May 11, 2023 • 33 mins
John Quincy Adams finally defeats the Gag rule, but his feud with Andrew Jackson lasts until the bitter end. And Congressman Abraham Lincoln witnesses from the House floor the dramatic final hours of Adams' life.
Founding Son is a Curiosity Podcast and is a co-production of iHeartPodcasts and School of Humans.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding Son John Quincy's America.
(00:41):
Late winter eighteen forty one, William Henry Harrison arrives in
downtown Washington, d c aboard a piece of cutting edge
technology the train. A cold wind bears down on the
city as Harrison walks to the steps of the US
Capitol to be sworn in as the nation's ninth president.
(01:02):
Harrison wants to project a strong image to the nation.
Like Jackson, he was a war hero, having fought against
several native tribes in the country's expansion westward. That day
was cold and wet, but Harrison refused to wear an overcoat, hat,
or even gloves. He wanted to distinguish himself from his
(01:23):
aristocratic predecessor, Martin Van Buren. Harrison was a frontiersman from Ohio.
A little cold wouldn't hurt him. The Harrison administration provided
new hope for the nation and John Quincy Adams anti
Federalist Democrats had held the reins of power for over
a decade. Now the Whigs, John Quincy's party, had taken
(01:47):
over the House, Senate, and presidency in one fell swoop.
A week after the inauguration, President Harrison showed up at
Adams's door, telling the ex president he was welcome at
the White House anytime, come when you please, as often
(02:07):
as you please, or drop me a line, for I
shall at any time be happy to take your advice
and counsel as that of a brother. This came at
roughly the same time the nation was celebrating Adams for
winning the Amistadt case at the Supreme Court. He was
riding one of the highest waves of his life until
(02:30):
William Henry Harrison fell ill after his inauguration, first a cold,
then pneumonia, and on April fourth, eighteen forty one, he died,
serving just thirty one days in office. Now the man
in charge was Vice President John Tyler, who could not
have been more different than Harrison.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
John Tyler's a slaveholding Virginian.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Matthew carp is an associate professor of history at Princeton University.
He says John Tyler was a member of the same
party as William Henry Harrison and John Quincy Adams, but
he was also a stalwart supporter of slavery In States rights.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
He was one of the few Southern congressmen to sort
of support nullification outside of South Carolina. He's a strong
ally of Calhoun.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
John Quincy Adams saw President John Tyler as a gathering
storm who could ruin the smooth seas he was hoping
to sail across for the next four years.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Tyler is a political sectarian of the slave driving Virginian Jeffersonian.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
School, principled against all improvement, with all the interests and
passions and vices of slavery, rooted in his moral and
political constitution, with talents not above mediocrity, and a spirit
incapable of expansion to the dimensions of the station upon
(03:56):
which he has been cast by the hand of providence,
an unseen through the apparent agency of chance.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Can I just pause for a second to point out
that sick burn talents not above mediocrity. That's why I
love John Quincy Adams. Old man eloquent had been thrown
a vicious twist of faith. Tyler's presidency threatened all his
hopes of national progress. But John Quincy Adams had more
(04:28):
political capital than ever, and he was ready for a fight,
even if it might be his last. Chapter six The
Last of Earth. After his victory in the Amistad case,
(04:56):
John Quincy Adams had some juice. With the political winds
blowing in his favor, Adams readied his harpoon for the
biggest whale in his sight, the Gag Rule. Adams couldn't
help but taunt his Southern adversaries and flout the gag
rule every chance he got. But in February of eighteen
(05:17):
forty two, he pushed his foes a little too far.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Adams comically, among other things, presents a petition demanding that
he John Quincy Adams, be expelled as the Chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
That's John Quincy Adams. Biographer James Traub He says there's
some debate on whether this petition, said to be from Georgia,
was authentic or not. Some think Adams might have written
it himself. In any case, the call for Adams's expulsion
gave him the House floor to defend himself, and once
(05:53):
he had the floor, he didn't shut up for days,
doing what he did best.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
He presents a petition from citizens of Massachusetts saying they
seek to dissolve the Union because they can no longer
be her to support the South.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Treason. Southerners cried out, dissolve the Union? Are you mad?
Bedlam took over the house floor. Of all the people
yelling at Adams to sit down and shut up, one
voice screamed louder than all the rest.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
From my perspective, his most formidable, or at least his
most heated opponent, was Henry Wise of Virginia.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Wise called Adams the acutest, a studist artist, enemy of
southern slavery that ever existed. Wise meant it as an insult.
Adams wore it like a badge of honor. In the chaos,
Adams shouted back, Oh, you think I'm the crazy one.
I'm paraphrasing here. Adams knew exactly what he was doing.
(06:52):
He had manufactured this whole debate. His goal shined the
national spotlight on the absurdity of the gag rule. His
southern foes had walked right into his trap.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
So the old lifted up his voice like a trumpet
till slaveholding, slave trading, and slave breeding absolutely quailed and
howled under his dissecting knife.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Theodore Weld was so mesmerized by John Quincy's verbal athleticism
that he wrote his wife to tell her about it.
Speaker 7 (07:22):
A perfect uproar like Babbel would burst forth every two
or three minutes is mister A with his bold surgery,
would smite his cleaver into the very bone.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Henry Wise and other Southern politicians called to censure Adams
for high treason and perjury. Adams replied, simply good. The
house broke for the day, Adams preparing himself for the
fight to come. That night, Theodore Weld and a few
(07:53):
members of the small Abolition Caucus visited Adams's f Street home.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Adams is sitting there in his armchair reading. You know
when they come and they say, we're gonna defend you,
you know, we're going to fight this to the end,
and Adams says something like, you know, I've never had
any company in any of my fights before.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Adams was famously stonefaced and stoic, something he no doubt
learned from his father. But the men saw Adams's lip quiver.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
And these men went away and thought, you know, what
an astonishing old man, and what a kind of frightening solitude.
