WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 So when you look at a map of North America today, 00:00:03.940 --> 00:00:07.160 Those solid black lines separating the countries, 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:09.179 like from the Rio Grande all the way up to the 00:00:09.179 --> 00:00:11.939 49th parallel, they look incredibly permanent. 00:00:12.140 --> 00:00:13.779 Well, absolutely. They feel totally inevitable, 00:00:13.820 --> 00:00:15.679 right? Yeah. They look like they were just drawn 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:18.800 by geology or, I don't know, some grand unified 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.320 national destiny that everyone just agreed upon. 00:00:21.739 --> 00:00:23.660 We're definitely conditioned to think of national 00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:27.780 borders as these settled, preordained facts of 00:00:27.780 --> 00:00:30.500 history. Like they were forged by massive public 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:33.170 consensus. Right. But then you look at the stack 00:00:33.170 --> 00:00:35.710 of primary sources we have for today's Deep Dive 00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:38.409 detailing how Texas actually became part of the 00:00:38.409 --> 00:00:41.630 United States. And suddenly those solid black 00:00:41.630 --> 00:00:43.750 lines start looking a lot less like destiny and 00:00:43.750 --> 00:00:46.469 a lot more like, well, hasty pencil marks scribbled 00:00:46.469 --> 00:00:48.649 at midnight by a guy trying to save his own job. 00:00:48.990 --> 00:00:51.670 It is a wild saga. We're looking at documents 00:00:51.670 --> 00:00:55.049 from the 1830s and 1840s today, and they reveal 00:00:55.049 --> 00:00:57.350 a completely different reality. Yeah, we're talking 00:00:57.350 --> 00:01:00.109 secret diplomatic plots, deliberate government 00:01:00.109 --> 00:01:04.099 leaks. unprecedented constitutional loopholes 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:06.760 and a propaganda campaign that fundamentally 00:01:06.760 --> 00:01:09.560 changed the map of the world. And, you know, 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:11.859 when you dive into these original documents from 00:01:11.859 --> 00:01:16.159 the 1840s, you immediately hit this wall of bitter, 00:01:16.659 --> 00:01:19.819 toxic debate over the expansion of slavery. I 00:01:19.819 --> 00:01:22.840 mean, it permeates every single letter, treaty, 00:01:23.159 --> 00:01:25.310 and pamphlet we're looking at today. Which is 00:01:25.310 --> 00:01:27.349 an important piece of context for you listening. 00:01:27.689 --> 00:01:29.810 We are going to look at these documents purely 00:01:29.810 --> 00:01:32.170 for what they reveal about the political chess 00:01:32.170 --> 00:01:34.409 match of the time. We aren't endorsing any of 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:37.510 the 19th century politics or taking sides on 00:01:37.510 --> 00:01:39.469 the historical viewpoints found in these sources. 00:01:39.569 --> 00:01:41.489 Right. Definitely not taking sides. Exactly. 00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:44.629 Our mission here is simply to explore this factual 00:01:44.629 --> 00:01:46.969 narrative exactly as the original source material 00:01:46.969 --> 00:01:48.769 presents it. Because the way the United States 00:01:48.769 --> 00:01:52.349 actually acquired Texas was it was not a grand 00:01:52.349 --> 00:01:54.599 unified national decision. No. Not at all. It 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:58.079 was driven by a desperate, politically isolated 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:00.900 president manipulating the system. And to understand 00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:03.859 the mechanics of that manipulation, we have to 00:02:03.859 --> 00:02:06.079 look at the massive political stalemate that 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:08.460 defined the early years of the Texas Republic. 