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1:36

Many years ago, Riley Knight completed a

1:38

degree in history. This proved to be

1:40

a bad move, as it was absolutely

1:42

useless for him. Until now, here's some

1:44

half-assed history. What's

1:55

going on, mate? Great to have you along

1:58

for some more half-assed history this week on the agenda. We're

2:00

going to be continuing our chat about the

2:02

history of the United States of America. We

2:05

started this last week, of course, talking

2:07

about the indigenous inhabitants of the continent,

2:09

then we talked through the initial colonization

2:11

of the East Coast, the establishment of

2:13

the Thirteen Colonies that would rise in

2:15

rebellion against the British, and

2:17

then we also talked about the War of

2:19

Independence fought during the American Revolution and what

2:22

happened in its immediate aftermath with the establishment

2:24

of a brand new constitution to govern this

2:26

brand new nation. And that's where

2:28

we left the story in part one, and it's time to

2:30

now continue the story, moving into the

2:33

19th century and talking about the challenges

2:35

that the US faced immediately after its

2:37

creation and the issues that defined its

2:39

history in the first half of this

2:41

century. And these

2:43

challenges, these issues, namely, were

2:47

its foreign policy, its

2:49

westward expansion and how this expansion

2:51

affected indigenous Americans, and

2:53

of course, the institution of

2:55

slavery. And talking about

2:57

slavery will very neatly bring us to the Civil

2:59

War, which we'll again also talk

3:02

about today. And then

3:04

next week we'll move into the Reconstruction era

3:06

and beyond towards the 20th century. So

3:08

if you're interested in any of these topics, then

3:11

this is the episode for you. And while I'd

3:13

say it's probably advisable to go back and listen

3:15

to part one, it's by no means necessary to

3:18

understand much of the importance of

3:20

the historical issues that are in play here

3:22

in this episode. But

3:24

before we begin, a couple of things. Again, as I

3:26

said last week, I want to

3:28

make it clear that I really can't hope to

3:30

be comprehensive in these episodes, given that

3:33

this is a broad overview

3:35

of centuries and centuries of

3:37

history. But I will say that I

3:39

have gone a little bit deeper here and there when certain

3:42

issues warranted. And

3:44

I also want to say that I'm very appreciative of

3:47

all of the feedback I've received from people

3:49

over the past week or so in the

3:51

wake of the first part of the history

3:53

of the United States, so to put it

3:55

last week. Very appreciative of all the feedback,

3:57

both positive and negative. all

4:00

the Americans who have weighed in. I'd

4:03

like to think that I'm not speaking from

4:06

ignorance on this topic when talking about the

4:08

history of the US. Not only have

4:10

I studied US history at university, I've also

4:12

lived in the United States. I lived there

4:15

for a while. I also visit the US

4:17

reasonably often even these days. I was there

4:19

last week, I was over in Seattle and

4:23

I had a great many American friends

4:25

that I enjoy discussing issues like the

4:27

ones we're going to get into today.

4:29

I'm saying all this because I want to make it

4:32

clear to any Americans listening that my objective here

4:34

isn't to disparage or to insult

4:36

the United States or Americans in general.

4:38

I know that it might come off

4:41

like that. I apologize

4:43

to the Americans who are listening. I

4:46

want to say as gently as possible

4:49

that the reason that what

4:51

I'm saying may come off as

4:53

insulting to you and your country is because in

4:57

many cases the history that you

4:59

were taught about your nation

5:01

in school was not necessarily

5:03

as rigorous or

5:05

as truthful as it should have been.

5:08

There are many great things about

5:10

the United States and its history and look I'll point

5:13

them out just as I point out its

5:15

failings and its flaws. I

5:18

do hope that this is at least something

5:20

of a balanced perspective on the history of

5:22

the United States. Until

5:26

we start talking about Andrew Jackson because I tell you what I've

5:28

got nothing good to say about that like bloody hell. Anyway with

5:31

all that said let's get into the episode here.

5:33

Let's get underway with the second episode of our

5:35

four-part series on the history of the United States

5:37

of America. Here we go. We're going all the

5:39

way back. We're going all the way back to

5:42

1789. This is where we left

5:44

off last week. The year that George

5:46

Washington became the first president of the

5:49

United States under its newly adopted constitution

5:51

and I'll tell you this while

5:53

Washington was far from a perfect man

5:55

he was a pretty bloody good president

5:58

and he set a great number of

6:00

very important political precedents for

6:02

the young country. The

6:04

United States has been struggling after

6:07

gaining its independence due to a lack of

6:10

a strong central government. The

6:13

Washington administration, I tell you what, it bloody well

6:15

fixed that problem. Washington

6:17

helped to establish the federal

6:19

government as a

6:21

powerful political institution within the United

6:24

States governmental system, rather

6:26

than one that was sort of

6:28

secondary to the states politically.

6:31

And this was done mainly through

6:33

economic means. Washington's federal government

6:36

established the Bank of the United States, the

6:38

nation's first national bank, and

6:40

took on all the debts of

6:42

all of the states. And this

6:44

steadied the economic instability that the

6:46

young country had been grappling with

6:48

and empowered the federal government to

6:50

act decisively and effectively on behalf

6:52

of all of the states as

6:54

one coherent political unit. The

6:57

federal government was able to fund itself

7:00

by imposing tariffs on foreign trade and

7:02

into the 1790s, the US

7:04

was in a much better spot than it had

7:06

been before this. Its capital moved from New York

7:08

to Philadelphia and then later on of course to

7:11

Washington, DC. And despite a

7:13

rebellion here or a conflict there, the strong

7:15

central federal government helped to set the US

7:17

on its way. However,

7:20

there were those who didn't like

7:22

a strong federal government and there

7:25

was a vocal political faction that

7:27

wanted to see curbs and limitations

7:30

on governmental power. And this faction,

7:32

this led to two very important

7:34

things taking place. Firstly, in 1791,

7:36

a series of 10 amendments

7:39

were made to the US Constitution

7:41

known as the Bill of Rights.

7:44

Now the Bill of Rights is another

7:46

famous and immensely important document in US

7:48

history. The US Bill of Rights has gone

7:50

on to inspire countless other similar

7:52

documents in nations all throughout the

7:54

world, although sadly not Australia. We

7:56

don't have constitutionally guaranteed rights in

7:59

the US. the same way that

8:02

Americans do. We have some, but

8:04

they're not particularly robust. And

8:07

honestly, our constitution is very

8:10

much lacking in the protection

8:12

of personal liberties, in guaranteed

8:14

rights for Australian citizens. So

8:16

we certainly have something to

8:18

learn when it comes to

8:21

the protection of individual liberties

8:23

from the United States and documents like the Bill of Rights. Because

8:26

there's truly some terrific stuff in the US

8:28

Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, for instance,

8:30

an absolute all-time. Have a listen to this. Congress

8:34

shall make no law respecting

8:36

an establishment of religion or

8:38

prohibiting the free exercise thereof

8:41

or abridging the freedom of speech or

8:43

of the press or the

8:46

right of the people peaceably to assemble

8:48

and to petition the government for a

8:50

redress of grievances. In

8:53

shroining freedom of speech and

8:55

all these other freedoms as

8:57

the First Amendment to the

8:59

United States Constitution, a huge

9:01

step, a massive step in

9:03

ensuring that these liberal values,

9:05

the protection of core human

9:08

rights was normalized

9:10

in democratic societies. And

9:13

fans of free speech all around the world have

9:15

a lot to thank the United States for enshrining

9:18

this cornerstone of modern

9:21

democratic society as a

9:23

very First Amendment that they made to

9:25

their constitution. And the Fourth and the

9:27

Fifth and the Sixth Amendments are also absolute

9:30

bangers dealing with legal process

9:32

and the legal rights that

9:34

citizens have when accused of

9:37

a crime or going through

9:39

a court proceeding a trial.

9:43

But then there are

9:45

others that perhaps aren't

9:47

as beneficial, namely of course

9:49

the Second Amendment.

9:52

Now I've had a lot of conversations with

9:54

a lot of Americans about the Second Amendment

9:57

from people all across the spectrum of opinions on

9:59

this issue. issue. And

10:01

what's really surprising to me is

10:04

that some of the Americans I've spoken to

10:06

that don't own guns, that don't want to

10:08

own guns, that don't see the need for

10:11

people to own guns generally, are

10:13

still in favour of this

10:16

amendment. Because to

10:18

much of the rest of the world, the

10:20

Second Amendment seems like complete lunacy.

