Poli-speech

I'm saddened that we as a society think that political campaigns are so nasty that we have to regulate political speech during elections. Tonight I'd like to review some examples from past elections which illustrate how civilized campaigns are these days, and hopefully show that all of this unconstitutional regulation of speech is unnecessary.

1796: Jefferson accused of being a "Franco-Maniac" after a French minister to the U.S. said that American-Franco relations would be better with Jefferson as President. Jefferson also accused of being a coward, atheist, and an anarchist by Adams' supporters. Jefferson loses this one, but comes back in 1800.

1800: Jefferson accused of cheating creditors, of being a Jacobin, a defrauder, mean spirited, son of a half breed woman and a mulatto man, and, again, a coward. Jefferson won.

1804: Jefferson accused of siring children with Sally Hemmings. Jefferson wins term two.

1824: Henry Clay accused of being a drunk and a gambler. Charges of malfeasance were leveled at William Crawford. The election went to the House to be decided between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, who won the electoral and popular vote but not a majority. Clay pulled out of the race, throwing his support behind Adams, who then won in the House vote.

1828: Andrew Jackson's supporters came out with both barrels blazing, accusing Clay and Adams of a corrupt bargain, whereby Clay threw his support behind Adams in 1824 in exchange for Secretary of State. A Jackson newspaper (keep in mind that newspapers of this era were as openly partisan as web logs are today) called Adams the Judas of the west. And this was right after the House went with Adams in 1824. Adams v. Jackson in 1828 was destined from day one of Adams' Presidency elect. Jackson supporters accused Adams of living high on the hog during his presidency. They also claimed that he had scored a young American girl for the Czar while he was minister to Russia. He was also accused of being an elitist. Adams supporters accused Jackson of poor literacy, as being unprepared for the office of the Presidency. Other charges against Jackson included gambling, drunkenness, bigamy, adultery, slavery, theft, and murder. Adams' supporters also published the Coffin Handbill, which showed six coffins of a group of deserters that Jackson tried and had executed during the Creek War. The handbill falsely portrayed one of the deserters in a very sympathetic light, when in reality he had raised hell and deserted. Jackson's wife was also brought into the mess, as Jackson had married her before she was officially divorced from her first husband. She would not live to see her husband's inauguration.

Watch for part two of America's wild, wild history of Presidential elections, or go out and buy the book I pulled this information from: Presidential Campaigns by Paul F. Boller, Jr. And don't let anyone fool you into thinking that our elections today are so terrible that your freedom to speak needs to be abridged to civilize the process. All that serves to do is concentrate power further into the hands of even fewer.