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A deep dive into the political history of the United States, hosted by President Shrimpo. In the West Wing with President Shrimpo is a deep dive into the political history of the United States. Each episode looks at the people and driving factors that created the country we live in today with special focus on the stories and voices least heard.
President Shrimpo 0:01
Hello, my name is President Shrimpo, and you are listening to in the West Wing, a political history podcast brought to you by WKNC 88.1. And in this week's episode, we'll be taking a look at the rise of legitimate opposition to the Democratic agenda. Andrew Jackson and old Kinderhook Martin Van Buren in the form of the new, improved Whig Party.
In order to understand the the sort of early politics of this new second party system, with Democratic Party and the Whig Party, it is important to understand the history of Andrew Jackson, but somebody who I think is equally important in his own right, that is often overlooked, is a certain Martin Van Buren of New York. So who was Martin Van Buren, he was somebody very, very different from Andrew Jackson. But I would argue in much the same way, he is one of the cofounders of the eventual Democratic Party. So while while Andrew Jackson you could kind of describe as as the forceful, masculine, founding father of the party, I think I think you could describe Martin Van Buren as a man in the background, sort of the architect of a larger political agenda that goes beyond the sort of charisma of any one man. So, Martin Van Buren is born in 1782. In a small upstate New York Town, called the Kinderhook, a town primarily settled by Dutch immigrants, Van Buren spoke Dutch as his first language. In fact, Martin Van Buren is the only president who did not speak English as a first language. And I think more importantly, he's the first president to have been born a citizen of the United States. He was born after the revolution, unlike, literally every president before him. Martin Van Buren is born in a politically active family. His father was a Democratic Republican. So of course, he was as well. However, Kinderhook, in upstate New York was a Federalist stronghold. So essentially, the young Martin Van Buren was sort of locked out of the the levers of power in his in his local community at a young age. But what he figured out was, was that in order to sort of break through the sort of the stranglehold of a Federalist politics in the local area, he needed to sort of create his own political machine, essentially, and sort of find like minded members of the Democratic Republican Party. And it was through this experience as a young man in upstate New York, where he figured out how to sort of leverage ideology and political connections to create sort of these these very sophisticated political machines. And he was able to create ties with with other political machines in the state, specifically in New York City, which was much more a Democratic Republican stronghold than, than, say, upstate New York. And so it was this experience as as a as a political operator for the Democratic Republican Party, that Martin Van Buren got his sort of first taste of, of political organization. And it was through this process that he was able to quickly rise from from a local political operator, small time lawyer to being elected the Democratic Republican senator from New York, in the election of 1820. And it was through this this political cutting of the young Van Buren, that he garnered a reputation as being sort of this, this sort of wily figure in politics, and he garnered the nickname the sly fox, as well as the little magician for his ability to sort of get people to do what he wanted to get on the good side of the right people to sort of take down his opponents and to sort of create these very sophisticated political machines of partisanship and ideology, in a way that that was very modern in its sensibilities, instead of being sort of this this intellectual sort of political exercise. This was this was about controlling the the levers of power themselves. And so it was through this experience, I think that Van Buren gained a lot of valuable insight It's so that when the time came, he was the right man for the right job to properly bring together the disparate forces of anti Adams sort of actors within the Democratic Republican Party and forge a new political party in the Democratic Party. And so it was through this, this, this ability to sort of Forge complicated alliances, that Van Buren was sort of front and center, in sort of the Democratic Party, when Andrew Jackson took power, in 1828. And so, of course, Van Buren was was on the top of the list of people to be in government. And and he was elected, of course, then Jackson's Secretary of State, which was a highly prestigious job to get. And it was during this time and during his brief service as Secretary of State, where he was able to sort of Forge necessary political alliances to propel himself even further in this party that that he helped