April 27, 2023 • 28 mins
John Quincy Adams unleashes on the House floor over two pivotal issues of the 1830s: The annexation of Texas, and prohibiting the discussion of slavery in the U.S. House, known as the Gag rule.
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding son John Quincy's America.
In the early eighteen hundreds, the seeds of manifest destiny
began to take root. American settlers spread west at a
(00:41):
rapid pace. By the eighteen twenties, many white Southerners swooped
into northern Mexico, bringing the people they enslaved with them,
creating a plantation state similar to those in the American South.
In eighteen twenty nine, Mexico pushed back, banning slavery within
its borders its territories likely to follow. The move sent
(01:03):
outrage across the country's northern borderlands. Resentment built among white settlers,
and violent skirmishes broke out between them and the Mexican government.
By the fall of eighteen thirty five, and all out
war had begun against the Mexican Army. Texas forces were outnumbered, undisciplined,
(01:24):
and scattered, but the Texans knew the territory. They fortified
an old mission at a crucial crossroads and waited to
ambush the Mexican Army. Unbeknownst to the one hundred and
fifty or so Texans in the mission, including the soldiers' families,
the Mexican army had orders to destroy the rebellion once
(01:44):
and for all. The Mexican army surrounded the mission. When
one of the leaders of the Texans, Jim Bowie, looked
over the walls, he saw a sea of Mexican soldiers
nearly two thousand against fewer than two hundred Texans. When
the Texans refused to surrender, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de
(02:07):
Santa Anna ordered a red flag to be flown from
a nearby church, assigned to those hold up in the mission.
No quarter would be given. The Battle of the Alamo
had begun. Days into the siege of the Alamo, reinforcements
still hadn't arrived. Booye's co commander, William B. Travis, penned
(02:32):
a letter to his countrymen in all the world. From
within the Alamo walls.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Fellow citizens and compatriots, I'm besieged by a thousand and
more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained
a continual bombardment and cannonade for twenty four hours and
have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a
surrender discretion, otherwise the garrison ought to be put to
the sword if the fort is taken, I have answered
the demand with the cannon shot, and our flag still
(03:00):
waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrendt all retreat.
I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible,
and die like a soldier who never forgets what is
due to his own honor and that of his country.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Victory or death.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
William Barrett Travis, Lieutenant colonel COMMANDWNT.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Just before the break of dawn on the thirteenth day
of fighting, the Mexican Army stormed the mission, sparing only women, children,
and enslaved people. In the slaughter. Every fighting man met
his end with either a bullet or a bayonet. The
message was clear. The Mexican Army was happy to abide
by William Travis's terms victory or death, but they weren't
(03:55):
the only ones to receive a message. Among the dead
at the Alamo, former Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett outrage and
calls for vengeance rippled across hundreds and hundreds of miles
through the plantations of the South northward to Washington, d C.
And the floor of Congress. US citizens had been killed
(04:17):
at the hands of the Mexican Army. The bloodbath in
Texas was a tragedy, quickly becoming a national disaster. Lawmakers
were bombarded with calls to send US troops to Texas.
At the heart of this decision was a giant Texas
sized elephant in the room. What would happen if Northern
(04:39):
Mexican territory seized its independence were it join the United States?
And what would happen if a slave state the size
of Texas joined the Union. The outcome of the rebellion
had the potential to upset the balance of power in
the United States for generations Chapter four, Don't Mess with Tech.
(05:15):
When news of the massacre in Texas reached the US capital,
John Quincy Adams took to the House floor. He spoke
out against the US getting involved in a war with Mexico.
But before he or any other lawmaker could even decide
whether to send troops to Texas, the direction of the
war had shifted dramatically. Following the Alamo, the Texas Army,
(05:39):
a ragtag group of rebels, was on the run, retreating
eastward from San Antonio to the Gulf of Mexico. The
Mexican Army, close behind, committed to ending the rebellion. The
former governor of Tennessee and a close friend of Andrew Jackson,
Sam Houston, led the Texans with their backs against the
(06:01):
Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican army bearing down on them.
Houston ordered his men to make a final stand, turn
an attack rather than flee. On April twenty first, eighteen
thirty six, just weeks after the Battle of the Alamo,
Texans launched an assault against the Mexican army near modern
(06:23):
day Houston. Screaming Remember the Alamo, Houston's troops attacked mercilessly,
catching their enemy off guard. The Mexican army, surprised, scattered.
The battle lasted just eighteen minutes. At the end, Mexican
General Santa Ana stood in shackles. In exchange for his freedom,
(06:45):
he agreed to take his army and leave Texas for good.
The Alamo had been avenged. The Republic of Texas was
now an independent nation. They say everything is bigger in Texas. Well.
