American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 23.2 Benjamin Harrison

Episode Date: March 7, 2020

Benjamin has navigated through a life full of war, politics and cucumbers, but now he faces his biggest challenge: to live up to his grandfather's memory and lead the United States as president. However, it would appear the solution to everything is... tariffs! Listen while Rob attempts to convince Jamie that talking about tariffs is important!

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, Benjamin Harrison. Part 2. Hello and welcome to American Presidents. So tell us, rank him. I am Jamie. And I'm Rob, ranking all of the presidents from Washington to Trump. It's Super Tuesday. Yeah. Oh, yes, it is. Yeah, it is.

Yeah. Time of recording. In America, it's probably mid-morning. Yeah. Well, it depends where. Everyone's probably Super Tuesday-ing. So for our people that don't know, maybe they're British, that is where everyone dresses up as Superman on a Tuesday. It happens once every four years.

Yeah, it's nice. It is the nomination for the president. In the series, it's usually in a convention where everyone sits around and the delegates vote. But obviously nowadays, it's open to the whole of the party if you're just a member of the party. And on this Tuesday, we have a lot of states voting who they want their nominee to be.

So congratulations to Joe Biden. Congratulations to Bernie Sanders. Congratulations to... Surprise victory, this one. Daffy Duck. Yeah. Yeah, I'll edit the right one in. But that's the now.

This podcast isn't about the now. No, that's boring. At least not yet. It's about the then. There are so many words in that sentence. And we are doing Benjamin Harrison part two. This time, there's a lot of legislature talk. Oh.

I'm warning you, now tariffs are mentioned. Oh, and I like a good tariff, though. Yeah, you do. Oh, yeah. Let's make a start. Let's do this. Yeah. Black.

I'll go easy on you. Actually, that works perfectly. Open on black. I mean, have you even opened yet? It's hard to tell. But there is a black screen. And you hear a whirring sound. And then a clunking sound.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Not really, Mick, just occasional clunks. Clunk, clunk, clunk. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. A scraping sound. Clunk, clunk, clunk. A sort of thud and a muffled,

oh, oh, my toe. Oh, son of a... Yeah, okay. A drilling sound. Maybe not that type of drill because we're in the 1890s. Yeah, hand drill. Yeah. It's like...

The sound of a wire. Not like a short bit of wire. No, long wire. You'd only hit and it wobbles oh yes okay i'll give you that i'll give you that pretty good right and then you hear someone say i think it's done i think it's done stand back stand back i think it's done i think it's done stand back quick who's going to do the honors who's going to doours? And there's just a muffled sort of push. You can kind of get the sense that someone's being pushed forward. Yes, I'm happy to do the honours. And then, a bit like surprise birthday party style,

everyone then starts a countdown from ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Come four, three, two, one. And then there's a click.

And the light comes on. Not again. You're back to black. Benjamin Harrison, part two. two nice there you go so i'm guessing electric electric lights yeah oh so we'll be hitting um not hitting literally um uh talking about what's his name the guy that didn't invent the light bulb edison edison yeah yeah you've mentioned edison a few times and to be fair he does come up in the research occasionally but i've never had a good enough reason to really start talking about him, and I don't in this episode, I'm afraid to say. Instead, we're talking about B.H. Benjamin Harrison.

Oh, yes. We left Benjamin after he had won the presidency over Cleveland. Just, if you remember, he had lost the popular vote, but had won the election. Bit like Trump. Yeah, bit like Trump. He lost the election, but still became president. Yeah, he was voted for by a minority of the country. Democracy.

Yeah. Anyway, on the day of Benjamin's inauguration, the rain lashed down. Lashed, lashed, lashed, lashed. It was cold. It was miserable. Very much like when his grandfather. When his grandfather... Delivered his inauguration speech.

Ah. Don't know why there was a pause there. Dramatic. It was. Yeah. Well, the family still remembered Grandad Harrison's demise. So Benjamin was prepared. He wore a chamois undersuit.

Sort of leather, soft leather undersuit. When he was... Ooh. Not like a poor man. Cucumber in one pocket, chamois under his clothes. Filth. This pair. Who'd have thought?

Just with the tux on top. Pair of cufflinks. No, no, I mean like undergarments, as in just a warm undergarment is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Made from animal hide. Okay. Yes. Right.

