WEBVTT - Founding Son: Episode 4 - Don't Mess With Texas

0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:32.560
<v Speaker 1>I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding son John Quincy's America.

0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:38.079
<v Speaker 1>In the early eighteen hundreds, the seeds of manifest destiny

0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:41.559
<v Speaker 1>began to take root. American settlers spread west at a

0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:45.320
<v Speaker 1>rapid pace. By the eighteen twenties, many white Southerners swooped

0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:49.200
<v Speaker 1>into northern Mexico, bringing the people they enslaved with them,

0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.839
<v Speaker 1>creating a plantation state similar to those in the American South.

0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:58.720
<v Speaker 1>In eighteen twenty nine, Mexico pushed back, banning slavery within

0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:03.120
<v Speaker 1>its borders its territories likely to follow. The move sent

0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:09.480
<v Speaker 1>outrage across the country's northern borderlands. Resentment built among white settlers,

0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.560
<v Speaker 1>and violent skirmishes broke out between them and the Mexican government.

0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.600
<v Speaker 1>By the fall of eighteen thirty five, and all out

0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:23.680
<v Speaker 1>war had begun against the Mexican Army. Texas forces were outnumbered, undisciplined,

0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:29.360
<v Speaker 1>and scattered, but the Texans knew the territory. They fortified

0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.640
<v Speaker 1>an old mission at a crucial crossroads and waited to

0:01:32.680 --> 0:01:37.040
<v Speaker 1>ambush the Mexican Army. Unbeknownst to the one hundred and

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.840
<v Speaker 1>fifty or so Texans in the mission, including the soldiers' families,

0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:44.680
<v Speaker 1>the Mexican army had orders to destroy the rebellion once

0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:50.720
<v Speaker 1>and for all. The Mexican army surrounded the mission. When

0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.840
<v Speaker 1>one of the leaders of the Texans, Jim Bowie, looked

0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:57.240
<v Speaker 1>over the walls, he saw a sea of Mexican soldiers

0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:03.320
<v Speaker 1>nearly two thousand against fewer than two hundred Texans. When

0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.520
<v Speaker 1>the Texans refused to surrender, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de

0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.480
<v Speaker 1>Santa Anna ordered a red flag to be flown from

0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:14.320
<v Speaker 1>a nearby church, assigned to those hold up in the mission.

0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:19.799
<v Speaker 1>No quarter would be given. The Battle of the Alamo

0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:27.280
<v Speaker 1>had begun. Days into the siege of the Alamo, reinforcements

0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:32.040
<v Speaker 1>still hadn't arrived. Booye's co commander, William B. Travis, penned

0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.079
<v Speaker 1>a letter to his countrymen in all the world. From

0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:40.520
<v Speaker 1>within the Alamo walls.

0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.359
<v Speaker 2>Fellow citizens and compatriots, I'm besieged by a thousand and

0:02:43.440 --> 0:02:46.360
<v Speaker 2>more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained

0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.240
<v Speaker 2>a continual bombardment and cannonade for twenty four hours and

0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.440
<v Speaker 2>have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a

0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:55.640
<v Speaker 2>surrender discretion, otherwise the garrison ought to be put to

0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:58.400
<v Speaker 2>the sword if the fort is taken, I have answered

0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:00.680
<v Speaker 2>the demand with the cannon shot, and our flag still

0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:05.920
<v Speaker 2>waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrendt all retreat.

0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.239
<v Speaker 2>I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible,

0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.560
<v Speaker 2>and die like a soldier who never forgets what is

0:03:11.640 --> 0:03:14.520
<v Speaker 2>due to his own honor and that of his country.

0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.280
<v Speaker 1>Victory or death.

0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:29.440
<v Speaker 2>William Barrett Travis, Lieutenant colonel COMMANDWNT.

0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.240
<v Speaker 1>Just before the break of dawn on the thirteenth day

0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:35.640
<v Speaker 1>of fighting, the Mexican Army stormed the mission, sparing only women, children,

0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:39.680
<v Speaker 1>and enslaved people. In the slaughter. Every fighting man met

0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.080
<v Speaker 1>his end with either a bullet or a bayonet. The

0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:47.000
<v Speaker 1>message was clear. The Mexican Army was happy to abide

0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:55.920
<v Speaker 1>by William Travis's terms victory or death, but they weren't

0:03:55.960 --> 0:04:01.800
<v Speaker 1>the only ones to receive a message. Among the dead

0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:06.440
<v Speaker 1>at the Alamo, former Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett outrage and

0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.840
<v Speaker 1>calls for vengeance rippled across hundreds and hundreds of miles

0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.960
<v Speaker 1>through the plantations of the South northward to Washington, d C.