10:22

Here in Australia, for instance, or I mean across

10:24

most of Europe, there

10:26

is largely no issue with very

10:29

strict gun control that

10:31

is widely in place. Most

10:33

people are in strong support of legislation

10:36

that keeps guns out of the hands

10:38

of ordinary people. But

10:40

Americans just bloody love their guns. And

10:42

it's a very uniquely American thing to

10:44

think that without the right to bear

10:46

arms, your nation, I don't know, immediately

10:48

becomes unfree. And I don't know,

10:52

I still remember the very first time I

10:54

saw someone in the United States walking around

10:56

with a gun. I went

10:58

to get a Baconator at a Wendy's

11:00

in Phoenix, Arizona. And the

11:02

guy just walked in with a gun on his

11:04

hip. I was terrified. It was just like normal

11:07

for everyone else that was there. But I

11:10

felt so anxious and afraid that

11:12

I just had to get up and leave. I left

11:14

the Wendy's and didn't look back. I

11:17

couldn't believe how everyone else

11:19

there didn't even bat an eye on

11:21

it. But there are lots

11:23

of things that Americans seem to consider

11:25

normal that are extremely weird. So the

11:27

rest of the world, the Pledge of

11:29

Allegiance, for instance, or I don't know,

11:31

the huge gap in cubicle doors that

11:34

American toilets always seem to have. But

11:37

the country's dogged preservation of the

11:39

Second Amendment is baffling.

11:41

It's absolutely baffling because as

11:44

every single Western liberal democracy

11:46

demonstrates, you just don't need

11:49

guns in a free and democratic society.

11:51

And the harm that they can bring,

11:53

the harm that they do to just

11:56

people peacefully living their

11:58

lives is immense. and

12:00

something that unfortunately is all too normalised

12:02

within the United States, again because of

12:05

the fact that this Second Amendment was

12:07

put in place and has stuck around

12:09

for so very long. Anyway,

12:12

the Bill of Rights was one

12:15

of the things to come of... Remember

12:17

I said this faction that disliked the strong central

12:19

government. The Bill of Rights was put in place

12:22

to make sure that this strong central government wouldn't

12:24

trample on the rights of

12:26

its citizenry. But

12:28

there was another thing that

12:30

was potentially equally as

12:33

important and also equally as long-lasting as the

12:35

Bill of Rights, a political institution

12:37

that has stuck around in different forms to this very

12:39

day, the two-party political

12:41

system that has dominated US politics

12:43

more or less since the nation's

12:46

inception. There have

12:48

been six party systems over the

12:50

history of the United States as

12:52

parties have come and gone or

12:54

realigned themselves in response to certain

12:56

issues. But broadly speaking,

12:59

there have always been two

13:01

major parties representing two sides

13:03

of the political divide. And

13:06

the first political... the

13:08

first party system began with the establishment

13:10

of the... funnily enough, the Democratic Republican

13:12

Party, which may come as something of

13:15

a surprise to fans of the modern

13:17

US political system, given that there is

13:19

the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

13:21

But no, one of the first political

13:23

parties in the United States was called

13:25

the Democratic Republican Party. And it was

13:27

founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison,

13:29

both of whom would go on to become presidents,

13:31

of course. And in

13:34

opposition to the Democratic Republican

13:36

Party, Alexander Hamilton, Washington's

13:38

protege and the founder of the Bank of

13:40

the United States, he founded

13:43

the Federalist Party. Now, it

13:45

is really, really,

13:48

really important here. It's really

13:50

important to recognize that

13:52

political values have shifted immensely

13:54

since the time that the

13:56

United States was founded and

13:58

the traditional... political

14:00

left-right dichotomy that we have today

14:03

looked very very different back then

14:06

for one it barely existed the left-right

14:08

political divide came out of the French

14:10

Revolution so it's very much in its

14:12

infancy when we're talking about early United

14:14

States history but more importantly

14:17

opinions that might today

14:19

be labeled left-wing could

14:22

very much be right-wing back then

14:24

and vice versa and plenty of

14:26

political identities held what

14:28

would today be considered views from

14:31

opposing political camps to

14:35

illustrate my point this might sound a bit confusing right but I'll try

14:37

to illustrate my point right the Democratic

14:39

Republicans the so-called left-wing party

14:41

of the time they

14:44

supported a very many values that would

14:46

today be considered right-wing they were the

14:48

party of small government and free markets

14:50

but back then these were left-wing value

14:54

they were progressive they were challenging they

14:56

were forward-thinking but in

14:58

addition to these by now quite

15:01

conservative values you know we think about economic

15:04

conservatism involving free markets we think

15:07

about small government

15:09

champions generally being conservative but

15:12

back then the Democratic Republicans not only supported

15:14

these values but also stuff that we still

15:16

consider broadly to be under the umbrella of

15:18

left-wing politics individual liberties liberalism in general equal

15:21

rights that sort of thing and

15:23

this is all in contrast to

15:25

the Federalists who were the right-wing party

15:27

back then they championed a strong central

15:29

government which was a right-wing value back

15:31

in those times but

15:34

we're in favor of big business economic

15:36

protectionism military affairs that sort of thing

15:39

as the two party divide

15:41

established itself Washington was officially

15:43

neutral although his sympathies were

15:45

generally with Federalists but

15:48

never to the point that he accepted the

15:50

label of being a Federalist and indeed when

15:52

he left office his famous

15:54

farewell address warned the nation

15:56

of the dangers of political tribalism

15:59

and divided political parties, words

16:02

that have probably ended

16:04

up being a lot truer than Washington

16:06

would have hoped for as he left

16:08

office after two terms. And I will

16:10

say this as well, Washington set a

16:12

very important precedent when he left office

16:14

after his second term, because

16:17

he could have sought a third term,

16:19

he could have sought maybe a fourth term

16:21

after that. The bloke was immensely popular and

16:23

united people across the political spectrum in the

16:26

United States due to his status as the

16:28

commander in chief of the

16:30

Continental Army, his enormous political legacy as

16:32

the first president. But

16:34

he didn't seek a third term,

16:36

he did not. And this became something

16:39

of a tradition. No

16:41

president until Franklin Roosevelt in the

16:43

20th century ever served more than

16:45

two terms, and after Roosevelt the

16:47

two term limit was added officially,

16:50

it wasn't just a political convention,

16:52

it was added officially with an

16:54

amendment to the Constitution. And today,

16:57

legally speaking at least, no

16:59

president can serve more than

17:01

two terms according to this

17:03

constitutional amendment which is based

17:05

on the precedent, the convention

17:07

that was set as Washington

17:10

willfully and

17:13

quite I think gratefully after a very

17:15

long political career handed away

17:17

power to his successor

17:19

John Adams after the election in 1796.

17:25

But history marched on after Washington's

17:27

presidency, as immensely important as it

17:30

was in establishing the United States

17:32

as an independent and self-sufficient nation.

17:34

Washington remains one of the most

17:36

favourably ranked US presidents in history

17:39

as a result of his work

17:41

as president. But as

17:43

I say, history marched on and the

17:45

United States had to meet new issues

17:47

and new challenges as time continued. And

17:51

to talk about these issues, we're going to have

17:53

a bit of a change of pace here because

17:55

rather than the

17:57

general chronological overview that we've had so

17:59

far. far, we've been following the US

18:01

year by year, decade by decade. We're

18:04

going to take a slightly

18:06

different tack. We're going to talk

18:08

about three distinct topics and work

18:11

our way through them individually until

18:13

we arrive at the American Civil

18:15

War. So to address the

18:17

first half of the 19th century when it comes

18:19

to US history, we're firstly going to talk about

18:22

the nation's foreign relations. Then

18:24

we'll come back and talk about its

18:26

westward expansion and the impact that this

18:28

had on indigenous Americans. And then finally,

18:30

we'll come back once again to talk

18:32

about slavery, which will of course bring

18:34

us to the Civil War. So

18:38

starting in 1800

18:40

with the defeat of the presidential one

18:42

term wonder John Adams by Thomas Jefferson,

18:45

let's talk about the foreign relations of the United

18:47

States in the first half of the 19th century.

18:50

The United States was still a very

18:53

young nation at this time and globally

18:55

speaking a rather unimportant one. It was

18:57

still finding its feet on the international

18:59

stage. And while the Federalists

19:01

were generally in favor of closer links

19:03

with Britain, despite the enmity

19:06

brought on by the Revolutionary War, Jefferson

19:08

and his Democratic Republicans, they weren't

19:10

so hot on the British. Jefferson

19:13

and his successors, Madison Munro and John Quincy

19:15

Adams, they were all Democratic Republicans as well.

19:18

And this meant that the United States was

19:22

initially dominated by the

19:24

values of the

19:27

Democratic Republicans in the wake of Jefferson.