00:02:08.900 --> 00:02:11.680 Right, because we all know the lore of 1836, 00:02:11.879 --> 00:02:14.860 right? Sam Houston, the Battle of San Jacinto, 00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:18.219 the Republic of Texas winning its de facto independence 00:02:18.219 --> 00:02:20.979 from Mexico. The Alamo, all of that. Right. But 00:02:20.979 --> 00:02:24.180 the real story is what happened after the smoke 00:02:24.180 --> 00:02:26.960 cleared. I mean, Texas spent years practically 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.500 begging for U .S. annexation and U .S. presidents 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:32.960 Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren basically 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:35.340 just left them on red. Yeah, they wanted nothing 00:02:35.340 --> 00:02:37.620 to do with it. Jackson waited until his literal 00:02:37.620 --> 00:02:40.520 last day in office just to formally recognize 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:43.620 Texas as an independent nation. And Van Buren 00:02:43.620 --> 00:02:46.460 flat out refused to touch annexation at all. 00:02:46.599 --> 00:02:48.340 Well, you have to look at Texas's situation. 00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:50.639 They were carrying a massive national debt. They 00:02:50.639 --> 00:02:53.080 had an empty treasury and they were under constant 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:54.960 threat of a renewed Mexican invasion. They were 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:57.020 desperate. They desperately needed the United 00:02:57.020 --> 00:03:00.080 States. But for the U .S., Texas was a geopolitical 00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:03.360 tripwire. Annexing it guaranteed two incredibly 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.960 dangerous outcomes. First, it would immediately 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:08.400 trigger a war with Mexico, which had never officially 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:11.900 recognized Texas independence. Second, and perhaps 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:14.259 more terrifying to politicians like Van Buren, 00:03:14.900 --> 00:03:17.159 it threatened to detonate the fragile balance 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:20.039 of power in Congress. Because adding a landmass 00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:22.699 that size one that already heavily relied on 00:03:22.699 --> 00:03:25.740 enslaved labor would violently tilt congressional 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:28.360 power toward the South. It wasn't just acquiring 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:31.819 land. It was acquiring a massive volatile political 00:03:31.819 --> 00:03:35.259 liability. Exactly. So it was like Texas was 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:37.800 highly desirable, but completely radioactive 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:40.080 real estate listing. I mean, everyone wanted 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:43.080 the land, but nobody wanted the legal and political 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:45.639 toxic waste that came with it. So for years, 00:03:45.719 --> 00:03:47.719 the mainstream U .S. political establishment 00:03:47.719 --> 00:03:50.360 just ignored Texas, hoping the problem would 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:52.719 somehow solve itself. If we connect this to the 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:55.520 bigger picture, this stalemate perfectly illustrates 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:57.479 the precarious balance of power in the U .S. 00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:00.430 at the time. This rejection left Texas incredibly 00:04:00.430 --> 00:04:03.469 vulnerable, but also extremely motivated to find 00:04:03.469 --> 00:04:06.330 other allies. Which sets the stage for a major 00:04:06.330 --> 00:04:08.789 geopolitical crisis. Right. And that is the exact 00:04:08.789 --> 00:04:11.150 dynamic that a man named John Tyler inherits 00:04:11.150 --> 00:04:13.629 when he accidentally becomes president in 1841. 00:04:14.090 --> 00:04:17.410 John Tyler's situation is almost comical. He 00:04:17.410 --> 00:04:19.730 was elected vice president, but takes over when 00:04:19.730 --> 00:04:21.870 William Henry Harrison dies just a month into 00:04:21.870 --> 00:04:24.089 his term. The shortest presidency in history. 