That was true in eighteen thirty six as well. With
Mexico no longer controlling this vast stretch of borderlands along
(07:07):
the American Southwest, a power vacuum had been created.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
There's the sense that if Texas is an annex then
Great Britain is going to step in or some other
European power, and you'll have this big anti slavery borderland
in the Southwest. So slaveholders in their allies really want
to get Texas into the American Union, and then maybe
they want to create several states to boost their political
power on top of that.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
This is Richard N. Newman, Professor of History at Rochester
Institute of Technology.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So this is a vital issue for Southerners and their allies,
and that makes it an incredibly important issue to the
abolitionist movement and to anti slavery congressmen in the North
like Adams.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Adams came to believe that the annexation of Texas was
being pursued by Southerners in the hopes of upsetting the
balance between slave states and free and so here I
need to go back a tiny bit in history explain.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That's John Quincy Adams biographer James Traub. He says, to
understand why Texas was such a political hot potato, you
have to go back to the eighteen twenties, when Adams
was Secretary of State. The Union was expanding westward, adding
more states all the time. In every new addition to
the Union had potential to disrupt the balance of power
(08:29):
between free and slave states. This proved especially challenging when
Missouri was becoming a state, because it's pretty central. Is
it a northern state or is it a southern state?
So Congress came up with a solution.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
We will draw a line, an east west line, and
we will henceforward say that all states north of that
line would be free states, and all states below that
line would be slave states.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
It was actually more of a compromise than a solution.
A line was drawn free states to the north, slave
states to the south, Missouri being an exception, a slave
state on the wrong side of the line. Since that
threw off the balance between free and slave states, a
new free state would have to be admitted.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
What we now call the Missouri Compromise, and the compromise
ultimately said that we will allow a slave state, Missouri,
to come in along with the free state.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Main there was no doubt that Texas would be a
slave state, but Southern politicians had grand machinations. They wanted
to annex Texas and carve it up into several slave states,
completely destroying the Missouri Compromise and tilting the balance of
power in their favor. Congressman John Quincy caught wind of
(09:57):
the scheme and set out to prevent it. President Andrew
Jackson also opposed annexation. There was just one problem. His
term was coming to an end. The front runner to
replace him was Vice President Martin van Buren, the heir
apparent selected by Jackson himself. As you probably remember from
(10:18):
previous episodes, van Buren's coalition was made up of Northerners
and Southerners who rallied behind Jacksonian populism. But the coalition
was tenuous, and Van Buren knew it. As a Northerner,
he had to keep Southern politicians happy if he was
going to win the presidency. One thing that would make
them very happy, besides annexing Texas would be putting an
(10:42):
end to the discussion of slavery and Congress for good.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
This is really a loyalty youth. You have to prove
to us how far you're willing to go to support
slaveholders in the United States. If you're willing to gag
your own constituents prevent them from speaking about an issue
we deem sensitive, then we're going to be your friends forever.
If not, we're gonna have to seriously reconsider the coalition.
And that's that's why Van Buren is doing everything he
(11:07):
can to stifle anti slavery petitioners, because this is all
about the coalition he has set.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Up Vice President. Van Buren, eyeing the presidency for himself,
had plenty of allies in the Lower Chamber, including Henry
Lawrence Pinkney of South Carolina, who shared a paternalistic view
of slavery. He saw it as benign.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
As benevolent, as hard as it can be for us
to imagine, as good for enslave people as well as
for white masters slavery producers wealth. It also allows enslaved
people to gain the Christian Gospel and all these other
things that seem absolutely vile to us.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Pinkney set up a committee at the start of eighteen
thirty six to figure out what to do with the
thousands of anti slavery petitions flooding Congress. Hardliners wanted to
dismiss the petition's outright John Quincy a free reign to
read them. When Pinckney's committee finished its work in May,
(12:10):
he offered a series of resolutions, but it was the
final one that hit the House floor like a lit
stick at dynamite. Pinckney proposed that all petitions or other
correspondence to the House about slavery should quote be laid
upon the table and that no further action whatever shall
(12:33):
be had thereon. He's basically saying, we're not just going
to ignore all these anti slavery petitions in Congress. We're
gonna ban even mentioning them. They don't exist. A wave
of anger washed over John Quincy as he sat at
(12:53):
his desk. He jumped to his feet and said, and again,
I'm paraphrasing something along the lines of silent petitions. Have
you not read the First Amendment? Every American citizen has
the right to quote petition the government for a redress
of grievances. Adams demanded the motion be withdrawn. Pinkney and
(13:17):
his allies refused. Adams turned appealed to House Speaker James K. Polk,
He too refused.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Adams shot back, I am aware that there is a
slaveholder in the chair.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
The House devolved into chaos. Southern congressmen shouted at Adams,
accusing him of violating parliamentary order. Still Adams persistent, exasperated,
and angry. I imagine him pointing at the Great Seal
of the United States, yelling quotes from the Constitution as
others shouted at him, pacing demanding to be heard. Polk
(13:53):
refused to let Adams speak. Adams froze, turned to the
speaker and asked, am I gagged or not? You know?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And the answer was he was.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Adams was in shock as the vote to silence petitions proceeded,
his voice now also silenced. When his name was called,
he got in one last jab voting nay.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
He added, I hold the resolution to be a direct
violation of the Constitution of the United States.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
His objections fell on deaf years. The resolution to ignore
anti slavery petitions on the House floor passed. It would
become known as the Gag rule.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
The Gag rule was an anti John Quincy Adams rule.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
The discussion even mentioned of slavery was now banned in
the House of Representatives. Here's the thing I love about
John Quincy Adams. Though he was an indomitable force and
nobody could shut him up when he had something to say.