19:30

Jefferson weakened the federal government and its

19:32

judiciary. He sought to curb the power

19:34

of not just politicians, but also bankers

19:37

and industrialists. Instead, he worked to expand

19:39

the nation's territory. He wanted the political

19:41

heartland of the United States to be

19:43

out in the fields and the farms.

19:47

We'll come to what the implications of

19:49

this expansion of territory was in due

19:51

course, of course. But Jefferson's

19:54

quest to expand the United States

19:57

did involve very strong engagement with

19:59

certain foreign powers, just

20:02

not, you know, Britain. Perhaps

20:04

the most famous legacy of Jefferson's presidency

20:07

when it comes to foreign affairs was

20:09

the Louisiana Purchase, which saw the United

20:11

States more or less double its territory

20:13

after buying what was nominally French-possessed land

20:15

to the west of the United States

20:17

in 1803. The US

20:19

maintained a very good relationship with France

20:22

throughout the, throughout its early history. France

20:25

of course had been instrumental in the United States

20:27

achieving its independence and statehood and the Americans didn't

20:29

forget this. While the explicit

20:31

alliance between the two nations lapsed

20:33

as the Napoleonic Wars began, the

20:35

United States remained nominally neutral during

20:37

this conflict. The United States

20:39

and France remained on generally good terms and

20:41

the Louisiana Purchase reflected this. And more broadly,

20:44

Jefferson and his successors sought to

20:47

expand foreign trade and become more

20:49

involved in world affairs, although

20:52

principally economically, not so much

20:54

when it came to military

20:57

affairs. But the most

20:59

notable event when it comes to US foreign

21:01

relations in the early 19th century was the

21:03

War of 1812. The War of

21:07

1812 was fought between the United States and Britain

21:09

and it was fought due to, oh boy,

21:12

I don't know where to start to

21:15

be honest, it was fought due to

21:17

the British impressment of American sailors to

21:19

fight in the Napoleonic Wars, the

21:21

British supporting indigenous Americans who were hostile to the

21:23

United States as they expanded westward, the

21:26

British interfering with American trades as

21:28

they attempted to expand their trade

21:31

network across the globe, principally to,

21:33

you know, rivals of the British

21:35

on the European continent. And

21:38

so the Americans then led by President

21:40

James Madison at the time, they'd had a gutful and

21:42

so they went to war in 1812. And long story

21:44

short, it was a draw, although

21:47

there was some very interesting and very amusing stories to come

21:49

from the War of 1812, like how the British

21:52

raided Washington DC, burnt the Capitol Building

21:54

and ate dinner in the White House,

21:57

or how the US invaded Canada, or how

22:00

the Americans got their national anthem, the

22:02

Star Spangled Banner, when a bloke named

22:04

Francis Scott Key watched the

22:07

British bombardment of Fort McHenry in

22:09

Baltimore and wrote a poem about

22:11

it. Or how a

22:13

bloke by the name of Andrew Jackson made

22:16

his name as a war hero in the

22:18

Battle of New Orleans, something that would go

22:20

on to have very important repercussions for the

22:22

country, which we will come to in due

22:24

course. All of these stories and more in

22:27

episode 8, the War of 1812, get across

22:29

it, although before we get across it,

22:31

I will warn you, it's a little

22:33

rough, those early episodes, I

22:35

was still figuring things out. Anyway,

22:38

in the end, neither the British or the

22:40

Americans made all that much headway in the

22:42

war, and while

22:44

both sides claim to have won the war, it was

22:47

essentially a stalemate. By the time they called it off in

22:50

1815, it was just a draw. Although there was definitely a

22:54

feeling of victory throughout the United States, they

22:56

had at least defended themselves from a

22:58

major international power, so I guess you could

23:01

call that a dub. And

23:03

it certainly bolstered the young nation's

23:05

confidence on the world stage and

23:07

helped it to establish itself more

23:09

strongly amongst the international community. And

23:13

at home, the supposed

23:16

victory that the Americans had had during the—well,

23:18

look, it wasn't a defeat, and I guess

23:20

they were counting that as

23:22

a win—it brought about a period known

23:24

as the era of good feelings. And

23:27

this wasn't just due to the fact that they had

23:30

not lost the War of 1812. The Federalist Party

23:34

was crumbling. They had largely failed

23:36

to maintain or pursue their political

23:38

aims in

23:40

the wake of the Washington presidency. They hadn't had a

23:43

president in the White House for a very long time

23:45

and were slowly losing their political—well, not even

23:47

slowly, really. By the end of the War

23:49

of 1812, they just didn't have any political

23:52

relevance whatsoever. In the wake of this,

23:54

Madison's successor, James Monroe, he

23:58

Made concerted efforts to do away with political— The

24:00

pay though to get the center one

24:02

day. it was the era of good

24:04

feelings. They want this Us versus them

24:07

mentality for a while. For a little

24:09

while, at least they are wants It

24:11

almost worked. It almost worked. But the

24:14

second party system came along after Monroe's

24:16

presidency win. The Democratic Republican party, which

24:18

had been in the White House for

24:21

very long time, split into factions: the

24:23

Democratic party led by Andrew Jackson and

24:25

the Whig party led by Henry Clay

24:28

and other opponents, or the Jacksonian. Democrats

24:30

defines the second the second party system

24:32

and will come back. We'll come back

24:35

to Jackson and Is Democrats because they

24:37

were a very different party to to

24:39

to today's Democrats As you'll say but

24:41

to continue the story instead of Us

24:44

foreign policy. let's talk about Monroy because

24:46

in Eighteen Twenty Three towards the end

24:48

of his presidency. Monroe.

24:50

Established a very, very important piece of

24:52

Us. foreign policy known as. The.

24:55

Monroe Doctrine. Now, the

24:57

Monroe Doctrine made clear

24:59

the United States is

25:01

strong opposition to European

25:03

colonialism or political interference

25:05

throughout. The. Americas, north,

25:07

Central and South. Around this

25:09

time, many Latin American nations

25:11

were pursuing independence from the

25:14

European mainly Spanish or Imperial

25:16

overlords, and the United States

25:18

were in support of this

25:20

of diminishing European influence across

25:22

the Americans. The Monroe Doctrine

25:24

said that any European meddling

25:26

in the Americas would be

25:28

interpreted as a hostile act

25:30

against the United States itself,

25:33

a stark warning that was

25:35

at the time roundly. ignored

25:37

by all the major european health or

25:39

to get your site still a complete

25:41

minnow on the international stage it was

25:43

not a powerful nice and by any

25:46

stretch of distracted it it's military capabilities

25:48

will laughable compared to the might have

25:50

this the european great powers but all

25:52

the science the monroe doctrine when on

25:55

earth a very strong influence on the

25:57

general development of us foreign policy for

25:59

centuries come, because

26:01

it very clearly divided

26:04

the world,

26:06

I guess you want to say, or

26:08

at least this part of the world,

26:10

between the Americas and Europe as two

26:12

separate spheres of influence. And Monroe, as

26:14

the President of the United States and

26:16

many of his successors, began

26:19

to take a larger role

26:21

in taking responsibility for the

26:23

political affairs of the Americas

26:25

as distinct from the years

26:27

and centuries previous, where Europeans

26:29

and European powers had an

26:31

enormous amount of political influence

26:34

on the other side of the Atlantic. So it

26:36

set a precedent that future, not

26:39

all of them, but many future presidents

26:41

would follow. And

26:44

through to this very day, right, it's

26:46

been invoked by modern presidents to justify

26:49

the pursuit of their respective political agendas.

26:51

All the way through to the 20th

26:53

century, the Monroe Doctrine has not lost

26:55

its relevance. And even into the 21st

26:58

century, you can see echoes of the

27:00

United States and its foreign policy objectives

27:04

tracing their lineage, I guess, back

27:06

to Monroe and his very stark

27:08

warning about foreign interference in the

27:10

American continent. In

27:12

any case, the Monroe Doctrine, it

27:14

has certainly helped to establish the United States and

27:17

the Americas more broadly as existing within

27:19

their own sphere of influence. And as

27:21

I say, this would go on to

27:23

strongly influence the histories of not just

27:25

the United States, but nations across the

27:27

Americas as a result. Anyway, to wrap

27:29

up the story of pre-civil war US

27:32

foreign policy, throughout the 1830s and

27:34

1840s, the United States came into conflict with their

27:36

neighbors to the south in Mexico.

27:39

And as this is closely linked to what we're going

27:41

to talk about next in the US coming to the

27:44

westward expansion of the US,

27:46

we'll mainly focus on the story then. But

27:48

to sort of give it to

27:50

you in a nutshell here, Mexico's territory used

27:52

to extend a lot further north than it

27:54

does today. And as the US

27:56

pushed westward, these two nations came into conflict. And we've

27:59

actually talked about it. this period already a little

28:01

bit in episode 72, The Battle of the Alamo, and

28:03

episode 246, Antonio

28:05

Lopez de Santa Ana. So you can go

28:08

back and get across them for more detail.