00:04:24.209 --> 00:04:27.870 Yeah. And Tyler then proceeds to veto so much 00:04:27.870 --> 00:04:30.509 of his own party's legislation that the Whig 00:04:30.509 --> 00:04:32.649 party officially expels him while he is sitting 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:35.029 in the Oval Office. It's unheard of. He is a 00:04:35.029 --> 00:04:36.870 president without a party, without a political 00:04:36.870 --> 00:04:40.610 base, and totally without a legacy. He was completely 00:04:40.610 --> 00:04:43.970 isolated. If Tyler wanted any shot at winning 00:04:43.970 --> 00:04:47.470 a second term in the 1844 election, he needed 00:04:47.470 --> 00:04:50.610 a massive defining achievement that would force 00:04:50.610 --> 00:04:52.629 the electorate to support him. He needed a home 00:04:52.629 --> 00:04:55.439 run. Exactly. And he decided that achievement 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:58.240 was going to be the annexation of Texas. But 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:01.029 he had a diplomatic problem. Texas... feeling 00:05:01.029 --> 00:05:03.750 repeatedly rejected by the U .S., was actively 00:05:03.750 --> 00:05:06.250 talking to Great Britain to help mediate a peace 00:05:06.250 --> 00:05:08.610 treaty with Mexico. Tyler needed to get Texas 00:05:08.610 --> 00:05:10.850 back to the negotiating table, and he needed 00:05:10.850 --> 00:05:13.310 to terrify the American public into supporting 00:05:13.310 --> 00:05:16.050 annexation. So he and his administration leaned 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:18.769 on intelligence from an executive agent in Europe 00:05:18.769 --> 00:05:21.629 named Duff Green. Right, Duff Green. Green sends 00:05:21.629 --> 00:05:24.189 back reports claiming he has uncovered a British 00:05:24.189 --> 00:05:27.810 loan plot. The rumor was that British abolitionists, 00:05:27.990 --> 00:05:30.750 backed by Foreign Secretary Lord Aberdeen, were 00:05:30.750 --> 00:05:33.310 offering to pay off the massive Texas national 00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:36.810 debt. But the catch was, Texas would have to 00:05:36.810 --> 00:05:39.449 emancipate all of its enslaved people in exchange. 00:05:39.629 --> 00:05:41.949 He was an explosive piece of intelligence. Now, 00:05:41.970 --> 00:05:43.990 the British government officially denied this, 00:05:44.430 --> 00:05:46.509 and the U .S. minister to Britain investigated 00:05:46.509 --> 00:05:49.350 and found the rumors to be totally unsubstantiated. 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:52.019 But I have to ask, did Tyler actually believe 00:05:52.019 --> 00:05:54.480 this British abolitionist conspiracy or was he 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:57.160 just weaponizing fake news to get what he wanted? 00:05:57.339 --> 00:06:00.199 That's the real nuance here. Whether Tyler fully 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:02.500 believed it or not, he recognized it as the perfect 00:06:02.500 --> 00:06:04.819 lever. Oh, I see. Texas was actually talking 00:06:04.819 --> 00:06:07.939 to Britain, but only to get help mediating peace 00:06:07.939 --> 00:06:11.720 with Mexico, not to abolish slavery. Yet Tyler's 00:06:11.720 --> 00:06:14.790 secretary of state. Abel P. Upshur deliberately 00:06:14.790 --> 00:06:17.170 leaked diplomatic communications to the press 00:06:17.170 --> 00:06:19.850 to stoke Anglophobia. They framed the narrative 00:06:19.850 --> 00:06:22.970 perfectly for Southern slaveholders. They basically 00:06:22.970 --> 00:06:25.990 said, if we do not annex Texas immediately, the 00:06:25.990 --> 00:06:28.170 British will establish an abolitionist stronghold 00:06:28.170 --> 00:06:30.610 right on our border and your entire economic 00:06:30.610 --> 00:06:33.209 system will collapse. So it was a pressure campaign 00:06:33.209 --> 00:06:35.689 designed to create a sense of manufactured urgency. 00:06:36.110 --> 00:06:39.069 And it worked. It forced Texas President Sam 00:06:39.069 --> 00:06:41.810 Houston, who is playing a very delicate diplomatic 00:06:41.810 --> 00:06:44.529 game between the U .S. and Britain, into secret 00:06:44.529 --> 00:06:47.209 annexation talks with Tyler's administration. 00:06:47.310 --> 00:06:50.069 Right, they hammer out a secret treaty. But Tyler's 00:06:50.069 --> 00:06:52.470 problem isn't just diplomatic, it's domestic. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.899 Getting Texas to agree in secret was one thing. 