It's not uncommon to read coverage of politics in the modern era that includes a bemoaning of the supposedly excessive partisanship that clouds Washington, DC. Not to say there's not some merit in the critique at times, but in the broader scheme of history it's inaccurate.

Anyone with a knowledge of the bitter and publicly vicious feuds among the Founding Fathers, especially Jefferson and Hamilton, knows modern complaints about partisan bickering are far from new. I ran across another reminder last night reading a book to my son about the Civil War that includes this passage:

Press, politicians, an ordinary citizens poured venom on the hapless Lincoln. Newspapers scourged him as "the head ghoul at Washington," a "half-witted usurper," and the like; opposition politicians titled him the "original gorilla" and worse; many persons, becoming fed up with the war, blamed the President's choice of generals, harped on his conduct of operations, and ranted at him for speculators' profiteering and mounting inflation.

That same object of scorn is now the centerpiece of one of the truly great - if not the greatest - monuments in our nation's capital. Just a reminder partisanship may not always be pleasant, but it has always been a part of our country's politics.