Still ahead, Adams pulls as trademark political jiu jitsu on
(15:04):
the House floor and single handedly turns the tide on
the debate over Texas that's coming up after a break.
(15:32):
John Quincy Adams was gagged in the House, but not
in the press. His spirited stands against the expansion of
slavery made national headlines. They also caught the attention of
someone who wanted to help.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Benjamin Lundy presents himself to John Quincy Adams as this
very sympathetic religious moralist, someone who listens, someone who will
take very strong stands against slavery, but he's willing to
listen to other sides. He'll try to push and nudge
people rather than yell and.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Scream Newman Again.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
What's important about this moment for Benjamin Lundy is, never
has a former president, never has a gifted statesman of
the stature of John Quincy Adams been at the center
of the abolitionist movement in Congress. And that's why he's
going the extra mile to nudge Adams into the anti
slavery cause. And it's doubly important to note that, by
temperament and by politics, Adams doesn't want to be in
(16:30):
that position.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Lundy begins writing to Adams in awe of his outspoken
stand against slavery. Adams responds, saying he's not an abolitionist.
Lundy agrees, You're not an abolitionist. You are a prophet.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
The eyes of millions, my dear and honored friend, are
now turned to thee. No mortal ever held a part
of greater usefulness, more enviable distinction, or higher moral responsibility
than is thine at the present moment.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Adams couldn't help but be flattered. A frendship begins, they
write regularly.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Lundy was a Quaker, and so Lundy spoke, you know thou,
and put est at the end of all of his words,
and so forth. He was a very pure person. And
he and Adams had lengthy correspondences back and forth. And
I point out that Adam so got into Lundy's own
idiom that Adams began writing like a Quaker. He used
(17:28):
the same kind of old fashioned diction when addressing Lunda.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Lundy had traveled all over Texas. Now he was Adam's
man on the inside.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
He went to Texas at the time that Texas was
rebelling against Mexico and becoming a republic, and Lundee feared
that Texas would be annexed by the United States, and
it was so big, it would be turned into some
huge numbers of states, perhaps as many as fifteen, and
(17:59):
they would all be pro slavery, and they'd vote for slavery.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Adams was warming to the abolitionist theology, but his wife,
Louisa was torn.
Speaker 7 (18:09):
Part of that was because part of her identity was
being a sother being a Marylander. She was a citizen
in Maryland before she was a citizen in the US,
and her sisters, who are best friends, were slaveholders.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Louisa Thomas is a writer at The New Yorker and
author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of missus Adams. She
says Louisa and John Quincy were losing friends over his
stance against slavery. Their social ties were fraying. Louisa was
used to the name calling in sideways glances, but things
(18:44):
kept getting uglier.
Speaker 7 (18:46):
She's scared because he's getting death threats, and she saw
anew of the death threats. She was afraid of the
violence against him, and you know, not unwisely, and she
wasn't ready to sacrifice him in the fight against slavery.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
She wrote in her diary that supporting her husband meant
losing the love, the friendship, and the society of my
own nearest and dearest connections. Attacks against prominent abolitionist leaders
like Theodore Weld were on the rise. People regularly threw
eggs and rocks at him during his speeches, and things
(19:23):
got really ugly when an angry mob murdered an abolitionist
publisher in the fall of eighteen thirty seven. But then
a bright spot appeared. In the spring of eighteen thirty eight,
construction finished on the crown jewel of the movement, a
grand venue in center City Philadelphia, christened Pennsylvania Hall. It
(19:46):
was like the Capitol building for the abolitionist movement.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
It's a safe space for abolitionists. They've spent a lot
of time and money trying to build it and what
is dedicated In May of eighteen thirty eight. People feel
like it's going to be this great symbol of freedom
in the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
But the hope didn't last long.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
After three days, it was burned to the ground by
angry Philadelphians. But it's not just that the hall is
burned down after three days. It's that people in Philadelphia
blame abolitionists for bringing on the burning down of Pennsylvania Hall.
They said you caused this because you were radicals. You
spoke against slavery. You didn't listen to all the people
(20:27):
who told you to keep quiet and not say anything.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
The pressure was mounting from all sides, the silence of
the growing abolitionist movement, violence in the streets, a gaggoeder
in the US capital. But this is why John Quincy
Adams was such an ally for the movement and a
lethal politician. He knew all the rules. Possibly more important,
he knew how to use the rules against his enemies.
