wife had previously been married to a man named Lewis Robards, and had obtained a divorce before marrying Andrew Jackson. Or, at least she thought so. It turned out that the divorce was never technically finalized, and thus her marriage to Jackson was invalid on a technicality. The press did not let Jackson put this behind him. Newspapers referred to her as Mrs Robards, and one writer asked 'Ought a convicted adulteress and her paramour husband to be placed in the highest offices of this free and Christian land?' Rachel died a short while after the election of 1828, and President-elect Jackson claimed that the attacks in the press had killed her.
Tennessee politician named Davy Crockett (of frontier fame) accused Van Buren of wearing a corset: Van Buen is laced up in corsets, such as women in a town wear, and, if possible, tighter than the best of them. It would be difficult to say, from his personal appearance, whether he was a man or woman, but for his large red and gray whiskers. Van Buren lost his bid for re-election.
Abraham Lincoln is today remembered as perhaps the greatest US President One New York paper suggested that 'Barnum should buy and exhibit him as a zoological curiosity'. A Charleston paper had this to say:

“A horrid looking wretch is he, sooty and scoundrelly in aspect, a cross between the nutmeg dealer, the horse swapper, and the night man... He is a lank-sided Yankee of the uncomeliest visage, and of the dirtiest complexion.
Another newspaper, said he was the 'most ungainly mass of legs and arms and hatchet face ever strung on a single frame.' Political cartoons pictured him as a monkey. Lincoln remained good-humoured through it all. He willingly described himself as 'homely'. During one of his famous debates with Democrat Stephen Douglas, his opponent accused him of being 'two-faced'. Lincoln asked the audience, 'If I had another face, do you think I would wear this one?'
“Mr Lincoln stands six feet twelve in his socks, which he changes once every ten days. His anatomy is composed mostly of bones, and when walking he resembles the offspring of a happy marriage between a derrick and a windmill. When speaking he reminds one of the old signal-telegraph that used to stand on Staten Island. His head is shaped something like a ruta-bago, and his complexion is that of a Saratoga trunk. His hands and feet are plenty large enough, and in society he has the air of having too many of them. The glove-makers have not yet had time to construct gloves that will fit him. In his habits he is by no means foppish, though he brushes his hair sometimes and is said to wash. He could hardly be called handsome, though he is certainly much better looking since he had the small-pox.
1876 — Swindler versus Syphilitic
The Presidential election of 1876 is remembered as perhaps the closest and messiest election. Republican Rutherford B Hayes of Ohio was accused of once, after having too much to drink, he shot his mother. He was also accused of income tax fraud, drawing the salaries of dead Civil War soldiers while serving in the Union Army and favouring a scheme to prevent immigrants from obtaining citizenship. Samuel Tilden accused as an alcoholic and was afflicted with syphilis, in cahoots with rich robber barons and corrupt political kingpins, favouring the reinstitution of slavery. Tilden won the national popular vote total by about a quarter of a million votes. Hayes still won the Presidency.
1884 — Public Delinquent versus Private Delinquent
Democrat Grover Cleveland of New York against Republican James Blaine of Maine. During the campaign, a woman named Maria Halpin claimed that Cleveland was the father of her illegitimate child. He admitted report of his fathering a child out of wedlock were true. In response, Republicans started a chant:
Ma, ma, where's my Pa?
Gone to the White House
Ha ha ha!


Other Great Smears
1844 — Supporters of James Polk claimed that Henry Clay4 had broken every one of the Ten Commandments.
1856 — The Democratic James Buchanan had a medical condition which affected his vision. To compensate for this, he usually tilted his head to the left. Opponents claimed this was a lingering effect of his trying to hang himself. The Republican nominee was John Frémont. His opponents falsely spread rumours that he was Catholic (which would have made him all but unelectable at the time).
1950 — Richard Nixon ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas for the US Senate in California. She called him 'Tricky Dick', implying corruption and underhanded campaign tactics. He called her 'Pink Lady', implying that she was a communist sympathizer.
1968 — Lyndon Johnson's Presidential campaign colouring books depicted Barry Goldwater in Ku Klux Klan robes.
1972 — At a Florida rally for Governor George Wallace, campaign literature stated, 'If you liked Hitler, you'll just love Wallace'.
1972 — During the Democratic primary, President Nixon sent out letters on the stationary of Senator Ed Muskie of Maine (who was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President) falsely claiming that Vice President Hubert Humphrey had been arrested for drunk driving.
1994 — Infamous political consultant Karl Rove ran a campaign against a Democratic State Supreme Court Justice in Alabama. He is alleged to have spread rumours that the Justice (who was active in several children's charities) was a paedophile.
2000 — During the crucial South Carolina Republican primary, a 'push-poll'5 was conducted asking voters if their vote would be affected if they knew that Presidential candidate John McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. This rumour stuck partially because McCain was often seen with his adopted Bangladeshi child Bridget.
2004 — A group calling themselves 'Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' claimed (among other things) that Democratic Presidential candidate and war hero John Kerry had not been wounded in Vietnam, but had faked it.
When a vote is at stake. It’s best to avoid the appearance of being hypocritical, hermaphroditical, ignorant, deceitful, weak, atheist, monarchist, aristocratic, corrupt, a gambler, a pimp, a fornicator, a cockfighter, a barfighter, a dueller, a murderer, a dandy, a corset-wearer, simian, homely, a graverobber, syphilitic, a fraud, an alcoholic, a communist, a mother-shooter, anti-Catholic, a miscegenator, a phoney, a drunk driver, a sinner, a suicide-attempter, a racist, a paedophile or a member of the KKK. But remember, if you are unfairly attacked in the US political arena, you are part of a long and proud tradition — so wear your badge of mud with pride.