Manifest Destiny： The War That Forged the American West ｜ The American Story ｜ Ep 14
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Toxicity
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Hate speech
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Summary
Sam Houston is a man who doesn t really blend in: tall, broad-shouldered, and likes to wear Indian clothing. He s well-known thanks to the personal and political baggage attached to his name, which is Sam Houston. In D.C., he s fighting for something personal: the Cherokee and other Indian tribes getting squeezed by broken federal promises. He is lobbying hard, and calling in all the favors he can. On the House floor, Representative William Stanbury of Ohio drops a reckless bombshell: he accuses Houston of fraud.
Transcript
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It's April, 1832, springtime in Washington, D.C.
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Striding into the Capitol is a man who doesn't really blend in.
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He's tall, broad-shouldered, and he likes to wear Indian clothing.
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He's well-known thanks to the personal and political baggage attached to his name,
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The Cherokee and other Indian tribes getting squeezed by broken federal promises.
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He is lobbying hard and calling in all the favors he can.
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On the House floor, Representative William Stanbury of Ohio,
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a large, grudge-holding politician, drops a reckless bombshell.
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He accuses Houston of fraud, claiming the ex-governor conspired to pocket cash
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on a government contract meant to help feed Indian tribes.
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He didn't produce any evidence, just a pure political attack.
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Houston reads about it in the newspaper, and he sees red.
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Temper and self-control, not exactly Houston's strong suit.
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He rushes to the Capitol, he finds Stanbury, but Congressman James Polk, an acquaintance and future president, holds Houston back.
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Houston fires off a note to Stanbury, demanding he either apologize for the slander or have a duel.
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Stanbury ignores the note, but starts carrying two pistols and a dagger to work, just in case.
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A few nights later, Pennsylvania Avenue is glowing under the flickering gas lamps.
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Houston is walking back to his hotel with a couple of senator buddies,
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when he spots a large figure crossing the street just ahead.
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Houston rushes toward the man, calling out in a booming voice,
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Well, out comes the hickory cane that Houston whittled himself from a tree
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Houston unloads on Stanbury, cracking him across the head, shoulders, and the back.
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Well, Stanbury staggers and tries to run, but Houston leaps on him like a wild duck,
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They wrestle in the dirt, but horrified witnesses freeze.
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He jams the barrel against Houston's chest and pulls the trigger.
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Houston, shocked that he's still alive, rips away the pistol.
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He jumps to his feet and aims more cane blows between Stansbury's legs.
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The next morning, a bruised and bedridden Stansbury
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sends a formal complaint to Speaker of the House Andrew Stevenson.
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A few days later, over Congressman James Polk's objection,
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the House votes 145 to 25 to order Houston's arrest by the Sergeant of Arms
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He bows to Speaker Stevenson, who's a personal friend,
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Sam Houston is about to be tried in the House of Representatives for assaulting a U.S. congressman.
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One impulsive swing of a cane, one misfired pistol, and history ripples outward from a
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Washington street at night to Texas to war and to a continent transformed.
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This is The American Story, The Beginnings, adapted from the book of the same title by David Barton and Tim Barton.
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Episode 14, Manifest Destiny, The War That Forged the American West.
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when sam houston was 13 his father died the family scraped by on a tennessee farm and ran
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a general store but at 16 houston decided he didn't want any part of the family business
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so he bolted across the tennessee river and vanished into cherokee territory for three years
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Chief Uluteca, adopted Houston, gave him a Cherokee name which meant the Raven.
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Houston learned the language, the customs, and proud independence of his new family.
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He dressed in Cherokee clothes, hunted like them, forged a bond so deep it would define his life.
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At one point when his brothers came to see him, Houston told them that he preferred to live with a Cherokee.
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His towering frame and magnetic personality drew attention wherever he went.
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And soon he found himself under the wing of a man who recognized destiny when he saw it.
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Jackson saw in Houston a reflection of his own fiery will.
