WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.379 Imagine checking your newsfeed today, right? 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:06.700 And you see this breaking alert. One United States 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:09.880 senator just walked across the Senate floor and 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:13.279 he beats a fellow lawmaker half to death with 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:16.600 a walking stick. Wow. I mean, literal blood on 00:00:16.600 --> 00:00:19.179 the floor of the Capitol. Which sounds, you know, 00:00:19.239 --> 00:00:21.320 completely made up. Right. Not a movie script, 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:23.519 not some dystopian novel. That actually happened 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:26.820 in America in 1856. Yeah. And it's it is a moment 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:31.339 that completely shatters the illusion of a civilized 00:00:31.339 --> 00:00:33.759 functioning government yeah I mean when the people 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:36.979 making the laws abandoned debate for actual physical 00:00:36.979 --> 00:00:38.939 violence they're just beating each other exactly 00:00:38.939 --> 00:00:41.439 you know the entire system is in a state of catastrophic 00:00:41.439 --> 00:00:43.960 failure and what's wild is just how quickly they 00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:46.119 got to that point so welcome to today's deep 00:00:46.119 --> 00:00:48.700 dive glad to be here I want you, the listener, 00:00:49.060 --> 00:00:51.420 to essentially step into a time machine with 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:54.479 us today. Just completely forget about the dry 00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:57.259 gates and the memorized lists from your old high 00:00:57.259 --> 00:01:00.100 school history classes. Please do. Imagine actually 00:01:00.100 --> 00:01:02.399 living through an era where the map of your own 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:04.859 country is being completely redrawn almost every 00:01:04.859 --> 00:01:07.180 single year. Yeah, it's wild. And the technology 00:01:07.180 --> 00:01:09.500 around you is changing so fast that the laws, 00:01:09.500 --> 00:01:12.099 they literally can't even keep up. Our mission 00:01:12.099 --> 00:01:14.400 today is to take a stack of chronological source 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:18.480 material detailing the years 1820 to 1859. A 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:20.540 really intense 40 years. Oh, absolutely. And 00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:22.560 we're going to map out exactly how a rapidly 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:26.079 expanding young country turned into this geographic, 00:01:26.519 --> 00:01:28.500 technological, and ideological pressure cooker. 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:31.280 Right. OK, let's unpack this. Where exactly are 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:33.459 we starting our time machine today? Well, we 00:01:33.459 --> 00:01:38.280 are setting the dials to the year 1820. And to 00:01:38.280 --> 00:01:41.159 kind of set the stage here, James Monroe has 00:01:41.159 --> 00:01:43.120 just been reelected as president of the United 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:46.700 States. OK. But what is absolutely crucial to 00:01:46.700 --> 00:01:49.579 note about this specific election is that he 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:52.659 is reelected unopposed. Wait, unopposed? There's 00:01:52.659 --> 00:01:54.739 literally no opposing candidate. That sounds 00:01:54.739 --> 00:01:57.579 incredibly peaceful. I mean, almost utopian compared 00:01:57.579 --> 00:01:59.400 to, you know, the violence we just talked about. 