28:10

Or alternatively, for less detail, you

28:12

can continue to listen to this episode

28:14

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29:28

back to 1800 again now to

29:30

examine this period through a different

29:32

lens. Perhaps the most important lens

29:34

when it comes to this particular

29:36

chapter in the United States history,

29:38

as I mentioned, Westwood Expansion. This

29:41

is what defined the United States throughout the

29:43

first half of the 19th century.

29:45

This was at the center of more

29:47

or less every single major political issue

29:50

that the country had to face, including,

29:52

as we'll come to, slavery. But

29:55

we can begin this discussion about

29:57

Westwood Expansion that the United States underwent during the first half

29:59

of the 19th century. first half of the 19th century by

30:01

talking more about the Louisiana Purchase, which was made

30:03

in 1803. Thomas

30:06

Jefferson bought 2.1 million

30:09

square kilometers of territory off the

30:11

French for the bargain

30:13

bin basement price of US$15

30:16

million. Before

30:21

the Louisiana Purchase, the territory claimed

30:23

or controlled by the United States

30:25

extended to the Mississippi River. The

30:27

United States stretched to Illinois, Tennessee,

30:29

Mississippi. With

30:44

the Louisiana Purchase, the

30:47

US doubled overnight, expanding out

30:49

to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado,

30:53

Oklahoma. There are

30:55

some important things to note here when talking about the Louisiana

30:57

Purchase. France didn't actually

30:59

control most of this area that they

31:01

sold. They just bagged it. They had

31:04

painted the map, a very common

31:06

and very effective technique employed by colonial powers

31:08

that said, this is ours, you can't have

31:10

it. When

31:13

the US did take possession

31:15

of this territory from the

31:17

French after buying it for, again, an

31:20

absolute bargain, it ended up being a couple of cents per

31:22

acre. It's

31:24

not as if the Americans immediately took control

31:26

over every square inch of this part of

31:29

the world either. They did in name. They

31:32

changed the color of the map, of course, but honestly, for the

31:34

first little while, that was about it. Although

31:37

importantly, it did get the

31:39

United States the very important port city

31:41

of New Orleans, which still celebrates its

31:43

French heritage to this day as

31:45

it, of course, began as a French

31:47

settlement. But yes, while the

31:49

United States had official sovereignty over this

31:51

land, it was actually really

31:54

under the control of various indigenous

31:56

inhabitants. Jefferson sent out the

31:58

famous Lewis and Clark. expedition

32:00

to explore this newly acquired territory

32:03

and then American settlers followed in

32:06

their wake along with the US

32:08

Army who built outposts and forts

32:10

to establish American control. Indigenous

32:13

people in this region they had the broad

32:15

support of the British. Remember the War of

32:17

1812 was in part caused

32:19

by the British supporting indigenous people hostile

32:22

to the United States. The British didn't

32:24

want the US to expand any further

32:26

westward and it wasn't

32:28

long before the United States came into conflict

32:30

with indigenous Americans who inhabited the

32:32

land west of the Mississippi. Of

32:35

course back then the

32:37

concepts behind indigenous land

32:40

rights were virtually non-existent

32:43

and so countless thousands of indigenous

32:45

Americans were forcibly removed

32:47

from their land by the United States.

32:50

They were forced to pack up and

32:52

move further westward to make room for

32:54

newly arrived US settlers. US

32:57

controlled territories were established as reservations

32:59

for indigenous populations but these populations

33:01

did not enjoy the protections or

33:04

the rights of US citizens

33:06

and were more often than not subject

33:09

to fierce mistreatment

33:11

before often just being moved on

33:13

again as the insatiable hunger for

33:16

more and more land caused more

33:18

and more settlers to move westward.

33:21

Settlers poured out west as the years

33:23

continued the territory claimed by the United

33:26

States quickly became properly controlled by it

33:29

and more states were admitted to the

33:31

United States as more land was settled

33:34

and consequently the reservations that had been

33:36

carved out for indigenous populations shrank. They

33:38

shrank and shrank and sadly it would

33:41

only get worse from there and

33:45

much of that was thanks to

33:47

I'm sorry to say one of

33:49

the most harmful and destructive presidents

33:51

in United States history. A president

33:53

who forever changed the shape

33:56

and the nature of the nation. A

33:58

president who is Inexplicably

34:00

honored with a place

34:03

on the $20 note in America,

34:06

Andrew Jackson was, in

34:08

my opinion, one of

34:10

the most damaging presidents

34:12

the United States has

34:14

ever had. After

34:17

his great victory at the Battle of

34:19

New Orleans, after establishing himself as a

34:22

nationally celebrated war hero, he

34:24

was able to begin a political career

34:26

that brought far, far

34:29

more ill to the US than

34:31

most people realize. Firstly,

34:34

Jackson greatly expanded the power of

34:37

the president by, well, just doing

34:39

that. Really,

34:43

there wasn't some trick he pulled or

34:45

anything, he just started to wield executive

34:47

power like never before, challenging the authority

34:50

of Congress, challenging the authority of the

34:52

Supreme Court, shooting first and asking questions

34:54

later. He freely wielded

34:57

the presidential veto in pursuing his

34:59

political aims. He set a brand

35:01

new precedent for the office of

35:03

US president. It was

35:06

now the president, not Congress, that held

35:08

the real power that would set and

35:10

pursue a policy agenda. Now, this sounds

35:12

normal, right? To us today, we know

35:14

that the United States is defined by

35:16

its very, very powerful executive branch. The

35:19

United States president is the most powerful person

35:21

on earth, they say. They're the ones who

35:23

dominate US politics. They're the face of the

35:26

government. Well, the

35:28

reason that it's so normal now, the

35:31

reason that the US president wield

35:33

such supreme executive power is

35:35

because Jackson decided that

35:38

that's what he was going to

35:40

do, and no one stopped him.

35:42

It wasn't some cleverly planned, farsighted

35:44

reform plan. He just came into

35:47

office and started wielding power like

35:49

a sledgehammer and forever changed as

35:51

a result, the landscape of US

35:53

politics. But

35:55

this was not the only way that

35:57

Jackson changed the US political landscape. Because

36:00

as the Democratic Republican Party began to splinter

36:02

into factions from 1824 onwards, he

36:06

also established the Democratic Party, which helped

36:08

to bring about the second party system

36:10

that I mentioned before, beating the Democrats

36:12

against the Whigs. The

36:16

Democratic Party is still around today, of course,

36:18

but I tell you what, I don't think

36:20

they'd be too quick to celebrate Jackson as

36:22

their founder, or at least they shouldn't be

36:24

because the party looked very, very

36:27

different back then. Just as,

36:29

interestingly, the Republican Party did when founded

36:31

by Abraham Lincoln, although the

36:33

Republicans were a lot quicker to

36:35

claim and celebrate Lincoln despite the

36:37

vast differences in Lincoln's Republican Party

36:39

than today's. But yes,

36:42

Jackson, he established the Democratic

36:44

Party as a populist party of the

36:46

common man, the farmer and the laborer.

36:48

This was the party for them. He

36:50

cast himself as being anti-elite against big

36:53

government and big banks. While

36:56

I don't have too much that's complimentary to say

36:58

about this bloke, I will say this. This

37:01

bloke did encourage and bring

37:03

about a new wave of

37:05

political engagement throughout the United

37:07

States. He supported extending

37:10

the vote to adult

37:13

white men, but still he supported

37:15

expanding franchise for what it was

37:17

back then, and he did want

37:19

people to be involved in politics.

37:21

There were some reforms that Jackson

37:24

brought about that may have been healthy

37:27

for the United States rather than harmful,

37:30

but they are so

37:32

strongly overshadowed by the

37:34

other elements

37:36

of his legacy, elements that are

37:39

so negative, so harmful, so infamous,

37:41

which we'll talk about now. Firstly,

37:45

in the wake of Jackson, the

37:48

Democratic Party became the party of

37:50

the slaver, supported by white

37:52

slave owners in the South and their

37:55

successors until later party systems reversed this

37:57

and saw the Democratic Party become more

38:00

progressive and less overtly racist. But we'll

38:02

come back to the 19th century Democratic

38:04

Party as we talk about civil war.

38:07

But if establishment by Jackson, hardly

38:09

a good thing for the United States in

38:12

the long run, giving white slavers a banner

38:14

to rally around and sowing seeds of division

38:16

on the issue of slavery. But

38:19

Jackson's most infamous legacy is

38:22

of course his treatment of

38:24

indigenous Americans. His

38:27

number one priority after taking

38:29

office was the displacement and

38:31

removal of indigenous Americans from

38:33

the lands that United States

38:35

settlers were seeking to settle.