00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:59.079 He still has to sell this incredibly controversial, 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:02.680 explicitly pro -slavery acquisition to a deeply 00:07:02.680 --> 00:07:06.040 divided American public, specifically the anti 00:07:06.040 --> 00:07:08.300 -slavery North. He needed a spin doctor. Yeah. 00:07:08.540 --> 00:07:10.420 And he found one in Senator Robert J. Walker 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:13.399 of Mississippi. Walker was a Tyler ally and he 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:15.879 published a widely circulated, heavily publicized 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:19.040 pamphlet in early 1844. Right. He argued for 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:20.920 annexation using a concept called the safety 00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:23.420 valve or diffusion theory. OK, let's unpack this, 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:26.660 because this pamphlet is a master class in political 00:07:26.660 --> 00:07:30.199 propaganda. It pitches two completely contradictory 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:33.319 realities to two different audiences. Walker's 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:35.699 diffusion theory essentially argued that annexing 00:07:35.699 --> 00:07:37.939 Texas wouldn't expand slavery, it would actually 00:07:37.939 --> 00:07:41.240 destroy it. Which sounds completely backwards. 00:07:41.500 --> 00:07:44.560 Totally backwards. He claimed Texas would act 00:07:44.560 --> 00:07:48.199 as a geopolitical funnel. Because the climate 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:50.600 and soil in Texas were so perfectly suited for 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:53.360 plantation agriculture, he argued it would naturally 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:56.199 pull enslaved African Americans southward out 00:07:56.199 --> 00:07:58.360 of the border states like Maryland and Virginia. 00:07:58.860 --> 00:08:01.100 And Walker theorized that this migration wouldn't 00:08:01.100 --> 00:08:03.680 stop in Texas. He claimed the population would 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:05.959 continue to diffuse further south, eventually 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:07.959 spilling over the border into Central and South 00:08:07.959 --> 00:08:10.959 America. Wow. According to Walker's incredibly 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:13.740 flawed, yet highly persuasive logic at the time, 00:08:14.439 --> 00:08:16.579 this geographic funnel would eventually drain 00:08:16.579 --> 00:08:19.439 the United States entirely of its black population. 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:21.879 It was a containment strategy built on the deepest 00:08:21.879 --> 00:08:24.899 prejudices of the era. Walker was essentially 00:08:24.899 --> 00:08:28.360 pitching Texas as a sociological pressure cooker 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:31.139 release valve. I mean, he was selling the exact 00:08:31.139 --> 00:08:34.120 same piece of land as a massive financial windfall 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:37.700 for cash -poor southern plantation owners who 00:08:37.700 --> 00:08:39.960 desperately wanted a new market to sell their 00:08:39.960 --> 00:08:42.639 surplus slaves, while simultaneously selling 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:44.799 it to the North as a racial cleansing mechanism. 00:08:45.070 --> 00:08:47.809 He played perfectly on the fears of Northern 00:08:47.809 --> 00:08:50.529 whites who claimed to oppose slavery, but dreaded 00:08:50.529 --> 00:08:53.049 the prospect of emancipated slaves moving north 00:08:53.049 --> 00:08:55.769 into their cities. And the rhetorical brilliance 00:08:55.769 --> 00:08:58.490 of Walker's pamphlet was how it provided political 00:08:58.490 --> 00:09:01.769 cover. By framing annexation as the ultimate 00:09:01.769 --> 00:09:04.129 long -term solution to the problem of slavery, 00:09:04.330 --> 00:09:06.529 His contradictory messaging worked perfectly. 00:09:06.649 --> 00:09:08.649 People just bought it. Yeah. His premises went 00:09:08.649 --> 00:09:10.710 largely unchallenged by the mainstream press. 