At the same time.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
The next morning, the House gallery was packed with spectators.
Government officials blew off their duties to watch history unfold
before their very eyes. Thomas Marshall, nephew of late Chief
Justice John Marshall took the unenviable task of presenting the
case against Adams. To kick things off, Marshall read a
(08:57):
resolution that rocked the House.
Speaker 8 (09:00):
The dissolution of the Union necessarily implied the destruction of
that instrument, the overthrow of the American Republic, and the
extension of our national existence.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Let me break it down for you. Marshall accused Adams of.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
The destruction of our country and the crime of high treason.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
The consequence not just censure, expulsion in the eyes of
the South. Adams, the seventy five year old former president,
was a trader. But remember, Adams had set all this
in motion. He dared his opponents to expel him.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I have constituents to go to, and they will have
something to say. If this House expels me.
Speaker 9 (09:50):
And all, will it be long before the gentlemen see
me here again.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Southerners heeded Adams' warning and stop short of expelling him.
Everything was playing out exactly as he had hoped, and seriously,
ma versus Adams not a fair fight.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
He would relish every mistake the poor fellow made, and
he would say things like, you know, it's really surprising
to me to realize that you have been to one
of the great law schools of our nation, because I
think about this elementary error that you've just committed.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Adams is like a mean girl, saying, how embarrassing for you.
He told Thomas Marshall he should attend some.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Law school, learn a little of the rights these citizens
and of these states and the members of this house.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Adams tore the guy to shreds and said, in effect,
you should have gone to a better law school. You
don't even know the law. You don't even know what
treason is.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
The battle exhilarated Adams. Friends said they never saw him
so happy. Well found him.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
As fresh and elastic as a boy. He went on
for an hour or nearly that, in a voice loud
enough to be heard by a large audience.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Wonderful man.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Adams at one point said, I've only just begun.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
The house was at a standstill.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
All they were doing was this trial, and they suddenly
they finally realized if we don't surrender, this guy's going
to hold us hostage for forever. And so they insisted
on an early voting, and Adams won the vote overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
After two weeks of trial, Marshall moved to table the
censure resolution, never to be taken up again. Adams had
yet again defeated the slaveocracy. After the vote, Thomas Marshall
was overheard telling another congressman.
Speaker 8 (11:53):
I would rather die thousand discs and again encounter that
old man.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
That was Marshall's last session in Congress. John Quincy Adams
was an unpopular one term president. Now in Congress, his
popularity knew no bounds.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Adams's nobility was almost suicidal. What's extraordinary is that at
the end of his career he finds a cause which
is perfectly suited to his solitude. And it's precisely because
he is so solitary and heroic that finally, at the
end of his life, he's hero worshiped in a way
(12:33):
that he never was before.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Adams couldn't keep up with the unending request for personal appearances.
It seemed like everybody wanted a piece of the ex president.
But then he got an offer he couldn't refuse. The
Cincinnati Astronomical Society invited Adams to lay the cornerstone for
a new observatory. Congress never funded John Quincy's dream of
(12:56):
lighthouses in the sky even after he left the White House,
but universities and astronomical societies across the country invested in
their own telescopes. The march of scientific progress vindicated him
when closed minded politicians had refused. Adams's trip to Cincinnati
(13:17):
was the first time he had ventured west. If you
were to listen to Andrew Jackson, you think the coastal
elitist John Quincy would find no love in the heartland.
But Adams's reputation preceded him. People swarmed him during public appearances.
At a barber shop in Cleveland, John Quincy spent the
afternoon shaking hands with hundreds of people who gathered to
(13:40):
get a glimpse of America's founding son. In Cincinnati, he
was greeted by a banner which read John Quincy Adams,
Defender of the Rights of Man. In Pittsburgh, the last
stop on Adams's Western tour, factories closed for the day,
newspapers announced his arrival. John Quincy Adams was an American celebrity.
(14:05):
Still ahead, Adams and his old rival Andrew Jackson go
at it again, a feud that was bitter to the
very end. Literally that's coming up after the break. John
(14:36):
Quincy Adams was riding high then the midterm elections of
eighteen forty two happened. His party took one of the
largest electoral drubbings in American history, losing their forty two
seat Whig majority. In its place, Democrats now held a
massive majority. Adams, Gettings and their abolitionist allies all but
(15:00):
lost hope of overturning the Gag rule. But a year later,
old Man eloquent made his final stand. Adams swiftly proposed
the elimination of the gag rule. This time, James Dellitt,
a congressman from Alabama, led the attack against Adams. Dell
(15:21):
It used Adams's own words as ammo. He pulled a
quote from a speech Adams gave on his Western tour
to a group of free black men and women, a
promise that their day of redemption.
Speaker 9 (15:33):
Was bound to come and make come and peace, or
it may come in blood. But whether in peace or
in blood, let it come.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Repeating the quote for effect, dell Itt told the body
that this was the true agenda of anti gag activists,
the end of slavery through bloodshed. Adams shouted from his seat.
Speaker 9 (15:59):
I say now let it come.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Dell It repeated himself, feeling vindicated, Adams admits it. Adams
again shouted from his seat.
Speaker 9 (16:12):
No, it cost the blood of millions of white men.