0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:17.880
<v Speaker 1>And the floor of Congress. US citizens had been killed

0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:20.760
<v Speaker 1>at the hands of the Mexican Army. The bloodbath in

0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:29.480
<v Speaker 1>Texas was a tragedy, quickly becoming a national disaster. Lawmakers

0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.520
<v Speaker 1>were bombarded with calls to send US troops to Texas.

0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:36.080
<v Speaker 1>At the heart of this decision was a giant Texas

0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.839
<v Speaker 1>sized elephant in the room. What would happen if Northern

0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:44.880
<v Speaker 1>Mexican territory seized its independence were it join the United States?

0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.640
<v Speaker 1>And what would happen if a slave state the size

0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:53.240
<v Speaker 1>of Texas joined the Union. The outcome of the rebellion

0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.600
<v Speaker 1>had the potential to upset the balance of power in

0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:05.000
<v Speaker 1>the United States for generations Chapter four, Don't Mess with Tech.

0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.719
<v Speaker 1>When news of the massacre in Texas reached the US capital,

0:05:19.280 --> 0:05:22.480
<v Speaker 1>John Quincy Adams took to the House floor. He spoke

0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.440
<v Speaker 1>out against the US getting involved in a war with Mexico.

0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.440
<v Speaker 1>But before he or any other lawmaker could even decide

0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.480
<v Speaker 1>whether to send troops to Texas, the direction of the

0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:39.239
<v Speaker 1>war had shifted dramatically. Following the Alamo, the Texas Army,

0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:44.360
<v Speaker 1>a ragtag group of rebels, was on the run, retreating

0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.040
<v Speaker 1>eastward from San Antonio to the Gulf of Mexico. The

0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:54.720
<v Speaker 1>Mexican Army, close behind, committed to ending the rebellion. The

0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.200
<v Speaker 1>former governor of Tennessee and a close friend of Andrew Jackson,

0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:01.800
<v Speaker 1>Sam Houston, led the Texans with their backs against the

0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:05.080
<v Speaker 1>Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican army bearing down on them.

0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.160
<v Speaker 1>Houston ordered his men to make a final stand, turn

0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:15.280
<v Speaker 1>an attack rather than flee. On April twenty first, eighteen

0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.800
<v Speaker 1>thirty six, just weeks after the Battle of the Alamo,

0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.920
<v Speaker 1>Texans launched an assault against the Mexican army near modern

0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:28.800
<v Speaker 1>day Houston. Screaming Remember the Alamo, Houston's troops attacked mercilessly,

0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:34.880
<v Speaker 1>catching their enemy off guard. The Mexican army, surprised, scattered.

0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:41.360
<v Speaker 1>The battle lasted just eighteen minutes. At the end, Mexican

0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:45.400
<v Speaker 1>General Santa Ana stood in shackles. In exchange for his freedom,

0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.039
<v Speaker 1>he agreed to take his army and leave Texas for good.

0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:54.440
<v Speaker 1>The Alamo had been avenged. The Republic of Texas was

0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:59.760
<v Speaker 1>now an independent nation. They say everything is bigger in Texas. Well.

0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.960
<v Speaker 1>That was true in eighteen thirty six as well. With

0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.960
<v Speaker 1>Mexico no longer controlling this vast stretch of borderlands along

0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.400
<v Speaker 1>the American Southwest, a power vacuum had been created.

0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:13.440
<v Speaker 3>There's the sense that if Texas is an annex then

0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:15.200
<v Speaker 3>Great Britain is going to step in or some other

0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:18.880
<v Speaker 3>European power, and you'll have this big anti slavery borderland

0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.680
<v Speaker 3>in the Southwest. So slaveholders in their allies really want

0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.480
<v Speaker 3>to get Texas into the American Union, and then maybe

0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.680
<v Speaker 3>they want to create several states to boost their political

0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:29.720
<v Speaker 3>power on top of that.

0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.080
<v Speaker 1>This is Richard N. Newman, Professor of History at Rochester

0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:34.480
<v Speaker 1>Institute of Technology.

0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:39.960
<v Speaker 3>So this is a vital issue for Southerners and their allies,

0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.400
<v Speaker 3>and that makes it an incredibly important issue to the

0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:46.560
<v Speaker 3>abolitionist movement and to anti slavery congressmen in the North

0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:47.440
<v Speaker 3>like Adams.

0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:53.880
<v Speaker 4>Adams came to believe that the annexation of Texas was

0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.960
<v Speaker 4>being pursued by Southerners in the hopes of upsetting the

0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:02.840
<v Speaker 4>balance between slave states and free and so here I

0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.720
<v Speaker 4>need to go back a tiny bit in history explain.