to create. And if if you recall from the previous episode talking about the, the petticoat affair as it was described, Van Buren was essentially able to get on the good side of Andrew Jackson, when the rest of his cabinet was seriously opposed to what he was doing. And it was through this process, then, that when the the position of the vice presidency was made vacant, by by John C. Calhoun's resignation, Andrew Jackson personally wanted Martin Van Buren to be his new vice president, and he pressured the man to serve. And I think I think I think that's because Jackson recognized that while you know, in terms of personality, and temperament, he and Van Buren were very different. Jackson was sort of this rough and tumble, rugged frontiersman, whereas Martin Van Buren was sort of a lived a very comfortable life. You know, he was from upstate New York, he liked to wear fancy clothing he'd like to go to, to social engagements he was he was sort of he he'd liked the finer things in life in a way that that Jackson didn't. But but they, they sort of completed one another. Jackson was the force of will, that was able to propel incredibly powerful things through government was able to destroy a bank, essentially by himself. But it was Van Buren who, who understood how to just get things done. And I think they sort of formed a really interesting partnership, which explains how the Democratic Party was able to get what it got done in that early period. And so then this is also just to set up the groundwork for then, when, of course, Andrew Jackson did not seek a third term. In the election of 1836, Martin Van Buren was the top choice for the new Democratic president. And while the Whig Party was still in its infancy, unable to really seriously form a National Front of opposition to the Democratic Party. The Democrats were as united as ever in nominating Van Buren. So So while the Whigs fielded for sort of smaller regional candidates, they feel that William Henry white to from from Tennessee to sort of represent the southern wing of the party, William Henry Harrison, who we talked about in our episode about the War of 1812. He was sort of a northern candidate, that that mostly appealed to states in in what is now sort of the Great Lakes region, as well as the Mid Atlantic, getting a number of electors from that region. And then, finally, Daniel Webster, sort of representing sort of the New England faction being from the state of Massachusetts. And of course, I think it's no surprise to say, What will will Jackson's popularity may have been waning slightly, the Democratic Party was still a force to be reckoned with. And so Van Buren easily swept the election, winning by a comfortable margin, but not quite as comfortable as Jackson. And so all of this is to say that through sort of sharp wit, political cunning, and sort of a deep understanding of how to weaponize ideology in politics, the sly fox of Kinderhook Martin Van Buren was able to rise to the highest office in the land, from being a small town lawyer, all the way up to the presidency. And it was all through this then, through this, this this Democratic agenda that he helped build. That was a To elevate him, but that that very agenda would be his downfall would bring him down. And this would come then, in the form of the banking crash of 1837.
Now, now, the causes of America's first major banking crash is very multifaceted, very complicated. And it really has less to do with United States and more to do with global economic conditions, which really, I think is fair to say, or outside of the control of the federal government. One factor, what in one factor alone made the crisis so so much worse than it needed to be. And that was the lack of a centralized federal banking system. If you remember from the previous episode, Andrew Jackson was singularly minded in destroying America's national bank system, because he believed it was an elitist institution that harmed the common man of America. And, of course, Martin Van Buren helped accomplish this. And so of course, when when, when the consequences of his own political party's actions came up against him, he was the one that took the blame. Wigs, wigs really, really hammered hard against the Democratic party saying that this is their fault. This is the entirely the fault of the entire Jacksonian economic agenda. And that decentralization has left this country vulnerable. But of course, Van Buren was not going to take the blame on himself, he was not going to accept that that was the fault of his own party. No, no, no, his ideological agenda was sound. The problem, the problem was unscrupulous bankers. It was it was merchants trying to intentionally screw over his government, which, of course, isn't true. The lack of a banking system was his fault was his own party's fault, I should say at the very least. But of course, he couldn't handle this. And and he he stuck to the to the principles of his ideology, saying is much saying, quote,
Martin Van Buren 12:20
The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for the general prosperity.