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During the War of 1812, Houston fought under Jackson at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend
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and was almost killed, two musket balls to the arm and the shoulder, and an arrow in his upper
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thigh. Jackson never forgot his courage. He mentored him, promoted him, cleared a path for
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him into politics. Houston became a lawyer, then a U.S. congressman, and by 1827, Houston stood at
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the top of Tennessee's political world, elected governor at just 34 years old. Then came a fairy
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tale twist that turned nightmare. In January 1829, the 35-year-old governor married 19-year-old
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Eliza Allen. She was the daughter of a prominent Tennessee family, and the wedding was lavish. The
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expectations were enormous. Houston was very much in love. Eliza, not so much. Just 11 weeks after
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their marriage. It was over. Eliza left Houston and Houston spiraled. The exact cause of their
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split has remained a mystery, though hints appeared in the letters of family and friends
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over the years. Eliza may have loved another man closer to her age. There was even a suggestion
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that she was repulsed by Houston's war wounds. But for the rest of his life, Houston refused
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to discuss the details and determined not to impugn Eliza's virtue.
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In April 1829, Houston poured his heart out in a letter to her father, John Allen.
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She owns that such was one cause of my unhappiness.
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You can judge how unhappy I was to think I was united to a woman that did not love me.
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Exactly one week after he wrote that letter, Houston resigned as governor of Tennessee.
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Well, his opponents gloated, including his successor as governor, William Carroll,
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His conduct, to say the least, was very strange,
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and charity requires us to place it to the account of insanity.
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I have always looked upon him as a man of weak and unsettled mind.
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He tried to disguise himself and boarded a steamboat
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headed west towards his Cherokee family in the Arkansas Territory.
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and strongly tempted to leap overboard and end my worthless life.
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At that moment, however, an eagle swooped down near my head, and then, soaring aloft with wildest screams, was lost in the setting sun.
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I knew then that a great destiny waited for me in the West.
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In self-imposed exile, Houston lived among the Cherokees again.
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He lived with a Cherokee woman named Tiana, a strong, respected widow, and together they ran a trading post near Fort Gibson.
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The Raven earned a new Cherokee nickname that meant Big Drunk.
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He wrestled alcoholism amid the pain of lost love and reputation.
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But in his better sober moments, he channeled the fire outward,
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And that's why, when he was in Washington, D.C. in 1832,
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when he attacked Congressman Stanbury for slandering him on the House floor,
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His lawyer was none other than Francis Scott Key,
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you know, the guy who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner.
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President Jackson was worried about his protege.
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For one thing, Jackson was not a fan of Houston's Indian garb.
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tossed him some money, crossed the desk, and told Houston,
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The night before he was set to deliver his own closing argument,
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Houston hosted a booze-soaked party at his hotel.
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who was presiding over the trial, passed out drunk on the couch.
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The next morning, a hungover, Houston, stood on the House floor.
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Mr. Speaker, arraignment for the first time of my life
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on a charge of violating the laws of my country,
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I feel embarrassment, which my peculiar situation
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the House voted 106 to 89 to convict Houston of contempt.
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from Speaker Stevenson, same guy who passed out drunk
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Congressman Stanberry then pressed charges in DC court
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but President Jackson commuted the fine to zero.
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Later, Houston reflected with a grin on the whole circus.
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before a justice of the peace and fined me $10,
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But they gave me a national tribunal for a theater,
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He would go and start all over in a place called Texas.
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In March that year, American settlers declared independence from Mexico, founding the Republic of Texas.
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Sam Houston, with his military chops and Jackson connection, became the commander of their ragtag little army,
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barely 375 men at first, mostly volunteers itching for a fight.
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But then came the horror shows that lit the fuse.
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Mexican General Santa Ana's 4,000-man army stormed the Alamo in San Antonio.
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Defending the small fort were only 187 men, including former Tennessee Congressman Davy Crocker.
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Santa Ana ordered any remaining survivors slashed to death.
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Two weeks later, at Goliad, 420 more Texans surrendered, only to be marched out on Palm
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Any survivors of that massacre were clubbed or stabbed to death.
