0:04

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. Short

0:07

stuff, I should say, I'm Josh, there's

0:09

Chuck, there's Jerry. Let's get to

0:11

it, and

0:13

they're off And another shorty.

0:16

So, um, I were about

0:18

to talk about something I had no idea about

0:20

previous to this. Yeah, and this one has a

0:22

couple of layers that are super interesting to

0:24

me. Is it is an onion for

0:27

sure? Um, So

0:29

we're going to dive into

0:32

the history of a guy named William

0:34

Rufus Devane King, and

0:36

he was an early senator.

0:39

He was a diplomat for the United States. Um,

0:42

well, I think he was a congressman first, then

0:46

he was a diplomat, and then he was a senator

0:48

for like twenty nine years

0:50

or something like that, and then eventually

0:52

he became vice president. And the

0:55

way that he apparently progressed through

0:57

the ranks in the Democratic Party

1:00

was by being pretty

1:02

middle of the road, vanilla mediocre.

1:05

Yeah, and I interpreted that as also

1:08

he was a a good

1:10

guy that you know, he wasn't one of these

1:12

blustery blowhards of the day.

1:15

Um. He was an attorney first, of course,

1:17

probably like most of these dudes were and

1:19

still are. And he

1:22

he was described as various things tall

1:24

prim Wig topped mediocrity,

1:27

but other things that they said were like he

1:30

he wanted people to address each other with decorum,

1:33

and whenever people were arguing, he

1:36

was known to come in and kind of try and reconcile things.

1:39

So I kind of like this guy's

1:41

style the more I read about him.

1:43

Yeah, no, I'm with you, Like you know, I

1:45

think to be middle of the road at this time

1:47

was actually kind of, um, a

1:50

badge of honor. Interesting.

1:52

I mean, this is during the lead up to the

1:54

Civil War. The country is not getting

1:56

along very well, right, yeah, so

1:59

he he um. He started out again

2:02

in Congress. Uh. And then he

2:04

went on to service diplomat to Russia and

2:06

then Naples, the Kingdom of Naples,

2:08

no less in France. At one

2:10

point too, I think, oh, oh, yeah, you're

2:12

right. And then by eighteen eighteen

2:14

he returned to the US and he said,

2:16

I'm going to find my fortunes way out

2:19

west. So we went to Alabama,

2:22

which is way out west at the time, and

2:25

he was he was born the son of a plantation

2:28

owner, and he became a plantation owner there.

2:30

He owned five hundred slaves. Um

2:32

became one of the largest slaveholders

2:34

in this um newly formed

2:36

state, and he named

2:39

as the state Chestnut Hill. And

2:41

and from there that's where he became the

2:44

senator for twenty nine years. He was a senator

2:46

from Alabama for twenty nine years UM

2:49

and actually was instrumental in

2:51

UM ironically naming the town of Selma.

2:54

Oh did you see that? So

2:58

there was a poem, a book of poems

3:00

about called like Songs of Selma,

3:03

UM that he was, that he loved.

3:06

And when they were naming the county seat of the

3:08

county where his his plantation was,

3:11

he was basically instrumental in getting

3:13

it named Selma, the city of Selma, Alabama.

3:17

Yeah. So he would eventually go on through

3:20

the Democratic Party at the time to

3:23

be vice president, to be a

3:25

presidential running mate to UM hopeful

3:27

Franklin Pierce Uh. And this

3:30

is things where things get a little bit interesting because

3:33

many historians and it says some but

3:35

I did some research on this, and most

3:38

historians now look back and say

3:41

President James Buchanan was

3:44

clearly a gay man, right,

3:46

And it's interesting to

3:48

think about our past being a little more open

3:51

to that. But there's a guy that

3:53

wrote a book Jim Lohan called

3:56

um lies, teachers lies.

3:59

My teacher told me everything. You're American

4:01

history teacher got wrong. And

4:05

he clearly states that that James Buchanan

4:08

was gay, and not only that it was not a

4:10

big secret and America was actually

4:12

a little more open to that kind

4:14

of thing and premisses of that kind of

4:16

thing back then, right right, It wasn't like

4:19

like his career, his political career wasn't ruined.