38:38

And he pursued this

38:40

priority very aggressively through things

38:43

like the 1830 Indian

38:45

Removal Act and a process that has

38:47

become known today as the Trail

38:49

of Tears. In

38:51

1830 Jackson oversaw the passage of

38:54

legislation that empowered him, the president,

38:56

to force indigenous Americans off their

38:58

land, to force them further and

39:01

further westward to make room for

39:04

US settlers. Across the

39:06

United States but most notably

39:08

in the southeast, tens of

39:10

thousands of indigenous Americans were

39:12

forcibly removed from their homes

39:14

and sent westward to reservations

39:17

with thousands and thousands

39:19

of them dying on the way.

39:22

A lot of terms have been

39:25

used to describe this process. Forced

39:27

displacement is amongst the more palatable

39:30

phrases that are used. But

39:33

I don't think it's inaccurate

39:35

to refer to Jackson's policies

39:37

towards indigenous Americans as ethnic

39:39

cleansing or even just genocide.

39:43

Certainly was mass murder as the people of

39:46

the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Muscogee

39:48

and the Seminole nations were forced from their

39:50

lands by the US Army under threat of

39:52

violence and those who

39:55

wouldn't leave faced destruction and

39:58

death. These

40:00

poor people were moved to the Oklahoma

40:02

Territory, which in turn would later be

40:04

settled by the United States. And so

40:06

once again, these indigenous Americans were forcibly

40:08

displaced in later years due

40:11

to the terrible precedents set

40:14

by presidents such as Andrew

40:16

Jackson. Look,

40:18

I know, as

40:21

an Australian of European descent, I know I

40:23

don't have a leg to stand on when

40:25

it comes to talking about the treatment

40:28

of indigenous peoples. People like me have

40:30

benefited from the horrors of colonialism for

40:32

a very, very long time. But

40:36

the horrific treatment of indigenous Americans

40:38

is a foundational aspect of the

40:40

nation's history, just as the mistreatment

40:42

of indigenous Australians is the foundational

40:44

aspect of our history. And

40:48

it astonishes me that

40:50

the architect and the champion

40:53

of a systematized campaign of

40:55

violence and murder and genocide

40:58

is still on it to this day with

41:01

his face on American

41:03

currency. Anyway,

41:06

even after Jackson left office, the

41:08

United States continued to expand westward,

41:10

pushing onwards, buoyed

41:12

by the idea of manifest

41:15

destiny. This concept was

41:17

very influential in turning the United States into

41:19

what it is today, a vast

41:22

nation that spans the North American continent

41:24

from east to west, from Atlantic to

41:26

the Pacific. This

41:28

was the manifest destiny Americans believed in.

41:30

They believed their destiny was to claim

41:33

and to settle the entire breadth of

41:35

the continent. And of course, in

41:37

time, that's what they did. Hundreds

41:41

of thousands of settlers headed west across

41:43

the 19th century. The Oregon Trail saw

41:45

people make it all the way to

41:47

the Pacific. The California Gold Rush saw

41:49

an explosion in population to the west,

41:51

eventually making San Francisco the biggest city

41:53

on the west coast. And

41:56

as more and more people pushed west, more

41:58

and more states were established and admitted to

42:00

the Union, one very notably being Texas,

42:02

which brings us back to the conflict

42:04

with Mexico that I talked about earlier.

42:08

US settlers displaced Mexican settlers in Texas,

42:10

which eventually established itself as a republic

42:12

before being annexed by the United States

42:14

in the mid 1840s. This

42:17

directly led to the Mexican-American War, which

42:19

the US very handily won, expanding

42:21

their territory even further as they

42:24

took possession of previously Mexican lands

42:26

in what makes up today's American

42:28

Southwest states like California, New Mexico,

42:30

Utah, Nevada, Arizona and others.

42:33

The Gadsden Purchase of 1854 saw

42:35

the United States by further territory

42:38

along the border with Mexico, in

42:40

what is today Arizona and New Mexico, defining

42:42

this border, as it stands more or less,

42:44

to this very day. While to

42:47

the north, the border with British-controlled Canada was

42:49

finalised in 1846, eight years before

42:53

the Gadsden Purchase, the last section

42:55

of Westwood border was finalised by a

42:57

treaty, eventually leading to the modern day

42:59

states of Oregon and Washington. While

43:04

the international borders of the United States were more

43:06

or less set by the time we get to

43:08

the Civil War in the 1860s, the internal borders

43:10

of the nation were still very much shopping and

43:13

changing. The borders of the various states and territories

43:15

as they were being created didn't look quite like

43:17

they do today. They

43:20

were shifting around as new states

43:22

were created. And

43:24

it's the creation of new states that

43:26

neatly enough brings us to the final

43:28

thing that we need to discuss before

43:31

getting into the Civil War itself, slavery.

43:35

Because across the first half of the

43:38

19th century, slavery became a bigger and

43:40

bigger issue and actually crystallised over the

43:42

creation and the admission of

43:44

new states into the Union. But

43:48

before we get to that, let's once again, wind back the clock, go back

43:50

to the 1800s, or even before 1800,

43:53

and talk about the institution

43:55

of slavery across the United States in the

43:57

years after the establishment of this young nation.

44:00

Slavery was firmly established as

44:02

part of the United States

44:04

by its constitution, containing, as

44:06

I mentioned last week, something

44:08

known as the Three-Fifths Compromise.

44:11

In the constitution, or in the original constitution at least,

44:14

the Three-Fifths Compromise stated that

44:17

slaves were, for the purpose

44:19

of counting population, they would

44:21

be considered Three-Fifths of

44:23

a person. A despicable

44:25

law, I'm sure you'll agree, rather

44:28

obviously, reducing someone to a

44:30

political entity that is Three-Fifths of a

44:32

person is pretty unforgivable, but

44:34

you might be interested to learn that

44:36

it was actually those on the anti-slavery

44:39

side of things that supported

44:41

this. They were the ones

44:44

who wanted to reduce the

44:46

personhood of slaves toiling away

44:48

in slave states, while the

44:50

pro-slavery factions within the United

44:52

States actually wanted slaves to

44:55

count as a full person.