President Shrimpo 12:25
But this this, this sort of laissez faire attitude towards the crisis was very out of touch. And so when the public sees, sees Martin Van Buren sort of saying that it's best if if government sort of stays out of this issue, people, people were unhappy. And so it was through this this sort of crisis, that the Whig Party was finally able to break through the stranglehold that the Democratic Party held over federal elections in the midterms of 1838. And, wow, wow, the Democratic Party would maintain control over both houses of Congress. It the merchants slimmed significantly, and suddenly, the sort of desperate, weak factions of Whig opposition were united. And their opposition became far more legitimate in the eyes of the public. Additionally, I would say that it's important to point out that that, through all of this sectional divides in the country are starting to become more and more important, especially within party politics. And so while we'll enter Jackson, of course, had been a southern Democrat, Van Buren being from the state of New York was a northern Democrat. And while in terms of economic agenda, they, they had similarities and they had similar ideology across the different regions of the party. Van Buren was not as keen on the institution of slavery, as other Democrats were. And because of this, Martin Van Buren refused to entertain the idea of annexing the newly independent Republic of Texas. On on a personal level, Van Buren seems to have been opposed to the institution of slavery, which may have been part of why he was opposed to expanding its sort of jurisdiction into the southwest. But also, I think it's important to say that vein, parents thought that if if the institution of slavery would be expanded, that it would make the entire divide and conflict over the institution, all the more present in people's minds. And it was, I would argue that sort of the bigger factor in determining his opposition to the annexation of Texas it was not so much a personal conviction regarding the immorality of slavery. I think it was a calculation that it was more important for his career to kick the issue down the road than to sort of inflame the issue. But it was because of this, this opposition to annexing Texas that quite a few Southern Democrats started to very seriously sour towards Van Buren. And we start to see sort of a fracturing of the the previously very strongly United Democratic Party because the fact of the matter is, Van Buren didn't have the same charisma and force of will, to sort of keep together the different fighting factions within the Democratic coalition in the same way that Andrew Jackson could have. And it was with the election of 1840, then that the Whig Party finally saw a window of opportunity in which they could snatch control of the federal government away from the Democratic Party, for the first time. Since 1828. Van Buren was vulnerable, the economy was bad, the Democratic Party was disunited. And really, I think, had the Whigs nominated anybody, that person would have won, it didn't matter who they were nominated, essentially, is what I'm trying to say. And so I think, because of this, there was a very concerted effort to get a unified national convention to nominate a Whig candidate. And because of this, there was there's really a lot of jockeying for political control, because the Whig Party, sort of a Frankenstein amalgamation of these very disparate sort of sectors of American political thought it was then through this in the Whig national convention of 1839. That we that we see sort of this, this first sort of standoff between the different factions at the convention, the three main candidates for the presidential nomination were Henry Clay of Kentucky, William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, and Winfield Scott, another northern candidate, Henry Clay, sort of was, was the architect of the party, he, he was sort of the the founder of Whig economic thought, which was sort of best encapsulated in what the agenda sort of described as the American system, which was sort of built off of the, the sort of soft federalism of John Quincy Adams presidency in sort of the idea of, of national improvements and sort of the the expansion of, of American infrastructure for the sake of business. And so while while quite a few southern Whigs were opposed to this agenda, they sort of saw clay as a fellow traveler, in terms of sort of the Southern interests of the party. And so this led to clay being the most popular southern candidate, and while also having a good degree of crossover support among northern states. This then left William Henry Harrison, and when Winfield Scott is being sort of theme that candidates primarily focused in among northern delegates. Despite Harrison coming from a wealthy Virginia family, he had sort of made his his political career in being the governor of the Ohio territory, and during his service in his sort of wars against the Native Americans in the region, which we covered briefly, in our episode about the War of 1812. And the war against comes as confederacy where he made a name for himself in defeating the forces of tecumseth confederacy at the Battle of tippet canoe. And so while Clay had sort of the unified support of Southern delegates, he was able to sort of maintain an early lead, northern delegates gradually came to sort of understand that they needed to sort of end their division. And so Winfield Scott, a war hero from the War of 1812, decided to drop out of the race, throwing his support behind Harrison, allowing Harrison to finally win the Whig Party nomination on the fifth ballot. The weak party