0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:10.200
<v Speaker 1>That's John Quincy Adams biographer James Traub. He says, to

0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.560
<v Speaker 1>understand why Texas was such a political hot potato, you

0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.040
<v Speaker 1>have to go back to the eighteen twenties, when Adams

0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:23.160
<v Speaker 1>was Secretary of State. The Union was expanding westward, adding

0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.120
<v Speaker 1>more states all the time. In every new addition to

0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.480
<v Speaker 1>the Union had potential to disrupt the balance of power

0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:34.560
<v Speaker 1>between free and slave states. This proved especially challenging when

0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.840
<v Speaker 1>Missouri was becoming a state, because it's pretty central. Is

0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:41.600
<v Speaker 1>it a northern state or is it a southern state?

0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.880
<v Speaker 1>So Congress came up with a solution.

0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:49.920
<v Speaker 4>We will draw a line, an east west line, and

0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.680
<v Speaker 4>we will henceforward say that all states north of that

0:08:54.800 --> 0:09:00.000
<v Speaker 4>line would be free states, and all states below that

0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:02.679
<v Speaker 4>line would be slave states.

0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:05.760
<v Speaker 1>It was actually more of a compromise than a solution.

0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.760
<v Speaker 1>A line was drawn free states to the north, slave

0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:14.080
<v Speaker 1>states to the south, Missouri being an exception, a slave

0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.800
<v Speaker 1>state on the wrong side of the line. Since that

0:09:16.920 --> 0:09:19.840
<v Speaker 1>threw off the balance between free and slave states, a

0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.480
<v Speaker 1>new free state would have to be admitted.

0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:26.520
<v Speaker 4>What we now call the Missouri Compromise, and the compromise

0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:33.280
<v Speaker 4>ultimately said that we will allow a slave state, Missouri,

0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:35.680
<v Speaker 4>to come in along with the free state.

0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:39.960
<v Speaker 1>Main there was no doubt that Texas would be a

0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:45.199
<v Speaker 1>slave state, but Southern politicians had grand machinations. They wanted

0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.679
<v Speaker 1>to annex Texas and carve it up into several slave states,

0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.760
<v Speaker 1>completely destroying the Missouri Compromise and tilting the balance of

0:09:53.800 --> 0:09:57.880
<v Speaker 1>power in their favor. Congressman John Quincy caught wind of

0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.160
<v Speaker 1>the scheme and set out to prevent it. President Andrew

0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:06.080
<v Speaker 1>Jackson also opposed annexation. There was just one problem. His

0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.079
<v Speaker 1>term was coming to an end. The front runner to

0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:13.480
<v Speaker 1>replace him was Vice President Martin van Buren, the heir

0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:18.199
<v Speaker 1>apparent selected by Jackson himself. As you probably remember from

0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:22.559
<v Speaker 1>previous episodes, van Buren's coalition was made up of Northerners

0:10:22.560 --> 0:10:27.400
<v Speaker 1>and Southerners who rallied behind Jacksonian populism. But the coalition

0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.160
<v Speaker 1>was tenuous, and Van Buren knew it. As a Northerner,

0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:33.920
<v Speaker 1>he had to keep Southern politicians happy if he was

0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.480
<v Speaker 1>going to win the presidency. One thing that would make

0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:42.160
<v Speaker 1>them very happy, besides annexing Texas would be putting an

0:10:42.240 --> 0:10:45.360
<v Speaker 1>end to the discussion of slavery and Congress for good.

0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.679
<v Speaker 3>This is really a loyalty youth. You have to prove

0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.600
<v Speaker 3>to us how far you're willing to go to support

0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.040
<v Speaker 3>slaveholders in the United States. If you're willing to gag

0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.400
<v Speaker 3>your own constituents prevent them from speaking about an issue

0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:00.360
<v Speaker 3>we deem sensitive, then we're going to be your friends forever.

0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.199
<v Speaker 3>If not, we're gonna have to seriously reconsider the coalition.

0:11:04.720 --> 0:11:07.160
<v Speaker 3>And that's that's why Van Buren is doing everything he

0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:12.559
<v Speaker 3>can to stifle anti slavery petitioners, because this is all

0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.080
<v Speaker 3>about the coalition he has set.

0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:19.880
<v Speaker 1>Up Vice President. Van Buren, eyeing the presidency for himself,

0:11:20.240 --> 0:11:24.040
<v Speaker 1>had plenty of allies in the Lower Chamber, including Henry

0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:28.640
<v Speaker 1>Lawrence Pinkney of South Carolina, who shared a paternalistic view

0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:31.560
<v Speaker 1>of slavery. He saw it as benign.

