IT AIN'T BEANBAG:

The Mudslingers: a review of A MAGNIFICENT CATASTROPHE: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign By Edward J. Larson (Gil Troy, 12/16/07, NY Times Book Review)

A look at how the framers acted should calm today’s grumbling about the 2008 campaign’s excessive length and bruising partisanship. Examining Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr during the critical 1800 election, the historian Edward Larson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his book on the Scopes trial, both deifies and debunks the founders in “A Magnificent Catastrophe.” As he shows, they pummeled one another, inventing many of the dirty tactics that are all too familiar to modern voters. Admiring their talents, if not their morals, Larson declares: “They could write like angels and scheme like demons.” [...]

In 1800, Adams and his Federalist Party supported England, while Jefferson and his Republican Party preferred France. The Federalists embraced Hamilton’s plans for a national finance system fostering industrial development. The Republicans advocated limited, decentralized state governments that would preserve America’s agrarian character.

Such differences spurred vicious clashes. Federalists charged that Jefferson would import the French Revolution, threatening “liberty, religion and the Constitution of the United States.” Equally hysterical Republicans, fearing a British-style aristocracy, challenged voters to choose between “peace or war, happiness or misery, opulence or ruin!” When Republicans won in New York, some Federalists considered overriding the results, preferring civil war to Jefferson as president.

Further complicating the situation — and enhancing the drama — personal rivalries ripped apart both parties. Hamilton clashed with Adams, guaranteeing a Republican victory. Because the Constitution failed initially to distinguish between votes cast for president and for vice president, Jefferson ended up tied with his fellow Republican, Aaron Burr, slated to be vice president. Most Federalists distrusted Burr, but they supported him because they hated Jefferson more.

Yesterday Bill Shaheen quit (was fired from?) Hillary Clinton's campaign here in NH because he (husband of the former governor and likely senate candidate in the state) pointed out that the GOP would use facts about Barrack Obama against him the general election. If you think that's too dirty, you don't deserve to win the presidency of a great country.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 14, 2007 8:38 PM