Let it come. Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
John Quincy's outburst rocked the chamber and horrified the slaveholders.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
And he finally said, if we have no way of
ending this monstrous practice, save by the greatest nightmare, any
of us can imagine the dissolution of the Union, he said,
then so be it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Adams had gone all in, basically saying, we must end
this gaggrule if we are ever to rid ourselves of slavery,
and if we don't, I'm willing to burn this whole
American experiment to the ground.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
And for a man who had grown up regardless the
Union as the most holy of holies, to say that
this moral evil is so great that we must be
prepared to destroy the Union in order to extirpay it,
that's extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
John Quincy's game of chicken paid off. On December third,
eighteen forty four, the gag rule at long last fell. Afterwards,
he wrote in his diary.
Speaker 9 (17:34):
Blessed ever, blessed be the name of God.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
John Quincy achieved one of the greatest political accomplishments in Congress.
It had taken the entire congressional session. It was now
the general election of eighteen forty four. Henry Clay once
again tried and failed to capture the presidency, losing to
James K. Polk in the final days of eighteen forty five.
(18:02):
Against the objections of John Quincy Adams, Polk annex Texas,
essentially kicking a hornet's nest. Mexico never recognized the treaty
President Santa Anna signed after his routing by General Sam Houston,
so Mexico saw Polk's annexation of Texas as an act
(18:23):
of aggression, starting the Mexican American War. It also reignited
the old feud between Adams and Andrew Jackson. This round
of the Adams versus Jackson grudge match is a bit complicated,
so let me break it down first. You need to
understand that Andrew Jackson had lived a rough life and
(18:45):
he was getting pretty old. It reminds me of that
Indiana Jones quote, it's not the years, it's the mileage.
Speaker 10 (18:52):
His memory on Texas wasn't the best.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
David S. Brown is professor of history at Elizabethtown College
in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 10 (19:02):
As he got older, he seemed to think that that
Texas have been part of the United States in eighteen
nineteen when the United States signed a treaty with Spain
that did give us Florida but did not give us Texas.
So Jackson and a few others would refer not to
the annexation of Texas as in we want Texas annexed.
(19:25):
They would refer to it as the re annexation, kind
of selectively remembering the pasture for their benefit.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
This takes us back to the Monroe administration when John
Quincy was Secretary of State and negotiated the eighteen nineteen
treaty with Spain. Now some twenty plus years later, Jackson
said that Texas would have been a part of the
deal if it weren't for the underhanded dealings of President
Monroe and as Lackey Adams, who hates slavery. You have
(19:59):
to understand that for Jackson, he considered the annexation of
all new Southern states part of it domino effect that
he started. Texas was simply the next domino to fall.
In a speech in Boston, Adams attacked Jackson and the
annexation of Texas. He spoke of Jackson's ingratitude.
Speaker 9 (20:21):
I defended him against his enemies and Monroe's cabinet, defended
him against the remonstrances of ministers of Spain and Great Britain,
and here and in Europe, defended him against the strong disappropriation,
unanimous in both houses of Congress and throughout the nation.
And for what I could not and did not approve.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
A Jackson ally later responded by attacking Adams' entire career.
Speaker 11 (20:48):
He gave away half of the American continent. Lest Braintree
should suffer or complain. All of our present troubles in Texas,
in Oregon are bitter fruits of mister Adams's generosity, and
attribute of which he is seldom accused. The navigation of
the Mississippi would not be an American possession of mister
(21:08):
Adams could have swapped it for Coddfish. Grocers will make
packing paper of his speeches, lectures, letters, and interminable diaries.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
When Jackson read what his friend said about Adams, he
thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 12 (21:24):
It is the severest castigation and withering sarcasm I ever read.
I would not be surprised to hear that he was
stricken down by a paralytic stroke.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Damn, things were getting heated, but Jackson's wish to watch
Adams die would go unfulfilled. On a warm June evening
in eighteen forty five, Andrew Jackson lay on his deathbed,
his heart slowly failing. He fumbled for his glasses, and
when he put them on, he could see the tearful
(21:57):
faces of family, friends and the people he enslaved who'd
come to see him off to the next world. Before
he passed, he said to those gathered, do not cry.
Speaker 12 (22:12):
I hope to meet you all in heaven. Yes, all
in heaven, white and black. My conversation is for you all.
Christ has no respect for color.
Speaker 13 (22:31):
I am in God, and God is in me. He
dwelleth in me, and I dwell in him.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Old Hickory shut his eyes and never opened them again.
He was seventy eight years old, older than the country
he had led as president. America mourned the death of
Andrew Jackson. Even old enemies and Northerners set aside the
malice they once felt for him. Adams, though, was like,
(23:10):
if that guy, I don't care if he's dead.
Speaker 10 (23:12):
When Jackson dies, Quincy Adams writes in his journal, Jackson
was a.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Hero, a murderer, an adulter, and a profoundly pious Presbyterian who,
in his last days of his life blied and slandered
me before the world.
Speaker 10 (23:30):
So this was a time when even Boston was having,
you know, condolence parades for the fallen Andrew Jackson. They
didn't love the man, but they recognized that he had
played a significant role in America's short history. But John
Quincy Adams was true to himself and would not engage
in the false hypocrisy of saying that he was sorry
(23:52):
to see Andrew Jackson leave the scene.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
He was not.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Adams had outlive Jackson, but age was catching up with him.
In late eighteen forty six, he collapsed while on a
walk with a friend in Quincy. His doctor told him
he had a stroke. By spring of next year, he
had recovered enough to return to his seat in Congress.