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He led his growing force east, buying time, drilling, waiting for the perfect moment.
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It came sooner than he expected, at San Jacinto on April 21st.
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He split his forces, he camped carelessly near the San Jacinto River with 1,300 troops.
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Houston's roughly 900 Texans launched a late afternoon surprise attack.
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They screamed, remember the Alamo and remember Goliad, as they charged.
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The Mexicans had 630 killed and hundreds more captured.
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Houston took a bullet that shattered his ankle.
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Santa Ana fled in a private's uniform, but was caught the next day hiding in tall grass.
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As he was hauled into the Texans' camp, his own soldiers revealed his identity, calling out El Presidente when they spotted him.
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Brought before the wounded Houston, Santa Ana signed agreements recognizing Texas independence and pulling Mexican troops south of the Rio Grande.
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Houston became an instant hero. Just five months later, he was elected president of the Republic of Texas.
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Texas wasted no time in asking to join the United States.
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But it caused instant fireworks in Congress and all across the nation
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because Texas was already a slave-owning nation.
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Adding it to the U.S. would tilt the balance toward the slave-owning South.
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After the Mexican defeat at San Jacinto, Santa Ana remained in custody for six months.
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But once he was released and back in Mexico City, he repudiated everything he signed.
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experience today in the decade after texas broke free from mexico in 1836 the young republic's
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population ballooned from about 50,000 to 125,000, including 25,000 slaves. American settlers and
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immigrants poured in. They were lured by the cheap land and the big dreams, turning the wild
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territory into a combustible mix of ambition and conflict. Texas, it had much to promise,
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but it was also a big problem. It quickly became the major factor in America's politics and future.
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who was tacked on to the 1840 Whig ticket as the vice president
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to help win Southern voters for William Henry Harrison.
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Harrison won the election, but caught pneumonia
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shortly after his inauguration speech and died just 31 days later.
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But his party hated it. Opponents mocked him with the nickname his accidency for the way he became president.
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Politically homeless, too Democratic for the Whigs, too Whiggish for Democrats, Tyler needed a legacy.
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And he found one in expanding slavery's reach through Texas.
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In 1844, Tyler appointed as Secretary of State John C. Calhoun.
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He was a fierce defender of slavery and states' rights from South Carolina.
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He quickly signed an annexation treaty with Texas diplomats.
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You see, treaties need two-thirds majority to pass.
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And to Northern senators, this one reeked of slavery expansion.
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Details of the treaty leaked to the press, stoking outrage.
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Whig leader Henry Clay and Democrat leader Martin Van Buren both slammed it.
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So the Senate crushed it, with only diehard pro-slavery Democrats backing the treaty.
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Yet, one consistent feature throughout the nation's history is that politics is a long game.
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Enter James K. Polk, the ultimate dark horse candidate.
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he was born in north carolina in 1795 he was raised in tennessee frail as a child brilliant
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as a student and he graduated from the university of north carolina and entered politics early
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he earned the nickname young hickory because he followed andrew jackson with almost religious
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devotion, backing his mentor through thick and thin. By 1825, Polk was in the U.S. House,
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rising to speaker 10 years later. There, he strictly enforced the gag rule, the one aimed
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at John Quincy Adams, to shut down any talk about abolishing slavery. No petitions, no debates,
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as much silence as possible on the hot-button issue. Polk was a slave owner. He also benefited
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from President Jackson's Indian removal policies.
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When the Choctaw were forced off their lands in northern Mississippi,
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Polk was among the speculators who rushed in to buy up suddenly available property.
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He sold his plantation in Tennessee and upgraded for one in Mississippi
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In 1844, it was clear neither major party was interested
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He threw his hat in the ring, running on a single idea that was the pulse of the nation,
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expansion. The presidential race became a referendum on the Texas annexation and this
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idea of manifest destiny. This is a phrase that was coined by journalist John L. O'Sullivan in
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an editorial. It preached that America was divinely ordained to stretch from sea to shining sea,
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civilizing the continent for its multiplying millions.