0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.720
<v Speaker 3>As benevolent, as hard as it can be for us

0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.640
<v Speaker 3>to imagine, as good for enslave people as well as

0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:43.400
<v Speaker 3>for white masters slavery producers wealth. It also allows enslaved

0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.680
<v Speaker 3>people to gain the Christian Gospel and all these other

0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:49.640
<v Speaker 3>things that seem absolutely vile to us.

0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.760
<v Speaker 1>Pinkney set up a committee at the start of eighteen

0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.600
<v Speaker 1>thirty six to figure out what to do with the

0:11:55.679 --> 0:12:01.160
<v Speaker 1>thousands of anti slavery petitions flooding Congress. Hardliners wanted to

0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:06.280
<v Speaker 1>dismiss the petition's outright John Quincy a free reign to

0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:09.960
<v Speaker 1>read them. When Pinckney's committee finished its work in May,

0:12:10.560 --> 0:12:13.640
<v Speaker 1>he offered a series of resolutions, but it was the

0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.880
<v Speaker 1>final one that hit the House floor like a lit

0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:24.240
<v Speaker 1>stick at dynamite. Pinckney proposed that all petitions or other

0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:29.120
<v Speaker 1>correspondence to the House about slavery should quote be laid

0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.840
<v Speaker 1>upon the table and that no further action whatever shall

0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.600
<v Speaker 1>be had thereon. He's basically saying, we're not just going

0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:42.800
<v Speaker 1>to ignore all these anti slavery petitions in Congress. We're

0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:51.079
<v Speaker 1>gonna ban even mentioning them. They don't exist. A wave

0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.920
<v Speaker 1>of anger washed over John Quincy as he sat at

0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.720
<v Speaker 1>his desk. He jumped to his feet and said, and again,

0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:02.520
<v Speaker 1>I'm paraphrasing something along the lines of silent petitions. Have

0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:06.240
<v Speaker 1>you not read the First Amendment? Every American citizen has

0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:10.200
<v Speaker 1>the right to quote petition the government for a redress

0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:17.040
<v Speaker 1>of grievances. Adams demanded the motion be withdrawn. Pinkney and

0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:22.680
<v Speaker 1>his allies refused. Adams turned appealed to House Speaker James K. Polk,

0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:24.360
<v Speaker 1>He too refused.

0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.720
<v Speaker 5>Adams shot back, I am aware that there is a

0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:29.240
<v Speaker 5>slaveholder in the chair.

0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:36.440
<v Speaker 1>The House devolved into chaos. Southern congressmen shouted at Adams,

0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:42.640
<v Speaker 1>accusing him of violating parliamentary order. Still Adams persistent, exasperated,

0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:45.480
<v Speaker 1>and angry. I imagine him pointing at the Great Seal

0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:49.000
<v Speaker 1>of the United States, yelling quotes from the Constitution as

0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:53.600
<v Speaker 1>others shouted at him, pacing demanding to be heard. Polk

0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.600
<v Speaker 1>refused to let Adams speak. Adams froze, turned to the

0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.760
<v Speaker 1>speaker and asked, am I gagged or not? You know?

0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:03.040
<v Speaker 4>And the answer was he was.

0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:07.280
<v Speaker 1>Adams was in shock as the vote to silence petitions proceeded,

0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:12.360
<v Speaker 1>his voice now also silenced. When his name was called,

0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.240
<v Speaker 1>he got in one last jab voting nay.

0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:19.360
<v Speaker 5>He added, I hold the resolution to be a direct

0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.600
<v Speaker 5>violation of the Constitution of the United States.

0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:27.040
<v Speaker 1>His objections fell on deaf years. The resolution to ignore

0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.880
<v Speaker 1>anti slavery petitions on the House floor passed. It would

0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:32.360
<v Speaker 1>become known as the Gag rule.

0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:37.480
<v Speaker 4>The Gag rule was an anti John Quincy Adams rule.

0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.640
<v Speaker 1>The discussion even mentioned of slavery was now banned in

0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:50.280
<v Speaker 1>the House of Representatives. Here's the thing I love about

0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.760
<v Speaker 1>John Quincy Adams. Though he was an indomitable force and

0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:59.720
<v Speaker 1>nobody could shut him up when he had something to say.

0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.440
<v Speaker 1>Still ahead, Adams pulls as trademark political jiu jitsu on

0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:08.280
<v Speaker 1>the House floor and single handedly turns the tide on

0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:30.280
<v Speaker 1>the debate over Texas that's coming up after a break.

0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.200
<v Speaker 1>John Quincy Adams was gagged in the House, but not

0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.000
<v Speaker 1>in the press. His spirited stands against the expansion of

0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:43.680
<v Speaker 1>slavery made national headlines. They also caught the attention of

0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:44.960
<v Speaker 1>someone who wanted to help.