He was well aware of how little time he had left,
(24:16):
writing in his diary.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
I date my decease and consider myself, for every useful
purpose to myself or to my fellow creatures, dead, And
hence I call this and what I may write hereafter
a posthumous memoir.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Adams was now eighty years old. That's a little more
common today in politics, but back then he was ancient. Still,
Adams couldn't be kept off the house floor. Just months
after his stroke, he was back in Congress railing against
the Mexican American War. It was shortly after one of
these fiery speeches that a court reporter looks.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Over and sees that Adams is trembling. His right arm
is moving on him, his desk and his lips are moving,
but he's unable to speak. And he then rises up
and topples over.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
A shock rang through the house floor. Lawmakers jumped to
their feet.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
People shouted, Adams is dying. Adams is dying, and they
laid him out on a couch in the Speaker's office.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Adams was out of it, but not yet unconscious. He
was overheard whispering, this is.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
The last of earth, but I am composed.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Friends and foes gathered to pay their respects. As he
lay unconscious.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Everybody is able to come see him. Clay stands there,
holding his hand and weeping.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Lawmakers rushed to Adam's home to tell Louisa what happened.
She thought he had only fainted, but by the time
she arrived at the Capitol, John Quincy was barely conscious.
He did not recognize his partner of fifty years. Overcome
with grief, Louisa was allowed a few private hours with
(26:29):
her husband, but as his breathing became more shallow, doctors
and members of Congress shuffled her away.
Speaker 14 (26:36):
And she is furious.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Luisa Thomas is a writer at The New Yorker and
author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams.
Speaker 14 (26:46):
She is absolutely furious. All she wanted to be was
to be the one to pose's eyes.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Why wasn't she permitted?
Speaker 14 (26:54):
Oh she's a woman, you know, I was too tender
or something too delicate.
Speaker 9 (27:00):
I was forced to leave him without even the privilege
of indulging the fee which all holds sacred at such moments.
Speaker 14 (27:10):
And she was denied that private consolation, and that was
very painful to her.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
A knife twisted in her broken heart. Strangers stood between
her and her husband. On February twenty third, at seven
to fifteen pm, John Quincy Adams died.
Speaker 14 (27:33):
He died of public death, and in some ways that
was right, you know, that's a kind of legend.
Speaker 15 (27:40):
He literally died with his boots on. If you will,
Sean Wood Lentz, I mean he died, you know, fighting
what he thought of as an unjust war, a wicked war,
and doing his best to rail against it in public service.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
To the very end, John Quincy Adams would make the
trip from Washington, d c. To his home in Quincy, Massachusetts,
one last time. A young cong ersman from Illinois named
Abraham Lincoln had watched Adam's collapse on the House floor
and was now a member of Adams's funeral committee.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
This was the beginning of Adams's last term and the
beginning of Lincoln's one and only term in Congress. So
I don't believe they met, But in so many ways
Adams stretches his hand forward to Lincoln, and in so
many ways makes Lincoln possible.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
It's been said that John Quincy Adams embodied the national
history that Lincoln had read by candlelight as a boy.
Speaker 15 (28:38):
John Quincy Adams, with all of his actions in the
late eighteen thirties and early eighteen forties, helped bring the
slavery issue into the center of politics, from which it
could not be removed. Lincoln made sure that it would
stay there So in that sense, Lincoln is very much
Adams's successor.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
People gathered along the tracks for hundreds of miles to
see the train pass.
Speaker 15 (28:59):
He is a great hero. He has a chief popular heroism,
if you will, at the end of his life that
he can never expected to have enjoyed earlier on.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
John Quincy Adams was buried in Quincy, Massachusetts, beside his
mother Abigail and his father John. Four years later, his
wife Louisa would join him. John Quincy Adams continued the
legacy of his family name. He protected and preserved the
(29:30):
American democracy of the founding generation. Indeed, John Quincy fought
a different revolution than his father, because as hard as
it is to create a democracy, it takes the long
suffering skill of perseverance to uphold it. And now he
had passed it to the next generation.
Speaker 16 (29:52):
I am blown away by the scope of his life,
from the time that he was eight years old seen
the Battle of Bunker Hill, to when he died he
could see the coming Civil War, was trying desperately to
stop it. He really lived the first epic of American history.
(30:14):
And I think that that is a much more interesting
and powerful story than could be crafted in fiction.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
John Quincy Adams may not have been an extraordinary president
like Washington and Lincoln, but he is our most extraordinary
ex president. He is the bridge between the founding period
and the Civil War, the man standing in the breach,
a maverick, a public servant, an American hero, America's founding son.
(31:12):
Founding Son is a curiosity podcast brought to you by
iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. For help with this series,
we want to thank James Traub, author of John Quincy
adams Militant Spirit, Mary Elliott, creator of American Slavery at
the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture.
(31:33):
Shaan Willentz, author of the Rise of American Democracy, Jefferson
to Lincoln. Louisa Thomas, staff writer at The New Yorker
and author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams.
David S. Brown, author of The First Populist, The Defiant
Life of Andrew Jackson. Richard Newman, professor of history at
(31:56):
Rochester Institute of Technology, Lindsay Shravinsky, author of The Cabinet,
George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution. And
Matthew Carp Professor of History at Princeton University and author
of this Vast Southern Empire Slaveholders at the Helm of
American Farm Policy. Our lead producer, story editor, and sound
(32:19):
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
producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, el C. Crowley, and
(32:40):
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
episode provided by Scott Avid, Michael Smerconish, and James Moore.
(33:06):
Show art designed by Darren Shock. Special thanks to John Higgins,
Julia Chriscau, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the National Park Service.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a five
star rating in your podcast app. You can also check
out other Curiosity podcasts to learn about history, pop culture,
(33:28):
true crime, and more. This podcast was recorded under a
SAG after a collective bargaining agreement. I'm your host, Bob Crawford.
Thanks for listening. This was the last episode of the
series and I am composed
Speaker 5 (33:59):
School of Humans
I'm Bob Crawford. This is founding Son John Quincy's America.