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He still had a role to play in the drama surrounding Texas.
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Since the Senate had killed Texas annexation in treaty form,
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He pushed it through Congress as a joint resolution, which only needed a simple majority.
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The resolution sailed through the House and squeaked by in the Senate with Democrats and a few Southern Whigs.
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March 1st, 1845, in his very last act as president, Tyler signed it, inviting Texas to join the Union.
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Later that year, Texas officially became part of the U.S. as a slave state.
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former president john quincy adams the old anti-slavery warrior called it the heaviest
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calamity that ever befell myself and my country well mexico was furious they severed all diplomatic
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ties immediately signaling war as soon as texas was part of the u.s president polk sent an american
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diplomat john slidell to mexico city his instructions were pretty straightforward
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would negotiate the disputed Texas border and offer up to $30 million for California and New
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Mexico. At the same time, Polk quietly moved troops into Louisiana and dispatched naval ships
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into California just in case hostilities broke out. The Mexicans snubbed Slidell completely.
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No meetings, no deals. Polk now had done what he could, on paper at least. If Mexico refused to
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play ball, he would try to make them. Polt ordered General Zachary Taylor to march troops south
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into the disputed zone between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers. The U.S. claimed the Rio Grande as
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the Texas boundary. Mexico insisted the border lay 100 miles north at the Nueces. Mexico viewed
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General Taylor's troops with cannons aimed across the Rio Grande as an invasion. President Polt
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Craved war, but he really needed Mexico to fire first.
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On April 25, 1846, Mexican cavalry crossed the Rio Grande
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and ambushed a small U.S. patrol, killing 16 Americans.
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Mexico had taken Polk's bait, but Mexico wanted war too.
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Their military brass were confident Mexican troops would march into Washington
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In his May 11th war message to Congress, he said...
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even before the recent information from the frontier.
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Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States,
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She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced
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buying it. They griped that Mexico was just defending its turf from the U.S. invaders.
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They called it Mr. Polk's War, a shameless grab for land to spread slavery.
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One young Whig congressman from Illinois stood up and demanded to know the details about this spot
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where American blood had been shed. His name? Abraham Lincoln. And he did not mince words
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about president polt i more than suspect already that he is deeply conscious of being in the wrong
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that he feels the blood of this war like the blood of abel is crying to heaven against him
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that he ordered general taylor into the midst of a peaceful mexican settlement purposely to bring
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on a war 67 whigs voted against the funding of the war but it didn't matter too many congressmen
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were enamored with westward expansion, whether for slavery or other gains. On May 13, 1846,
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Congress declared war on Mexico. Ten days later, Mexico declared war on the United States.
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The map of North America was about to be redrawn once again.
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In June 1846, President James Polk decided the time for half-measures was over.
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He ordered American forces farther into Mexican territory.
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General Zachary Taylor and his men were told to push southward from the Rio Grande,
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At the exact same moment, Brigadier General Stephen Kearney led a small force overland from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
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Their target? Seize Santa Fe and the entire New Mexico Territory.
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At the same time, only about 75,000 Mexican citizens lived north of the Rio Grande,
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and as a result, U.S. forces conquered these territories with almost no resistance.
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Kearney's men marched into Santa Fe on August 18th without firing a shot.
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The locals, weary of distant Mexican rule, mostly just shrugged and carried on.
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Finding so little opposition, Kearney didn't stop.
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There, American naval forces were already operating along the coast,
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and settlers had staged what had become known as the Bear Flag Revolt.
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It was a wild, short-lived uprising where a small band of Americans stormed the sleepy outpost of Sonoma,
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raising a homemade flag featuring a grizzly bear and a single red star.
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It lasted barely a month before the Stars and Stripes replaced the bear,
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but the message was clear. This land is changing hands.
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Polk had bet everything on quick, clean victories.
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A few sharp strikes, he figured, and Mexico would bargain away its northern territories and call it a day.
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But the Mexicans showed zero interest in folding.
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As Mexican resistance hardened, President Polk made a very strange gamble.