Soft, supple leather. Yes, to keep warm and dry during the speech. And also, he made sure his speech was a lot shorter than his grandfather's, because he didn't want to die. He talked about how God was looking out for the country and about how his government would look out for the workers of the country in the form of tariffs. Oh.

At that point, he went, no, no, no, don't leave. Come back. But no. And here's my 52-point point one a after the speech and the usual ball and celebrations that were had the harrison family then moved into the white house benjamin and carrie moved in understandably also their daughter mary was there and her two children her husband was away with business at the time. Right. Also their son Russell moved in with them and his wife and child. So nice big family. Soon

afterwards Carrie's father came along as well. Yeah. But he was in his 90s and really needed a bit of support. Yeah that's fair enough. Then uncle joe yeah from vermont i mean once the door was open yeah it's just hard on maggie just no second cousins are going what's that benjamin's president right pack up everyone bring the goats uh well one person is missing however benjamin no no benjamin's there okay you might remember at the end of the last episode benjamin made a friend neve no niece niece yes louie lou walker mamie well her name was mary but her nickname was mamie oh mary there we go yes yeah yeah this niece well i mean technically carrie's niece but yeah essentially his niece um Well, I mean, technically Carrie's niece, but yeah, essentially his niece.

Mamie's not there. She hadn't moved with the family. And soon Harrison was missing his new favourite relative. In fact, she was the first person he wrote to whilst in the White House. You know I don't like crowds and only rest when I can get out with a single companion. And just now I have none such. Apart from your wife and your entire family. Yeah, but he misses Mamie.

Oh. Because she was really good at massages, walks in the garden, and playing billiards. Okay. Yeah. Handy with a pool cue. Oh, yes.

In fact, Housen wasn't best pleased at all how busy the White House was. He was not best pleased with the fact that there was little distinction between where presidents and their family lived and worked. You like more of a separation between... Yeah, well if you remember Cleveland, a bit of a workaholic,

he set it up so his bed was some steps away from his desk. Yeah. Harrison did not like this. He speculated that perhaps another wing would have to be added to the house at some point to give everyone a bit more room. Maybe to the west.

Yeah, maybe. That's one compass point they could use. Why don't you just kick all your family out? That also would have worked. But no. As ever, the first shock was just how much time was being taken up by office seekers. I do sometimes feel like a hunted animal, he said. This was whilst he was being hunted down.

Spears are the ready lads. Let the Harrison loose! Well, in this case, the office seeking was even worse than it had been for some time because Harrison was following a democratic president for the first time in a very long time. Because the Republicans have been in power for so long. Yeah.

Yeah. All of a sudden there were a lot of people who wanted their jobs back now that there was a Republican in charge again because Cleveland had just fired them all. Yeah. Yeah. What was perhaps even worse than the office seekers though was the party bosses. Harrison was soon learning that those men,

in particular the half-breeds, who had helped him win the nomination, now viewed Harrison as their man. You owe us sort of thing. Yeah. One day, early on, Harrison was passed a list of men. This was a list of men that he was to appoint to certain positions, and this came from the chairman of the party.

Harrison, taken aback by this, asked for more information on the men, please. And he was told no more information was necessary. Ooh. Yeah. That'll get my back up a little bit. Well, it gets Harrison's back up. He let it be known

that he was not going to be pushed around like this in such a way. He would personally look into the men on the list and only if he found them to be suitable would he appoint them. Damn it. Ooh. Yeah. They all got appointed, didn't they? Oh, yeah. A lot of them did. However, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Blaine from Maine would once more become the Secretary of State. But even here, Harrison pushed back. This was just before he became president, when he was forming his cabinet. He didn't appoint the post of Secretary of State straight away,

which is usually what people do. He just kept putting it off, delaying it. Everyone was expecting it to be Blaine. I mean, this is Blaine's job. What's he doing? Why is he not appointing Blaine? He's got a badge that says Secretary of State on it. Exactly. Yeah, the party bosses start getting a little bit annoyed.

Then Harrison forms the rest of his cabinet without involving the party bosses at all. That's not to say he puts together a cabinet full of friendly faces, but he does seem to annoy most of his own party at this time just before his inauguration. One senator said of him at this time, I suppose Harrison treated me as well as he did any other senator, but whenever he did anything for me, it was done so ungraciously that the concession tended to anger rather than please. So, yeah, Harrison's not making many friends now he's got the top job.