0:15:47.200 --> 0:15:51.040
<v Speaker 3>Benjamin Lundy presents himself to John Quincy Adams as this

0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:56.360
<v Speaker 3>very sympathetic religious moralist, someone who listens, someone who will

0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.280
<v Speaker 3>take very strong stands against slavery, but he's willing to

0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.280
<v Speaker 3>listen to other sides. He'll try to push and nudge

0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:03.840
<v Speaker 3>people rather than yell and.

0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.040
<v Speaker 1>Scream Newman Again.

0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.000
<v Speaker 3>What's important about this moment for Benjamin Lundy is, never

0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.960
<v Speaker 3>has a former president, never has a gifted statesman of

0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:16.000
<v Speaker 3>the stature of John Quincy Adams been at the center

0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.760
<v Speaker 3>of the abolitionist movement in Congress. And that's why he's

0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:23.000
<v Speaker 3>going the extra mile to nudge Adams into the anti

0:16:23.000 --> 0:16:26.520
<v Speaker 3>slavery cause. And it's doubly important to note that, by

0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:30.080
<v Speaker 3>temperament and by politics, Adams doesn't want to be in

0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:30.680
<v Speaker 3>that position.

0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:34.920
<v Speaker 1>Lundy begins writing to Adams in awe of his outspoken

0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:40.320
<v Speaker 1>stand against slavery. Adams responds, saying he's not an abolitionist.

0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:45.480
<v Speaker 1>Lundy agrees, You're not an abolitionist. You are a prophet.

0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.120
<v Speaker 6>The eyes of millions, my dear and honored friend, are

0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.960
<v Speaker 6>now turned to thee. No mortal ever held a part

0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:58.560
<v Speaker 6>of greater usefulness, more enviable distinction, or higher moral responsibility

0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.320
<v Speaker 6>than is thine at the present moment.

0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:06.560
<v Speaker 1>Adams couldn't help but be flattered. A frendship begins, they

0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:07.439
<v Speaker 1>write regularly.

0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:12.040
<v Speaker 4>Lundy was a Quaker, and so Lundy spoke, you know thou,

0:17:12.239 --> 0:17:14.560
<v Speaker 4>and put est at the end of all of his words,

0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:17.480
<v Speaker 4>and so forth. He was a very pure person. And

0:17:17.639 --> 0:17:22.119
<v Speaker 4>he and Adams had lengthy correspondences back and forth. And

0:17:22.159 --> 0:17:25.040
<v Speaker 4>I point out that Adam so got into Lundy's own

0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.399
<v Speaker 4>idiom that Adams began writing like a Quaker. He used

0:17:28.399 --> 0:17:31.919
<v Speaker 4>the same kind of old fashioned diction when addressing Lunda.

0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:36.760
<v Speaker 1>Lundy had traveled all over Texas. Now he was Adam's

0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:37.639
<v Speaker 1>man on the inside.

0:17:38.199 --> 0:17:42.359
<v Speaker 4>He went to Texas at the time that Texas was

0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:48.320
<v Speaker 4>rebelling against Mexico and becoming a republic, and Lundee feared

0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:53.159
<v Speaker 4>that Texas would be annexed by the United States, and

0:17:53.199 --> 0:17:56.399
<v Speaker 4>it was so big, it would be turned into some

0:17:56.520 --> 0:17:59.840
<v Speaker 4>huge numbers of states, perhaps as many as fifteen, and

0:17:59.879 --> 0:18:02.159
<v Speaker 4>they would all be pro slavery, and they'd vote for slavery.

0:18:02.719 --> 0:18:07.199
<v Speaker 1>Adams was warming to the abolitionist theology, but his wife,

0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:09.279
<v Speaker 1>Louisa was torn.

0:18:09.959 --> 0:18:13.439
<v Speaker 7>Part of that was because part of her identity was

0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.280
<v Speaker 7>being a sother being a Marylander. She was a citizen

0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.159
<v Speaker 7>in Maryland before she was a citizen in the US,

0:18:20.719 --> 0:18:23.800
<v Speaker 7>and her sisters, who are best friends, were slaveholders.

0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.119
<v Speaker 1>Louisa Thomas is a writer at The New Yorker and

0:18:27.239 --> 0:18:31.879
<v Speaker 1>author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of missus Adams. She

0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.399
<v Speaker 1>says Louisa and John Quincy were losing friends over his

0:18:35.479 --> 0:18:40.719
<v Speaker 1>stance against slavery. Their social ties were fraying. Louisa was

0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.520
<v Speaker 1>used to the name calling in sideways glances, but things

0:18:44.679 --> 0:18:45.840
<v Speaker 1>kept getting uglier.