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In August 1846, Polk negotiated a secret arrangement to bring exiled strongman, Santa Ana, back from Cuba.
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Now, Santa Ana had convinced Polk that if he was restored to power,
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terms that would include a multi-million dollar payment for Santa Ana.
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Santa Ana, the same man responsible for the ruthless slaughter of Texans at the Alamo and the Goliad,
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was helped back into his own country by the U.S. government.
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In September, he captured the fortified city of Monterey.
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Taylor's 6,500 troops faced 10,000 Mexicans over four days.
00:30:57.000
By day three, the fighting turned into a brutal house-to-house urban struggle,
00:31:02.380
with U.S. troops using cannons to blast through the adobe walls.
00:31:06.660
A young lieutenant, Ulysses S. Grant, commanded troops during the heaviest street fighting
00:31:14.180
Overnight, General Taylor became a national hero.
00:31:18.340
But to President Polk, that was a huge problem.
00:31:21.900
He suddenly realized he might have created a viable presidential rival for 1848.
00:31:26.920
So he ordered Taylor to halt his advance and sent half of Taylor's troops to join General Winfield Scott's force.
00:31:35.860
With losses piling up and morale sinking, Mexico turned once again to its old standby.
00:31:46.280
The moment Santa Ana stepped on shore in Mexico with U.S. assistance, he double-crossed President
00:31:53.420
He seized command of the army and marched north to crush the invaders.
00:31:58.100
The collision came at the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847.
00:32:05.840
Roughly 5,000 U.S. troops faced a Mexican force of 15,000 under Santa Ana.
00:32:11.700
The night before the battle began, Santa Ana sent a message to General Taylor
00:32:15.420
offering to accept an American surrender and save them all the trouble.
00:32:23.520
The next day, wave after wave of Mexican infantry slammed into the U.S. lines.
00:32:32.720
And a counterattack by the Mississippi Regiment helped turn the tide.
00:32:37.940
The commander of that regiment, a young Jefferson Davis, who would go on to become president
00:32:46.640
But by nightfall, the battle's second day, there were 1,500 Mexican casualties versus
00:32:54.760
Overnight, Santa Ana left his army's campfires burning as a ruse to help cover their retreat.
00:33:02.520
Further south, General Winfield Scott led America's first-ever amphibious landing at the port
00:33:08.080
city of Veracruz, shuttling 10,000 troops from the ships to the beach in just five hours.
00:33:14.940
After heavy U.S. bombardment and a 20-day siege, Veracruz surrendered.
00:33:21.080
General Scott then embarked on a six-month, 265-mile march toward Mexico City, but the
00:33:26.840
tropical diseases rapidly chewed through the American ranks.
00:33:32.380
He had to finish the war before his army just melted away.
00:33:38.000
Between Mexico City and Scott's force, the Mexican army had set up a fortified position
00:33:43.040
with 12,000 troops at the mountain pass of Cerro Gordo.
00:33:47.900
Santa Ana believed the territory was impregnable.
00:33:51.120
But one of Scott's aides, a young Virginian named Robert E. Lee, scouted a hidden route
00:33:58.660
Lee then guided a flanking column that appeared in the Mexican rear like a ghost.
00:34:08.260
Mexico's army retreated, leaving behind more than 1,100 dead and wounded and another 3,000
00:34:20.680
Santa Ana was fleeing yet again, and in the rush he left behind his prosthetic leg.
00:34:27.320
His left leg had been amputated thanks to a grapeshot wound he had received while fighting
00:34:33.840
The prosthetic leg was found by U.S. troops from Illinois, who took it home as a trophy.
00:34:40.300
After making the rounds at country fairs, the leg ended up at the Illinois State Military
00:34:48.120
The Mexican government has made repeated requests over the years to have the leg returned, but
00:34:58.080
After the win at Cerro Gordo, the road to Mexico City was wide open.
00:35:03.620
By September 1847, General Scott stood before the gates of the capital of Mexico City,
00:35:08.700
and he laid siege to the castle fortress that was perched on a rocky hill guarding Mexico City.