44:57

They wanted the slaves that they owned

45:00

and were forcing to work to

45:03

be considered people. You

45:06

might look at that and think, well, that doesn't make

45:08

any sense at all. Surely the pro-slavery people are

45:10

going to want to repress and

45:12

disempower the slaves that they own. Surely

45:14

they don't want them to have something

45:17

like personhood when it comes to political

45:20

consideration in something like the United

45:22

States Constitution, but no. Pro-slavery

45:27

people wanted slaves to

45:29

be counted among state

45:31

populations because if

45:33

slaves counted towards population counts,

45:36

then slave states would

45:38

have greater representation in Congress,

45:41

because the number of Congresspeople

45:43

that each state had was

45:45

based on its population. It

45:49

gets better for the pro-slavery

45:51

mob because slaves

45:53

couldn't vote. It would be

45:56

slave owners that would benefit from

45:58

increased representation in Congress, make

46:00

it a lot easier for

46:02

them to maintain and support

46:05

and expand pro-slavery ideals and

46:07

objectives if they controlled more

46:09

seats in Congress. So

46:13

free states, states that

46:15

were worried about being drowned out in Congress

46:17

by slave states with high slave populations, they

46:19

didn't want slaves to count at all. But

46:22

as a result of the conflict

46:24

between free states and slave states

46:26

as the Constitution was being written,

46:29

the three-fifths compromise was reached, which

46:31

as I mentioned firmly established in

46:33

the Constitution, quite aside from the

46:36

relative personhood of an enslaved person, which is a terrible

46:38

thing to have to think about. It

46:41

also firmly established that slavery was

46:43

an accepted part of the political

46:45

landscape of the United States from

46:48

its very conception. Having

46:51

said that however, slavery was a very

46:53

contentious issue, even as the Constitution was

46:55

being written, and the division was largely

46:58

a geographic one. States

47:00

in the South heavily relied upon plantations

47:02

and agriculture, they were strong supporters of

47:04

slavery as a cornerstone of their economies,

47:07

but the more industrial and

47:09

cosmopolitan Northern states were less

47:11

reliant on slavery and also

47:14

a little bit more forward in their thinking, and

47:16

so were more prone to abolitionism. Now

47:18

that's not to say that Northerners weren't racist as

47:20

all hell, they were African-American and slave or not

47:23

weren't treated particularly well by most white Americans, no

47:25

matter where they went, but in

47:27

the North at least, people

47:30

weren't as inclined to subject other people

47:32

to a lifetime of bondage. And it's

47:34

important to note here as well, that

47:37

many of the people in the North didn't

47:40

consider themselves necessarily abolitionists. They

47:42

may have disagreed with the

47:44

institution of slavery, but

47:46

rather than being abolitionists, they

47:49

had a real nimby

47:51

thing going on. Not in my

47:54

backyard. They didn't want to deal with slavery,

47:56

they didn't want slavery in their state, they

47:58

didn't want slavery to expand further throughout the

48:00

United States but well you know it

48:02

exists down the south we can't do anything about it

48:04

as long as we don't have it propagate

48:07

any further there were a lot of people who took

48:09

this line this was probably I would

48:11

say the the at

48:13

least earlier on in the United States history this

48:16

is the prevailing thought amongst many of the people

48:18

in the in northern states they may not have

48:20

been hardline abolitionists they may have been anti slavery

48:22

in that they didn't want it in their states

48:24

but were willing to tolerate it in other parts

48:27

of the country but not in new states as

48:29

well as we'll come to anyway efforts

48:32

were made by anti-slavery groups to to

48:34

limit or curtail slavery in the United

48:36

States as I mentioned in 1794 Washington

48:38

who was a slave owner himself let's

48:40

not forget he signed into law the

48:42

slave trade act this forbade slave ships

48:44

from being built or outfitted in the

48:47

United States and then later on in 1807 another

48:50

slave owning president Thomas Jefferson

48:52

he approved the act prohibiting

48:54

the importation of slaves another

48:56

very important step towards the

48:58

ultimate abolition of the international

49:00

slave trade however this

49:04

law didn't address the

49:06

internal domestic slave trade

49:08

within the United States

49:10

and as a result

49:12

generations of enslaved African

49:14

Americans their ancestors having

49:16

been forcibly removed

49:18

from their homes across the Atlantic

49:20

continued to toil and labor

49:22

for their entire lives many

49:25

northern states did abolish slavery outright

49:28

the number of freed African Americans grew

49:30

steadily as time passed but

49:33

slavery was still a very

49:35

very big part of the United

49:37

States all the way

49:40

through to the outset and the resolution

49:42

of the Civil War the majority of

49:44

sitting presidents owned slaves and

49:47

it was seen as a very

49:51

Necessary part of the United

49:53

States economic well-being not just

49:55

by people who were ardent

49:58

pro-slavery campaigners in the. Now

50:00

but people in the North who

50:02

once again. We're. Happy to

50:04

read it ready for to exist as not

50:06

just not in my backyard. The.

50:10

Further south you went. however the worse

50:12

it became into the nineteenth century. the demands

50:14

a slave labor in the southern states only

50:16

increased an increase of course as more and

50:18

more land was settled and cultivated New

50:20

can see by now how into realize it.

50:23

All of these issues are right. the foreign

50:25

policy the the the westward expansion slavery. All

50:27

the things go hand in hand but

50:29

with discussing on the run so you can

50:32

understand the ways in which they connect in

50:34

the ways in which they inform one another.

50:37

In time, the total population.

50:40

Of flight across the United States

50:42

would rise as high as four

50:44

million. And. As as

50:46

more and more land was settled

50:49

as the demand for unfree live

50:51

who rows and rows and southern

50:53

states unapologetically descendants what became known

50:56

as the United States is. Peculiar.

50:59

Institution. Flavors argued

51:02

that slavery was a necessary evil

51:04

a propped up the southern economies

51:06

and the cash crops that in

51:08

turn benefit of the union as

51:10

a whole. They argued that freed

51:12

slaves would be dangerous, that racial

51:14

divisions would lead to social unrest

51:16

and then and then potential potential

51:18

social collapse and so African Americans

51:20

that to remain in slave for

51:22

the safety of everyone. According to

51:24

these people, they also argue that

51:26

slavery was in the and actually

51:28

good for those who are enslaved.

51:30

If your believe. That they were better

51:32

off in the U S than they

51:34

would have been back in Africa with you

51:37

know all of the advancements of civilized

51:39

society like whips and chains. If if slaves

51:41

who did to be cared for properly by

51:43

the owners live as argued then they were

51:46

better off than than though better off than

51:48

fried laborers a them they had to guarantee

51:50

of a roof over their heads and

51:52

sued in their bellies. Again,

51:55

Nevermind. whips and chains i suppose

51:57

or the backbreaking labor that was

51:59

some for these poor souls'

52:01

own good. Slavers

52:03

argued that without an

52:06

underclass of slaves, society

52:08

would never progress. The wealth that

52:11

slaves generated enabled everyone else to

52:13

enjoy progress and prosperity. And that

52:15

may be true, but what of

52:18

the people who are again toiling away in

52:20

the fields for their entire lives,

52:23

never being given a glimpse or a

52:25

hope of freedom? These

52:29

were the arguments that

52:31

were expounded and thoroughly believed by

52:33

the pro-slavery camp, in addition to

52:35

what is perhaps one of the

52:37

most pervasive and damaging arguments in

52:39

favour of slavery. One that

52:42

even if it's not being used to

52:44

support slavery explicitly these days, is still

52:46

very much alive and kicking today in

52:49

certain parts of the world. The

52:51

idea that, the argument that black

52:54

people were, and in some people's

52:56

minds still are, necessarily

52:59

inferior to white people, and

53:01

that this inferiority rendered them

53:03

unfit for any role in

53:06

American society other than slavery.

53:10

Now, I trust I don't

53:12

need to rebut these arguments for

53:14

you. I trust I don't need

53:16

to enumerate the arguments put forth

53:18

by the abolitionists and those who

53:20

stood against slavery. I would consider

53:22

them to be largely self-evident. Slavery

53:25

is, it should go without

53:27

saying, a great and terrible

53:29

evil. And is

53:32

by no means unique to the United

53:34

States as well. Slavery has stained the

53:36

collective consciences of far too

53:38

many civilisations throughout the broad

53:41

sweep of history, but in the

53:43

19th century continued acceptance

53:45

of such a barbaric

53:47

and primitive institution, such

53:50

a morally reprehensible practice,

53:53

was wearing very thin across much

53:55

of the world. And the United States

53:57

was well behind the times in persisting

54:00

in its support of slavery.

54:04

As it stood with the existing states

54:06

at the time, there was an uneasy

54:08

equilibrium. As the years continued, slavery was

54:10

abolished in the northern states, but continued

54:13

in the southern states. Now, that wasn't

54:15

the issue. It wasn't about the southern

54:17

states and the northern states. That wasn't

54:19

the crux or the focus of the

54:21

issue of slavery within the United States.

54:24

It was about new states as

54:26

they were admitted to the Union.

54:30

As the United States expanded, as

54:32

more and more states were admitted

54:35

to the Union, fierce debate would

54:37

erupt as to whether these new

54:39

states, particularly those towards the centre

54:41

of the North-South divide, would be

54:43

slave states or would be free

54:46

states. Now, in some instances

54:48

it became very obvious when divided

54:50

along geographic lines. Northern

54:53

states like Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and

54:55

the like were admitted to slave

54:58

states, while northern states like Illinois,

55:00

Ohio and Maine were admitted as

55:02

free states, often in a tit-for-tat

55:05

deal. You get one

55:07

free state, you get one slave state. But

55:10

in states between the

55:12

North and the South, in

55:14

states like Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas,

55:18

slavery was the most

55:20

controversial and contentious political

55:22

issue of the time.

55:25

In the late 1840s and into the 1850s, tension grew and

55:27

grew between pro- and anti-slavery camps,

55:32

ratcheted up further and further whenever a

55:34

new state was admitted to the Union.

55:38

Both sides feared that if too many

55:40

states of the opposing view joined the

55:42

US, then they would be able to force

55:44

their agenda through by dominating Congress. This

55:47

was the reason behind this tit-for-tat admission of

55:50

free states and slave states. And

55:52

this fear of being outnumbered

55:55

by their political opponents by

55:57

the opposing faction, It

56:00

turned out, it ended up being very

56:02

legitimate. Across a decade

56:04

of conflict over the issue of slavery in the

56:06

1850s, the anti-slavery Republican

56:09

Party was formed. As

56:12

reprehensible and as backwards as the policies

56:15

of the modern-day Republican Party are, the

56:17

Republican Party of the 19th century was

56:19

very different indeed. Standing

56:21

against slavery, the Republicans were

56:24

the party of big government, believe

56:26

it or not, expanded federal powers,

56:28

economic regulation and increased government spending.

56:30

A far cry from the Republican

56:33

Party of today. We'll come to the dramatic

56:35

shift in political party alignment in a future

56:37

episode, but for now in the 1850s we

56:40

can clearly see that the

56:42

third party system was established.

