Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams

(stock photo)

Jim Bennett writes a weekly column offering historical context to current events. Bennett served as Secretary of State of Alabama from 1993 - 2003 and from 2013 - 2015. He was a reporter for the Birmingham Post-Herald from 1961 to 1971. He can be reached at: jimbennettwriter58@gmail.com

We may be headed into the biggest political donnybrook any can remember this fall if the Donald and Hillary are the last two standing.

With both of them carrying such high negatives, look for a scorched earth race to the finish. Hillary had a disapproval rating of 59% in a recent National Review poll, Trump 62.

While it is true that negative campaigning wins elections, and every campaign has its share of dirty tricks, no modern presidential campaign can really claim the banner of being the worst ever, not even this one.

That dishonor goes to the White House run in 1828 between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams. Even the candidate's wives were fair game.

Although reminiscent of some of the claims in the current contest with candidates being called liars, fakes and dangerous, it is little wonder the Jackson-Adams campaign didn't end up in a duel. Jackson was famous for that having been the only president ever to kill a man at 10 paces.

Both candidates clearly disliked the other even to the point of making their opponent's wives a part of the campaign.

Louisa Adams was a Washington socialite who became her husband's campaign manager. She had to divert some of her energies defending her foreign birth which became a campaign issue. She vigorously denied the claim of being un-American, declaring she was "the daughter of an American Republican Merchant." Also called into account were her lavish parties, some of which lasted into the morning hours.

Jackson's wife, Rachel, was in for a rougher time. She had been married--by most accounts unhappily--before meeting Jackson. Rachel divorced her first husband, but the Adams campaign insinuated that her divorce had not gone through at the time she married Jackson. Jackson was accused of adultery and living in sin. Rachel was accused of bigamy.

It got worse. Adams not only was accused of having a "foreign wife" born in England but of gambling in the White House, traveling on Sunday and pimping. Adams' forces retorted that Jackson disobeyed military orders, had aided Aaron Burr in a conspiracy against the United States and had the personality of a dictator. He was alternatively described as a gambler, cock fighter, slave trader, drunkard, thief and a liar.

Adams had beaten Jackson in the presidential campaign of 1824 when the presidential race ended up in the House of Representatives because neither candidate received an electoral majority. Jackson said a conspiracy in the House led to Adam's election where the ring leader, House Speaker Henry Clay, ended up with appointment as secretary of state after throwing his support to Adams.

Jackson and Adams were polar opposites, Adams, the son of a founding father, Jackson, the son of a modest Irish farmer who died in an accident three weeks before he was born.

As the mud flew back and forth, the campaign got so nasty that Adams completely withdrew from any active participation, feeling that he was above the fray. In the end, Jackson won easily in 1828, with 56 percent of the vote and 178 electoral votes to Adams' 83.

Sadly, the sleazy campaign had a more serious effect on Jackson's life. The unending accusations of adultery and bigamy took their toll on Rachel Jackson, who, shortly after her husband's election, took sick and died, mere days before they were to head to Washington to begin his presidency. Jackson was devastated. He never wavered from the belief that his beloved Rachel was killed by the attacks from the Adams' camp.

On the day he was inaugurated, he refused to make the traditional visit to the outgoing president. "Any man who would permit a public journal, under his control, to assault the reputation of a respectable female, much less the wife of his rival and competitor for first office in the world was not entitled to the respect of any honorable man."

The campaign went down in history as the worst, but who knows what's to come in a potential Hillary versus Donald race this fall? This one could end up making 1828 look like a walk in the park.