(20:54):
Shortly after the burning of Pennhall, Congress took up debate
over the annexation of Texas. Resolutions poured into the Capitol,
arguing both for and a against annexation. The Foreign Affairs Committee,
dominated by slaveholders, refused to even read the resolutions. This
(21:15):
gave Adams an opening. I'm going to paraphrase again, but
this is essentially how it all went down. Adams asked,
have these petitions received even five minutes of consideration? Peeved?
The chair of the committee addresses him, how dare any
member catechise the Committee of its actions, essentially saying, how
(21:39):
dare you question our intentions? Another member blurts out, no,
we haven't read the resolutions. Big deal. Adams, knowing the rules, pounced.
He knew the committee was required to read the petitions
even if they don't address them, and he knew they
hadn't read them. So the committee goes, all right, whatever,
(22:01):
let's propose a resolution to take no action on these petitions. Then,
out of nowhere, Adam's favorite Southern foil, Wattie Thompson of
you guessed it, South Carolina, doubles down. He says, you
know what, I'd like to propose an amendment to that resolution.
My amendment calls on the President to immediately annex Texas.
(22:25):
Watty shoots a grin over at Adams, thinking he has
the upper hand, but he'd actually walked right into John
Quincy's trap. Adams knew Thompson would add some asenine amendment,
and he knew that you can amend an amendment. So
Adams makes an amendment. He says, okay, neither the President
(22:46):
or Congress has the power to annex Texas. This amendment
gave Adams complete access to the House floor to talk endlessly.
Waddie unwittingly had ripped the gag off Adams. Adams was unleashed.
(23:08):
He argued for women's suffrage and equal rights. He spoke
against the annexation of Texas. He quoted the Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence. He essentially filibustered for three weeks. Eventually,
a committee member asks Adams if he's ever gonna shut up.
Adams says that if the gentleman wished, he would.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Enter into a full and strict scrutiny of slavery, and
so long as God shall give me life and breath
and the faculty of speech, he shall have it to
his heart's content.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Adams basically says, I can do this all day, every day,
and twice on Sunday. Adams jammed up the House debate.
Over the course of the weeks he had held the floor,
newspapers printed his various rants. Instead of silencing him, his
opponents had essentially given him a bull and with this bullhorn,
(24:08):
Adams turned up the political pressure on the new President,
Martin van Buren, making it nearly impossible to annex Texas. Eventually,
Van Buren relented.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
If John Quincy Adams doesn't do his multi week filibuster.
In June and July of eighteen thirty eight, these famous
Morning Hour speeches. It's pretty clear that the slave power
might well have succeeded in getting a vote on Texas
annexation earlier, and maybe successfully, But John Quincy Adams really
(24:42):
turns the entire North against this.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Adams for the win. The annexation of Texas had stalled,
but the fight over slavery was more heated than ever.
Within a year, it would boil over when a group
of enslaved Africans revolted and took over a ship destined
for Theribbean. When the Africans were captured off the coast
(25:08):
of the United States, a question spread across the nation,
what should happen to them? Like always, John Quincy Adams
found himself at the center of it all. On the
(25:34):
next episode of Founding Son, when.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
A son says, you know, this could undermine everything you're
working for. But John Quincy Adams thinks the opposite. But
he's not willing to get involved until Lewis Happened shows
up in his doorstep.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
They urged me so much and represented the case of
those unfortunate men as so critical, it being a case
of life and death, that I yielded and told them
that if by the blessing of God, my health and
strength should permit, I would argue the case well the
Supreme Court.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Founding Son is a curiosity podcast brought to you by
iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. For help with this episode,
we want to thank James Traub, author of John Quincy
Adams Militant Spirit, Richard Newman, professor of history at Rochester
Institute of Technology, and Louisa Thomas, staff writer at the
(26:31):
New Yorker and author of Louisa The Extraordinary Life of
Missus Adams. Our lead producer, story editor and sound designer
is James Morrison. Our senior producer is Jessica Metzker. Our
production manager is Daisy Church. Fact checking by Adam Bisno.
This episode was mixed and mastered by George Hicks. Executive
(26:54):
producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, L. C. Crowley, and
Jason English. Original music by me Bob Crawford. Additional scoring
by Blue Dot Sessions. John Quincy Adams is voiced by
Patrick Warburton, Andrew Jackson is voiced by Nick Offerman. Luisa
Adams is voiced by Gray Delisle. Additional voices in this
(27:18):
episode provided by Ben Sawyer and Michael Smerconish. Show art
designed by Darren Shock. Special thanks to John Higgins from
Curiosity Stream, Julia Chris Gaal, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and
the National Park Service. We couldn't do this podcast without them.
If you're a fan of the podcast, please give it
(27:39):
a five star rating in your podcast app. You can
also check out other Curiosity podcasts to learn about history,
pop culture, true crime, and more. This podcast was recorded
under a SAG after collective bargaining Agreement. I'm your host,
Bob Crawford. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
School of Humans
I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding son John Quincy's America.