56:45

On one side, the anti-slavery

56:47

big government Republicans, on the

56:49

other side, the pro-slavery small

56:51

government Democrats that came in

56:53

the wake of Jackson. How

56:56

these parties essentially switched positions over the next

56:58

century is a very interesting tale but again,

57:00

it's one we'll get to in coming weeks.

57:03

As it was, across the

57:05

1850s these political factions were on

57:07

a collision course and the enormous

57:10

amount of political tension that had

57:12

built up across the decade finally

57:15

snapped in 1860. I

57:18

mentioned just earlier how these factions had

57:20

a very legitimate fear of being outnumbered

57:22

and therefore drowned out in Congress. That,

57:25

as it happens, is

57:27

exactly what took place. Bolstered

57:30

by widespread support across the Northern Free

57:32

States in the 1860 presidential elections,

57:35

the Republican Abraham Lincoln was

57:38

duly elected and

57:40

realising the existential threat

57:42

that an anti-slavery Republican

57:44

president posed to their

57:47

slave-based economies. Seven

57:49

southern states seceded from the

57:51

Union in February 1861 and

57:53

were followed by another four

57:56

in April after the official

57:59

outbreak of the American Civil

58:01

War. The

58:04

American Civil War began when these

58:06

seceding states, calling themselves the Confederate

58:08

States of America, attacked a US

58:10

fort, Fort Sumter, down in South

58:12

Carolina, on the 12th of April

58:14

1861. They

58:16

were joined, as I say, by four

58:18

more, and these 11 secessionist states went

58:21

up against the Union, led by Abraham

58:23

Lincoln. And so began a terrible

58:26

and bloody chapter in the history

58:28

of the United States, as Lincoln

58:30

mobilized the Union Army firstly to

58:33

defend from the Confederate attacks, and

58:35

then to preserve the Union

58:37

and bring the secessionist Confederate

58:40

States to heel. There

58:43

is an enormous

58:45

amount of information out there about

58:47

the Civil War that is, to

58:50

put it very simply, patently untrue,

58:53

most notably about the reasons why it was

58:55

fought. And that's what I want to focus

58:57

on here as we talk about the Civil

58:59

War. Not so much the what

59:01

of the war, because there is an infinite

59:04

amount of content about that out there, but

59:06

the why of the war. For

59:09

instance, on the side of Lincoln, when it comes

59:11

to Lincoln and his objectives in fighting the Civil

59:14

War, his absolute top

59:16

priority was not the emancipation

59:18

of slaves, it was to

59:21

preserve the Union. While

59:24

the Republican Party was anti-slavery, certainly, I

59:26

certainly wouldn't go so far as to

59:29

call them abolitionists. As I

59:31

mentioned before, abolitionism wasn't thoroughly

59:33

widespread throughout the Northern Free

59:36

States, and the Republican

59:38

Party was more interested in preventing the

59:40

further expansion of slavery into new parts

59:42

of the US at the outbreak of

59:44

the war than they were with the

59:46

abolition of slavery wholesale. In

59:48

Lincoln, for his part, he openly

59:51

said that the emancipation of slaves

59:53

was secondary to his objectives of

59:55

preserving the Union. Here is

59:57

a direct quote from Lincoln himself. My

1:00:01

paramount objective in this struggle is

1:00:03

to save the Union, and it

1:00:05

is not either to save or

1:00:07

to destroy slavery. If

1:00:10

I could save the Union without freeing any

1:00:12

slaves, I would do it. And

1:00:14

if I could save it by freeing all the

1:00:16

slaves, I would do it. And

1:00:18

if I could save it by freeing some and leaving

1:00:21

others alone, I would also do

1:00:23

that. I want

1:00:25

to point this out because it seemingly

1:00:27

runs contrary to one of the most

1:00:29

pervasive and dangerous narratives out there about

1:00:31

the Civil War and its causes. Often

1:00:35

Lincoln is, and to an

1:00:37

extent rightly, championed as a

1:00:39

hero to the enslaved people

1:00:42

of the United States, ultimately issuing

1:00:44

the Emancipation Proclamation, paving the way

1:00:46

for the total abolition of slavery

1:00:49

across the US. But

1:00:51

I think it's important to note that even

1:00:53

for him, this was a secondary

1:00:56

issue. Because his

1:00:58

primary concern was with saving

1:01:00

the Union, with preserving the

1:01:03

United States of America as

1:01:05

it stood. And this fact

1:01:07

is often used as

1:01:09

evidence for an

1:01:12

extremely dangerous narrative,

1:01:14

as I've said, that is

1:01:16

pushed about the Civil War.

1:01:19

And the fact that Lincoln was more

1:01:21

concerned with preserving the Union than he

1:01:23

was with abolishing slavery does not in

1:01:26

any way undermine the rebuttal

1:01:28

that you should offer to people who

1:01:30

are going to tell you that the

1:01:33

Civil War was not about

1:01:36

slavery. In

1:01:38

many parts of the southern US, people

1:01:40

are very proud of their region's involvement

1:01:42

in the Civil War. They talk about

1:01:44

heritage and their way of life and

1:01:46

invoke other smoke screens to distract you

1:01:48

from the true cause of

1:01:50

the war. I can't

1:01:52

make it any clearer than this.

1:01:55

The American Civil War was about

1:01:57

slavery. Pure and

1:01:59

f- And to say anything else is

1:02:02

to be willfully and disgracefully

1:02:05

dishonest. Sure, for

1:02:07

Lincoln, it wasn't all about slavery, it

1:02:09

was about preserving the Union. But the

1:02:11

only reason that he had to preserve

1:02:13

the Union in the first place is

1:02:16

because it shattered in two over the

1:02:18

issue of slavery. Those

1:02:23

who today proudly display the Confederate battle

1:02:25

flag, perhaps not even knowing that it

1:02:27

was never the official flag of the

1:02:29

Confederate States of America, they

1:02:32

will often talk about how the Civil War

1:02:34

was fought due to ongoing

1:02:36

economic disputes between the North and

1:02:38

the South, due to the political

1:02:40

overreach of all the politicians in

1:02:42

Washington, due to the cultural differences

1:02:45

between Yankee and Dixie America. They

1:02:48

put forward the mythology of

1:02:50

the lost cause, this nonsense

1:02:53

idea that the Northern States

1:02:55

were engaged in an impressive

1:02:57

crusade against the South's

1:02:59

heritage and way of life, that the

1:03:01

Civil War was a noble struggle to

1:03:03

defend the Southern States from the tyrannical

1:03:06

North. These

1:03:08

people will all

1:03:11

too often bring up the

1:03:13

very same reason, the same,

1:03:15

distinctively misleading, willfully dishonest, historical

1:03:18

revisionist reason to explain why

1:03:20

the war occurred and it

1:03:22

simply is not true. These

1:03:26

people will tell you that it

1:03:29

wasn't about slavery, that it

1:03:31

was instead about States'

1:03:34

rights. Okay, sure. A

1:03:39

States' right to do what? Exactly,

1:03:41

a States' right to do what?