4:21

It wasn't like blackmail held against him.

4:24

And that just so goes

4:26

against what most people think of with

4:28

history, that it's like arrow

4:30

that progresses ever forward and

4:33

that by by default then

4:35

like the time we live and must be

4:37

more tolerant, more progressive than you

4:39

know, a hundred something years ago, a hundred

4:41

and fifty years ago, And that's just not the

4:43

case. And this is a good example

4:46

of that. Yeah, So he calls it. This author

4:48

says that the idea that we started great

4:50

and just got greater and greater chronological

4:53

ethnocentrism, which is a fancy

4:55

way of saying what you just said, which is in

4:57

the nineteenth century it was okay

5:00

at least too you know him he got elected president.

5:03

Yeah, And speaking of fancy, one of the um

5:06

examples that they point to is that this was an

5:09

open secret or just known around d

5:11

C. Is that Andrew Jackson um

5:14

had a nickname for James Buchanan and

5:17

William King miss Nancy and

5:19

aunt Fancy. Yeah, because here's

5:21

the deal, Uh, Buchanan never

5:24

married. He and King lived together and

5:27

spent a lot of time together, and

5:29

that was basically sort of known

5:32

around town that that was the deal. When

5:34

Buchanan died, he had all

5:36

of his correspondence is burned upon

5:39

his death, which is sort of a weird thing

5:41

to do. But a few of the letters did survive,

5:44

and one of them from four

5:46

addressed to a Mrs Roosevelt, said

5:49

when King moved to Paris to be ambassador to

5:51

France, he said, I am now solitary

5:53

and alone, having no companion in the house with

5:55

me. I've gone wooing to several gentlemen,

5:58

but have not succeeded with any of them.

6:01

Tough to take that the wrong way it

6:04

is. I mean, of course we're saying, you know, it's

6:06

pretty clear now, but you know, who

6:09

knows. They might make the argument in this article that could

6:11

have just been close male friends. But I

6:13

think most people kind of agree now that

6:15

James Buchanan was our our first gay

6:18

president. Yeah, which is pretty awesome

6:20

actually, Yeah, of course. Um. And then that

6:22

same letter, Chuck that you just wrote a quote from,

6:24

goes on to say that, um, if this keeps

6:26

up, he may very well just marry an old maid

6:29

who can cook and care for him, and w would expect

6:31

ardent romance from him in return.

6:34

So yeah, there's just the evidence

6:36

is that what little evidence there is certainly

6:38

points to this, and and the

6:41

idea that, as this article

6:43

puts it, that this is just like a bromance

6:46

or something, and that seems pretty thin,

6:48

all signs point to him being gay. But also

6:51

in defense of this article on how

6:53

stuff works, they say that, um,

6:56

that that had zero bearing whatsoever

6:58

on his political aptitude. U. Um,

7:01

it was just an interesting fact of history

7:03

that kind of makes us examine our own times a

7:05

little more. Yeah. And I'll tell you one thing, Um,

7:08

I don't know much about the nineteenth century,

7:10

but I do know that gay men existed

7:12

and bromances did not. You

7:16

know, that's a stupid modern conceit.

7:19

Yeah. And I think what you just said is a T shirt to

7:21

a long T shirt maybe front

7:23

and back, the sleep shirt all

7:26

right, So we're gonna take a quick break and we're gonna come

7:28

back to let you know why

7:30

we titled this one. Um, how King actually

7:33

took his oath of office in Cuba right after

7:35

this. So

7:55

so William King, I want to call him Rufus King so

7:58

bad because it's William Rufus Devan King.