was not a unified sort of political entity. I think quite a few people sort of imagine there being sort of a very clear progression in the development of America's party systems in which the Federalist Party collapsed. And so they then became the Whig Party, and then the Whig Party collapsed and they became the Republican Party. But that's that's sort of an oversimplification, because each of these are sort of these unique political amalgamations of their own moments in political history. What's Certainly the majority of a former Federalists became Whigs. Not all of them did, and not all Whigs were formerly Federalists, as I think, best example, by Henry Clay himself, Henry Clay had been a Democratic Republican, but he was of the sort of moderate faction of that party. And so there were sort of, it's sort of best understood as a party forged out of their United opposition to Andrew Jackson. And so while while many former Federalists deposed Andrew Jackson, based on economic lines, many sort of moderate democratic Republicans from sort of the Western frontier states oppose Jackson because they sort of perceived him as being the sort of overly authoritarian figure in in politics. And then additionally, sort of even further out from that. Quite a few former Democrats from the southern wing of the party, really deeply resented Jackson for his behavior during the Nullification Crisis. And so we have have people like former Vice President, John C. Calhoun joining the Whig Party. While while Calhoun was rabidly pro slavery, and far more interested in the ideology of states rights, even though many Democrats, they sort of had found common ground in their opposition to Jackson. And so because of this, I think it's important to lay all of this out to then say that there was a real serious need to have a united coalition in putting up a presidential ticket and the election of 1840. And so, while Harrison was nominated, they needed somebody to sort of represent the southern wing of the party. And actually, the first person offered the nomination was Henry Clay, Henry Clay, who is the architect of this sort of core economic agenda of mainstream Whigs. But clay didn't want sort of a consolation prize. He didn't want to be vice president, he wanted to be the president. And so very bitterly, he rejected the offer. And so as a result, the offer for price vice presidential nomination passed then on to John Tyler, senator from Virginia. Tyler, unlike most wigs came from that Nullifier faction of the party, the sort of more extreme faction of the Democratic Party. But he was sort of seen as a sort of conciliate conciliatory figure that sort of brought together the different factions of the party. And he was sort of seen as as a a, an olive leaf to the southern wing of the party and sort of bringing together the factions of the Whig Party and their opposition to the Democrats. So with this sort of incredible gesture of party unity, Democrats were disunited, they were unable to even nominate a running mate to go along with Van Buren as as, as as, as Van Buren is our own vice president, Richard mentor, Johnson was sort of too unpopular at this point. And so Martin Van Buren became the only major party nominee in American history, to not have an official running mate. And so then through all of this I think it's important to say that the Harrison and sort of the Whig Party, for the first time, I think, in American history ran a very sophisticated, active presidential campaign in a way that previous candidates had never really done before. And we see this in the sort of usage of political sloganeering to to an extended degree during Whig Party events. The slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler too was thrown alone or thrown around quite a lot because Harrison's nickname was Tippecanoe for his service. During the war against Tecumseh's Confederacy. And songs were written about about to the canoe and Tyler to it, they sort of created this very sophisticated sort of media campaign to depict Harrison as the sort of rugged frontiersman that lived in log cabins and drank hard cider. And this was all to sort of paint this picture of this sort of very populist figure, despite the fact that Harrison was actually very wealthy and sort of part of the sort of out of touch elite that Jackson and many Democrats had attacked years prior. But it just didn't stick. Van Buren, Walsall kind of seemed very out of touch with his fancy clothing and his penchant for expensive social gatherings and all that. And so this is all just to say that there was a very sophisticated public relations sort of campaign run out during this election. And through all of this The Democratic Party tried to attack Harrison, for one thing, and I think one thing centrally, and that was his age, because Harrison, during the time of the campaign was 67, making him the oldest presidential candidate essentially up to this point. Because, you know, people's lifespans were quite a bit shorter in the 1840s. And one democratic newspaper, sort of really tried to harp on this, this idea that, that Harrison was old and needed to retire by saying, quote,
Democratic Newspaper 25:33
give him a barrel of hard cider, and a pension of $2,000 a year, and he will sit the remainder of his days in his log cabin.
President Shrimpo 25:41