00:01:59.480 --> 00:02:01.939 Right. It really seems like this moment of absolute 00:02:01.939 --> 00:02:04.500 peak unity. I mean, historians literally call 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:07.180 it the era of good feelings. But as we look at 00:02:07.180 --> 00:02:10.240 the timeline we're unpacking today. That unity 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:13.699 is a very, very fragile illusion. Because there's 00:02:13.699 --> 00:02:16.120 stuff bubbling underneath. Exactly. Beneath the 00:02:16.120 --> 00:02:18.919 surface of that unopposed election, the physical 00:02:18.919 --> 00:02:21.180 and legal foundations of a booming nation are 00:02:21.180 --> 00:02:24.020 being laid down. And they are about to accelerate 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:27.199 everything at a terrifying speed. Wow, yeah. 00:02:27.539 --> 00:02:29.879 And we really see that acceleration takeoff in 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:33.539 the 1820s. We're moving from this illusion of 00:02:33.539 --> 00:02:36.379 a unified political front right into the actual 00:02:36.379 --> 00:02:38.939 mechanics of hypergrowth. Yes. Just looking at 00:02:38.939 --> 00:02:41.240 the physical infrastructure alone, the Erie Canal 00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:44.639 is finally completed in 1825. Which is huge. 00:02:44.860 --> 00:02:46.740 Right. And why does that matter to you, the listener? 00:02:47.159 --> 00:02:50.439 Because before this, moving goods over land meant 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:53.639 dragging these heavy wagons through deep muddy 00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:56.360 rutted roads. Yeah, it was a nightmare. It cost 00:02:56.360 --> 00:02:59.180 an absolute fortune and suddenly you have this 00:02:59.180 --> 00:03:02.960 massive man -made watery highway. connecting 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:05.120 the Great Lakes directly to the Atlantic Ocean. 00:03:05.219 --> 00:03:07.620 It's a cobalt game changer. Moving a ton of flour 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:09.719 suddenly costs a fraction of what it used to. 00:03:09.900 --> 00:03:11.539 But it's not just the physical roads that are 00:03:11.539 --> 00:03:13.460 opening up, right? It's the legal roads, too. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:17.500 Exactly. In 1824, so just a year before the Erie 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:20.400 Canal is finished, you have this landmark Supreme 00:03:20.400 --> 00:03:23.560 Court case, Givens v. Ogden. Now, I want to make 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:25.900 sure I understand the mechanics of this, because, 00:03:25.919 --> 00:03:28.770 you know, on the surface, A court case about 00:03:28.770 --> 00:03:31.629 steamboat operators sounds a bit dry. Oh, it 00:03:31.629 --> 00:03:34.430 really does. But this is where the federal government 00:03:34.430 --> 00:03:37.849 steps in and firmly affirms its authority over 00:03:37.849 --> 00:03:40.129 state authority when it comes to interstate commerce. 00:03:40.389 --> 00:03:42.710 And there's a really memorable detail from our 00:03:42.710 --> 00:03:45.129 sources here. One of the scrappy young business 00:03:45.129 --> 00:03:47.370 partners involved in running the boats for this 00:03:47.370 --> 00:03:50.310 very case was Cornelius Vanderbilt. The very 00:03:50.310 --> 00:03:52.530 same man who would eventually go on to build 00:03:52.530 --> 00:03:56.530 a massive railroad empire. Wow. And what's fascinating 00:03:56.530 --> 00:03:58.469 here is how the physical infrastructure, like 00:03:58.469 --> 00:04:00.449 those canals, and the legal infrastructure, like 00:04:00.449 --> 00:04:03.449 the ruling in Gibbons v. Ogden, they combined 00:04:03.449 --> 00:04:05.969 to create this massive hyper -growth engine. 00:04:06.169 --> 00:04:07.830 Because the states were getting in the way, right? 00:04:07.830 --> 00:04:10.789 Yeah, before this ruling, states like New York 00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:12.550 were essentially acting like toll booths. They 00:04:12.550 --> 00:04:15.449 were granting these exclusive monopolies to certain 00:04:15.449 --> 00:04:17.550 steamboat operators, which is completely bottleneck 00:04:17.550 --> 00:04:19.889 trade. So the Supreme Court steps in and says, 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:23.459 No, the federal government controls commerce 00:04:23.459 --> 00:04:26.160 between the states. They basically bulldozed 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.300 the toll booths. I love that. The legal framework 00:04:29.300 --> 00:04:32.000 was clearing the brush, essentially, so that 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:34.199 domestic capitalism could explode across state 00:04:34.199 --> 00:04:36.899 lines without local governments strangling it. 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:39.839 I really love this analogy. The country at this 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:42.040 point is like, it's like a teenager taking the 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:44.220 family car out for the first time. Oh, absolutely. 