\tAnd the negative campaigning was not a one sided affair. John Adams responded that \u201cIf Thomas Jefferson wins, 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. Are you prepared to see your dwellings in flames, female chastity violated, children writhing on a pike?\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAdams also commented that \u201cJefferson is the son of a half-breed Indian squaw raised on hoe cakes\u201d while also commenting about John Hamilton, another candidate, that he was \u201ca Creole bastard brat of a scotch peddler.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAnd of course the negative campaigning was not limited to the election of 1800; it was the way all campaigns went from that time forward. Andrew Jackson\u2019s character was regularly impugned, along with that of his wife. Stephen Douglas described Abraham Lincoln as a \u201chatchet-faced nutmeg dealer\u201d and Lincoln was regularly described by his opponents, both in the press and those who campaigned against him, as ugly and a \u201cgorilla.\u201d He was regularly accused of war crimes and of being a tyrant. Today we can\u2019t imagine Lincoln being anything but widely loved and respected. But during his political life he was widely hated and mocked, and not just by rebellious southerners. By the end of the Civil War, most people in the re-united America despised Lincoln.<\/p>\n
\tThe civility of modern elections and campaigning, the generally honest and uncorrupt nature of our elections and government are a remarkable change from what went on in the nineteenth century, when vote buying, ballet box tampering, and the disenfranchisement of many voters because of their skin color or nation of origin was both widespread and accepted.<\/p>\n
\tNext time you hear someone comment that \u201cit\u2019s never been so bad\u201d regardless of what they might be discussing, whether politics, crime or the state of society in general, just laugh. Anyone who has really studied history knows that Solomon was right: there really is nothing new under the sun. Solomon also wrote, \u201cDo not say, \u2018Why were the old days better than these?\u2019 For it is not wise to ask such questions.\u201d (Ecclesiastes 7:10) The good old days really weren\u2019t so good or different from today, since people are the same all over, past, present and future.<\/p>\n
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Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere\u2019s nothing new under the sun.\u201d (Ecclesiastes 1:9) When Solomon wrote those words three thousand years ago, did he mean there were no new inventions? No new buildings? His father had seen Israel transition from being a bronze age civilization … Continue reading