0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:50.159
<v Speaker 7>She's scared because he's getting death threats, and she saw

0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:52.759
<v Speaker 7>anew of the death threats. She was afraid of the

0:18:52.879 --> 0:18:57.559
<v Speaker 7>violence against him, and you know, not unwisely, and she

0:18:57.760 --> 0:19:01.639
<v Speaker 7>wasn't ready to sacrifice him in the fight against slavery.

0:19:02.159 --> 0:19:05.040
<v Speaker 1>She wrote in her diary that supporting her husband meant

0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:09.840
<v Speaker 1>losing the love, the friendship, and the society of my

0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:15.479
<v Speaker 1>own nearest and dearest connections. Attacks against prominent abolitionist leaders

0:19:15.879 --> 0:19:20.200
<v Speaker 1>like Theodore Weld were on the rise. People regularly threw

0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:23.519
<v Speaker 1>eggs and rocks at him during his speeches, and things

0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.720
<v Speaker 1>got really ugly when an angry mob murdered an abolitionist

0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:32.080
<v Speaker 1>publisher in the fall of eighteen thirty seven. But then

0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.919
<v Speaker 1>a bright spot appeared. In the spring of eighteen thirty eight,

0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:40.799
<v Speaker 1>construction finished on the crown jewel of the movement, a

0:19:40.879 --> 0:19:46.200
<v Speaker 1>grand venue in center City Philadelphia, christened Pennsylvania Hall. It

0:19:46.239 --> 0:19:49.199
<v Speaker 1>was like the Capitol building for the abolitionist movement.

0:19:49.959 --> 0:19:53.439
<v Speaker 3>It's a safe space for abolitionists. They've spent a lot

0:19:53.439 --> 0:19:55.359
<v Speaker 3>of time and money trying to build it and what

0:19:55.479 --> 0:19:58.559
<v Speaker 3>is dedicated In May of eighteen thirty eight. People feel

0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.119
<v Speaker 3>like it's going to be this great symbol of freedom

0:20:01.159 --> 0:20:02.160
<v Speaker 3>in the United States.

0:20:04.159 --> 0:20:06.399
<v Speaker 1>But the hope didn't last long.

0:20:06.959 --> 0:20:09.480
<v Speaker 3>After three days, it was burned to the ground by

0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.359
<v Speaker 3>angry Philadelphians. But it's not just that the hall is

0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:17.840
<v Speaker 3>burned down after three days. It's that people in Philadelphia

0:20:17.879 --> 0:20:21.719
<v Speaker 3>blame abolitionists for bringing on the burning down of Pennsylvania Hall.

0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:25.119
<v Speaker 3>They said you caused this because you were radicals. You

0:20:25.199 --> 0:20:27.399
<v Speaker 3>spoke against slavery. You didn't listen to all the people

0:20:27.399 --> 0:20:29.960
<v Speaker 3>who told you to keep quiet and not say anything.

0:20:30.399 --> 0:20:33.399
<v Speaker 1>The pressure was mounting from all sides, the silence of

0:20:33.399 --> 0:20:37.919
<v Speaker 1>the growing abolitionist movement, violence in the streets, a gaggoeder

0:20:37.919 --> 0:20:41.079
<v Speaker 1>in the US capital. But this is why John Quincy

0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.080
<v Speaker 1>Adams was such an ally for the movement and a

0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:48.639
<v Speaker 1>lethal politician. He knew all the rules. Possibly more important,

0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:52.280
<v Speaker 1>he knew how to use the rules against his enemies.

0:20:54.879 --> 0:20:58.359
<v Speaker 1>Shortly after the burning of Pennhall, Congress took up debate

0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:02.879
<v Speaker 1>over the annexation of Texas. Resolutions poured into the Capitol,

0:21:03.159 --> 0:21:08.359
<v Speaker 1>arguing both for and a against annexation. The Foreign Affairs Committee,

0:21:08.399 --> 0:21:15.840
<v Speaker 1>dominated by slaveholders, refused to even read the resolutions. This

0:21:15.919 --> 0:21:19.319
<v Speaker 1>gave Adams an opening. I'm going to paraphrase again, but

0:21:19.439 --> 0:21:22.959
<v Speaker 1>this is essentially how it all went down. Adams asked,

0:21:23.439 --> 0:21:30.359
<v Speaker 1>have these petitions received even five minutes of consideration? Peeved?

0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.879
<v Speaker 1>The chair of the committee addresses him, how dare any

0:21:34.000 --> 0:21:39.240
<v Speaker 1>member catechise the Committee of its actions, essentially saying, how

0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:44.000
<v Speaker 1>dare you question our intentions? Another member blurts out, no,

0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:49.720
<v Speaker 1>we haven't read the resolutions. Big deal. Adams, knowing the rules, pounced.

