10 Deeply Personal Historical Rivalries

Many historic feuds are long running rivalries. Sometimes, though, they are confined into a very small period of time and allow for an exceptional amount of hot goss to occur.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were buddies, and that friendship may have stayed intact if not for the fact they ran in what is considered one of the dirtiest elections in the history of democracy.

The election of 1800 was a rematch of the election from four years previous, but the actions between the two friends are what give the election the distinction of being one of the first negative campaigns ever waged.

Mostly done through proxies and supporters, with Jefferson-aligned news editor James Callender once called Adams a “hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman."

In response to the gender-bending statement the Adams camp published leaflets calling Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father."

Jefferson ended up tying with Aaron Burr (more on him in a bit), but would eventually come out as the definitive winner. Adams and Jefferson became friends again in later life through correspondence and even died on the same day. Sweet.