No. Oh dear. Once the cabinet was set up, however, he finally did concede and placed Blaine in the Secretary of State job. Fine, you can have it now, I've made my point. This mollified the party machine somewhat, but like I say, it's an uneasy start. Feathers have been ruffled. Yeah. I mean, you can see why Harrison does this, though.

I mean, he doesn't want to just be seen as a yes man immediately, because where does he go from there? He's got to build up to that. Yeah, exactly. Then a story appeared in the papers. Harrison's appointment to the Postmaster General job had paid for his position. This was John Wanamaker,

and he just so happened to buy Carrie a gift. Want to speculate what the gift might be? Cucumber. No. Cheese. They loved their cheese back then. They did speculate what the gift might be. Cucumber. No. Cheese. They loved their cheese back then. They did like their cheese. It's not a cheese.

Horse. No, it was a cottage. A cottage. Yeah, it's always... That's difficult to wrap. It is, but he made it work. You need a big bow. Yeah, this was a cottage in Cape May Point in New Jersey.

The papers had found out and had pointed out that this smells of corruption. He buys your wife a cottage and now he's suddenly the Postmaster General. And the Postmaster General, if I'm remembering correctly, is in a position where if they were unscrupulous, they would be able

to get a lot of money. It was not long ago, if you remember, the Starroot rank and all the corruption that was going on. Oh, yes, the Postmaster General. I mean, for a start, he gets to read everyone's letter. Oh. Yeah, a lot of power in that position.

A lot of gossip. Yeah, this isn't the start that Harrison wanted, so he quickly let it be known that, no, no, don't be silly, I always meant to purchase this property. The Postmaster General just gave it to me and I was going to pay for it. In fact, look, I'm doing it now. Here's the cheque. Here it is that I'm very publicly writing now.

So he pays for the cottage. Okay. Yeah. And just the cheque may have bounced, but that's absolutely fine. Now, by this time, Blaine had settled back into his old job as Secretary of State, and problems were starting to arise

because Harrison was a very serious man of simple tastes. Yeah. He clearly saw his duty as the president in a certain way. And then you had Blaine, who had run one of the largest Republican factions for years and essentially run the government when Garfield had been shot. He was leader of the half-breeds. He had his ways of doing things.

Yeah. And the two had very different views on how the government should be run, or, to put it more bluntly, who should be running it. Blaine very much saw Harrison as his puppet. Harrison very much saw Blaine as an interfering old man. The first fight between them erupted when it became clear that Blaine wanted his son, Walker Blaine, to become

the first Assistant Secretary of State. Harrison wasn't comfortable with giving the two top jobs in the most important department to the same family. Yeah. I mean, he's only 12. I mean, he'd do a better job

than most but he is only 12 i mean that was that's a word for that kind of thing isn't there i'm sure it's not napoleon yeah harrison instead found another be fair, cushy job for Walker. There you go. I found you a job. Master of the stables. Exactly. Yeah. But the Blaines, James and his son, but even more so Blaine's wife Harriet, were all outraged. Yeah. Very angry. How dare the Harrisons, the provincial Harrisons, come over here and stop us from getting our cushy jobs. Yeah. Making my son clean out

horse muck all day. Exactly. Yeah, in fact, Harriet in particular took a dislike to the presidential family. She started calling Carrie her American Majesty in a sarcastic tone to others. She's bitter. She's bitter. Yeah. One power

not getting it. Yeah. She also loudly complained that it was impossible to relax and have fun with the president and his family around. They were too serious and pious. Just keep talking about tariffs all the time. No open rows took place. Apparently Harrison says at one point that he never had an open row with Blaine, but you can tell things are simmering. I'm guessing a lot of eye-rolling. Yeah, lots of passive-aggressive comments.

Soon enough, Carrie got word of the Blaine's sneering attitude, and she wrote to their daughter, The Blaines are a strange family. You never know whether they are true or not. There is an air of mystery around them that give them an impression of cunning. Oh. Yeah.