00:04:44.379 --> 00:04:47.009 The founding parents are suddenly gone. And quite 00:04:47.009 --> 00:04:49.250 literally, right, because our timeline points 00:04:49.250 --> 00:04:51.930 out this incredibly eerie coincidence. Yeah, 00:04:51.970 --> 00:04:54.589 this is wild. Former presidents Thomas Jefferson 00:04:54.589 --> 00:04:58.129 and John Adams both pass away on the exact same 00:04:58.129 --> 00:05:01.670 day in 1826. Which just so happens to be the 00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:03.990 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 00:05:04.350 --> 00:05:07.529 It's almost too perfect for a movie. It is an 00:05:07.529 --> 00:05:10.810 incredibly symbolic passing of the torch. The 00:05:10.810 --> 00:05:12.550 architects of the nation are gone and they're 00:05:12.550 --> 00:05:14.720 leaving the next generation at the wheel. Right. 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:17.459 So the parents are out of the picture, the physical 00:05:17.459 --> 00:05:20.459 roads like the Erie Canal are wide open, and 00:05:20.459 --> 00:05:22.399 the federal government just gave itself the green 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:25.139 light with Gibbons v. Ogden to drive commerce 00:05:25.139 --> 00:05:27.680 anywhere it wants as fast as it wants. It is 00:05:27.680 --> 00:05:31.529 a perfect storm for rapid expansion. But, you 00:05:31.529 --> 00:05:34.069 know, the founders who passed away in 1826, they 00:05:34.069 --> 00:05:37.089 could not have predicted the sheer speed of what 00:05:37.089 --> 00:05:39.269 was coming. Or the friction. Exactly, the friction 00:05:39.269 --> 00:05:41.389 it was going to cause. Yeah. Because faster movement 00:05:41.389 --> 00:05:44.449 and exponential economic growth, well, they inevitably 00:05:44.449 --> 00:05:47.550 bring severe consequences. Which brings us directly 00:05:47.550 --> 00:05:51.430 into the 1830s. And actually, before we look 00:05:51.430 --> 00:05:54.149 at the 1830s, we need to be very clear with you, 00:05:54.230 --> 00:05:56.350 the listener. Yes, this is important. Just a 00:05:56.350 --> 00:05:58.870 quick pause here. The sources we are unpacking 00:05:58.870 --> 00:06:01.310 cover some of the darkest, most highly charged 00:06:01.310 --> 00:06:03.850 political and moral content in American history, 00:06:04.069 --> 00:06:05.910 specifically regarding the forced displacement 00:06:05.910 --> 00:06:08.569 of Native populations and the institution of 00:06:08.569 --> 00:06:11.589 slavery. Our role today isn't to editorialize 00:06:11.589 --> 00:06:14.069 or take sides or endorse any political viewpoints 00:06:14.069 --> 00:06:16.649 from the left or the right. We are just here 00:06:16.649 --> 00:06:19.569 to neutrally and impartially report the historical 00:06:19.569 --> 00:06:22.269 facts and mechanics of how this happened exactly 00:06:22.269 --> 00:06:25.540 as the timeline lays it out. And that is an essential 00:06:25.540 --> 00:06:28.399 framework for this deep dive, because the 1830s, 00:06:28.420 --> 00:06:31.019 it forces us to look at two completely different 00:06:31.019 --> 00:06:32.939 realities that are happening simultaneously. 00:06:33.060 --> 00:06:35.500 It really is a split screen. Yeah. On one hand, 00:06:35.579 --> 00:06:38.680 you have these massive leaps forward in innovation 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:42.389 and society. Huge leaks. I mean, in 1831, Cyrus 00:06:42.389 --> 00:06:44.790 McCormick invents the mechanical reaper. Right. 00:06:45.069 --> 00:06:47.470 Before this, harvesting wheat was backbreaking 00:06:47.470 --> 00:06:49.569 work with a scythe. You could only plant as much 00:06:49.569 --> 00:06:51.709 as you could physically cut by hand before it 00:06:51.709 --> 00:06:54.449 rotted. Yeah, it was a huge limitation. But McCormick's 00:06:54.449 --> 00:06:56.870 machine completely shatters that agricultural 00:06:56.870 --> 00:07:01.160 bottleneck. And then socially, in 1832, Maria 00:07:01.160 --> 00:07:03.620 Stewart becomes the first Black American woman 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:05.620 to give a speech in front of a mixed audience. 