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Home , Aaron Burr, John Adams

SECTION B, PAGE 6 THE BLADE: TOLEDO, OHIO t SUNDAY, , 2004

C M Y K

THE BLADE, TOLEDO, OHIO ■ S U N D A Y , JULY 4, 2004 S E C T I O N B , P A G E 6

Thomas Benjamin Jefferson As this election year progresses, do you find yourself already tired of the mudslinging and name-calling, Franklin of ‘mis-leader’ and ‘flip-flopper’? Do you wish to go back to a simpler time when everybody got along and political discourse was thoughtful and high-minded? Well, keep wishing, because it never was that way.

If ignorance is Feuding founders He means well bliss, why aren’t for‘ his country, is ‘ ohn hated Benjamin modern campaign. Jefferson’s Demo- one of his sons marry a daughter of newspapers proclaimed that if Jef- always an honest more people Franklin. thought cratic-Republicans claimed Adams King George and reunite the coun- ferson were elected, “murder, rob- happy? Jhis vice president, Aaron , was was “an avowed friend of the monar- try with Britain. They also accused bery, rape, adultery, and incest will man, often a a traitor. Alexander con- chy,” — the equivalent of calling some- Adams of sending Gen. Pinck- be openly taught and proclaimed. wise one, but ’ sidered both Jefferson and Adams top one a Communist during the McCarthy ney to England to procure four young The air will be rent with the cries of the Thomas Jefferson political enemies, but held a special period — and the , backing mistresses, two for Adams and two distressed, the soil will be soaked with sometimes and grudge against Burr. Before our Adams, countered that Jefferson was for Pinckney. When Adams heard the blood, and the nation black with founders finished the war for inde- an “atheist, demagogue, coward, story his response was, “If this be true, crimes.” Federalists also spread word in some things, I never thought pendence, they were well on their mountebank, trickster, and Franco- General Pinckney has kept them all for of Jefferson having been a coward absolutely out of him an honest, way toward fighting a war of words and maniac.” himself and cheated me out of my during the War, that ‘ slander with each other. The rematch of 1800 proved even two.” he stole from widows, and that he his senses. frank-dealing The mud really began to fly with the sleazier. Jefferson’s people spread the The Federalists attacked Jeffer- had fathered children by his slave, ’ CYAN first real presidential race, where rumor that Adams was going to have son with just as much fury. . man, but consid- Adams and Jefferson sought to replace When you think about it, “flip- on ered him as a George . Fledging polit- flopper” and “mis-leader” rate as ical parties’ portrayals of the tepid compared to our founding crooked gun or opposition’s man proved to be fathers’ rough-and-tumble A crafty and other perverted as dirty and nasty as any standards. ‘lecherous old machine, whose hypocrite whose aim or shot you very statue

could never be seems to gloat on MAGENTA sure of. the wenches as ’ they walk the Thomas Jefferson on State House Yard. He is distrust- ’ William Corbett on

‘ful, obstinate, Benjamin Franklin YELLOW excessively vain, and takes no Oh I have read counsel from ‘ [Hamilton’s] anyone. heart in his ’ wicked eyes Thomas Jefferson

