VIDEO: The History Of Presidential Campaigns

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) -If you’ve been keeping up with the 2016 Presidential Campaign, you may have noticed things are getting pretty nasty.

Wednesday night’s final debate just added to it, but the mud slinging is nothing new.

Over the past 200-plus years, there have been quite a few drama-filled campaigns.

Vicious campaigns date as far back as the 1800’s, and this campaign isn’t the first one involving personal scandals.

“I think the reason that we see negative campaigning in the campaigns, and we have for 200 years, is unfortunately because it works. You say something negative about your opponent because many people will believe you, so I think negative campaigning has been with us a very long time, and as far as I can tell, it’s going to stay with us for a very long time,” says MSU Stennis Center for Public Works employee, Brother Rogers.

How long has it been with us? Well, let’s take a step back in time to the days of homes without electricity.

“The election of 1884 of Grover Cleveland comes to mind when he was accused of having an illegitimate child. He was a Democrat, and the Republicans cried, ‘ma- ma, where’s my pa?’ And after Grover Cleveland won, his supporters responded with, ‘gone to the White House, ha ha ha.”

Let’s go back even further to 1828, when Andrew Jackson was elected as President. He and his wife married in 1791, and they both thought her divorce was finalized, but it actually wasn’t, causing dirt to hit the fan.

“Andrew Jackson’s detractors accused his wife of adultery. Well, he was elected in November of 1828, and she died in December, one month later, and he blamed his political opponents for her death, and so they became his personal enemies as well.”

Although, there was no internet, social media, or t.v. back then, voters found out the scoop through word of mouth and newspapers.

“In fact, there use to be very partisan newspapers, where Republicans had a newspaper and Democrats had a newspaper, and they were very unfiltered and opinionated in how they produced their opinions, and it was very difficult to try to ascertain the truth because both sides were very prejudice in delivering their side as an opinion.”

Many campaigns have been scandalous, but presidential historian, Brother Rogers, feels like this year’s is the most vicious one yet.

“I think the Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton campaign is going to go down as possibly one of the most viciously personal campaigns we’ve ever seen, but it’s not the first one we’ve seen, and it’s certainly not the last.