In the early eighteen hundreds, the seeds of manifest destiny
began to take root. American settlers spread west at a
(00:41):
rapid pace. By the eighteen twenties, many white Southerners swooped
into northern Mexico, bringing the people they enslaved with them,
creating a plantation state similar to those in the American South.
In eighteen twenty nine, Mexico pushed back, banning slavery within
its borders its territories likely to follow. The move sent
(01:03):
outrage across the country's northern borderlands. Resentment built among white settlers,
and violent skirmishes broke out between them and the Mexican government.
By the fall of eighteen thirty five, and all out
war had begun against the Mexican Army. Texas forces were outnumbered, undisciplined,
(01:24):
and scattered, but the Texans knew the territory. They fortified
an old mission at a crucial crossroads and waited to
ambush the Mexican Army. Unbeknownst to the one hundred and
fifty or so Texans in the mission, including the soldiers' families,
the Mexican army had orders to destroy the rebellion once
(01:44):
and for all. The Mexican army surrounded the mission. When
one of the leaders of the Texans, Jim Bowie, looked
over the walls, he saw a sea of Mexican soldiers
nearly two thousand against fewer than two hundred Texans. When
the Texans refused to surrender, Mexican General Antonio Lopez de
(02:07):
Santa Anna ordered a red flag to be flown from
a nearby church, assigned to those hold up in the mission.
No quarter would be given. The Battle of the Alamo
had begun. Days into the siege of the Alamo, reinforcements
still hadn't arrived. Booye's co commander, William B. Travis, penned
(02:32):
a letter to his countrymen in all the world. From
within the Alamo walls.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Fellow citizens and compatriots, I'm besieged by a thousand and
more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained
a continual bombardment and cannonade for twenty four hours and
have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a
surrender discretion, otherwise the garrison ought to be put to
the sword if the fort is taken, I have answered
the demand with the cannon shot, and our flag still
(03:00):
waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrendt all retreat.
I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible,
and die like a soldier who never forgets what is
due to his own honor and that of his country.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Victory or death.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
William Barrett Travis, Lieutenant colonel COMMANDWNT.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Just before the break of dawn on the thirteenth day
of fighting, the Mexican Army stormed the mission, sparing only women, children,
and enslaved people. In the slaughter. Every fighting man met
his end with either a bullet or a bayonet. The
message was clear. The Mexican Army was happy to abide
by William Travis's terms victory or death, but they weren't
(03:55):
the only ones to receive a message. Among the dead
at the Alamo, former Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett outrage and
calls for vengeance rippled across hundreds and hundreds of miles
through the plantations of the South northward to Washington, d C.
And the floor of Congress. US citizens had been killed
(04:17):
at the hands of the Mexican Army. The bloodbath in
Texas was a tragedy, quickly becoming a national disaster. Lawmakers
were bombarded with calls to send US troops to Texas.
At the heart of this decision was a giant Texas
sized elephant in the room. What would happen if Northern
(04:39):
Mexican territory seized its independence were it join the United States?
And what would happen if a slave state the size
of Texas joined the Union. The outcome of the rebellion
had the potential to upset the balance of power in
the United States for generations Chapter four, Don't Mess with Tech.
(05:15):
When news of the massacre in Texas reached the US capital,
John Quincy Adams took to the House floor. He spoke
out against the US getting involved in a war with Mexico.
But before he or any other lawmaker could even decide
whether to send troops to Texas, the direction of the
war had shifted dramatically. Following the Alamo, the Texas Army,
(05:39):
a ragtag group of rebels, was on the run, retreating
eastward from San Antonio to the Gulf of Mexico. The
Mexican Army, close behind, committed to ending the rebellion. The
former governor of Tennessee and a close friend of Andrew Jackson,
Sam Houston, led the Texans with their backs against the
(06:01):
Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican army bearing down on them.
Houston ordered his men to make a final stand, turn
an attack rather than flee. On April twenty first, eighteen
thirty six, just weeks after the Battle of the Alamo,
Texans launched an assault against the Mexican army near modern
(06:23):
day Houston. Screaming Remember the Alamo, Houston's troops attacked mercilessly,
catching their enemy off guard. The Mexican army, surprised, scattered.
The battle lasted just eighteen minutes. At the end, Mexican
General Santa Ana stood in shackles. In exchange for his freedom,
(06:45):
he agreed to take his army and leave Texas for good.
The Alamo had been avenged. The Republic of Texas was
now an independent nation. They say everything is bigger in Texas. Well.
