America's Most Underrated President | The Life & Times of James K Polk

I told you I'd get around to Polk eventually, didn't I? Yes that's right it's time to learn about the man who incorporated Oregon Country, Texas, and almost the entire American Southwest into the US of A, and dive head-first into Manifest Destiny and the increasingly strained issue of slavery. Oh, America, you have a lot of history for a nation your age, but trying to talk about it is like navigating a mine field. But on the bright side it's high time I got to have a little shameless patriotism.

Elaborations:

1:57 Seriously this is a good story I wish I knew before, admittedly more of a Texas story than an Oregon one but I wanted to mention it here. So Tyler had been rearing to annex Texas and had gone to great lengths to make it happen. He went on a national tour to boost his popularity and hand-picked new pro-annexation people for a whole bunch of positions.

One day he and his cabinet are cruising down the Potomac River on the fancy new ship the USS Princeton, boasting the world's largest naval gun. Naturally everyone wants to see it and they fire it off a few times and there is much rejoicing. But before the ride is over, the crowd wants to see it go off just one more time pretty please. So the captain says "Oh all right" gives it one more shot, the gun malfunctions, and Tyler's most important cabinet members die on the spot, along with his dreams of being the man to take Texas. Probably had a significant impact on Oregon negotiations too.

2:59 What happened was Polk had been trying to buy the disputed territory and marched an army in there when Mexico declined. Mexico fired the first shots at Rancho de Carricitos, but considering territorial expansion was Polk's thing, I'm inclined to say that fight was coming one way or another. It's kind of like how Bismarck got the Franco-Prussian war going without being the first one to declare war.

4:33 The idea was that the treasury would hold onto its own gold and silver so that if the banks ever ran out like they did in 1837 the government wouldn't have to say "Whoops, sorry, we have cash but nothing to back it up with" and would be able to carry on as usual, as it did in 1857. That's the general idea, anyway.


Songs in order of appearance:

Kevin Macleod - Thunderbird
Kevin Macleod - Division
Kevin Macleod - Long Road Ahead
John Philip Sousa - Stars and Stripes Forever
Kevin Macleod - Balloon Game

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