(00:41):
Late winter eighteen forty one, William Henry Harrison arrives in
downtown Washington, d c aboard a piece of cutting edge
technology the train. A cold wind bears down on the
city as Harrison walks to the steps of the US
Capitol to be sworn in as the nation's ninth president.
(01:02):
Harrison wants to project a strong image to the nation.
Like Jackson, he was a war hero, having fought against
several native tribes in the country's expansion westward. That day
was cold and wet, but Harrison refused to wear an overcoat, hat,
or even gloves. He wanted to distinguish himself from his
(01:23):
aristocratic predecessor, Martin Van Buren. Harrison was a frontiersman from Ohio.
A little cold wouldn't hurt him. The Harrison administration provided
new hope for the nation and John Quincy Adams anti
Federalist Democrats had held the reins of power for over
a decade. Now the Whigs, John Quincy's party, had taken
(01:47):
over the House, Senate, and presidency in one fell swoop.
A week after the inauguration, President Harrison showed up at
Adams's door, telling the ex president he was welcome at
the White House anytime, come when you please, as often
(02:07):
as you please, or drop me a line, for I
shall at any time be happy to take your advice
and counsel as that of a brother. This came at
roughly the same time the nation was celebrating Adams for
winning the Amistadt case at the Supreme Court. He was
riding one of the highest waves of his life until
(02:30):
William Henry Harrison fell ill after his inauguration, first a cold,
then pneumonia, and on April fourth, eighteen forty one, he died,
serving just thirty one days in office. Now the man
in charge was Vice President John Tyler, who could not
have been more different than Harrison.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
John Tyler's a slaveholding Virginian.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Matthew carp is an associate professor of history at Princeton University.
He says John Tyler was a member of the same
party as William Henry Harrison and John Quincy Adams, but
he was also a stalwart supporter of slavery In States rights.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
He was one of the few Southern congressmen to sort
of support nullification outside of South Carolina. He's a strong
ally of Calhoun.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
John Quincy Adams saw President John Tyler as a gathering
storm who could ruin the smooth seas he was hoping
to sail across for the next four years.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Tyler is a political sectarian of the slave driving Virginian Jeffersonian.
Speaker 4 (03:35):
School, principled against all improvement, with all the interests and
passions and vices of slavery, rooted in his moral and
political constitution, with talents not above mediocrity, and a spirit
incapable of expansion to the dimensions of the station upon
(03:56):
which he has been cast by the hand of providence,
an unseen through the apparent agency of chance.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Can I just pause for a second to point out
that sick burn talents not above mediocrity. That's why I
love John Quincy Adams. Old man eloquent had been thrown
a vicious twist of faith. Tyler's presidency threatened all his
hopes of national progress. But John Quincy Adams had more
(04:28):
political capital than ever, and he was ready for a fight,
even if it might be his last. Chapter six The
Last of Earth. After his victory in the Amistad case,
(04:56):
John Quincy Adams had some juice. With the political winds
blowing in his favor, Adams readied his harpoon for the
biggest whale in his sight, the Gag Rule. Adams couldn't
help but taunt his Southern adversaries and flout the gag
rule every chance he got. But in February of eighteen
(05:17):
forty two, he pushed his foes a little too far.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
Adams comically, among other things, presents a petition demanding that
he John Quincy Adams, be expelled as the Chairman of
the Foreign Relations Committee.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
That's John Quincy Adams. Biographer James Traub He says there's
some debate on whether this petition, said to be from Georgia,
was authentic or not. Some think Adams might have written
it himself. In any case, the call for Adams's expulsion
gave him the House floor to defend himself, and once
(05:53):
he had the floor, he didn't shut up for days,
doing what he did best.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
He presents a petition from citizens of Massachusetts saying they
seek to dissolve the Union because they can no longer
be her to support the South.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Treason. Southerners cried out, dissolve the Union? Are you mad?
Bedlam took over the house floor. Of all the people
yelling at Adams to sit down and shut up, one
voice screamed louder than all the rest.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
From my perspective, his most formidable, or at least his
most heated opponent, was Henry Wise of Virginia.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Wise called Adams the acutest, a studist artist, enemy of
southern slavery that ever existed. Wise meant it as an insult.
Adams wore it like a badge of honor. In the chaos,
Adams shouted back, Oh, you think I'm the crazy one.
I'm paraphrasing here. Adams knew exactly what he was doing.
(06:52):
He had manufactured this whole debate. His goal shined the
national spotlight on the absurdity of the gag rule. His
southern foes had walked right into his trap.
Speaker 6 (07:04):
So the old lifted up his voice like a trumpet
till slaveholding, slave trading, and slave breeding absolutely quailed and
howled under his dissecting knife.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Theodore Weld was so mesmerized by John Quincy's verbal athleticism
that he wrote his wife to tell her about it.
Speaker 7 (07:22):
A perfect uproar like Babbel would burst forth every two
or three minutes is mister A with his bold surgery,
would smite his cleaver into the very bone.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Henry Wise and other Southern politicians called to censure Adams
for high treason and perjury. Adams replied, simply good. The
house broke for the day, Adams preparing himself for the
fight to come. That night, Theodore Weld and a few
(07:53):
members of the small Abolition Caucus visited Adams's f Street home.
Speaker 5 (07:58):
Adams is sitting there in his armchair reading. You know
when they come and they say, we're gonna defend you,
you know, we're going to fight this to the end,
and Adams says something like, you know, I've never had
any company in any of my fights before.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Adams was famously stonefaced and stoic, something he no doubt
learned from his father. But the men saw Adams's lip quiver.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
And these men went away and thought, you know, what
an astonishing old man, and what a kind of frightening solitude.
At the same time.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
The next morning, the House gallery was packed with spectators.