This was was to make Harrison sort of seem weak and sort of like he would be sort of this this grandfatherly figure that would be more interested in retiring than serving out the presidential duties. But really, it kind of fell flat and actually, wig sort of campaign organizers sort of seized on this image, and actually built a sort of model log cabins for their campaign events and distributed hard cider to sort of give this this sort of rugged frontier image that that, you know, of course, people are going to want to come to campaign events if they're going to get free alcohol. And so as a result, when election day finally came, Harrison and Tyler won the election, in a blowout, they won 234 electoral votes against 60, in the Electoral College against Martin Van Buren. And it was just a, it was a severe walloping, and it really cemented weed control not only over the presidency, but down ballot in the Senate elections and house elections. And so spirits were high, people were excited. Finally, the Democrats were out of office, and a wig was going to be able to carry out their party's agenda. And so to sort of project an image of strength, and intelligence, Harrison decided that he needed to deliver a long winding speech to lay out the path for what his presidency would be in great detail. And so Harrison delivered a record length inaugural speech on Inauguration Day, which lasted for nearly two hours on a day that was cold and rainy, where he refused to wear a coat. Now, the popular myth surrounding this is that because of his long winded speech on Inauguration Day, Harrison would catch a cold, which would then turn into pneumonia, and he would then die. But that's sort of an oversimplification, because apparently, Harrison had a real penchant for just walking around in the cold in the rain, without wearing a coat. And without changing his wet and cold clothing. Which is not a good thing to do when you're an elderly man in the 1840s. Additionally, he was just worn out, he was tired, because he was having to constantly meet with winger, party officials constantly having to go to social gatherings, constantly having to meet with potential candidates for government. And it was just very draining. And so as a result of this, at the end of March, Harrison began to feel quite ill developed a chill, which then turned turned into pneumonia. And by the end of March, he was doing quite badly. And of course, doctors at the time, weren't very helpful. They tried to treat him by giving him a concoction of opium, laxatives, and a whole lot of different herbs and drugs that probably weren't helping him very much. And then on top of that, they decided it would be a good idea to do a good old fashioned bloodletting, draining blood from him, a sickly, elderly man. And so as a result of this, on April 4 1841, only a month after his inauguration on March 4, Harrison died, he was the first president to die in office. After Inauguration Day, Vice President John Tyler had quietly gone home to his home in Northern Virginia. This was because he he expected to do very little while he was Vice President, the Vice President was not an important job, politically speaking, especially at this point in American history. And really, everything sort of indicated that Tyler would have would have gone down as sort of a minor footnote in American history, as have most vice presidents up to this point. But very suddenly, Tyler would be thrust into one of the most important debates in in constitutional law, and presidential politics in American history, When he would suddenly be thrust into becoming the next President of the United States, but that was not necessarily always going to be the case. So, only about a day after Harrison's death, Tyler rushed quickly to Washington, in order to quickly resolve the issue of presidential succession. The reason this was so important is because the wording of presidential succession is incredibly vague in the Constitution, with Article two, section one, clause six of the Constitution simply saying that should the President be removed, resign or die in office? The powers and duties of the presidency devolved to the Vice President? At no point does it say that the Vice President becomes the president, it just says that the duties of the office then fall to the Vice President. And so Harrison's cabinet which were sort of filled out by sort of the the establishment figures of the Whig Party hoped to sort of seriously counterbalance Tyler being from the sort of Nullifier faction of the party. And so Harrison's cabinet was determined that upon Harrison's death, Tyler would be treated as vice president, acting as president. However, Tyler was none too keen on this. And he insisted that we upon Harrison's death, he became president in full and show without the consent of cabinet without the consent of Congress. Tyler hosted a swearing in, in which he invited a local circuit court judge to deliver the oath of office. And he he considered himself then at that point, the new president, Harrison's cabinet, now, Tyler's cabinet, hopes to continue to counterbalance Tyler's power. And they insisted that Harrison while he was president, had made most of his decisions by allowing his cabinet to just hold a vote and decide for him. This is probably entirely untrue. They probably were just trying to strong arm Tyler and sort of force him to sort of bend to their will. And Tyler refused to take this lying down, saying to his cabinet, quote,
John Tyler 32:11
I beg your pardon, gentleman, I'm very glad to have in my cabinet such able statesman, as you have proved yourself to be, and I shall be pleased to avail myself of your counsel and advice. But I can never consent to being dictated to, as to what I shall or shall not do, I, as President, shall be responsible for my administration, I hope to have your hearty cooperation in carrying out its measures, so long as you see fit to do this, I shall be glad to have you with me when you think otherwise, your resignation will be accepted.
