When Politics Get Personal: Politicians’ Most Insulting Slurs & Feuds

Jefferson Called John Adams A “Hideous Hermaphroditical Character”

Political insults have been around since the dawn of the United States. And even the Founding Fathers had some clever, yet rude, ways to describe their political adversaries. Members of Thomas Jefferson’s campaign described John Adams during the 1800 president election as a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” Ouch! That’s a pretty rough way to attack an opponent. Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams, later hit back at Jefferson in his diary, writing that he was “a slur upon the moral government of the world.”