Government officials blew off their duties to watch history unfold
before their very eyes. Thomas Marshall, nephew of late Chief
Justice John Marshall took the unenviable task of presenting the
case against Adams. To kick things off, Marshall read a
(08:57):
resolution that rocked the House.
Speaker 8 (09:00):
The dissolution of the Union necessarily implied the destruction of
that instrument, the overthrow of the American Republic, and the
extension of our national existence.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Let me break it down for you. Marshall accused Adams of.
Speaker 8 (09:18):
The destruction of our country and the crime of high treason.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
The consequence not just censure, expulsion in the eyes of
the South. Adams, the seventy five year old former president,
was a trader. But remember, Adams had set all this
in motion. He dared his opponents to expel him.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
I have constituents to go to, and they will have
something to say. If this House expels me.
Speaker 9 (09:50):
And all, will it be long before the gentlemen see
me here again.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Southerners heeded Adams' warning and stop short of expelling him.
Everything was playing out exactly as he had hoped, and seriously,
ma versus Adams not a fair fight.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
He would relish every mistake the poor fellow made, and
he would say things like, you know, it's really surprising
to me to realize that you have been to one
of the great law schools of our nation, because I
think about this elementary error that you've just committed.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Adams is like a mean girl, saying, how embarrassing for you.
He told Thomas Marshall he should attend some.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Law school, learn a little of the rights these citizens
and of these states and the members of this house.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Adams tore the guy to shreds and said, in effect,
you should have gone to a better law school. You
don't even know the law. You don't even know what
treason is.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
The battle exhilarated Adams. Friends said they never saw him
so happy. Well found him.
Speaker 7 (11:05):
As fresh and elastic as a boy. He went on
for an hour or nearly that, in a voice loud
enough to be heard by a large audience.
Speaker 6 (11:14):
Wonderful man.
Speaker 5 (11:15):
Adams at one point said, I've only just begun.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
The house was at a standstill.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
All they were doing was this trial, and they suddenly
they finally realized if we don't surrender, this guy's going
to hold us hostage for forever. And so they insisted
on an early voting, and Adams won the vote overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
After two weeks of trial, Marshall moved to table the
censure resolution, never to be taken up again. Adams had
yet again defeated the slaveocracy. After the vote, Thomas Marshall
was overheard telling another congressman.
Speaker 8 (11:53):
I would rather die thousand discs and again encounter that
old man.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
That was Marshall's last session in Congress. John Quincy Adams
was an unpopular one term president. Now in Congress, his
popularity knew no bounds.
Speaker 5 (12:11):
Adams's nobility was almost suicidal. What's extraordinary is that at
the end of his career he finds a cause which
is perfectly suited to his solitude. And it's precisely because
he is so solitary and heroic that finally, at the
end of his life, he's hero worshiped in a way
(12:33):
that he never was before.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Adams couldn't keep up with the unending request for personal appearances.
It seemed like everybody wanted a piece of the ex president.
But then he got an offer he couldn't refuse. The
Cincinnati Astronomical Society invited Adams to lay the cornerstone for
a new observatory. Congress never funded John Quincy's dream of
(12:56):
lighthouses in the sky even after he left the White House,
but universities and astronomical societies across the country invested in
their own telescopes. The march of scientific progress vindicated him
when closed minded politicians had refused. Adams's trip to Cincinnati
(13:17):
was the first time he had ventured west. If you
were to listen to Andrew Jackson, you think the coastal
elitist John Quincy would find no love in the heartland.
But Adams's reputation preceded him. People swarmed him during public appearances.
At a barber shop in Cleveland, John Quincy spent the
afternoon shaking hands with hundreds of people who gathered to
(13:40):
get a glimpse of America's founding son. In Cincinnati, he
was greeted by a banner which read John Quincy Adams,
Defender of the Rights of Man. In Pittsburgh, the last
stop on Adams's Western tour, factories closed for the day,
newspapers announced his arrival. John Quincy Adams was an American celebrity.
(14:05):
Still ahead, Adams and his old rival Andrew Jackson go
at it again, a feud that was bitter to the
very end. Literally that's coming up after the break. John
(14:36):
Quincy Adams was riding high then the midterm elections of
eighteen forty two happened. His party took one of the
largest electoral drubbings in American history, losing their forty two
seat Whig majority. In its place, Democrats now held a
massive majority. Adams, Gettings and their abolitionist allies all but
(15:00):
lost hope of overturning the Gag rule. But a year later,
old Man eloquent made his final stand. Adams swiftly proposed
the elimination of the gag rule. This time, James Dellitt,
a congressman from Alabama, led the attack against Adams. Dell
(15:21):
It used Adams's own words as ammo. He pulled a
quote from a speech Adams gave on his Western tour
to a group of free black men and women, a
promise that their day of redemption.
Speaker 9 (15:33):
Was bound to come and make come and peace, or
it may come in blood. But whether in peace or
in blood, let it come.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
Repeating the quote for effect, dell Itt told the body
that this was the true agenda of anti gag activists,
the end of slavery through bloodshed. Adams shouted from his seat.
Speaker 9 (15:59):
I say now let it come.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Dell It repeated himself, feeling vindicated, Adams admits it. Adams
again shouted from his seat.
Speaker 9 (16:12):
No, it cost the blood of millions of white men.
Let it come. Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
John Quincy's outburst rocked the chamber and horrified the slaveholders.
Speaker 5 (16:32):
And he finally said, if we have no way of
ending this monstrous practice, save by the greatest nightmare, any
of us can imagine the dissolution of the Union, he said,
then so be it.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Adams had gone all in, basically saying, we must end
this gaggrule if we are ever to rid ourselves of slavery,
and if we don't, I'm willing to burn this whole
American experiment to the ground.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
And for a man who had grown up regardless the
Union as the most holy of holies, to say that
this moral evil is so great that we must be
prepared to destroy the Union in order to extirpay it,
that's extraordinary.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
John Quincy's game of chicken paid off. On December third,
eighteen forty four, the gag rule at long last fell. Afterwards,
he wrote in his diary.