Like foxes. Yeah. Anyway, the falling out continued during a special date that was about to come around. Because that's right. It was 100 years since Washington's inaugural address. Oh, the centennial. There we go. We have now hit 100 years in the podcast.

Wow. Well, we did more because we did previous stuff. We've done thousands of years, right? Exactly. But, I mean, we really started with Washington's presidency. I mean, the country has survived 100 years' worth of presidents. That's impressive. It's true, actually.

Considering some of them are doing all right, this country. Yeah, it hasn't gone through sort of like a revolution, has it, where they've cast off, you know, we're not going to have a president now, we're going to have a... You could argue the Civil War was quite big,

but... Well, I mean, that was put down, so it's fine. Exactly, yeah. Yeah. Anyway,

a celebration was due to take place in New York City. Ooh. We have a letter from one woman who lived in the city at the time writing to her son. And the bloody noise. Pretty much, yeah.

New York is an uproar. Seats for the crowds being erected all through the line of march. Telegraph poles being pulled down and altogether things are lively. Last night the city was dark as we had no electric lights and the gas was not in good trim. Everything looked gloomy out of doors. A million people are expected to be here on the 30th. Glad I'm not a visitor and have my room on a side street. So, yeah, things are busy.

Just a grumbly old neighbour. Yeah, they're putting up their bunting, that's what they're doing. Banners, cakes. I'm assuming because electricity is not as much, they're sort of routing it to a different thing Like how to have like lights in the streets, you know, yeah. Yeah, I assume Yeah, you get the the impression that the telegraph poles were being pulled down because Skype don't need them anymore. Yeah, exactly Well, they would have been like crisscrossing streets of fair parading. Yeah

This was the very first wires that were being used and they probably haven't been put up very well. So just having a bit of a sort out as you do in your city when you're about to have a celebration. When your parents come round. Yeah, exactly. The celebrations were going to last three nights with parades and fireworks

and parties and all sorts. It sounded like it was going to be fun. Harrison obviously was going to be the. Harrison, obviously, was going to be the guest of honour. He's the president, after all. So he and the vice president, plus others, arrived to a 21-gun salute. 60 horse-drawn carriages then took the president and other very important people down to the naval docks, where the president was rowed out to the US steamer dispatch, which was a very fancy steamboat that they had.

Like a mini cruise ship. Yeah. The boat then took them to the foot of Wall Street, apparently, where Harrison got off again, so they weren't on the boat for long. It was just to show off the Navy, really. On a boat to Wall Street? Did they flood the streets as well, then? Yeah, yeah. Went right up it. It was quite impressive. Yeah.

So Harrison gets off. Another carriage is awaiting for him. And then they proceed up Wall Street and head towards the luncheon that was going on, where speeches would be made. Oh, fun. It was here that Blaine was due to give a speech on, and I quote here, the credit of the administration. So it's just something kind of, oh, they're really good. Yeah. We're amazing. However, there's a kind of, oh, they're really good. Yeah. We're amazing.

However, there's a problem. Blaine was not there. Ah. Yeah. He'd pulled out very last minute for health reasons. Yeah. Yeah. Leaving Harrison to do the speech.

I was just hoping no one would and they'd just have to sit in silence for 12 minutes staring at the stage. Well, this is before you could do a quick Google and figure out what the speech was supposed to be on or send a text message to Blaine saying, bloody hell, Blaine, what was your speech about? So Harrison had no idea what he was going to do for the speech and only found out what the speech was meant to be about when he arrived and read the programme. Ah, okay.

However, it's not too bad because Harrison may have been gaining a reputation for being a bit of a cold fish one on one but he was a well respected public speaker in fact during his election campaign some of the people helping him had deliberately ushered

the president nominee out of the rooms he had given his speech in as quickly as possible. One such man even started pulling the cord on the waiting train to encourage Harrison to get on board as quickly as possible. One such man even started pulling the cord on the waiting train to encourage Harrison to get on board as quickly as possible to stop him from talking to anyone after his speech. This man pulling the cord was chastised afterwards and he replied, don't talk to me, I know my business. Harrison had the crowd red hot. I did not want him to freeze it out of them with his

handshaking. So yeah, apparently Harrison was good with a crowd, but as soon as you talked to him one-on-one, he was a bore. Oh, dear. Yeah. So despite Harrison having to suddenly perform a speech, coming off the relatively recent election campaign, he was able to just give a fairly generic speech on, and I quote, our country.