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:09.620 A major milestone. Right. And by 1837, Oberlin 00:07:09.620 --> 00:07:12.639 College begins enrolling female students, becoming 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:15.500 the first co -educational college in the U .S. 00:07:16.060 --> 00:07:18.279 There is a breaking of boundaries happening across 00:07:18.279 --> 00:07:20.899 the board. But... And this is the crucial part. 00:07:21.139 --> 00:07:22.939 We have to look at the cause and effect here. 00:07:23.079 --> 00:07:25.620 Those agricultural and technological boundaries 00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:28.259 being broken, they were creating an insatiable 00:07:28.259 --> 00:07:30.620 demand. Right, the reaper. Think about the mechanical 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:34.319 reaper. If a farmer can suddenly harvest 10 times 00:07:34.319 --> 00:07:36.759 as much wheat, what do they need? 10 times as 00:07:36.759 --> 00:07:39.060 much land. Exactly. They need 10 times as much 00:07:39.060 --> 00:07:42.699 land. And that newfound efficiency drives a furious, 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:45.240 devastating hunger for new territory. Which leads 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:47.660 directly to the harsher realities outlined in 00:07:47.660 --> 00:07:50.769 our sources. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act 00:07:50.769 --> 00:07:54.250 is passed. And by 1838, this legal framework 00:07:54.250 --> 00:07:56.129 results in the forced removal of the Cherokee 00:07:56.129 --> 00:07:58.589 Nation from the southeastern United States, what 00:07:58.589 --> 00:08:01.110 we know as the Trail of Tears. It's just horrific. 00:08:01.250 --> 00:08:04.110 Our timeline notes this grueling forced march 00:08:04.110 --> 00:08:07.170 led to over 4 ,000 deaths. And this wasn't just 00:08:07.170 --> 00:08:09.709 a tragedy of circumstance. It was a deliberate 00:08:09.709 --> 00:08:12.290 bending of the legal system to serve the will 00:08:12.290 --> 00:08:14.810 of expansion. What do you mean by that? Well, 00:08:14.949 --> 00:08:17.629 the demand for land for agriculture. particularly 00:08:17.629 --> 00:08:20.850 for growing cotton, was so high that the American 00:08:20.850 --> 00:08:23.870 system actually compromised its own rules. In 00:08:23.870 --> 00:08:27.370 1832, the Supreme Court actually ruled in favor 00:08:27.370 --> 00:08:29.870 of the Cherokees in the case Worcester v. State 00:08:29.870 --> 00:08:32.789 of Georgia. So they won the case. Yeah. The court 00:08:32.789 --> 00:08:35.149 stated that the states had no right to impose 00:08:35.149 --> 00:08:37.909 regulations on Native American land. Wait, I 00:08:37.909 --> 00:08:40.009 need to push back on this. Sure. The president 00:08:40.009 --> 00:08:42.169 just completely ignored a Supreme Court ruling. 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:46.759 How does a supposedly rigid constitutional system 00:08:46.759 --> 00:08:49.659 survive that kind of stress test? I mean, I thought 00:08:49.659 --> 00:08:51.340 the whole point of the Supreme Court was that 00:08:51.340 --> 00:08:53.919 their word was final. Well, their word is final 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:56.419 in interpretation, right? But they have no army 00:08:56.419 --> 00:09:00.179 to enforce it. Oh, right. The system survived, 00:09:00.299 --> 00:09:02.879 or rather it mutated, because in that moment, 00:09:03.139 --> 00:09:05.419 the executive branch under President Andrew Jackson 00:09:05.419 --> 00:09:07.740 simply refused to enforce the court's decision. 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:10.120 He just ignored them. He just ignored it. The 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:12.779 system bent entirely to the momentum of territorial 00:09:12.779 --> 00:09:15.940 acquisition. The economic demand for land simply 00:09:15.940 --> 00:09:17.779 outweighed the constitutional checks and balances 00:09:17.779 --> 00:09:20.759 of the government. And Jackson's use of executive 00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:22.980 power, I mean, he was just bulldozing through 00:09:22.980 --> 00:09:28.120 the decade. In that same year, 1832, he vetoes 00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:30.360 the charter renewal for the Second Bank of the 00:09:30.360 --> 00:09:32.820 United States. Right. And let's quickly explain 00:09:32.820 --> 00:09:35.299 the mechanics of why that matters. The Second 00:09:35.299 --> 00:09:39.149 Bank acted as a stabilizing force. OK. It kept 00:09:39.149 --> 00:09:41.629 smaller state banks from printing too much paper 00:09:41.629 --> 00:09:44.250 money. It was the regulator. Yes. When Jackson 00:09:44.250 --> 00:09:47.370 vetoed it, he removed the regulator. State banks 00:09:47.370 --> 00:09:49.750 started printing money wildly, lending it out 00:09:49.750 --> 00:09:51.490 to people who were buying up all that Western 00:09:51.490 --> 00:09:53.649 land we just talked about. Oh, boy. It created 00:09:53.649 --> 00:09:57.090 a massive unsustainable speculative bubble. Which 00:09:57.090 --> 00:10:00.090 ultimately pops, leading to the panic of 1837, 00:10:00.330 --> 00:10:02.850 which just completely craters the economy. Exactly. 