0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.320
<v Speaker 1>He knew the committee was required to read the petitions

0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:57.920
<v Speaker 1>even if they don't address them, and he knew they

0:21:57.959 --> 0:22:01.760
<v Speaker 1>hadn't read them. So the committee goes, all right, whatever,

0:22:01.879 --> 0:22:06.879
<v Speaker 1>let's propose a resolution to take no action on these petitions. Then,

0:22:07.159 --> 0:22:12.039
<v Speaker 1>out of nowhere, Adam's favorite Southern foil, Wattie Thompson of

0:22:12.679 --> 0:22:16.919
<v Speaker 1>you guessed it, South Carolina, doubles down. He says, you

0:22:16.959 --> 0:22:20.119
<v Speaker 1>know what, I'd like to propose an amendment to that resolution.

0:22:20.719 --> 0:22:24.639
<v Speaker 1>My amendment calls on the President to immediately annex Texas.

0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:28.639
<v Speaker 1>Watty shoots a grin over at Adams, thinking he has

0:22:28.679 --> 0:22:31.800
<v Speaker 1>the upper hand, but he'd actually walked right into John

0:22:31.879 --> 0:22:38.119
<v Speaker 1>Quincy's trap. Adams knew Thompson would add some asenine amendment,

0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.319
<v Speaker 1>and he knew that you can amend an amendment. So

0:22:42.479 --> 0:22:46.320
<v Speaker 1>Adams makes an amendment. He says, okay, neither the President

0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:51.560
<v Speaker 1>or Congress has the power to annex Texas. This amendment

0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:57.679
<v Speaker 1>gave Adams complete access to the House floor to talk endlessly.

0:22:59.040 --> 0:23:08.159
<v Speaker 1>Waddie unwittingly had ripped the gag off Adams. Adams was unleashed.

0:23:08.919 --> 0:23:12.320
<v Speaker 1>He argued for women's suffrage and equal rights. He spoke

0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:16.080
<v Speaker 1>against the annexation of Texas. He quoted the Constitution and

0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:21.199
<v Speaker 1>the Declaration of Independence. He essentially filibustered for three weeks. Eventually,

0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:25.280
<v Speaker 1>a committee member asks Adams if he's ever gonna shut up.

0:23:26.159 --> 0:23:29.600
<v Speaker 1>Adams says that if the gentleman wished, he would.

0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:32.959
<v Speaker 5>Enter into a full and strict scrutiny of slavery, and

0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:36.639
<v Speaker 5>so long as God shall give me life and breath

0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.919
<v Speaker 5>and the faculty of speech, he shall have it to

0:23:41.000 --> 0:23:42.040
<v Speaker 5>his heart's content.

0:23:43.959 --> 0:23:48.399
<v Speaker 1>Adams basically says, I can do this all day, every day,

0:23:48.719 --> 0:23:53.679
<v Speaker 1>and twice on Sunday. Adams jammed up the House debate.

0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:56.519
<v Speaker 1>Over the course of the weeks he had held the floor,

0:23:56.840 --> 0:24:02.199
<v Speaker 1>newspapers printed his various rants. Instead of silencing him, his

0:24:02.280 --> 0:24:07.479
<v Speaker 1>opponents had essentially given him a bull and with this bullhorn,

0:24:08.000 --> 0:24:10.959
<v Speaker 1>Adams turned up the political pressure on the new President,

0:24:11.199 --> 0:24:17.920
<v Speaker 1>Martin van Buren, making it nearly impossible to annex Texas. Eventually,

0:24:18.320 --> 0:24:19.880
<v Speaker 1>Van Buren relented.

0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:25.359
<v Speaker 3>If John Quincy Adams doesn't do his multi week filibuster.

0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:29.160
<v Speaker 3>In June and July of eighteen thirty eight, these famous

0:24:29.159 --> 0:24:33.320
<v Speaker 3>Morning Hour speeches. It's pretty clear that the slave power

0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:37.279
<v Speaker 3>might well have succeeded in getting a vote on Texas

0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:42.080
<v Speaker 3>annexation earlier, and maybe successfully, But John Quincy Adams really

0:24:42.119 --> 0:24:43.679
<v Speaker 3>turns the entire North against this.

0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:53.359
<v Speaker 1>Adams for the win. The annexation of Texas had stalled,

0:24:53.919 --> 0:24:56.759
<v Speaker 1>but the fight over slavery was more heated than ever.