Our country is very big. Yeah. And on one side we have an ocean. And the other side we have an ocean. They have fish in them. I like fish. Pause whilst

he starts eating the fish dinner. Mmm. Good old American fish. Yeah. I hear you've heard of his speech, then. Yes. Yeah, it's good. It's known as the fish speech.

Harrison, however, was not best pleased with his Secretary of State for leaving him in the lurch, and was not convinced that it had not been deliberate. Yeah. That's not to say that the two men were incapable of working together, because the first international crisis hit, and the two actually found themselves on the same page. This is an area where the two generally agreed with each other,

and that was, America's getting powerful now. No one's going to mess with America. Britain, Germany, and the United States had recently come into a disagreement about the Samoan Islands. These are islands in the Pacific, relatively close to New Zealand, but not actually close to New Zealand. Because the Pacific is huge. South Pacific Islands. Yeah.

Because that's what surprised me. I was looking at the list for the Super Tuesday, where it's called Terrific Tuesday. Yes, Terrific Tuesday. And it talks about the American Samoan Islands. I was like, is that a state? What's that? I was just very confused. I didn't understand.

Wow, this is where it comes from. Enlightening me. Brilliant. Yeah. Well, the Samoan Islands at the moment weren't the American Samoan Islands. They were just the Samoan Islands. Britain, Germany and the US were arguing over them like countries do. and the US were arguing over them, like countries do.

The United States' recent explosion of trade with the East to the West of them. What? Trade with the East, which is obviously to the West of America. Oh, like Japan and, yeah. Yeah, which always really confuses me when I'm looking at East and West. Well, you could argue it's still East. I mean, yeah, you could argue it's still east. I mean, you could argue it's north and left. Or south and right, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. You could argue it's just north and south. What? To get from America to Japan, you just need to go north and then south. And back up in Japan? From America, you just go north to the North Pole and then south to Japan. Because it's, yes, it's a sphere. You can do that anywhere, can't you?

Yeah. Everywhere's north and south. Next time you ask for directions. Head north and go south. Yeah, easy. Anyway, we digress. What I'm trying to say is America are trading a lot with places like Japan and China. And because of this, they're using the Pacific Islands more so to refuel their ships.

Is that the only advantage for the US? Military advantages as well, if you can keep some of your ships, your warships near. Defend the penguins. Exactly. Yeah, so, I mean, basically, if there were some islands on offer, you might as well pick up some islands before the other countries pick up the islands. It's essentially what everyone in the world's thinking. Land grab. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so America are looking at the Samoan Islands, but so are Britain and in particular Germany at this time. So tensions rise between Germany and the US, and in the end it was decided that some ambassadors should go to Berlin and try and settle things. The envoys sent did a very good job and a compromise was agreed to where Britain, Germany and the United States would jointly protect the independent islands. Yes. Which I'm

sure the Samoans were very pleased about. We don't need protection. Oh yes you do. Yes, protection came in the form of these three powers being able to install their own politicians into the Samoan government at will for your own protection. Yes, of course. All three powers just to make sure that everyone was really, really protected.

We're really serious about this protection. We're just going to keep some warships around the island just to make sure. Yeah. Because the safest people are people surrounded by warships. Of course, yeah. Still, there was also a more personal reason for Harrison's interest in the developments in Berlin and Samoa, because one of the envoys that he had sent to Berlin

was none other than the brother-in-law to his favourite niece, Mamie. Mary! Yes, he wrote to Mamie, who was in Europe at the time, I'm sure you will enjoy seeing John and Lizzie in Germany. Lizzie being Mamie's sister. It gives me great pleasure in sending them over to you. I do hope you may be able to come back home with them. Stop being in Europe, please.

You're far away. I don't like it when you're far away. Mamie did not come back immediately with her brother and Lauren's sister. But it was not long before she was back stateside because her mother was ill and the family got back together for her death. So Mamie's back in the country. Ah.