00:10:03.090 --> 00:10:05.309 The engine of growth had completely overheated. 00:10:05.429 --> 00:10:07.669 But the country doesn't stop. It just keeps pushing 00:10:07.669 --> 00:10:10.529 outward. That insatiable hunger for land generated 00:10:10.529 --> 00:10:12.929 by the new technology, it didn't stop at the 00:10:12.929 --> 00:10:15.210 Mississippi River. Not at all. As we move into 00:10:15.210 --> 00:10:18.909 the 1840s, land acquisition accelerates to a 00:10:18.909 --> 00:10:21.309 mind -boggling degree. And as the borders are 00:10:21.309 --> 00:10:23.629 pushed outward, the government's legal framework 00:10:23.629 --> 00:10:26.509 really begins to fracture. The nation is forced 00:10:26.509 --> 00:10:29.169 to answer incredibly difficult questions about 00:10:29.169 --> 00:10:32.330 who actually gets to participate in this quote 00:10:32.330 --> 00:10:35.590 -unquote new America. The sheer volume of land 00:10:35.590 --> 00:10:38.710 being added in the 1840s is staggering. In 1843, 00:10:38.710 --> 00:10:41.210 you have these massive immigrant wagon trains 00:10:41.210 --> 00:10:43.730 beginning their journey along the Oregon Trail. 00:10:43.750 --> 00:10:47.639 Yep. From 1846 to 1848, the Mexican -American 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:49.960 War is fought, which ends with the United States 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:52.500 acquiring a massive swath of the Southwest, including 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:55.440 California. Huge chunks of land. And then, almost 00:10:55.440 --> 00:10:58.820 as if on cue, in 1849, the California Gold Rush 00:10:58.820 --> 00:11:01.179 begins, which triggers one of the largest mass 00:11:01.179 --> 00:11:03.059 migrations in human history. Here's where it 00:11:03.059 --> 00:11:04.980 gets really interesting, because, you know, my 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:07.460 analogy here is that the map of the U .S. is 00:11:07.460 --> 00:11:09.820 stretching like a rubber band. I like that. It's 00:11:09.820 --> 00:11:12.080 polling in Texas, polling in California, polling 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:16.379 in Iowa and Wisconsin. But the moral and legal 00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:18.840 frameworks, they're tearing, trying to stretch 00:11:18.840 --> 00:11:21.360 with it. The political system in Washington is 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:23.879 in absolute chaos trying to manage all of this 00:11:23.879 --> 00:11:25.879 new territory. Oh, complete chaos. You can see 00:11:25.879 --> 00:11:28.200 that chaos right at the very top of the executive 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:32.740 branch. In 1841, President William Henry Harrison 00:11:32.740 --> 00:11:36.120 dies after only a month in office. A month. Just 00:11:36.120 --> 00:11:38.429 a month. This is the first time a president died 00:11:38.429 --> 00:11:40.850 in office, and it sparked a massive constitutional 00:11:40.850 --> 00:11:43.370 crisis about succession. Right, because nobody 00:11:43.370 --> 00:11:46.509 really knew what to do. Exactly. So Vice President 00:11:46.509 --> 00:11:49.649 John Tyler takes over, but Tyler was from a completely 00:11:49.649 --> 00:11:51.590 different ideological wing than the rest of his 00:11:51.590 --> 00:11:54.830 party. Awkward. Very. By September of that same 00:11:54.830 --> 00:11:57.789 year, Tyler vetoes his own party's banking bills, 00:11:57.809 --> 00:12:01.250 and his entire cabinet resigns en masse in protest. 00:12:01.529 --> 00:12:03.769 Literally only Secretary of State Daniel Webster 00:12:03.769 --> 00:12:06.379 remains. They all just quit. It's completely 00:12:06.379 --> 00:12:08.620 unprecedented instability. The political parties 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:12.700 are already becoming these like ideological Frankenstein 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:14.899 monsters that can't hold themselves together. 00:12:14.899 --> 00:12:17.139 Yeah. And while the politicians in Washington 00:12:17.139 --> 00:12:20.440 are scrambling, the defining moral crisis of 00:12:20.440 --> 00:12:22.740 the century is reaching a boiling point in the 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:25.059 courts and out in the territories. Right. And 00:12:25.059 --> 00:12:27.620 if we connect this to the bigger picture, all 00:12:27.620 --> 00:12:29.820 of this territorial expansion wasn't just about 00:12:29.820 --> 00:12:33.179 geography or, you know, finding gold in a riverbed. 