Truth Is an Absolute Defense

From time to time, you see discussions about who was the most maligned president, which was the dirtiest presidential campaign, etc. Daniel Walker Howe suggests that, in making these assessments, it's worth remembering that some slurs are deserved:

[T]he presidential campaign of 1828 was probably the dirtiest in American history. It seems only fair to observe that while hostile stories about Adams were largely false, those about Jackson were largely true. An exception was the charge appearing in an Adams paper that Jackson’s mother had been a prostitute.

The picture is of Rachel Jackson, slut and bigamist.