Adams participated in what may have been the nastiest presidential campaign in American history

The mudslinging that took place in the 1800 presidential contest between Adams and the vice president in office, Thomas Jefferson, was far worse than what goes on now. The dispute proceeded beyond ideological differences to personal insults, despite the fact that the Federalist Adams supported a powerful central government and the Democratic-Republican Jefferson supported state autonomy. Jefferson funded the campaign misinformation that claimed Adams was a "hideous hermaphroditical character" who smuggled prostitutes into the nation from England.

Intended to marry one of his kids to a daughter of King George III in order to create a royal bloodline in his family. Jefferson was derided by the president's supporters as a coward, a French radical, and an unbeliever who would steal the nation's bibles and permit "the refuse of Europe" to flood American shores. Abigail Adams lamented that the campaign had produced enough venom to “ruin and corrupt the minds and morals of the best people in the world.”