00:12:33.179 --> 00:12:36.320 Yeah. It was a bitter existential contest over 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:39.759 ideology. Every single time a new territory was 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:42.500 added, the immediate explosive question was, 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:45.879 will this new state adopt the institution of 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:49.139 slavery or will it embrace abolition? It became 00:12:49.139 --> 00:12:51.639 a mathematical game of power in Congress. Exactly. 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:53.620 It was all about the balance of votes. You see 00:12:53.620 --> 00:12:55.740 that fundamental fight playing out everywhere 00:12:55.740 --> 00:12:59.139 in the sources for the 1840s. In 1841, former 00:12:59.139 --> 00:13:01.639 president John Quincy Adams is arguing the Amistad 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:04.299 case before the Supreme Court, successfully freeing 00:13:04.299 --> 00:13:06.759 the unlawfully enslaved defendants. A huge moment. 00:13:07.220 --> 00:13:10.200 But then out West, in 1844, Oregon actually passes 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:12.700 a black exclusion law, attempting to ban black 00:13:12.700 --> 00:13:15.299 people from settling in the territory entirely. 00:13:15.539 --> 00:13:18.419 In 1846, Dred Scott sues for his freedom in a 00:13:18.419 --> 00:13:21.659 lower court. And in 1848, you have the Seneca 00:13:21.659 --> 00:13:23.899 Falls Convention demanding voting rights and 00:13:23.899 --> 00:13:26.950 legal equality for women. The foundational ideas 00:13:26.950 --> 00:13:29.950 of liberty, citizenship, and who actually belongs 00:13:29.950 --> 00:13:32.289 in this expanding map, they're being actively 00:13:32.289 --> 00:13:35.129 contested on a daily basis. The country is growing 00:13:35.129 --> 00:13:37.789 so fast, physically and economically, that it 00:13:37.789 --> 00:13:40.490 is completely outrunning its own ability to compromise. 00:13:40.789 --> 00:13:43.110 The rubber band is stretched to its absolute 00:13:43.110 --> 00:13:45.649 limit. The physical geography has completely 00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:48.200 outpaced the political machinery. Which brings 00:13:48.200 --> 00:13:50.559 us to the 1850s. Here we go. And this is the 00:13:50.559 --> 00:13:52.679 decade where that rubber band finally snaps. 00:13:53.240 --> 00:13:55.860 The political compromises of the previous 30 00:13:55.860 --> 00:13:58.639 years, they can no longer hold the physical and 00:13:58.639 --> 00:14:00.759 ideological weight of the country. No, they can't. 00:14:00.779 --> 00:14:03.419 And it begins almost immediately in 1850. Congress 00:14:03.419 --> 00:14:05.379 attends to, you know, stitch the tearing country 00:14:05.379 --> 00:14:07.679 together by passing the compromise of 1850. Right. 00:14:07.940 --> 00:14:10.340 The mechanics of this are vital. California gets 00:14:10.340 --> 00:14:13.259 to enter the union as a free state, but in exchange, 00:14:13.700 --> 00:14:16.100 the South gets the notorious Fugitive Slave Act. 00:14:16.250 --> 00:14:19.230 And this act was a massive accelerant to the 00:14:19.230 --> 00:14:22.830 fire. It wasn't just a pass of law. It actively 00:14:22.830 --> 00:14:25.570 penalized officials who did not arrest an alleged 00:14:25.570 --> 00:14:28.730 runaway slave and made everyday citizens liable 00:14:28.730 --> 00:14:31.190 if they aided in an escape. It forced everyone's 00:14:31.190 --> 00:14:34.309 hand. Exactly. It brought the brutal reality 00:14:34.309 --> 00:14:36.730 of the institution right to the doorsteps of 00:14:36.730 --> 00:14:39.149 people in the North who had, frankly, previously 00:14:39.149 --> 00:14:41.710 tried to ignore it. President Zachary Taylor 00:14:41.710 --> 00:14:44.730 actually threatens to veto the compromise, even 00:14:44.730 --> 00:14:47.299 if it meant starting a civil war right then and 00:14:47.299 --> 00:14:50.059 there. But he dies that same year of a sudden 00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:51.759 stomach ailment before he can actually do it. 00:14:51.980 --> 00:14:54.580 Just incredible timing. Yeah. So Vice President 00:14:54.580 --> 00:14:56.960 Millard Fillmore steps in, signs the compromise, 00:14:57.200 --> 00:15:00.259 and from there, the traditional political norms 00:15:00.259 --> 00:15:02.779 just utterly collapse. Yeah. The parties that 00:15:02.779 --> 00:15:04.940 had held the country together shatter. They just 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:07.720 break apart. In 1854, the Whig Party collapses 00:15:07.720 --> 00:15:10.779 entirely because its northern and southern wings 00:15:10.779 --> 00:15:13.039 can no longer exist in the same organization. 