There were some mean spirited and even scandalous elections in our nations early years. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had a furious campaign against each other. Their early friendship was almost completely ended. They didn’t speak to each other for a dozen years.

But a mutual friend and fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush, reminded them of their early support of each other at the Continental Congress and what they had accomplished together. They soon patched things up and wrote each other for the next 14 years. They continued their friendship mostly through the mails. They talked about every subject that interested them. Which is many!

That pales in comparison to the election today. And to the elections of 1876. In that election, the Washington Post insisted that Samuel Tilden had won the voting. A Congressional Committee however found Rutherford Hayes to be the actual winner and he became President.

The Post in a discourteous manner referred to Hayes as “the bogus President”, “his fraudulency”, and even “that acting President”!

Are things much better today?