00:09:11.149 --> 00:09:13.730 It gave anti -slavery northern politicians the 00:09:13.730 --> 00:09:16.029 exact excuse they needed. They could vote for 00:09:16.029 --> 00:09:18.149 a massive territorial expansion without looking 00:09:18.149 --> 00:09:20.549 like they were caving to pro -slavery extremists. 00:09:20.970 --> 00:09:24.049 So the secret treaty is finalized. Walker's PR 00:09:24.049 --> 00:09:26.149 campaign has softened up the northern opposition, 00:09:26.289 --> 00:09:28.649 and Tyler is finally ready to submit this to 00:09:28.649 --> 00:09:32.289 the Senate. And then tragedy strikes, completely 00:09:32.289 --> 00:09:34.990 altering the trajectory of the treaty. A literal 00:09:34.990 --> 00:09:38.429 explosion. Yes. Tyler's secretary of state, Abel 00:09:38.429 --> 00:09:41.090 Upshur, is killed in a bizarre naval accident 00:09:41.090 --> 00:09:43.830 when a cannon explodes aboard the USS Princeton. 00:09:44.450 --> 00:09:47.590 To replace him, Tyler appoints John C. Calhoun, 00:09:47.909 --> 00:09:50.490 the fiercely pro -slavery politician from South 00:09:50.490 --> 00:09:53.769 Carolina. Calhoun's job is to take the finalized 00:09:53.769 --> 00:09:55.990 treaty and get it through the Senate, which requires 00:09:55.990 --> 00:09:58.509 a two -thirds majority. But when Calhoun submits 00:09:58.509 --> 00:10:01.769 the treaty in April 1844, he doesn't just hand 00:10:01.769 --> 00:10:04.250 over the document. No, he does something wild. 00:10:04.370 --> 00:10:06.870 He attaches diplomatic correspondence, most notably 00:10:06.870 --> 00:10:09.690 the Pakenham letter. And this is where the historical 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:12.269 documents get truly baffling. The Pakenham letter 00:10:12.269 --> 00:10:14.269 was written by Calhoun to the British minister 00:10:14.269 --> 00:10:17.529 in Washington. In it, Calhoun explicitly boasts 00:10:17.529 --> 00:10:20.289 that the United States is annexing Texas purely 00:10:20.289 --> 00:10:22.669 as an emergency measure to safeguard the institution 00:10:22.669 --> 00:10:25.210 of slavery against British abolitionist interference. 00:10:25.370 --> 00:10:27.789 He literally puts it in writing. He calls slavery 00:10:27.789 --> 00:10:31.590 a social blessing and literally puts it in writing 00:10:31.590 --> 00:10:34.269 that the treaty is a pro -slavery power grab. 00:10:34.529 --> 00:10:36.610 Naturally, the treaty and the Packenham letter 00:10:36.610 --> 00:10:39.690 leak to the press and the reaction of the North 00:10:39.690 --> 00:10:43.490 is absolute outrage. Any political cover that 00:10:43.490 --> 00:10:46.090 Robert J. Walker had carefully built with his 00:10:46.090 --> 00:10:49.769 diffusion theory instantly evaporates. Calhoun's 00:10:49.769 --> 00:10:51.809 letter proves what the abolitionists had been 00:10:51.809 --> 00:10:55.350 saying all along. But wait. Calhoun was a seasoned 00:10:55.350 --> 00:10:57.710 politician. Why on earth would he put in writing 00:10:57.710 --> 00:11:00.169 that this was purely a pro -slavery power grab, 00:11:00.230 --> 00:11:02.909 knowing it had to pass a divided Senate? Writing 00:11:02.909 --> 00:11:05.070 a letter that explicitly ties the acquisition 00:11:05.070 --> 00:11:08.210 of Texas to the survival of slavery is political 00:11:08.210 --> 00:11:10.789 suicide if your goal is to win over moderate 00:11:10.789 --> 00:11:13.610 Northern votes. Exactly. So the only logical 00:11:13.610 --> 00:11:15.429 deduction here is that Calhoun wasn't trying 00:11:15.429 --> 00:11:17.210 to win the vote. He was intentionally blowing 00:11:17.210 --> 00:11:19.309 up the bridge. What's fascinating here is that 00:11:19.309 --> 00:11:21.730 Calhoun actually wanted to force a constitutional 00:11:21.730 --> 00:11:24.509 crisis. He looked at the shifting demographics 00:11:24.509 --> 00:11:27.129 of the country and realized the South was losing 00:11:27.129 --> 00:11:29.509 his grip on power. He wasn't trying to build 00:11:29.509 --> 00:11:31.870 a consensus. He was presenting the Northern Democrats 00:11:31.870 --> 00:11:34.309 with an ultimatum. Like a hostage situation. 