00:35:15.880
After a day-long artillery bombardment, the U.S. troops stormed the castle,
00:35:20.780
using ladders to scale its stone walls. American troops soon poured through the gates of Mexico
00:35:27.040
City. It was the first time in history that the U.S. had occupied an enemy capital. Santa Ana
00:35:33.780
was deposed and fled the country yet again. The war was a brutal classroom for an entire
00:35:42.840
generation of young officers who would go on to become household names. Ulysses S. Grant,
00:35:48.680
George McClellan, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson,
00:35:52.200
George Pickett, James Longstreet, and William T. Sherman.
00:35:56.860
Within 14 years, the lessons they learned on the battlefields in Mexico
00:36:00.620
would be tragically used against each other in the Civil War.
00:36:05.340
The U.S. never lost a major battle during the Mexican-American War,
00:36:12.480
over 13,000 died, with just over 2,000 of those killed in battle.
00:36:20.920
Years later, Ulysses Grant described the war like this.
00:36:24.380
For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure,
00:36:28.960
and to this day regard the war which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.
00:36:37.540
It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies,
00:36:42.580
in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory.
00:36:48.320
The war between the U.S. and Mexico was now over,
00:36:51.780
but there were still major bumps in the road to official peace.
00:37:00.720
Before you knew what a stock was, you traded snacks, cards, turns.
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With no minimums, no monthly fees, and 100 free trades,
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I want to talk to you about Mercury One and the American Journey experience.
00:37:23.860
What they're doing to try to carry the story of America into the future.
00:37:27.660
You know, during the World Cup, it was inspiring to see people coming here from all over Europe
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and having their eyes open to the truth about this country.
00:37:34.420
You rarely see that kind of enthusiasm about America.
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Maybe knowledge and understanding about America
00:37:42.780
has been selectively edited out of our education and our lives.
00:37:50.240
Like the ancient scriptures preserved for centuries in clay pots,
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the American Journey Experience is seeking to preserve American history for the future.
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And we're building a museum of over 100,000 artifacts right now.
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Please join us at AmericanJourneyExperience.com.
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Become a founding member of our Sacred Honor Society for $17.76 a month.
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Join us to become an underwriter at AmericanJourneyExperience.com.
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For more of the history that inspired this podcast series,
00:38:25.160
be sure to read The American Story, The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim Barton.
00:38:35.000
In the fall of 1847, as American troops occupied Mexico City, the fate of half a continent rested
00:38:45.080
in the hands of a man who technically no longer had a job. His name was Nicholas Trist. He was
00:38:53.200
about to gamble his entire career on peace. When Nicholas Trist was a child, Thomas Jefferson
00:38:59.600
appointed Trist's father as customs collector in what was then the Louisiana Frontier.
00:39:05.720
After graduating from the College of Orleans in 1817, Trist was invited by Jefferson to visit
00:39:11.040
Monticello. While there, Trist fell in love with Jefferson's granddaughter, Virginia Randolph.
00:39:18.340
Perhaps in an attempt to impress his potential grandfather-in-law, Trist attended West Point
00:39:24.100
for a while, but he left before graduating. Military life didn't stick. Trist was more
00:39:29.220
interested in law and diplomacy. In 1824, he married Virginia, and they lived in Monticello.
00:39:35.360
Tris served as Jefferson's private secretary, and then, after Jefferson died in 1826,
00:39:40.520
as executor of his estate. He was, in many ways, a disciple of the author of the Declaration of
00:39:47.440
Independence. And from there, Tris' path veered into D.C. politics. Henry Clay gave him a clerkship
00:39:53.800
the State Department. Then he served as President Jackson's personal secretary for a time.
00:39:59.520
Next, he served as U.S. consul in Havana for eight years. He became fluent in Spanish,
00:40:05.340
and that was an ability that would later prove vital. By 1845, President James Polk made Trist
00:40:12.380
chief clerk of the State Department. It was a quiet administrative position. Trist was good
00:40:25.620
As General Winfield Scott racked up victories on Mexican soil,
00:40:29.960
Veracruz, Cerro Gordo, the march towards Mexico City,
00:40:37.840
Victorious generals had a way of becoming presidential candidates.
