Bad boys, bad boys
Anyone who thinks the 2016 presidential campaign was especially dirty is out of touch with our political history. We have elected several presidents whose closets were full of skeletons.
One (Jefferson) had an ongoing affair with a slave woman that produced several children. Grover Cleveland admitted to fathering a child out of wedlock. During the presidential campaign his Republican detractors sang: “Ma, Ma; where’s my Pa? Gone to the Whitehouse, haw! Haw! Haw!” This, of course, was long before the disclosure of the wandering ways of John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton. Actually, in today’s world aberrant behavior by politicians raises few eyebrows anymore. We must be getting more like the Europeans with their “boys will be boys” attitudes toward delinquent public servants.
The disclosure and airing on national TV of a tape in which the thrice-married Donald Trump graphically described where and how to grab women for the best results raised few eyebrows and apparently cost him few votes, even in communities that purport to be deeply religious (Trump took almost 85 percent of the vote in Catoosa and Walker counties.) But, hands down, the 1828 presidential campaign involving Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams was the nastiest on record.
Jackson was the first nonaristocrat to run for U.S. president. Previous presidents had all been well-born, welleducated and wealthy. Old Hickory was none of these. A man of violent temper, Jackson was accused by Adams’ supporters of multiple offenses. He was accused of murder, both as a dueler in his younger days and as a military commander in the War of 1812. As commander he ordered the execution of six men for desertion, the common practice in those days. And dueling was a common practice on the frontier in 1806 when he killed an opponent.
Pro-Adams newspapers called Jackson’s wife Rachel, not a “shady lady” or even a prostitute, but a “w _ _ _ _ e.” This campaign sleaze had a serious effect on Mrs. Jackson, a fine and righteous lady, and more than likely brought on her heart attack and death shortly before Jackson’s inauguration in 1829. Jackson never fully recovered from this tragedy and never forgave Adams’ supporters. One Adams newspaper also wrote “Jacksons mother was a common prostitute brought to this country by British soldiers. She afterward married a mulatto man with whom she had several children, of which number General Jackson is one.” On the day of his inauguration Andrew Jackson refused to acknowledge Adams’ presence or speak to him.
In retaliation, newspapers supporting Jackson accused Adams, a man of impeccable character and moral stature, of pimping women for the Tsar of Russia while accompanying his father there on a diplomatic mission. Adams was also accused of uncontrolled gambling and having a pool table installed in the White House that was paid for by the U.S. government.
What does the airing of all this mischief prove? What am I trying to say? That politicians are mostly a bunch of immoral reprobates? No. I’m simply saying that great men are not always good men.
George B. Reed Jr., who lives in Rossville, can be reached by email at reed1600@bellsouth.net.