00:11:34.610 --> 00:11:38.029 Pretty much. His gamble was, you either support 00:11:38.029 --> 00:11:41.029 Texas and protect the South or you lose the South 00:11:41.029 --> 00:11:43.909 entirely. He wanted to unite the Southern states 00:11:43.909 --> 00:11:47.009 into a single, uncompromising voting bloc. Well, 00:11:47.110 --> 00:11:49.269 the gamble failed spectacularly in the short 00:11:49.269 --> 00:11:51.659 term. The Senate takes one look at the leaked 00:11:51.659 --> 00:11:54.220 treaty and the Packenham letter and they absolutely 00:11:54.220 --> 00:11:57.960 crush it. The vote is 16 to 35. It is a humiliating 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:00.000 defeat for the Tyler administration. The total 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:01.899 disaster for them. And it completely derails 00:12:01.899 --> 00:12:05.860 the upcoming 1844 presidential election. It forces 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:08.399 Texas to become the central issue of the campaign. 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:10.600 Right, and John Tyler realizes his political 00:12:10.600 --> 00:12:13.639 career is effectively over. He drops his independent 00:12:13.639 --> 00:12:16.220 reelection bid and throws whatever support he 00:12:16.220 --> 00:12:18.899 has left behind the Democratic candidate, James 00:12:18.899 --> 00:12:21.519 K. Polk. Running on manifest destiny. Exactly. 00:12:21.600 --> 00:12:23.620 Polk is running on an aggressive expansionist 00:12:23.620 --> 00:12:26.519 platform. He promises to annex Texas and expand 00:12:26.519 --> 00:12:29.580 into Oregon. And Polk wins? He narrowly defeats 00:12:29.580 --> 00:12:32.340 the anti -annexation Whig candidate, Henry Clay. 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:35.200 The expansionists immediately interpret Polk's 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:38.240 victory as a massive, undeniable national mandate 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:41.600 to acquire Texas. But here's the procedural reality. 00:12:41.789 --> 00:12:45.789 Polk isn't inaugurated until March 1845. The 00:12:45.789 --> 00:12:48.830 election happens in November 1844. Right. That 00:12:48.830 --> 00:12:50.809 leaves John Tyler sitting in the Oval Office 00:12:50.809 --> 00:12:53.409 as a lame duck president for four solid months. 00:12:54.090 --> 00:12:56.909 And Tyler refuses to give up. Tyler knows the 00:12:56.909 --> 00:12:59.730 treaty is dead. He knows he can never, ever get 00:12:59.730 --> 00:13:02.309 a two thirds majority in the Senate. So he digs 00:13:02.309 --> 00:13:04.509 into the procedural mechanics of the U .S. Constitution 00:13:04.509 --> 00:13:07.029 and finds a loophole. A very convenient loophole. 00:13:07.169 --> 00:13:09.600 Yeah. Article 2 requires a two -thirds Senate 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:12.220 majority to ratify a treaty with a foreign nation. 00:13:12.899 --> 00:13:15.320 But Tyler proposes bypassing the diplomatic treaty 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:17.759 process entirely. He asked Congress to admit 00:13:17.759 --> 00:13:21.019 Texas via a joint resolution, which only requires 00:13:21.019 --> 00:13:23.240 a simple majority in both houses. And the mechanical 00:13:23.240 --> 00:13:25.279 difference between a treaty and a joint resolution 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:27.580 changes the entire course of American history. 00:13:27.679 --> 00:13:30.919 Tyler is proposing an entirely unprecedented 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:34.080 use of legislative power, absorbing an independent 00:13:34.080 --> 00:13:36.840 sovereign foreign nation using the exact same 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:39.460 procedural threshold you would use to pass, like 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:42.220 a post office funding bill. The audacity of it 00:13:42.220 --> 00:13:45.460 is staggering. And when this hits the floor of 00:13:45.460 --> 00:13:48.620 Congress, furious debates follow. You essentially 00:13:48.620 --> 00:13:51.299 have two competing frameworks fighting for that 00:13:51.299 --> 00:13:54.559 simple majority. On one side, you have the Southern 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:56.840 Whigs pushing what becomes known as the Brown 00:13:56.840 --> 00:13:59.419 Foster Amendment. This was the aggressive pro 00:13:59.419 --> 00:14:02.100 -slavery framework. Right. It stipulated that 00:14:02.100 --> 00:14:04.720 Texas would keep all of its public lands. It 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:06.879 would be responsible for its own massive debt. 