Benjamin. Are you thinking Disgracegate there? I'm thinking heavy Disgracegate, yeah. Just a pillow and a countback from ten. Yeah. I should probably say there is no evidence anywhere or even any suggestion that that is the case. Apart from now. Apart from 10. Yeah. I should probably say there is no evidence anywhere or even any suggestion that that is the case. Apart from now. Apart from now. Well, it was not long after this that the brother-in-law and Mamie's sister were sent to Samoa to go and deal with things there. In fact, I'll quote

Harrison's daughter writing here, this leaves Mamie all alone. So Papa said to John and Lizzie that he would look after Mamie during their absence. I'll take good care of her. Oh yes, so there you go. Soon enough, Mamie was established in the White House, just like the previous summer. So you're grinning a lot more. Well, she spent a lot of time comforting a stressed president, generally helping out. She was actually more attached to, I assume, an annoyed Carrie. Although there's no evidence that the two did not get on. But I'm guessing Carrie's not blind. No.

So, there you go. Especially when it's at the dinner table. I know. Anyway, by this time, the next Congress started up. And this Congress gained a nickname. The Billion Dollar Congress. Oh, yes. That sounds rich.

Yes, the 52nd Congress, this is. It's a fancy name. Now, Benjamin Harrison is hardly the most famous of presidents, and this is perhaps what he's most well known for. Because the Republicans have a majority in both the houses of Congress. And they wanted to make some changes. Changes that would cost a fair bit of money. Yes.

How much? Quite a bit. However, there's no clear narrative here. And this just turns into a list of legislation. So what we're going to do here, I'm going to give you the names of some of the legislation passed at this time. And you get to choose what you hear about first. That's right.

It's a bit like Choose Your Own Adventure. Oh, brilliant. Yeah. This outcome turned to page 52. You have died. Well, you're an adventurer, as you always are, in the Choose Your Own Adventurer story. Can I wear a hat?

You can have a hat. What kind of hat do you want? Fez. You've got a fez. What kind of weapon do you want? Fez You've got a fez What kind of weapon are you going to have? Toothbrush Toothbrush And what's your aim?

What quest do you want? Oh To Oh, that's a good question Have a good night's sleep Right, okay This is good, right So you're in the castle

Okay And you're trying to get a good night's sleep And you're trying to get to the bedroom because I presume... Sorry, I don't want to take away your agency in your choose your own adventure. Where would you like to sleep? Oh, in like a big barrel full of marshmallows. Nice. That sounds nice.

Okay. Well, you know which room that's in. Yes. You don't know how to get there. Oh. And there are one, two, 3, 4, 5 different rooms with different labels on them. Okay. You can go into the room labelled

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Make a note of these by the way. Okay. Because you are going to have to remember because I'm going to talk about them one by one. My memory's brilliant. So, the first one, as I said, The Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Yeah. Door number 2, The Sherman Antitrust Act. Who's this Sherman? Oh, we'll find, as I said, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Yeah. Door number two, the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Who's this Sherman? Oh, we'll find out. Number three, the Dependent Pension Act. Ooh, that sounds nice. Yeah. Number four, the McKinley Tariff Act. And the final door that you can go through is the Lodge Bill. Ooh.

Ooh, that sounds like a bedroom. Okay, well, well, where are we going to go first on our journey? Ooh, I would like to try the Lodge Bill to find my bed. You want to go to the Lodge Bill. Okay, here we go. The Lodge Bill. So, as we saw in Cleveland's episode,

the election of the first real Democrats since the war led to some tensions sparking up again between North and South. And Harrison was more than aware that black voter suppression was still a thing in the South, very much a thing. So he announced early on in his government he was going to do something about it. To begin with, the Attorney General, William Miller, ordered the Justice Department to launch prosecutions for

alleged infractions of federal laws during the last election. So if you see anything dodgy, sort it out. Actually prosecute. As per usual, though, this went nowhere. Sovereign juries were just not going to convict local governments holding up white supremacists' views, even if they were illegal. It just wasn't happening. So Harrison was frustrated by this. So he decides, along with the Attorney General, that new legislation must be brought forth to strengthen the laws to uphold fair elections.