That was true in eighteen thirty six as well. With
Mexico no longer controlling this vast stretch of borderlands along
(07:07):
the American Southwest, a power vacuum had been created.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
There's the sense that if Texas is an annex then
Great Britain is going to step in or some other
European power, and you'll have this big anti slavery borderland
in the Southwest. So slaveholders in their allies really want
to get Texas into the American Union, and then maybe
they want to create several states to boost their political
power on top of that.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
This is Richard N. Newman, Professor of History at Rochester
Institute of Technology.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So this is a vital issue for Southerners and their allies,
and that makes it an incredibly important issue to the
abolitionist movement and to anti slavery congressmen in the North
like Adams.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
Adams came to believe that the annexation of Texas was
being pursued by Southerners in the hopes of upsetting the
balance between slave states and free and so here I
need to go back a tiny bit in history explain.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
That's John Quincy Adams biographer James Traub. He says, to
understand why Texas was such a political hot potato, you
have to go back to the eighteen twenties, when Adams
was Secretary of State. The Union was expanding westward, adding
more states all the time. In every new addition to
the Union had potential to disrupt the balance of power
(08:29):
between free and slave states. This proved especially challenging when
Missouri was becoming a state, because it's pretty central. Is
it a northern state or is it a southern state?
So Congress came up with a solution.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
We will draw a line, an east west line, and
we will henceforward say that all states north of that
line would be free states, and all states below that
line would be slave states.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
It was actually more of a compromise than a solution.
A line was drawn free states to the north, slave
states to the south, Missouri being an exception, a slave
state on the wrong side of the line. Since that
threw off the balance between free and slave states, a
new free state would have to be admitted.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
What we now call the Missouri Compromise, and the compromise
ultimately said that we will allow a slave state, Missouri,
to come in along with the free state.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Main there was no doubt that Texas would be a
slave state, but Southern politicians had grand machinations. They wanted
to annex Texas and carve it up into several slave states,
completely destroying the Missouri Compromise and tilting the balance of
power in their favor. Congressman John Quincy caught wind of
(09:57):
the scheme and set out to prevent it. President Andrew
Jackson also opposed annexation. There was just one problem. His
term was coming to an end. The front runner to
replace him was Vice President Martin van Buren, the heir
apparent selected by Jackson himself. As you probably remember from
(10:18):
previous episodes, van Buren's coalition was made up of Northerners
and Southerners who rallied behind Jacksonian populism. But the coalition
was tenuous, and Van Buren knew it. As a Northerner,
he had to keep Southern politicians happy if he was
going to win the presidency. One thing that would make
them very happy, besides annexing Texas would be putting an
(10:42):
end to the discussion of slavery and Congress for good.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
This is really a loyalty youth. You have to prove
to us how far you're willing to go to support
slaveholders in the United States. If you're willing to gag
your own constituents prevent them from speaking about an issue
we deem sensitive, then we're going to be your friends forever.
If not, we're gonna have to seriously reconsider the coalition.
And that's that's why Van Buren is doing everything he
(11:07):
can to stifle anti slavery petitioners, because this is all
about the coalition he has set.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Up Vice President. Van Buren, eyeing the presidency for himself,
had plenty of allies in the Lower Chamber, including Henry
Lawrence Pinkney of South Carolina, who shared a paternalistic view
of slavery. He saw it as benign.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
As benevolent, as hard as it can be for us
to imagine, as good for enslave people as well as
for white masters slavery producers wealth. It also allows enslaved
people to gain the Christian Gospel and all these other
things that seem absolutely vile to us.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
Pinkney set up a committee at the start of eighteen
thirty six to figure out what to do with the
thousands of anti slavery petitions flooding Congress. Hardliners wanted to
dismiss the petition's outright John Quincy a free reign to
read them. When Pinckney's committee finished its work in May,
(12:10):
he offered a series of resolutions, but it was the
final one that hit the House floor like a lit
stick at dynamite. Pinckney proposed that all petitions or other
correspondence to the House about slavery should quote be laid
upon the table and that no further action whatever shall
(12:33):
be had thereon. He's basically saying, we're not just going
to ignore all these anti slavery petitions in Congress. We're
gonna ban even mentioning them. They don't exist. A wave
of anger washed over John Quincy as he sat at
(12:53):
his desk. He jumped to his feet and said, and again,
I'm paraphrasing something along the lines of silent petitions. Have
you not read the First Amendment? Every American citizen has
the right to quote petition the government for a redress
of grievances. Adams demanded the motion be withdrawn. Pinkney and
(13:17):
his allies refused. Adams turned appealed to House Speaker James K. Polk,
He too refused.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Adams shot back, I am aware that there is a
slaveholder in the chair.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
The House devolved into chaos. Southern congressmen shouted at Adams,
accusing him of violating parliamentary order. Still Adams persistent, exasperated,
and angry. I imagine him pointing at the Great Seal
of the United States, yelling quotes from the Constitution as
others shouted at him, pacing demanding to be heard. Polk
(13:53):
refused to let Adams speak. Adams froze, turned to the
speaker and asked, am I gagged or not? You know?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
And the answer was he was.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Adams was in shock as the vote to silence petitions proceeded,
his voice now also silenced. When his name was called,
he got in one last jab voting nay.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
He added, I hold the resolution to be a direct
violation of the Constitution of the United States.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
His objections fell on deaf years. The resolution to ignore
anti slavery petitions on the House floor passed. It would
become known as the Gag rule.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
The Gag rule was an anti John Quincy Adams rule.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
The discussion even mentioned of slavery was now banned in
the House of Representatives. Here's the thing I love about
John Quincy Adams. Though he was an indomitable force and
nobody could shut him up when he had something to say.