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:09.659 And crucially, Texas could be carved into up 00:14:09.659 --> 00:14:11.980 to four additional slave states in the future 00:14:11.980 --> 00:14:14.659 to maximize Southern voting power in the Senate. 00:14:15.179 --> 00:14:17.799 On the other side of the debate you have anti 00:14:17.799 --> 00:14:20.720 -annexation moderates led by Senator Thomas Hart 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:23.659 Benton. Benton realizes he can't stop the momentum 00:14:23.659 --> 00:14:26.639 of the joint resolution, so he proposes a compromise 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:29.259 to essentially hand the whole mess over to the 00:14:29.259 --> 00:14:31.500 incoming president Polk to renegotiate. So what 00:14:31.500 --> 00:14:34.019 does Congress do? Neither side has enough votes 00:14:34.019 --> 00:14:36.100 to pass their version independently. So they 00:14:36.100 --> 00:14:38.600 punt the responsibility. They mash both frameworks 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:41.440 together into a bizarre, contradictory dual bill. 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:44.100 The legislation literally contains both the aggressive 00:14:44.100 --> 00:14:46.559 Brown -Foster terms and the moderate Benton terms. 00:14:46.759 --> 00:14:48.879 And the assumption among the moderate senators 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:51.500 was that Polk would act responsibly, choose the 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:53.960 moderate option, and negotiate a peaceful transition. 00:14:54.100 --> 00:14:55.659 That was the only reason they agreed to vote 00:14:55.659 --> 00:14:58.580 for it. But they completely underestimated John 00:14:58.580 --> 00:15:01.320 Tyler. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:15:01.940 --> 00:15:04.639 Congress passes this dual resolution in the final 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:08.899 days of Tyler's term. On March 3, 1845, Tyler's 00:15:08.899 --> 00:15:12.659 very last full day in office, he strikes. He 00:15:12.659 --> 00:15:15.740 preempts Polk. He doesn't wait. No. With his 00:15:15.740 --> 00:15:18.480 cabinet's approval, Tyler selects the aggressive, 00:15:18.779 --> 00:15:22.100 pro -slavery brown terms. He immediately dispatches 00:15:22.100 --> 00:15:24.559 a courier, sending them sprinting south to Texas 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:27.039 with an official offer of immediate annexation, 00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:29.480 completely cutting the incoming president out 00:15:29.480 --> 00:15:36.009 of the decision. fundamentally circumvented the 00:15:36.009 --> 00:15:39.350 U .S. Constitution's treaty process. Tyler used 00:15:39.350 --> 00:15:41.850 the illusion of Polk's future moderation to secure 00:15:41.850 --> 00:15:43.909 the necessary votes. And the moment the bill 00:15:43.909 --> 00:15:46.029 cleared the chamber, he pulled the rug out from 00:15:46.029 --> 00:15:48.269 everyone at the last second. It's exactly like 00:15:48.269 --> 00:15:51.570 a rogue CEO signing a massive, highly controversial 00:15:51.570 --> 00:15:55.029 corporate merger at 11 .59 p .m. on the day before 00:15:55.029 --> 00:15:57.529 his retirement, leaving his successor to deal 00:15:57.529 --> 00:15:59.929 with the fallout. And there was definitely fallout. 00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:03.299 When James K. Polk is inaugurated the very next 00:16:03.299 --> 00:16:05.659 day, he is immediately confronted with Tyler's 00:16:05.659 --> 00:16:07.639 midnight move. Could he have stalked it? He was 00:16:07.639 --> 00:16:09.820 well within his executive authority to recall 00:16:09.820 --> 00:16:12.559 Tyler's career and reverse the decision. But 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:15.200 he doesn't. Polk wants the territory, and he 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:17.639 decides to uphold Tyler's action to prevent any 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:20.779 further British diplomatic interference. So Texas 00:16:20.779 --> 00:16:22.759 accepts the offer. They formally joined the union 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:26.039 in December 1845. But this sneaky legislative 00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:29.679 maneuver