00:15:13.159 --> 00:15:15.500 It creates a massive political vacuum. You see 00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:17.460 the mushroom growth and then the... a sudden 00:15:17.460 --> 00:15:19.940 collapse of the anti -immigrant know -nothing 00:15:19.940 --> 00:15:22.139 party. They tried to distract the public with 00:15:22.139 --> 00:15:25.000 nativism, but even they couldn't survive the 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:27.980 gravity of the slavery debate. The entire political 00:15:27.980 --> 00:15:30.419 apparatus is fragmenting into these regional 00:15:30.419 --> 00:15:33.659 factions. And that fragmentation bleeds directly 00:15:33.659 --> 00:15:35.940 into the physical violence we talked about at 00:15:35.940 --> 00:15:38.179 the very beginning of this deep dive. Yes, the 00:15:38.179 --> 00:15:41.720 caning. In 1856, The sources point to that truly 00:15:41.720 --> 00:15:44.340 horrific moment where Representative Preston 00:15:44.340 --> 00:15:48.399 Brooks, enraged by an anti -slavery speech, beat 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:51.240 Senator Charles Sumner with his walking stick 00:15:51.240 --> 00:15:53.879 right on the steps of the U .S. Capitol building. 00:15:54.059 --> 00:15:56.259 I just, I can't get past that image. It wasn't 00:15:56.259 --> 00:15:59.340 just a scuffle. No. He caned him until the stick 00:15:59.340 --> 00:16:02.259 broke and Sumner was literally unconscious. Which 00:16:02.259 --> 00:16:04.539 is just, well, this raises an important question, 00:16:04.679 --> 00:16:07.059 right? How do democratic institutions function 00:16:07.059 --> 00:16:09.460 when the people inside them abandon the rule 00:16:09.460 --> 00:16:12.159 of law and resort to actual physical violence 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:14.519 to settle debates? The answer is they don't function. 00:16:14.639 --> 00:16:17.240 They break down completely. Right. And when the 00:16:17.240 --> 00:16:19.139 legislative branch breaks down, people usually 00:16:19.139 --> 00:16:21.000 look to the judicial branch to solve the problem. 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:24.080 You hope the courts will save you. Exactly. But 00:16:24.080 --> 00:16:26.500 the Supreme Court only pours fuel on the fire. 00:16:27.000 --> 00:16:29.759 In 1857, the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision is 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:32.299 handed down. Let's unpack the mechanics of this 00:16:32.299 --> 00:16:34.360 ruling because it is universally considered one 00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:37.399 of the most disastrous in history. Dred Scott 00:16:37.399 --> 00:16:39.679 had sued for his freedom because his enslaver 00:16:39.679 --> 00:16:41.759 had taken him into free territory. That's right. 00:16:41.950 --> 00:16:44.769 But Chief Justice Roger Taney didn't just rule 00:16:44.769 --> 00:16:47.649 that Scott was still enslaved. He went miles 00:16:47.649 --> 00:16:50.049 further. So much further. The court declared 00:16:50.049 --> 00:16:52.350 that black people, whether enslaved or free, 00:16:52.710 --> 00:16:55.210 were not American citizens and therefore had 00:16:55.210 --> 00:16:57.830 no legal standing to sue in federal court at 00:16:57.830 --> 00:17:00.210 all. Unbelievable. Furthermore, the court ruled 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.289 that Congress had no constitutional power to 00:17:03.289 --> 00:17:05.720 ban slavery in the territories whatsoever. It 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:08.180 effectively tells an entire portion of the population 00:17:08.180 --> 00:17:10.900 that they have no legal standing, no protection 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:13.920 and no place in the country's future. Yes. It 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:16.720 wipes out the entire platform of the newly formed 00:17:16.720 --> 00:17:19.220 Republican Party, which was trying to halt the 00:17:19.220 --> 00:17:21.960 expansion of slavery. It's a ruling that completely 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:24.299 shuts the door on any remaining hope for legal 00:17:24.299 --> 00:17:27.519 or political compromise. And so because the courts 00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:30.519 and the legislature have completely failed, the 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:33.000 violence inevitably escalates out of the halls 00:17:33.000 --> 00:17:36.950 of Congress and into the streets. In 1859, the 00:17:36.950 --> 00:17:40.109 militant abolitionist John Brown leads his armed 00:17:40.109 --> 00:17:42.630 raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. 