President Shrimpo 32:42
So it was through this, this sort of direct defiance that Tyler was able to sort of cow his own cabinet into acknowledging that he was president in full and not merely the acting president. But there will be a whole other debate and struggle with the Whig Party in Congress. Henry Clay, who at this time, was in the Senate hopes to sort of exert control and influence over the presidency of William Henry Harrison, sort of seeing Harrison as sort of more of a figurehead sort of President hoping to kind of be the sort of brains behind the operation. And he hoped to sort of exert a similar degree of control over Tyler. However, when Tyler made it clear that that would not be happening, Clay essentially tried to block Tyler from being seen as president. But eventually, Tyler would be able to sort of win or win over this, the forces of Congress and Congress eventually passed a resolution recognizing Tyler, as the President of the United States in full and not merely the acting president. Through Tyler's sort of force of will, essentially, the the issue of presidential succession would then be set in stone from that point forward. And there would be no real serious debate over whether the vice president became the president. But that was not a surefire path in American history. There very easily could be, have been a different series of events that led to the Vice President being seen merely as the acting president. And so very important figures like Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, may have never ever actually been seen as presidents in their own right had Tyler not been so forceful. So now that Tyler was secure in his position as the new president of the United States, what was he going to do? Well, first, I think we need to sort of explain what the Whig Party conceived the presidency as a the Whig Party was sort of founded on their opposition to the idea of presidential overreach. And they sort of modeled themselves off of the British Whig Party, which was sort of opposed to the overreach of the Royals and sort of royal overreach over over democracy. And so, through this, then there was an expectation that the President should be treated more like a figurehead position. And that Congress would actually hold more power in the federal arrangement, sort of more like a parliamentary system. And of course, Clay being a fixture fixture of congressional politics really stood to gain the most from this sort of arrangement. Essentially, Tyler was just expected to rubber stamp anything and everything that the weed control the congress passed. But this is something that Tyler, that forceful man that he was, would never agree to do. Tyler, being from the Nullifier wing of the Whig Party, was fundamentally opposed to Clay's vision of the American system. He was opposed to a national bank, he was opposed to essentially everything that the Whig Party stood for, in all but name. And this would cause an incredible amount of friction within government. I would argue that John Tyler ideologically was much closer to Andrew Jackson than he was to Henry Clay. And so when the Whig controlled Congress passed a rechartering of the National Bank, Tyler vetoed it not once, but twice. And as a result of this, Tyler's entire cabinet, resigned in mass excluding Daniel Webster. This this, this move was done, essentially to force Tyler's hand and trigger his own resignation. But Tyler refused to do this, sort of in an act of defiance against congressional wigs. And as a result, the Whig Party voted to expel John Taylor from the party, he was no longer affiliated with any political party, because his own political party hated him that much. And actually, Articles of Impeachment were drafted against him in Congress. However, they were never actually brought fully to an impeachment trial. But this just goes to show how deeply unpopular Tyler was. So with with John Tyler's domestic agenda, sort of at gridlock, because he was sort of a proponent of an agenda that Congress was vehemently opposed to. He had to look in other directions in how he would make his mark in American politics. I wouldn't argue that John Taylor, above any other president was the most rabidly pro slavery precedent that the United States has ever had. And because of this, this, this sort of devotion to the ideology of, of, of American chattel slavery, and the rights of states supremely over the federal government, he understood, I think, very concretely, that in order for American chattel slavery to survive, it needed to constantly be expanding it needed to constantly grow. As an institution, it couldn't stagnate, because otherwise, it would start to shrink. And because of this, John Taylor, more than any president before him, rapidly pursued American expansionism, and manifest destiny. Essentially, Tyler aggressively pursued the annexation of the Republicans of Texas, actually signing a joint treaty with the Republic, also hoping to settle the Oregon territory dispute, which was a sort of surge of land in the American Northwest, that both the United States and Great Britain had claims over. He also had a very keen interest in expanding American influence in the Pacific, because he recognized that America in the very near future would be stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. And so it needed to be a force that could project itself into both oceans. And so America under the presidency of John Tyler massively expanded its influence over the kingdom of Hawaii. But But despite this, this devotion to to American expansionism, very little actually got done. Because Tyler would be stonewalled by Congress in his final months in office. The weak party controlled the Senate while Democrats controlled Congress and they consistently refused to accept America's annexation of Texas they refuse to recognize the treaty, and so sort of left at a stalemate. And because of this, Tyler was prepared to run on a third party ticket to be elected president in his own right. And this was because he believed that both the Whig Party and the Democratic Party wouldn't be fully committed to American expansionism, particularly as Democrats seemed ready to re nominate Martin Van Buren, and as the Whig Party seemed ready to nominate Henry Clay. But very suddenly, the political landscape changed when America's first Darkhorse presidential candidate, James K. Polk was nominated by the Democratic Party. And so, on the next episode of In the West Wing, hosted by me President Trump, oh, we will be taking a look at Manifest Destiny and the expansion of the American frontier westward and what it means for the institution of slavery. As always, I have been your host, President Trump, and you've been listening to in the West Wing, a political history podcast brought to you by WKNC 88.1. Special thanks to those who helped give history a voice in this week's episode of In the west wing with Leonard Coronado is Martin Van Buren. Maddy Moore is the democratic newspaper and Erie Mitchell is John Tyler. The intro music used on in the West Wing is Star Spangled Banner by the United States Marine Band and our Outro Song is Libertad by Iriarte and Pesoa
Transcribed by https://otter.ai