Sweeney: Let’s learn from previous political turmoil
John Sweeney is the editor of “Delaware’s John Dickinson: The Constant Watchman of Liberty,” published by the Delaware Heritage Commission. He lives near Wilmington.
Something about this political season reminds me of that old Yogi Berra line: “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
Do any of the following sound familiar?
Hyperpartisanship? Paranoia? Conspiracies? Uncontrolled immigration?
How about massive government debt? Tax protests? Insurrections? Riots? Fake news? Foreign tampering in our elections?
Today’s headlines, right?
More like the 1790s’.
The 1790s? That was supposed to be our golden age. George Washington was president. John Adams was vice president. Thomas Jefferson was secretary of state, and Alexander Hamilton was secretary of the Treasury. You can’t get better than that.
The 1790s may have been an age of powdered wigs and silver-buckled shoes. But it was also an age of violent passions.
It was a time when criticizing the government was against the law. Bad-mouth the president and you could land in jail. Literally.
One historian described the 1790s this way:
“By the middle of the decade, American political life had reached the point where there was no genuine debate. No real dialogue was possible, for there no longer existed the toleration of differences, which debate requires. Instead, the decade had an emotional and psychological climate in which stereotypes stood in the place of reality.”
But why would sane, respectable people think like that?
Back then, they may have had an excuse. The government was new.
The root of the problem, however, was that Americans had real differences. They differed in what kind of government they wanted. Who would benefit from it? And who would lose?
Hamilton wanted a bank. He dreamed of a manufacturing center. He saw urban, commercial cities as the future.
Jefferson viewed this with horror. He feared cities. He saw yeoman farmers as the future, as well as the past.
The two sides differed on the political revolution in France and the Industrial Revolution in England.
Hamilton fed secrets to British agents in America. Jefferson encouraged the French Revolutionists in America.
The two sides started a war via newspapers, then the most important means of communication. Hamilton supported the Gazette of the United States with government contracts, so it could attack Jefferson.
Jefferson started his own newspaper, the National Gazette, and paid off the editor with a no-show government job, so he could attack Hamilton.
Other newspapers and other editors followed. Slurs dominated headlines. Rumors spread along with the news, and each side blamed the other for every imagined evil. Attacks never ceased. Eventually, even George Washington, the hero of the Revolution, became a target of name calling and was labeled dishonest.
Hamilton had a cynical insight. He said the Jeffersonian papers used repetition to create an image of the opponent as a monster. Say it over and over, and the image takes hold.
Soon, all federalists transformed into monarchists. All Republicans morphed into atheistic anarchists.
When lower-class citizens stepped out of place and blamed the government for their problems, Washington denounced them. They were “self-created” societies, intent on tearing down America.
When an excise tax on whiskey was imposed, the Western states rebelled and were put down by force.
Washington blamed the “self-created” societies and their sinister influence.
Jefferson, once a close friend of Washington’s, couldn’t believe the president favored Hamilton. That could only mean one thing: Washington’s mind was slipping. He was too old to be in office, Jefferson told friends. Soon, opposition papers picked up the rumor.
Then, President John Adams and the federalists were determined to wipe out that opposition. Jefferson and his democratic Republicans were determined to do the same to the federalists.
Those in power, Adams and company, produced the Alien and Sedition acts to squelch dissent. The Alien Act aimed at the Irish immigrants who tended to support the Jeffersonians. The Sedition Act made it a crime to criticize the government.
Prosecutions were a setup. The judges were politically active federalists who steamrolled defense attorneys. Editors were jailed. The Jeffersonians defied the federalists by starting even more newspapers.
As the election of 1800 approached, both sides talked civil war. The Virginia Assembly increased the size of the militia and stocked its armories with weapons and gunpowder for the expected clash with the federal government. Hamilton, in charge of the U.S. Army, announced plans to place troops on Virginia’s border in anticipation of the fight.
The presidential election almost ended in disaster. Because of a quirk in the Constitution, Jefferson and his vice presidential running mate, Aaron Burr, ended up with the same number of electoral votes.
The selection of the president was thrown to the House of Representatives. The House voted 35 times without a winner. Rumors of a deal with Burr threw the country into a tizzy.
But, on the 36th ballot, cooler heads prevailed. Led by Delaware Rep. James Bayard, federalists stepped back and found a compromise. Jefferson won.
Even more important, Adams lost. He thought it ended his political career; he walked away from the office.
It was the first time in history that a country witnessed a peaceful transfer of power.
The American people were ready for peace. The young republic would continue.
Unfortunately, a pattern can be seen here. Periodically, in our country, political passions soar to a fever pitch. One group sees the other as Satan running loose.
Passions rose so high in the 1850s that only a shooting war could bring them down. Anti-Bolshevik hysteria shot so high during World War I that dissenters were locked up, and newspapers closed.
The “Red Scare” and blacklists haunted the ’50s. The Vietnam War tore the nation apart in the ’60s.
Except for the Civil War, we managed to step back each time. We became fellow Americans again.
Can we do it now?
We can if we stop thinking of our opponents as Satan. They really are fellow Americans.
We should treat them that way.
Otherwise, it’s déjà vu all over again.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