00:40:41.580
Polk had already been through this phobia with Zachary Taylor.
00:40:44.940
now general scott's success was making the president sweat even more about the next election
00:40:51.300
polk wanted a democrat to get the credit for any peace treaty with mexico that's when polk's
00:40:57.440
secretary of state james buchanan offered the perfect solution his friend nicholas trist he
00:41:04.820
was the chief clerk in the state department who also happened to speak fluent spanish
00:41:16.420
So Trist was quietly sent to Mexico with the assignment of negotiating a treaty.
00:41:24.720
When Trist arrived in Mexico, he and General Winfield Scott immediately clashed.
00:41:30.380
Scott, a career soldier of towering pride and ego,
00:41:33.640
didn't really appreciate having a D.C. diplomat show up to mess with his command of the situation.
00:41:39.520
Upon Trist's arrival, Scott fired off a note to him, dripping with indignation.
00:41:45.640
I see that the Secretary of War proposes to degrade me by requiring that I,
00:41:51.620
as Commander-in-Chief of this Army, shall defer to you, the Chief Clerk in the Department of State,
00:41:58.480
the question of continuing or discontinuing hostilities.
00:42:04.480
Trist, for his part, vented privately in a letter to his wife, calling Scott,
1.00
00:42:09.620
Decidedly the greatest imbecile I have ever met.
0.99
00:42:16.120
But the war had a strange way of forging unlikely alliances.
00:42:21.260
Over the next several weeks, as they navigated Mexico's climate,
00:42:24.780
its politics, and the harsh reality of occupation,
00:42:32.400
The two men, who began by insulting one another, would soon conspire together.
00:42:38.500
In August 1847, during a brief pause in the fighting near Mexico City,
00:42:43.000
Trist attempted to negotiate with Santa Ana's government.
00:42:48.140
It wasn't until mid-September, after the American forces captured Mexico City
00:42:52.280
and Santa Ana fled the capital, that real negotiations began.
00:42:56.060
A provisional Mexican government formed, and Trist finally sat down with three Mexican
00:43:05.580
negotiators. Peace actually seemed possible. But then came the letter. In October, Trist received
00:43:14.840
a dispatch from Secretary of State Buchanan. President Polk had lost patience with the lack
00:43:20.320
progress in the peace talks, so he recalled Trist. The message was clear. Trist was to
00:43:27.160
return to D.C. immediately. If Mexico wanted peace, they would have to send a representative
00:43:32.740
to Washington. Trist was distraught. To leave now would shatter the negotiations, but to stay
00:43:38.580
would mean defying the President of the United States. General Scott urged Trist to ignore the
00:43:44.780
recall. The Mexican negotiators also begged him to stay. They liked Trist's fluent Spanish and
00:43:51.600
good manners, and they trusted him. Communication between Washington and Mexico City took at least
00:43:57.460
a month, and that delay gave Trist a window. So he made a decision that would define his life.
00:44:04.900
He stayed. In a letter to Polk received six weeks after he wrote it, Trist explained,
00:44:10.360
I place my determination on the ground of my conviction, first, that peace is still the desire of my government.
00:44:17.860
Secondly, that if the present opportunity not be seized at once, all chance for making a treaty at all will be lost probably forever.
00:44:32.240
His dispatch is arrogant, impudent, and very insulting to his government, and even personally insulting to the president.
0.99
00:44:42.040
If there was any legal provision for his punishment, he ought to be severely handled.
00:44:46.880
He has acted worse than any man in the public employ whom I have ever known.
00:44:51.400
His dispatch proves that he is destitute of honor or principle,
00:44:55.320
and that he has proved himself to be a very base man.
00:45:00.200
Polk sent a new general to replace Winfield Scott and to arrest Trist.
00:45:04.540
But the gears of bureaucracy in 1847 cranked a little slowly.