Speaker 9 (17:34):
Blessed ever, blessed be the name of God.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
John Quincy achieved one of the greatest political accomplishments in Congress.
It had taken the entire congressional session. It was now
the general election of eighteen forty four. Henry Clay once
again tried and failed to capture the presidency, losing to
James K. Polk in the final days of eighteen forty five.
(18:02):
Against the objections of John Quincy Adams, Polk annex Texas,
essentially kicking a hornet's nest. Mexico never recognized the treaty
President Santa Anna signed after his routing by General Sam Houston,
so Mexico saw Polk's annexation of Texas as an act
(18:23):
of aggression, starting the Mexican American War. It also reignited
the old feud between Adams and Andrew Jackson. This round
of the Adams versus Jackson grudge match is a bit complicated,
so let me break it down first. You need to
understand that Andrew Jackson had lived a rough life and
(18:45):
he was getting pretty old. It reminds me of that
Indiana Jones quote, it's not the years, it's the mileage.
Speaker 10 (18:52):
His memory on Texas wasn't the best.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
David S. Brown is professor of history at Elizabethtown College
in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 10 (19:02):
As he got older, he seemed to think that that
Texas have been part of the United States in eighteen
nineteen when the United States signed a treaty with Spain
that did give us Florida but did not give us Texas.
So Jackson and a few others would refer not to
the annexation of Texas as in we want Texas annexed.
(19:25):
They would refer to it as the re annexation, kind
of selectively remembering the pasture for their benefit.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
This takes us back to the Monroe administration when John
Quincy was Secretary of State and negotiated the eighteen nineteen
treaty with Spain. Now some twenty plus years later, Jackson
said that Texas would have been a part of the
deal if it weren't for the underhanded dealings of President
Monroe and as Lackey Adams, who hates slavery. You have
(19:59):
to understand that for Jackson, he considered the annexation of
all new Southern states part of it domino effect that
he started. Texas was simply the next domino to fall.
In a speech in Boston, Adams attacked Jackson and the
annexation of Texas. He spoke of Jackson's ingratitude.
Speaker 9 (20:21):
I defended him against his enemies and Monroe's cabinet, defended
him against the remonstrances of ministers of Spain and Great Britain,
and here and in Europe, defended him against the strong disappropriation,
unanimous in both houses of Congress and throughout the nation.
And for what I could not and did not approve.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
A Jackson ally later responded by attacking Adams' entire career.
Speaker 11 (20:48):
He gave away half of the American continent. Lest Braintree
should suffer or complain. All of our present troubles in Texas,
in Oregon are bitter fruits of mister Adams's generosity, and
attribute of which he is seldom accused. The navigation of
the Mississippi would not be an American possession of mister
(21:08):
Adams could have swapped it for Coddfish. Grocers will make
packing paper of his speeches, lectures, letters, and interminable diaries.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
When Jackson read what his friend said about Adams, he
thought it was hilarious.
Speaker 12 (21:24):
It is the severest castigation and withering sarcasm I ever read.
I would not be surprised to hear that he was
stricken down by a paralytic stroke.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Damn, things were getting heated, but Jackson's wish to watch
Adams die would go unfulfilled. On a warm June evening
in eighteen forty five, Andrew Jackson lay on his deathbed,
his heart slowly failing. He fumbled for his glasses, and
when he put them on, he could see the tearful
(21:57):
faces of family, friends and the people he enslaved who'd
come to see him off to the next world. Before
he passed, he said to those gathered, do not cry.
Speaker 12 (22:12):
I hope to meet you all in heaven. Yes, all
in heaven, white and black. My conversation is for you all.
Christ has no respect for color.
Speaker 13 (22:31):
I am in God, and God is in me. He
dwelleth in me, and I dwell in him.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Old Hickory shut his eyes and never opened them again.
He was seventy eight years old, older than the country
he had led as president. America mourned the death of
Andrew Jackson. Even old enemies and Northerners set aside the
malice they once felt for him. Adams, though, was like,
(23:10):
if that guy, I don't care if he's dead.
Speaker 10 (23:12):
When Jackson dies, Quincy Adams writes in his journal, Jackson
was a.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
Hero, a murderer, an adulter, and a profoundly pious Presbyterian who,
in his last days of his life blied and slandered
me before the world.
Speaker 10 (23:30):
So this was a time when even Boston was having,
you know, condolence parades for the fallen Andrew Jackson. They
didn't love the man, but they recognized that he had
played a significant role in America's short history. But John
Quincy Adams was true to himself and would not engage
in the false hypocrisy of saying that he was sorry
(23:52):
to see Andrew Jackson leave the scene.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
He was not.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Adams had outlive Jackson, but age was catching up with him.
In late eighteen forty six, he collapsed while on a
walk with a friend in Quincy. His doctor told him
he had a stroke. By spring of next year, he
had recovered enough to return to his seat in Congress.
He was well aware of how little time he had left,
(24:16):
writing in his diary.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
I date my decease and consider myself, for every useful
purpose to myself or to my fellow creatures, dead, And
hence I call this and what I may write hereafter
a posthumous memoir.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
Adams was now eighty years old. That's a little more
common today in politics, but back then he was ancient. Still,
Adams couldn't be kept off the house floor. Just months
after his stroke, he was back in Congress railing against
the Mexican American War. It was shortly after one of
these fiery speeches that a court reporter looks.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Over and sees that Adams is trembling. His right arm
is moving on him, his desk and his lips are moving,
but he's unable to speak. And he then rises up
and topples over.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
A shock rang through the house floor. Lawmakers jumped to
their feet.