0:24:57.479 --> 0:25:00.479
<v Speaker 1>Within a year, it would boil over when a group

0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:04.760
<v Speaker 1>of enslaved Africans revolted and took over a ship destined

0:25:04.760 --> 0:25:08.199
<v Speaker 1>for Theribbean. When the Africans were captured off the coast

0:25:08.199 --> 0:25:11.840
<v Speaker 1>of the United States, a question spread across the nation,

0:25:12.639 --> 0:25:17.320
<v Speaker 1>what should happen to them? Like always, John Quincy Adams

0:25:17.359 --> 0:25:34.279
<v Speaker 1>found himself at the center of it all. On the

0:25:34.320 --> 0:25:36.519
<v Speaker 1>next episode of Founding Son, when.

0:25:36.359 --> 0:25:39.920
<v Speaker 3>A son says, you know, this could undermine everything you're

0:25:39.959 --> 0:25:43.039
<v Speaker 3>working for. But John Quincy Adams thinks the opposite. But

0:25:43.159 --> 0:25:46.800
<v Speaker 3>he's not willing to get involved until Lewis Happened shows

0:25:46.840 --> 0:25:47.719
<v Speaker 3>up in his doorstep.

0:25:48.239 --> 0:25:51.639
<v Speaker 5>They urged me so much and represented the case of

0:25:51.679 --> 0:25:55.479
<v Speaker 5>those unfortunate men as so critical, it being a case

0:25:55.560 --> 0:25:58.720
<v Speaker 5>of life and death, that I yielded and told them

0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:01.080
<v Speaker 5>that if by the blessing of God, my health and

0:26:01.119 --> 0:26:05.399
<v Speaker 5>strength should permit, I would argue the case well the

0:26:05.439 --> 0:26:06.199
<v Speaker 5>Supreme Court.

0:26:09.800 --> 0:26:13.720
<v Speaker 1>Founding Son is a curiosity podcast brought to you by

0:26:13.919 --> 0:26:18.399
<v Speaker 1>iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. For help with this episode,

0:26:18.439 --> 0:26:21.599
<v Speaker 1>we want to thank James Traub, author of John Quincy

0:26:21.639 --> 0:26:26.919
<v Speaker 1>Adams Militant Spirit, Richard Newman, professor of history at Rochester

0:26:27.080 --> 0:26:31.719
<v Speaker 1>Institute of Technology, and Louisa Thomas, staff writer at the

0:26:31.760 --> 0:26:35.359
<v Speaker 1>New Yorker and author of Louisa The Extraordinary Life of

0:26:35.439 --> 0:26:39.959
<v Speaker 1>Missus Adams. Our lead producer, story editor and sound designer

0:26:40.320 --> 0:26:44.719
<v Speaker 1>is James Morrison. Our senior producer is Jessica Metzker. Our

0:26:44.760 --> 0:26:49.279
<v Speaker 1>production manager is Daisy Church. Fact checking by Adam Bisno.

0:26:50.000 --> 0:26:54.600
<v Speaker 1>This episode was mixed and mastered by George Hicks. Executive

0:26:54.600 --> 0:26:59.519
<v Speaker 1>producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, L. C. Crowley, and

0:26:59.639 --> 0:27:04.959
<v Speaker 1>Jason English. Original music by me Bob Crawford. Additional scoring

0:27:05.280 --> 0:27:09.119
<v Speaker 1>by Blue Dot Sessions. John Quincy Adams is voiced by

0:27:09.159 --> 0:27:14.399
<v Speaker 1>Patrick Warburton, Andrew Jackson is voiced by Nick Offerman. Luisa

0:27:14.439 --> 0:27:18.359
<v Speaker 1>Adams is voiced by Gray Delisle. Additional voices in this

0:27:18.439 --> 0:27:22.639
<v Speaker 1>episode provided by Ben Sawyer and Michael Smerconish. Show art

0:27:22.679 --> 0:27:26.560
<v Speaker 1>designed by Darren Shock. Special thanks to John Higgins from

0:27:26.600 --> 0:27:32.399
<v Speaker 1>Curiosity Stream, Julia Chris Gaal, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and

0:27:32.560 --> 0:27:36.080
<v Speaker 1>the National Park Service. We couldn't do this podcast without them.

0:27:36.679 --> 0:27:39.080
<v Speaker 1>If you're a fan of the podcast, please give it

0:27:39.159 --> 0:27:42.440
<v Speaker 1>a five star rating in your podcast app. You can

0:27:42.479 --> 0:27:46.279
<v Speaker 1>also check out other Curiosity podcasts to learn about history,

0:27:46.560 --> 0:27:51.239
<v Speaker 1>pop culture, true crime, and more. This podcast was recorded

0:27:51.359 --> 0:27:55.879
<v Speaker 1>under a SAG after collective bargaining Agreement. I'm your host,

0:27:56.119 --> 0:27:58.200
<v Speaker 1>Bob Crawford. Thanks for listening.

0:28:04.159 --> 0:28:05.040
<v Speaker 4>School of Humans