Feeling like this year's election is just too brutal? Look on the bright side: at least lawmakers haven't clubbed each other on the floor of Congress.

Yet.

Philadelphia may be the birthplace of liberty, but that was a hard birth.

If the Founding Fathers came back now and heard this whole campaign, I think they would have congratulated us on having improved things," said Richard Brookhiser, historian and author of "What Would the Founders Do?"

"You’re less crazy, less vicious. And no one’s being killed," he said.

The Continental Congress of 1775 and 1776 got heated, and so did the Constitutional Convention of 1789. But it's the first decade of American presidency that really got ugly.

Brookhiser says part of the problem during those early elections in 1796 and 1800 was the election system was so new, and no one knew how long the union would last.

The French Revolution also complicated matters, as it became a global war of ideals.

"Jefferson thought Hamilton was a monarchist and some sort of British agent," Brookhiser said. "And (Alexander) Hamilton thought (Thomas) Jefferson and his friends were going to set up guillotines."

Philadelphia figures prominently into these early American years. The city was the largest city in the country at the time and served as the Capitol until the District of Columbia was ready to be lived in.

Tom Daniels is a park ranger with Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. He says unity was a rare thing in the founding era.

"(The Founding Fathers) knew harmony and discord," Daniels said, "because there were many issues they were deeply divided on in their own times."

Congress at the time met at Congress Hall, not far from Independence Hall. That's when the forerunners of the political parties started to form: the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans.

The rhetoric got heated. Back then, the candidates themselves did not campaign, the surrogates did. And they were fierce in attacking their opponents.

Among the insults were the following:

  • John Adams was called a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." He was called a fool, a hypocrite and a tyrant.
  • Jefferson was called "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." He was also called a weakling, an atheist and a libertine.

The insults happened in the newspapers — because the political parties founded the newspapers.

"The Founders discovered using partisan media," Brookhiser said. "Jefferson and (James) Madison had one that was called the National Gazette. Jefferson put the editor on the payroll at the state department."

One of those papers is still around: The New York Post, famously founded by Hamilton.

The rhetoric got so heated that in February 1798, two congressman got physical.

"There was a congressman from Connecticut — Roger Griswold — and he was one of the Federalists, and there was congressman from Vermont, named Matthew Lyon, who represented the Democratic-Republicans," Daniels said. "And they were polar opposites in terms of political views. And one day, it just boiled over."

Daniels said Griswold insulted Lyon. In return, Lyon spit in Griswold's face.

But it took two days for things to really escalate.

"Griswold came into the House and started to beat on Lyon with a wooden cane," Daniels said. "Lyon ran to the fireplace and grabbed a pair of tongs from the fireplace. And they actually dueled on the floor of the House with a walking stick and a pair of fireplace tongs."

Daniels stresses that these fights weren't a regular occurence. Brookhiser also says that duels were not uncommon.

Hamilton had been part of at least 10 duels over that 10-year period.

For those who haven't seen the musical: One duel didn't end well for him.

Hamilton and Aaron Burr had a long-standing, bitter feud. In 1804, Burr was vice president under Jefferson. When it was clear Jefferson was going for a different running mate for re-election, Burr tried to run for governor of New York. Hamilton campaigned to stop Burr from winning. Some historians theorize this led to the duel.

Burr killed Hamilton in the duel. Burr was charged with murder, but the charges were never brought to trial.

Brookhiser says that although dueling was illegal back then, it wasn't prosecuted.

"Jefferson put a duelist on the Supreme Court," Brookhiser said. "Brockholst Livingston."

"We forget how wild and woolly Founding-era politics was," Brookhiser said. "I think the 'Hamilton' musical does a good job of reintroducing that. But we mostly forget it, because we put these guys on a pedestal. But these guys were politicians, they had concerns and they went at it."