00:17:42.759 --> 00:17:45.720 He was attempting to ignite an armed slave revolt. 00:17:45.799 --> 00:17:48.380 Right. It was so apparent to everyone where this 00:17:48.380 --> 00:17:50.700 was all heading that according to our timeline, 00:17:51.059 --> 00:17:53.220 a writer at a South Carolina paper called The 00:17:53.220 --> 00:17:56.400 Newberry Rising Sun aptly predicted the coming 00:17:56.400 --> 00:17:59.839 of the American Civil War in 1857. Wow. That 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:02.720 is four full years before the first shots were 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:04.839 actually fired at Fort Sumter. Everyone could 00:18:04.839 --> 00:18:06.779 see the train coming off the tracks. The mechanics 00:18:06.779 --> 00:18:09.019 of expansion had finally broken the machine itself. 00:18:09.279 --> 00:18:11.460 So what does this all mean? We've traveled from 00:18:11.460 --> 00:18:14.619 1820 to 1859. We've watched a nation that was 00:18:14.619 --> 00:18:17.119 physically growing and connecting itself at an 00:18:17.119 --> 00:18:19.359 unprecedented rate. Yeah. I mean, starting the 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:21.480 timeline by digging the Erie Canal with shovels 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:24.319 and horsepower, pulling in vast new territories, 00:18:24.640 --> 00:18:27.039 creating this massive unified market. It was 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:29.500 becoming a modern marvel of infrastructure and 00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:31.890 economic velocity. But simultaneously, while 00:18:31.890 --> 00:18:33.950 it was connecting all these waterways and breaking 00:18:33.950 --> 00:18:36.650 technological boundaries, the sheer speed of 00:18:36.650 --> 00:18:39.630 that growth was tearing its own social and political 00:18:39.630 --> 00:18:43.609 fabric to absolute shreds. Which leaves us with 00:18:43.609 --> 00:18:46.650 a profound paradox to consider as we wrap up 00:18:46.650 --> 00:18:48.990 this timeline. Think about one final fact from 00:18:48.990 --> 00:18:50.430 our sources that we haven't even mentioned yet. 00:18:50.430 --> 00:18:53.319 OK. In 1858. Right in the middle of all this 00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:56.380 impending doom, the United States helped successfully 00:18:56.380 --> 00:19:00.480 lay the first transatlantic telegraph cable across 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:03.619 the ocean floor. Oh, wow. The U .S. had just 00:19:03.619 --> 00:19:06.500 achieved near instantaneous international communication 00:19:06.500 --> 00:19:08.859 with Europe for the first time in human history. 00:19:09.079 --> 00:19:12.279 That's incredible timing. Yet at that exact same 00:19:12.279 --> 00:19:14.839 moment. During the height of the deeply polarized 00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:17.339 Lincoln -Douglas debates and right in the lead 00:19:17.339 --> 00:19:19.700 up to John Brown's violent raid on Harper's Ferry, 00:19:20.180 --> 00:19:22.900 the nation was completely incapable of communicating 00:19:22.900 --> 00:19:25.759 internally without resorting to violence. It 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:27.779 leaves you wondering, how does the sudden speed 00:19:27.779 --> 00:19:30.299 of new information technology change the nature 00:19:30.299 --> 00:19:33.140 of an already deeply divided society? A question 00:19:33.140 --> 00:19:36.880 that still feels incredibly relevant today. The 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:39.619 map changes, the technology changes, but the 00:19:39.619 --> 00:19:41.839 struggle to figure out how we actually live together 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:44.480 within those borders, that requires a lot more 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:46.859 than just laying down new cables or digging new 00:19:46.859 --> 00:19:49.299 canals. Thank you for stepping into the time 00:19:49.299 --> 00:19:52.160 machine and joining us on this deep dive through 00:19:52.160 --> 00:19:54.940 40 years of a country pulling itself apart just 00:19:54.940 --> 00:19:57.180 as fast as it was putting itself together. Keep 00:19:57.180 --> 00:19:59.099 questioning the map and we'll see you next time.