on John Adams many a time. BLACK The very devil is All tongue, in them. without‘ either ’ head or heart. on ’ Thomas Jefferson on That Washington‘ was not a scholar is A slur upon the certain. That he ‘moral govern- Alexander Hamilton is too illiterate, ment of the unlearned, world.’ unread for his Adams station is equally on Thomas Jefferson beyond dispute. The Aaron John Adams on ’ Burr Declaration‘ of Independence It has been the I always ‘political career considered as a of this man to theatrical show. begin with Jefferson ran hypocrisy, away with all the ARTICLES AND proceed with ILLUSTRATIONS stage effect of BY WES BOOHER arrogance, and that ... and the finish with glory of it.’ contempt.’ John Adams on Thomas Jefferson on John Adams Hamilton, Burr, and the John Adams didn’t like anybody The politics of the day could go from snip- weight against then-vice president Burr, ing to something far more deadly. In the case keeping him from the governorship of New John Adams, called the crankiest was being diminished as the repu- And it frustrated him. of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, it York. Burr, having enough of Hamilton’s founding father by some historians, tations of men like Washington and • As for Jefferson — his former resulted in the death of the former and the insults, accused Hamilton of having called seems to have had a feud going with Thomas Jefferson grew. Adams, a good friend — their relationship political destruction of the latter. him a “dangerous” man in public. Hamilton just about everyone. short, spunky New Englander — was destroyed with all the intrigue Hamilton, as George Washington’s sec- replied to the charge, letters were exchanged, • In 1778, Adams joined Ben- whose favorite form of conversa- that occurred in the election of 1796, retary of the treasury, was one of early and eventually Burr challenged Hamilton jamin Franklin in Paris as part of a tion was an argument — knew that Adams’ perceived disloyalty of Jef- America’s premier statesmen and had bril- to a duel. The two men met on , three-man team to seek French sup- the tall, soft-spoken, aristocratic ferson as Adams’ vice president, and liantly put the young nation’s fis- 1804, at Weehawken Heights, port in the war of independence Virginians would go down better in the wild election of 1800. Adams cal house in order. But he was N.J. Hamilton was mortally with Britain. While it started out the history books than he would. did not even attend his former friend’s often controversial, and was an A man of wounded and died the next day. agreeably enough (Adams had inauguration. unapologetic adulterer — he irregular‘ and While there can be no doubt referred to Franklin as a “great and But after more than a decade of once had to make a public that Hamilton lost in combat, good man”), Franklin and Adams no communication, at a time when account of an affair in order to insatiable ambi- Hamilton’s supporters won the grew to loathe each other. It soon both of them were retired from pub- explain payments he made to the tion ...who ought duel of words after his death. became Adams’ opinion that Franklin lic life, something extraordinary woman’s husband. Burr was vilified and eventual- was too deferential to the French, too happened. They began a series of let- Burr was an opportunist, not be trusted ly brought up on murder charges much of a ladies’ man, and just too ters that rebuilt their friendship. willing to do whatever it took to in and . lazy. Franklin thought Adams too • As President Adams struggled gain power, often switching par- with the reins of Burr’s political career died strident and self-important. to get re-elected in 1800, fellow Fed- ties and locales for a better deal. government. with Hamilton. While he was • While Adams did not dislike eralist party leader Hamilton wrote For years, Hamilton had been never convicted of murder, he George Washington, he grew dis- a tome criticizing him, calling Adams openly critical of Burr, sometimes ’ never again held elected office. Alexander Hamilton trustful of the public’s growing admi- John unfit to lead the country. Hamil- referring to him as an “embryo- on Aaron Burr Later, after several misadven- ration for the first president. Part Adams ton’s actions effectively split the Caesar.” tures, Burr was accused of trea- of the problem was that, as Wash- party, contributed to Adams losing During the election of 1800, son by President Jefferson. He ington’s vice president, Adams was the election for a second term, and an electoral tie between Jefferson and his run- was tried and acquitted because the state did kept out of the loop of influence. “I doomed the to even- ning mate, Burr, left the choice of chief not have the required number of witness- am vice president; in this I am noth- tual extinction. to the House of Representatives. es. Burr’s name became second only to ing,” Adams is reported to have said. This led Adams to describe Ham- Hamilton's influence made Jefferson pres- ’s in infamy in relation to his The truth is, he felt that as the his- liton as “a man devoid of every moral ident and Burr vice president — an out- country.

of this new country was being Sources: by Joseph J. Ellis, Great principle.” come that was in accordance with the pop- Hamiliton, on the other hand, is with us written, his role in the revolution American Scandals by Michael Farquhar, John Adams by ular will, but left Burr disgruntled. yet today, his face staring at us whenever we David McCullough, washingtonpost.com, In 1804, Hamilton threw all his political open our wallets, a fixture on the $10 bill. digitalhistory.uh.edu, wikipedi.org, and insultmonger.com

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