Still ahead, Adams pulls as trademark political jiu jitsu on
(15:04):
the House floor and single handedly turns the tide on
the debate over Texas that's coming up after a break.
(15:32):
John Quincy Adams was gagged in the House, but not
in the press. His spirited stands against the expansion of
slavery made national headlines. They also caught the attention of
someone who wanted to help.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Benjamin Lundy presents himself to John Quincy Adams as this
very sympathetic religious moralist, someone who listens, someone who will
take very strong stands against slavery, but he's willing to
listen to other sides. He'll try to push and nudge
people rather than yell and.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Scream Newman Again.
Speaker 3 (16:06):
What's important about this moment for Benjamin Lundy is, never
has a former president, never has a gifted statesman of
the stature of John Quincy Adams been at the center
of the abolitionist movement in Congress. And that's why he's
going the extra mile to nudge Adams into the anti
slavery cause. And it's doubly important to note that, by
temperament and by politics, Adams doesn't want to be in
(16:30):
that position.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Lundy begins writing to Adams in awe of his outspoken
stand against slavery. Adams responds, saying he's not an abolitionist.
Lundy agrees, You're not an abolitionist. You are a prophet.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
The eyes of millions, my dear and honored friend, are
now turned to thee. No mortal ever held a part
of greater usefulness, more enviable distinction, or higher moral responsibility
than is thine at the present moment.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Adams couldn't help but be flattered. A frendship begins, they
write regularly.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Lundy was a Quaker, and so Lundy spoke, you know thou,
and put est at the end of all of his words,
and so forth. He was a very pure person. And
he and Adams had lengthy correspondences back and forth. And
I point out that Adam so got into Lundy's own
idiom that Adams began writing like a Quaker. He used
(17:28):
the same kind of old fashioned diction when addressing Lunda.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Lundy had traveled all over Texas. Now he was Adam's
man on the inside.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
He went to Texas at the time that Texas was
rebelling against Mexico and becoming a republic, and Lundee feared
that Texas would be annexed by the United States, and
it was so big, it would be turned into some
huge numbers of states, perhaps as many as fifteen, and
(17:59):
they would all be pro slavery, and they'd vote for slavery.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
Adams was warming to the abolitionist theology, but his wife,
Louisa was torn.
Speaker 7 (18:09):
Part of that was because part of her identity was
being a sother being a Marylander. She was a citizen
in Maryland before she was a citizen in the US,
and her sisters, who are best friends, were slaveholders.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Louisa Thomas is a writer at The New Yorker and
author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of missus Adams. She
says Louisa and John Quincy were losing friends over his
stance against slavery. Their social ties were fraying. Louisa was
used to the name calling in sideways glances, but things
(18:44):
kept getting uglier.
Speaker 7 (18:46):
She's scared because he's getting death threats, and she saw
anew of the death threats. She was afraid of the
violence against him, and you know, not unwisely, and she
wasn't ready to sacrifice him in the fight against slavery.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
She wrote in her diary that supporting her husband meant
losing the love, the friendship, and the society of my
own nearest and dearest connections. Attacks against prominent abolitionist leaders
like Theodore Weld were on the rise. People regularly threw
eggs and rocks at him during his speeches, and things
(19:23):
got really ugly when an angry mob murdered an abolitionist
publisher in the fall of eighteen thirty seven. But then
a bright spot appeared. In the spring of eighteen thirty eight,
construction finished on the crown jewel of the movement, a
grand venue in center City Philadelphia, christened Pennsylvania Hall. It
(19:46):
was like the Capitol building for the abolitionist movement.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
It's a safe space for abolitionists. They've spent a lot
of time and money trying to build it and what
is dedicated In May of eighteen thirty eight. People feel
like it's going to be this great symbol of freedom
in the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
But the hope didn't last long.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
After three days, it was burned to the ground by
angry Philadelphians. But it's not just that the hall is
burned down after three days. It's that people in Philadelphia
blame abolitionists for bringing on the burning down of Pennsylvania Hall.
They said you caused this because you were radicals. You
spoke against slavery. You didn't listen to all the people
(20:27):
who told you to keep quiet and not say anything.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
The pressure was mounting from all sides, the silence of
the growing abolitionist movement, violence in the streets, a gaggoeder
in the US capital. But this is why John Quincy
Adams was such an ally for the movement and a
lethal politician. He knew all the rules. Possibly more important,
he knew how to use the rules against his enemies.