had massive, immediate and bloody consequences 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:32.500 for Mexico and long term consequences for the 00:16:32.500 --> 00:16:34.820 American empire. Right. Because the joint resolution 00:16:34.820 --> 00:16:37.460 was so rushed, it left the actual physical borders 00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:40.320 of Texas completely undefined. Texas claimed 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:43.289 its southern border was the Rio Grande. Mexico 00:16:43.289 --> 00:16:45.990 insisted the border was the Nueces River, roughly 00:16:45.990 --> 00:16:48.629 100 miles further north. And Polk decides to 00:16:48.629 --> 00:16:51.929 enforce the maximum territorial claim. He deploys 00:16:51.929 --> 00:16:54.730 U .S. troops into that disputed strip. Mexico 00:16:54.730 --> 00:16:57.450 views this as an armed invasion. The two armies 00:16:57.450 --> 00:17:00.289 clash, and this directly sparks the Mexican -American 00:17:00.289 --> 00:17:03.649 War. Which is a huge turning point. But the legacy 00:17:03.649 --> 00:17:07.049 of this loophole didn't stop in the 1840s. Decades 00:17:07.049 --> 00:17:09.690 later, in 1898, President William McKinley found 00:17:09.690 --> 00:17:12.190 himself staring down a very familiar political 00:17:12.190 --> 00:17:14.710 problem. He couldn't get a two -thirds Senate 00:17:14.710 --> 00:17:17.450 majority to annex the Republic of Hawaii. Ah, 00:17:17.549 --> 00:17:19.190 so they looked back at the historical record. 00:17:19.450 --> 00:17:22.990 Exactly. Congress explicitly invoked Tyler's 00:17:22.990 --> 00:17:25.089 extra -legal joint resolution precedent from 00:17:25.089 --> 00:17:28.470 1845. They used the exact same simple majority 00:17:28.470 --> 00:17:31.369 loophole to bypass the treaty process and absorb 00:17:31.369 --> 00:17:33.769 Hawaii. Think about how wild that is for you 00:17:33.769 --> 00:17:36.410 and me today. The map of the United States from 00:17:36.410 --> 00:17:38.569 the Texas borderlands all the way to the beaches 00:17:38.569 --> 00:17:41.609 of Hawaii was drawn using a procedural loophole 00:17:41.609 --> 00:17:43.630 dug up by a president who didn't even have a 00:17:43.630 --> 00:17:46.069 political party. This raises an important question 00:17:46.069 --> 00:17:48.390 about the nature of executive power. A single 00:17:48.390 --> 00:17:51.430 bureaucratic workaround in 1845 permanently altered 00:17:51.430 --> 00:17:53.690 the trajectory of American territorial expansion. 00:17:53.900 --> 00:17:56.680 It really is incredible. The journey from the 00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:00.299 Texas Revolution through Tyler's political desperation, 00:18:00.740 --> 00:18:03.799 Walker's PR spin, and that midnight courier that 00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:06.680 sealed the deal. It completely changes how you 00:18:06.680 --> 00:18:09.200 view the map. It definitely shatters the illusion 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:11.920 of inevitable destiny. It does. And I want to 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:13.720 leave you with a final thought to mull over. 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:16.799 The Constitution was intentionally designed to 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:19.559 make acquiring foreign nations incredibly difficult, 00:18:20.059 --> 00:18:22.680 requiring a massive two -thirds consensus. Right, 00:18:22.779 --> 00:18:25.279 they wanted a unified national will. Exactly. 00:18:25.589 --> 00:18:28.710 But if John Tyler hadn't been so personally desperate 00:18:28.710 --> 00:18:31.329 to save his own failed presidency that he broke 00:18:31.329 --> 00:18:33.549 that norm with a simple majority loophole on 00:18:33.549 --> 00:18:35.789 his last day at work, the United States might 00:18:35.789 --> 00:18:37.990 never have expanded past the Rocky Mountains. 00:18:38.069 --> 00:18:40.089 That's crazy to think about. The borders of the 00:18:40.089 --> 00:18:42.410 country you know today aren't the result of inevitable 00:18:42.410 --> 00:18:45.009 destiny. They are the result of a lame duck politician 00:18:45.009 --> 00:18:47.309 exploiting a technicality on his last day at 00:18:47.309 --> 00:18:50.410 work. Thank you for joining us on this deep dive 00:18:50.410 --> 00:18:51.630 into the sources today.