Speaker 5 (25:22):
People shouted, Adams is dying. Adams is dying, and they
laid him out on a couch in the Speaker's office.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Adams was out of it, but not yet unconscious. He
was overheard whispering, this is.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
The last of earth, but I am composed.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Friends and foes gathered to pay their respects. As he
lay unconscious.
Speaker 5 (25:55):
Everybody is able to come see him. Clay stands there,
holding his hand and weeping.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Lawmakers rushed to Adam's home to tell Louisa what happened.
She thought he had only fainted, but by the time
she arrived at the Capitol, John Quincy was barely conscious.
He did not recognize his partner of fifty years. Overcome
with grief, Louisa was allowed a few private hours with
(26:29):
her husband, but as his breathing became more shallow, doctors
and members of Congress shuffled her away.
Speaker 14 (26:36):
And she is furious.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Luisa Thomas is a writer at The New Yorker and
author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams.
Speaker 14 (26:46):
She is absolutely furious. All she wanted to be was
to be the one to pose's eyes.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Why wasn't she permitted?
Speaker 14 (26:54):
Oh she's a woman, you know, I was too tender
or something too delicate.
Speaker 9 (27:00):
I was forced to leave him without even the privilege
of indulging the fee which all holds sacred at such moments.
Speaker 14 (27:10):
And she was denied that private consolation, and that was
very painful to her.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
A knife twisted in her broken heart. Strangers stood between
her and her husband. On February twenty third, at seven
to fifteen pm, John Quincy Adams died.
Speaker 14 (27:33):
He died of public death, and in some ways that
was right, you know, that's a kind of legend.
Speaker 15 (27:40):
He literally died with his boots on. If you will,
Sean Wood Lentz, I mean he died, you know, fighting
what he thought of as an unjust war, a wicked war,
and doing his best to rail against it in public service.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
To the very end, John Quincy Adams would make the
trip from Washington, d c. To his home in Quincy, Massachusetts,
one last time. A young cong ersman from Illinois named
Abraham Lincoln had watched Adam's collapse on the House floor
and was now a member of Adams's funeral committee.
Speaker 5 (28:14):
This was the beginning of Adams's last term and the
beginning of Lincoln's one and only term in Congress. So
I don't believe they met, But in so many ways
Adams stretches his hand forward to Lincoln, and in so
many ways makes Lincoln possible.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
It's been said that John Quincy Adams embodied the national
history that Lincoln had read by candlelight as a boy.
Speaker 15 (28:38):
John Quincy Adams, with all of his actions in the
late eighteen thirties and early eighteen forties, helped bring the
slavery issue into the center of politics, from which it
could not be removed. Lincoln made sure that it would
stay there So in that sense, Lincoln is very much
Adams's successor.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
People gathered along the tracks for hundreds of miles to
see the train pass.
Speaker 15 (28:59):
He is a great hero. He has a chief popular heroism,
if you will, at the end of his life that
he can never expected to have enjoyed earlier on.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
John Quincy Adams was buried in Quincy, Massachusetts, beside his
mother Abigail and his father John. Four years later, his
wife Louisa would join him. John Quincy Adams continued the
legacy of his family name. He protected and preserved the
(29:30):
American democracy of the founding generation. Indeed, John Quincy fought
a different revolution than his father, because as hard as
it is to create a democracy, it takes the long
suffering skill of perseverance to uphold it. And now he
had passed it to the next generation.
Speaker 16 (29:52):
I am blown away by the scope of his life,
from the time that he was eight years old seen
the Battle of Bunker Hill, to when he died he
could see the coming Civil War, was trying desperately to
stop it. He really lived the first epic of American history.
(30:14):
And I think that that is a much more interesting
and powerful story than could be crafted in fiction.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
John Quincy Adams may not have been an extraordinary president
like Washington and Lincoln, but he is our most extraordinary
ex president. He is the bridge between the founding period
and the Civil War, the man standing in the breach,
a maverick, a public servant, an American hero, America's founding son.
(31:12):
Founding Son is a curiosity podcast brought to you by
iHeart Podcasts and School of Humans. For help with this series,
we want to thank James Traub, author of John Quincy
adams Militant Spirit, Mary Elliott, creator of American Slavery at
the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture.
(31:33):
Shaan Willentz, author of the Rise of American Democracy, Jefferson
to Lincoln. Louisa Thomas, staff writer at The New Yorker
and author of Louisa, The Extraordinary Life of Missus Adams.
David S. Brown, author of The First Populist, The Defiant
Life of Andrew Jackson. Richard Newman, professor of history at
(31:56):
Rochester Institute of Technology, Lindsay Shravinsky, author of The Cabinet,
George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution. And
Matthew Carp Professor of History at Princeton University and author
of this Vast Southern Empire Slaveholders at the Helm of
American Farm Policy. Our lead producer, story editor, and sound
(32:19):
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
producers are Virginia Prescott, Brandon Barr, el C. Crowley, and
(32:40):
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
episode provided by Scott Avid, Michael Smerconish, and James Moore.
(33:06):
Show art designed by Darren Shock. Special thanks to John Higgins,
Julia Chriscau, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the National Park Service.
If you enjoyed this podcast, please give it a five
star rating in your podcast app. You can also check
out other Curiosity podcasts to learn about history, pop culture,
(33:28):
true crime, and more. This podcast was recorded under a
SAG after a collective bargaining agreement. I'm your host, Bob Crawford.
Thanks for listening. This was the last episode of the
series and I am composed
Speaker 5 (33:59):
School of Humans
Host
Bob Crawford
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com