8:00

But it's not not what he's called, Josh

8:02

now what he's called. But William

8:06

King had another claim

8:08

to fame historically, and that he

8:10

was the only person in the United

8:12

States history elected to high office,

8:15

um who was sworn in off

8:18

of US soil. And that

8:20

was the way that it happened. Is it's

8:22

interesting, but it's not anything that William

8:24

King wanted. No, he got tuberculosis,

8:27

got very sick, and from

8:30

the time of his election

8:32

in November eighteen fifty two as

8:35

Pierce's vice president to when he would eventually

8:37

take office in March of eighteen fifty

8:39

three, this was sort of the time when

8:41

they were like, um, go

8:44

to a good, hot, warm climate because that

8:46

will will help you out, which is, you

8:48

know, it probably does help along, but it's not

8:50

a cure all you know. Yeah, the muggy air of

8:52

Cuba will really clear out your tuberculosis.

8:56

It doesn't that doesn't seem it doesn't seem right

8:58

to me. Yeah, that's true. I didn't think about the amity, but

9:01

that's where he went. He went down to Havannah

9:03

to to restore his health between

9:05

the election and the swearing in, but

9:07

his health just got worse and worse and worse.

9:10

And by the time he was to

9:12

be sworn in within like a week or so,

9:15

I think maybe even more than that, because he wouldn't

9:17

have been able to make it from Havannah to d C

9:20

within a week of that time on a boat. Yeah.

9:23

Um, but within that time he

9:25

realized, like, I'm not going to be able to make it

9:27

to d C. I'm still too sick. The

9:29

time is too short. I'm just gonna have

9:31

to ask if I can be sworn in down

9:33

here. And Congress said, you know what, we

9:36

like you will. We think you're great. We

9:38

give you a lot of a lot of bs about

9:40

you and Buchanan, but we think you're a pretty great person.

9:43

So yeah, we're gonna pass an

9:45

Act of Congress to make that happen.

9:47

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. They passed this legislation

9:50

allowing him to be sworn in in Cuba,

9:52

and on March eighteen

9:55

fifty three, he did just that at

9:57

an office near uh Matanzas.

10:00

Matanzas has

10:03

a little more flair. Uh. And this

10:05

is a seaport town about sixty miles east

10:07

of Havana. He was so sick he couldn't

10:09

even stand up without help, but he

10:12

repeated the oath. He became our

10:14

thirteen vice president, which

10:16

is pretty remarkable on Cuban soil.

10:19

And then after about a month he was like, I really

10:21

would kind of like to get back to the US. Set

10:24

sail for Alabama. Yeah. Yeah, and imagine

10:26

this, Chuck, can't you see like a Cuban sea

10:28

captain. Go, you want to go into Alabama?

10:32

Okay, I

10:35

like your Cuban sea captain. Thank you. That's great.

10:37

I've been working on it all day. Uh.

10:39

Oh, is that why you're wearing that shirt? Very

10:42

nice? Now it all makes sense. So

10:45

he set sail and uh. Eventually

10:47

he would die April eighteen, the

10:50

day after he got back to United

10:52

States soil. Yeah, he made

10:54

it back to Chestnut Hill and expired post

10:57

taste. Yeah, and here's something I didn't

10:59

know. Apparently you didn't really need a vice president

11:01

back then because we went four years

11:03

without one. Well, I don't know if you

11:05

didn't need it or not, but Franklin Pierce is,

11:08

in my opinion, the worst president of the United

11:11

States has ever had. He and

11:13

um King were elected because they were

11:15

so middle of the road and so vanilla

11:18

and so plain on the especially

11:20

on like the slavery issue. That

11:23

that they were elected to try to keep the

11:25

U s from civil war, but they will

11:27

not. Not King, but definitely

11:29

Pierce laid the groundwork for it almost

11:32

single handedly with this terrible administration.

11:34

So um he, Franklin

11:37

Pierce is terrible, and I

11:39

could see him being like, I don't need a vice president.

11:41

Can screw it all up myself like that.

11:43

I didn't know about your long standing Franklin Pierce

11:45

scrudge. It's it's hot. You

11:49

got anything else? Now? That's it. Well,

11:51

thanks for hanging out with us for this brief time

11:55

for you while you made it through your bag of carrot sticks

11:57

on your lunch break. Um, if

12:00

you want to hang out with us, go to our home on the web stuff

12:02

you should know dot com and look us up. I'm also are

12:04

you serious? Clark dot com? And we're all over social

12:06

media and we'll see you next time. Everybody

12:09

by