00:45:10.560
Before the replacement arrived, Trist finished the peace deal.
00:45:14.360
On February 2, 1848, in the village of Guadalupe Hidalgo,
00:45:19.100
Nicholas Trist signed the treaty, ending the war.
00:45:23.520
He didn't have any official authority to do so, but he signed it anyway.
00:45:31.280
with full knowledge that Trist no longer had permission from the U.S. government.
00:45:40.460
Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as the boundary of Texas.
00:45:44.980
The U.S. assumed $3 million in Mexican debts owed to American citizens,
00:45:50.000
and Mexico agreed to sell Upper California and New Mexico for $15 million,
00:45:54.980
lands that would eventually become the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico,
00:46:03.800
The territory was roughly two-thirds the size of the Louisiana Purchase.
00:46:09.220
Later, in a remarkable confession for a man of his era, Trist wrote,
00:46:13.720
Could those Mexicans have seen into my heart at that moment,
00:46:16.580
they would have known that my feeling of shame as an American
0.98
00:46:22.540
My object throughout was not to obtain all I could,
00:46:26.280
but on the contrary, to make the treaty as little exacting as possible
00:46:30.160
from Mexico as was compatible with its being accepted at home.
00:46:38.980
One was the iniquity of the war as an abuse of power on our part.
00:46:43.680
The other was that the more disadvantageous the treaty was made to Mexico, the stronger
00:46:48.120
would be the ground of opposition to it in the Mexican Congress by the party who had
00:46:52.400
boasted of its power to frustrate any peace moves.
00:46:57.200
Predictably, when the treaty reached Washington, D.C., Polk was furious.
00:47:05.380
Technically, the agreement had been signed by a man with zero authority,
00:47:09.880
so Polk considered discarding it until he read the whole thing,
00:47:14.740
and he realized it achieved most of his objectives.
00:47:22.400
In March 1848, the Senate approved the treaty, barely.
00:47:40.060
the war with Mexico and a massive amount of new land,
00:47:43.260
he never forgave Nicholas Trist for defying him.
00:47:47.140
He revoked Trist's salary for all the months he worked in Mexico.
00:47:51.320
For decades after, Trist lived modestly, at times even in poverty.
00:47:56.320
The man who secured nearly half of the American West spent years nearly broke.
00:48:03.240
Over 20 years after the treaty, Trist petitioned Congress for his back pay,
00:48:08.020
and in 1871, Congress finally approved a bill granting him over $14,000,
00:48:13.700
and it was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant.
00:48:18.400
During the same week, possibly even the same day, that Nicholas Trist had signed the treaty with Mexico,
00:48:23.680
a carpenter named James Marshall was building a sawmill outside of Sacramento, California
00:48:33.740
In a drainage ditch at the mill, Marshall spotted something small, like shiny rocks.
00:48:43.280
He reached down and plucked them from the water.
00:48:50.840
In 1848, about 7,500 people of European ancestry lived in California.
00:49:04.700
Had that discovery been known before Trist negotiated,
00:49:08.120
Mexico would have never signed away California.
00:49:13.860
Instead, America gained an empire of land and resources.
00:49:17.660
But those riches also accelerated an already ticking time bomb.
00:49:23.720
The vast new territory made urgent the question America could no longer dodge.
00:49:32.180
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended one war, but it helped start another one.
00:49:41.980
Coming up on The American Story, The Beginnings.
00:49:45.580
November 7, 1837, around 3 o'clock in the morning, a steamboat delivers yet another
00:49:54.980
Lovejoy is at the warehouse to receive it, but like clockwork, a pro-slavery mob quickly
00:50:04.200
One man climbs a ladder and tries to set the roof on fire.
00:50:07.980
Lovejoy rushes out of the warehouse with a gun and fires up at the man.
00:50:13.540
As soon as he does, multiple gunshots crack through the cold night air.
00:50:18.300
When the smoke clears, 34-year-old Elijah Lovejoy lies dead on the ground,
00:50:33.200
Just a reminder, I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast
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