(20:54):
Shortly after the burning of Pennhall, Congress took up debate
over the annexation of Texas. Resolutions poured into the Capitol,
arguing both for and a against annexation. The Foreign Affairs Committee,
dominated by slaveholders, refused to even read the resolutions. This
(21:15):
gave Adams an opening. I'm going to paraphrase again, but
this is essentially how it all went down. Adams asked,
have these petitions received even five minutes of consideration? Peeved?
The chair of the committee addresses him, how dare any
member catechise the Committee of its actions, essentially saying, how
(21:39):
dare you question our intentions? Another member blurts out, no,
we haven't read the resolutions. Big deal. Adams, knowing the rules, pounced.
He knew the committee was required to read the petitions
even if they don't address them, and he knew they
hadn't read them. So the committee goes, all right, whatever,
(22:01):
let's propose a resolution to take no action on these petitions. Then,
out of nowhere, Adam's favorite Southern foil, Wattie Thompson of
you guessed it, South Carolina, doubles down. He says, you
know what, I'd like to propose an amendment to that resolution.
My amendment calls on the President to immediately annex Texas.
(22:25):
Watty shoots a grin over at Adams, thinking he has
the upper hand, but he'd actually walked right into John
Quincy's trap. Adams knew Thompson would add some asenine amendment,
and he knew that you can amend an amendment. So
Adams makes an amendment. He says, okay, neither the President
(22:46):
or Congress has the power to annex Texas. This amendment
gave Adams complete access to the House floor to talk endlessly.
Waddie unwittingly had ripped the gag off Adams. Adams was unleashed.
(23:08):
He argued for women's suffrage and equal rights. He spoke
against the annexation of Texas. He quoted the Constitution and
the Declaration of Independence. He essentially filibustered for three weeks. Eventually,
a committee member asks Adams if he's ever gonna shut up.
Adams says that if the gentleman wished, he would.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
Enter into a full and strict scrutiny of slavery, and
so long as God shall give me life and breath
and the faculty of speech, he shall have it to
his heart's content.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Adams basically says, I can do this all day, every day,
and twice on Sunday. Adams jammed up the House debate.
Over the course of the weeks he had held the floor,
newspapers printed his various rants. Instead of silencing him, his
opponents had essentially given him a bull and with this bullhorn,
(24:08):
Adams turned up the political pressure on the new President,
Martin van Buren, making it nearly impossible to annex Texas. Eventually,
Van Buren relented.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
If John Quincy Adams doesn't do his multi week filibuster.
In June and July of eighteen thirty eight, these famous
Morning Hour speeches. It's pretty clear that the slave power
might well have succeeded in getting a vote on Texas
annexation earlier, and maybe successfully, But John Quincy Adams really
(24:42):
turns the entire North against this.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Adams for the win. The annexation of Texas had stalled,
but the fight over slavery was more heated than ever.
Within a year, it would boil over when a group
of enslaved Africans revolted and took over a ship destined
for Theribbean. When the Africans were captured off the coast
(25:08):
of the United States, a question spread across the nation,
what should happen to them? Like always, John Quincy Adams
found himself at the center of it all. On the
(25:34):
next episode of Founding Son, when.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
A son says, you know, this could undermine everything you're
working for. But John Quincy Adams thinks the opposite. But
he's not willing to get involved until Lewis Happened shows
up in his doorstep.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
They urged me so much and represented the case of
those unfortunate men as so critical, it being a case
of life and death, that I yielded and told them
that if by the blessing of God, my health and
strength should permit, I would argue the case well the
Supreme Court.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
Founding Son is a curiosity podcast brought to you by
iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. For help with this episode,
we want to thank James Traub, author of John Quincy
Adams Militant Spirit, Richard Newman, professor of history at Rochester
Institute of Technology, and Louisa Thomas, staff writer at the
(26:31):
New Yorker and author of Louisa The Extraordinary Life of
Missus Adams. Our lead producer, story editor and sound designer
is James Morrison. Our senior producer is Jessica Metzker. Our
production manager is Daisy Church. Fact checking by Adam Bisno.
This episode was mixed and mastered by George Hicks. Executive
(26:54):
producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, L. C. Crowley, and
Jason English. Original music by me Bob Crawford. Additional scoring
by Blue Dot Sessions. John Quincy Adams is voiced by
Patrick Warburton, Andrew Jackson is voiced by Nick Offerman. Luisa
Adams is voiced by Gray Delisle. Additional voices in this
(27:18):
episode provided by Ben Sawyer and Michael Smerconish. Show art
designed by Darren Shock. Special thanks to John Higgins from
Curiosity Stream, Julia Chris Gaal, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and
the National Park Service. We couldn't do this podcast without them.
If you're a fan of the podcast, please give it
(27:39):
a five star rating in your podcast app. You can
also check out other Curiosity podcasts to learn about history,
pop culture, true crime, and more. This podcast was recorded
under a SAG after collective bargaining Agreement. I'm your host,
Bob Crawford. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
School of Humans
Host
Bob Crawford
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