1:03:45

It incenses me to see

1:03:47

people today defend a repressive,

1:03:50

backwards, tin-pot regime whose

1:03:52

entire existence was devoted

1:03:54

to the propagation of

1:03:57

one of humanity's very

1:03:59

worst crimes, do

1:04:01

not believe the lies of

1:04:03

these people and do not

1:04:05

enable or accept their defense

1:04:07

of a despicable regime that

1:04:10

when all is said and done lasted

1:04:13

for a grand total

1:04:15

of four years and

1:04:18

three months. The average tin

1:04:20

of tuna at the supermarket has

1:04:22

a longer shelf life than the

1:04:25

Confederate States of America and a

1:04:27

tin of tuna comes with the added bonus of

1:04:30

not trying to defend slavery. It

1:04:32

is time for the South

1:04:35

to move on. I

1:04:38

do not understand why people

1:04:40

across the Southern state are

1:04:42

proudly flying the colors of

1:04:45

the Confederate States of America years

1:04:47

and years later in celebration

1:04:50

of a failed state committed

1:04:52

to an unforgivable creed. It

1:04:55

is a very bloody good thing that

1:04:58

they lost. After

1:05:00

the outbreak of the American Civil War,

1:05:03

the Union pursued military campaigns in the

1:05:05

west of the Confederacy pretty effectively, although

1:05:07

they struggled further to the east. Confederate

1:05:10

General Robert E. Lee did a pretty good job

1:05:12

of holding the Union off to the east, particularly

1:05:16

in the Union's efforts to capture the Confederate

1:05:18

capital of Richmond in Virginia. The

1:05:20

Union took control of the border states in

1:05:23

1862 and then pressed the attack against the

1:05:25

Confederates later in that year. Lincoln

1:05:28

threatened that he would emancipate all the

1:05:30

slaves in the Southern states unless

1:05:32

the Confederates surrendered. They did

1:05:34

not. And so, on

1:05:37

the 1st of January 1863,

1:05:39

Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

1:05:43

This proclamation, on paper at least,

1:05:45

permanently and immediately freed 3.5 million

1:05:48

states across the

1:05:50

Confederate States of America and allowed for

1:05:52

any freed slaves who managed to make

1:05:54

it to the Union lines to come

1:05:56

and join the Union Army and continue

1:05:58

the fight. This galvanised

1:06:00

the Union, particularly amongst the hardline

1:06:03

abolitionists, and brought Lincoln new allies

1:06:05

by firming up his anti-slavery position,

1:06:07

one that was, I will

1:06:09

remind you, one of

1:06:11

pragmatism rather than idealism. But hey,

1:06:14

it worked, we'll take it. The

1:06:16

war's turning point came in July 1863 when

1:06:20

the Confederates were beaten in the Battle

1:06:22

of Gettysburg, after which Lincoln

1:06:25

made his famous Gettysburg Address. And

1:06:27

then still in July, Union General and

1:06:29

future President, Ulysses S. Grant, took

1:06:32

control of the Mississippi River. And

1:06:34

this divided the Confederacy in two,

1:06:36

and things went from bad to

1:06:39

worse for them afterwards, with a

1:06:41

full-scale Union invasion into 1864. The

1:06:44

Union was so far ahead

1:06:46

of the Confederacy in terms of

1:06:48

things like industrialisation, logistics, manpower, and

1:06:50

even just wealth. They were

1:06:52

able to mobilise and transport armies on a

1:06:55

network of railroads, they were able to create

1:06:57

war material in their enormous factories. And

1:07:00

while they were doing this, Union General

1:07:02

Sherman was ravaging the southern cities and

1:07:04

plantations, burning and raising them to the

1:07:06

ground. Eventually, the Confederacy

1:07:08

was ground down, unable to cope

1:07:10

with this war of attrition, unable

1:07:12

to keep pace with the Union,

1:07:15

and so General Lee finally surrendered

1:07:17

to General Grant after

1:07:19

the Battle of Appomattox courthouse on the 9th

1:07:21

of April 1865. Officially, however,

1:07:24

the war wouldn't end

1:07:26

until May, and tragically,

1:07:30

Lincoln wouldn't live to see the

1:07:32

end of it. Less

1:07:35

than a week after Lee's surrender,

1:07:37

Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre

1:07:39

in Washington DC on the 15th

1:07:41

of April by Confederate sympathiser

1:07:44

John Wilkes Booth, who was, as

1:07:46

you may know, quite

1:07:48

a famous actor of all things, and he

1:07:50

was the brother of an even more famous

1:07:53

actor. It'd be a bit like these days,

1:07:55

Casey Affleck assassinating the President. He's obviously

1:07:58

not quite as famous as Ben,

1:08:00

but you know, you've still heard of him. But

1:08:03

poor old Lincoln, who ended up

1:08:05

giving his life as part of

1:08:08

his quest to save the Union,

1:08:10

he was one of hundreds of

1:08:12

thousands of casualties of the American

1:08:14

Civil War. The

1:08:17

American Civil War is the bloodiest and

1:08:19

deadliest war in US history, with around

1:08:21

three quarters of a million soldiers dying.

1:08:24

It was deadlier even than the second

1:08:26

world war was for the United States,

1:08:28

in which around 420,000 American soldiers died.

1:08:34

However, in the wake of

1:08:36

the Civil War, slavery was

1:08:38

no more. Thanks to the

1:08:40

Emancipation Proclamation and the following 13th

1:08:43

Amendment to the US Constitution, slavery

1:08:46

was, at long last, abolished

1:08:48

throughout the United States. And

1:08:53

while the Union persisted, while the United States

1:08:55

of America continued on, it was

1:08:57

left to heal the wounds caused

1:09:00

as North fought South, as State

1:09:02

fought State, as the Civil War

1:09:05

split the nation in two. But

1:09:09

these wounds were deep, very

1:09:11

deep, and some of them remain

1:09:13

unhealed to this very day. Immediately

1:09:17

following the Civil War, the United

1:09:19

States entered a period of history

1:09:21

known as Reconstruction, where the country

1:09:23

attempted to rebuild after the war

1:09:25

and deal with the issues that

1:09:27

arose with the freeing of millions

1:09:29

of slaves and the reintegration of

1:09:31

rebel states and their populations. And

1:09:34

it's there that we'll pick up the story

1:09:37

next week as the US hurtled towards the

1:09:39

20th century, and of course,

1:09:41

the world wars that came with it.

1:09:44

Reconstruction continued westward settlement, the Progressive Era,

1:09:46

the World Wars, the Great Depression, the

1:09:49

New Deal, so much more to get

1:09:51

across next week. So I

1:09:53

hope you'll join me once again to

1:09:55

continue the story of the United States

1:09:57

of America. That's

1:10:10

all she wrote today sports fans. Well for this

1:10:12

week at least, I'm looking forward to coming back

1:10:14

next week for more US history and I'm also

1:10:17

very pleased to hear from listeners who say

1:10:20

they're enjoying me tackling a much larger topic

1:10:22

in a bit more depth with again never

1:10:24

done a four part series

1:10:26

before but I'm very pleased

1:10:28

to hear that some people at least are enjoying

1:10:30

it and for those who aren't, well it'll be

1:10:32

over eventually and we'll be back to the one

1:10:35

and done routine that you're so very used to.

1:10:37

But I do want to thank all the people who got in touch with their feedback. You

1:10:39

can join them too if you want to let me know

1:10:41

what you think of this episode and any others, half-arsehistory.net. Use

1:10:44

the contact form. That's the best way to get in touch

1:10:46

with me. You can use the email in

1:10:48

the show description but the best

1:10:50

way is the contact form. I'm guaranteed to read all

1:10:52

those emails no matter what. It's

1:10:56

also the place to suggest topics although I do

1:10:58

have obviously topics lined up the next couple of

1:11:00

weeks but always keen to hear more especially for

1:11:02

quarter-arse history or anything else that's

1:11:05

come across your desk. I'd love

1:11:07

to get across it. I

1:11:09

want to thank everyone as well who's

1:11:11

jumping on the various social media platforms

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on TikTok, on Instagram, on Facebook, on Twitter

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except on Twitter where it's half-arse history with

1:11:23

no Y, wouldn't fit very annoying. But do

1:11:26

be sure to head over there and like, comment and subscribe. I

1:11:28

know we all say it. I'm so sorry to be doing it

1:11:30

to you but look, people who know a lot more about this

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addition to of course leaving reviews, I think that's actually really

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huge, huge number of reviews that have come

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your fancy, these reviews are immensely appreciated as

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indeed. All

1:11:56

of the comments on all the social media

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channels begging. Begging

1:12:00

someone to give me a book deal.

1:12:02

I'm I'm working on it anyway Thanks

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for listening. Tell your friends tell your enemies tell people about

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as indeed is joining the show's patreon patreon.com/half-life history

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You can sign up and gain all sorts of

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a deep deep debt of

1:12:27

gratitude is owed to all the patrons

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old and new alike for their continued support And

1:12:32

speaking of new patrons, why don't I

1:12:35

let you know who's joined up this week? And I'm

1:12:37

very pleased to say there's been quite a quite a

1:12:39

haul Martin

1:12:41

stannard kieran tieni Paul

1:12:44

Nesbitt Paul Ahlers Robert

1:12:46

van beek Jim Balsman and most

1:12:49

excitingly Riley curry great

1:12:51

to have another Riley along I believe one

1:12:53

of the first Riley's to jump over on

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to patient a concept half-life history So if

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you're a freeloader Riley out there, I'll tell

1:13:00

you what why not lend a hand to

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a fellow That's

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my very specific pitch for this week if you're I

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shouldn't be doing that I should be going if your

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name is I don't know

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what John or I

1:13:15

don't know Sarah, you know, just really really

1:13:17

common names great names. Of course great love

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love those names, but Riley's

1:13:22

Riley's in a category of its own anyway

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Cheers Riley cheese everyone else's who's signed up

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this week And if you want to follow

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in their footsteps patreon.com/slash half-ass history anyway

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It's been a bloody long episode and I'm happy to wrap it

1:13:33

up here and now with a question posed on Reddit

1:13:35

of course see you next week for more US history

1:13:38

until then leaving you with a question posed by a

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twister up rocker who asks Why

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