This can't continue. Yeah, fair point. We need to do something. In fact, I'll quote, When and under what conditions is the black man to have a free ballot? When is he, in fact, to have those civil rights that have so long been in law? When is that equality of influence which our form of government was intended

to secure to the electors to be restored? This generation should courageously face these grave questions and not leave them as a heritage of woe to the next. So sort it now. Don't leave our rubbish behind. Yeah, let's not kick this can down the road. Let's get it

sorted. It's good, yeah? Yeah. Nice. A bill was drafted by a man named Henry Lodge. It's the Lodge Bill. Aww. Yeah, sorry. I was hoping it was my barrel. It's not your barrel of marshmallows, sorry. Well, this bill allowed for federal courts to appoint federal supervisors

during elections for congressional seats. In essence, this means if voter suppression was suspected, in theory, the president could send in the troops to make sure the elections were fair, just like after the Civil War. Yeah. You can imagine the reaction of the Democrats in the South. Yeah, pretty much. But a lot of people all at once. Yeah, pretty much. But a lot of people all at once. Yeah.

Yeah, they branded this bill the Force Bill and claimed that this would bring back the horrors of the post-Civil War South, where soldiers with bayonets pushed around civilians, enforcing them to do things like be fair in their elections. To be democratic. Yeah. One Georgia congressman had an argument against the bill. Do you want to hear his argument? I don't think

I do. No, you don't, but here it is. He declared that the whites of the South would not be, and I quote, overridden and downtrodden by a race that God never intended to rule over us. Oh. Yeah. However, the Republicans had the numbers in Congress

because they hold both houses. So the bill goes through. But that's as far as it goes. Because once the bill hits the Senate, the Democrats filibustered. And the Republicans didn't actually put too much of a fight against this filibuster. Because many of the Republican senators realised that they could

use this as a trade to get support for other legislation that they were pushing such as the Silver Act or the McKinley tariff. Yeah. If we just say fair enough we'll let this one slide then maybe we can get a few Democrats on our side for some of the other bills. Like a quid pro quo

sort of thing. Exactly. Harrison found out about this and was angered. He summoned several senators to the White House and made it very clear that he wanted the Lodge bill to pass, not be used as a negotiation chip for other bills. Yeah. However, it did not help that there were rumours that Blaine thought that the bill was useless.

He stated that as terrible as the situation in the South was, he simply didn't believe that the bill would help the situation. In fact, the situation on our quote plane here, as deep-seated and poisonous as it is, would have to be left to self-cure. Right. Which is really what you want from your Secretary of State when dealing with mass voter suppression.

That will sort itself out. Let nature take its course. Yeah. Anyway, this leads to a split in the Republicans. None wanted to publicly admit to using the Lodge Bill as leverage in other areas. So how about we all agree that come the next session of Congress

this will be number one on our list of priorities. We'll let it slide for now but next Congress we'll definitely do this. First thing we do. There's no way we won't hold both houses next time. Yeah, and if you listen carefully, you can just hear the sound of that can being kicked down the road. Tink, tink, tink. So there you go.

That goes nowhere. And also this room is a dead end with no marshmallow barrel in it. So back into the original room. What would you like next? Right, take me into the Sherman Silver Protection Act, Purchase Act room. Okay, in you go. You go into this room. Is there a handle? No, it's one of

those doors with just like a push sign on it. Oh, no riddle or anything to get through? No, no. There's a man on the left who only speaks in lies and there's a man on the right that only speaks in truths. But they're both asleep so you can just walk straight through. Oh, that's easy. Cool.

Anyway, you go into the room. It's dark. It's slightly recognisable when you turn the light on. And you realise we've kind of been in this room before because we have talked about the Silver Purchase Act in Cleveland's episode. Is it changing the standard to silver rather than gold? Yes, you've got it. Now, as we talked about room before, because we have talked about the Silver Purchase Act in Cleveland's episode. Is it changing the standard to silver rather than gold? Yes, you've got it. Now, as we talked about this before, we're not going to go into a huge amount

of detail here, but a couple of factors had contributed to a debate over the currency. Number one, the farmers in the country were struggling. The economy was not working for them and the tariffs hurt them. And a majority of farmers in the country were in debt one way to reduce the debt was inflation one way to create inflation was to change the currency to be backed by gold and silver instead of just gold so to simplify that farmers want silver currency right the jamie simplification oh i get it now number two a lot of silver had recently been found and silver mine owners suddenly wanted contracts with the government to buy silver a nice steady income for them but why would the government want to buy silver i know what if

