About President Jackson, (seventh president, 1829–37,) the Cincinnati Gazette published an article in 1828 saying: “General Jackson’s mother was a common prostitute, brought to this country by the British soldiers! She afterwards married a mulatto man, with whom she had several children, of which number General Jackson is one!” They also called his wife, Rachel, an adulteress because she had been married before. Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president, the general who led the Civil War: The Detroit Free Press published comments him that they attributed to “leading Radicals”: “Grant is a Drunkard”; “Grant is a man of vile habits, and of no ideas”; “The nation owes it to its self respect to tolerate imbecility in politics no longer”; “Grant is as brainless as his saddle.” These are all insults at a time when some men in the south still fought duels over insults. It was legal.
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