for example the government suddenly needed a silverback currency? Yeah. So, all of a sudden, farmers and silver mine owners found themselves wanting the same thing, and they start pushing the government. Now, Harrison wasn't convinced by this. However, he was, like many in the GOP, concerned by the loss of support by northern farmers. We've kind of relied on their support. Yeah. And they're starting to get annoyed with us. Because as much as everyone talks about the industrial north,

there were still a lot of farmers in the north. It wasn't literally all the factories. Anyway, in the end, a compromise was set. The free silver Republicans and Democrats, because you found them in both parties, wanted, as you could probably guess by their name, free and unlimited silver coinage. But instead, a limited amount of silver was to be purchased by the government each year

using certificates that could be redeemed for silver or gold, depending. However, as we saw in Cleveland's episode, by the time he took over Harrison, businesses were selling silver to then exchange it directly for gold and then hoarding the gold. This led to a situation where silver was worth less and less and the price of gold was rising, but the government was exchanging one for the other. Yeah, as we saw, this led to the treasury just running out of gold. This messes the economy up quite a bit, which Cleveland had to fix using his good old chum, J.P. Morgan, and some dodgy deals, which we saw in his episode.

Yeah, it's an unusual case that, as we have already seen the presidency after Harrison's, we actually see a bit of what's coming. Yeah. Yeah, so this kind of all messes up, basically. But this is in the future, of course. For now, Harrison hopes that this would please the farmers. It doesn't.

No, okay. No. And because there is only an angry farmer in this room, you back out of the room. Has he got a pitchfork? He's got a pitchfork made of silver. Ooh. Yeah.

I'll have you get out of my land. Get out of my land. Or I'll set Bessie on you. I'll get out the room. You get out the room. Good. Okay, you have three more doors to choose. Let's go for the McKilty Tariff Act.

The McKinley Tariff Act. McKinley Tariff Act. I couldn't read my writing. Yeah, this is also a familiar room. Oh, by the way, the guard on this one can only speak the truth. So you do need to ask a question to get through. Will I die alone? Yes.

And then he opens the door. Okay. If you don't want to know the answer, Jamie, don't ask the question. No, that's true. Yeah. Anyway, you're in the room. The McKinley Tower fact. We've talked about the tariffs before yeah if you remember uh the government has a surplus of money and they want to lower it

they've got too much money people are asking questions the democrats want to lower the amount of money by lowering the tariffs and therefore helping the economy itself yeah the republicans want to do this by increasing the tariffs, figuring there'll just be less imports if the tariffs are higher. And this would also just so happen to help the manufacturing north. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. If you remember, we used baseballs from Hull to discuss tariffs.

Baseballs from Hull? Yeah. Do you not remember this? No. No, we... Oh! Yeah? Yes. Because they make the not remember this? No. Oh! Yeah? Yes.

Because they make the best balls in the world. Hull, known for their good balls. Yes. So they sold them to America and the Americans loved them but they weren't buying their own American baseballs. No. So the government slapped a tariff on that and then everyone stopped buying the expensive ones. They got the good old American balls and

as they were grabbed hold of the American balls, they improved over time. Yes. Yes. Now, was this an anecdotal story? Is it actually true? I can't remember. No. As far as I'm aware, Hull were never known for making good baseballs.

Okay. No. But it was an illustration of how tariffs work. If you are from Hull, please let us know. Yeah. To try and sum up again in one sentence, the government would tax their own citizens for buying foreign goods in the hope that this would encourage people to buy local goods.

American made. Yeah. And this, in theory, would improve the American industry and keep the money in the country. Of course, what really happened is just the robber barons just pocketed all the cash, but better our robber barons than the foreign robbers. That's true, yeah.

Now the Republicans hold the presidency and Congress, it was time to put their beliefs into action. The Republicans have been saying, let's heighten the tariffs, so that will improve the economy. So let's do this, they think. The Ways and means committee was led by the representative mckinley pop a box around him because obviously we're skipping cleveland's next presidency mckinley is our next episode

oh yeah cool yeah anyway uh he held the hearings uh they listened to many experts in many trades in order to come to the conclusion that they already had. Yeah. Hike up the tariffs. Yes. Odd how that happened. Yeah, weird, isn't it? However, as we saw in Cleveland's episode, the GOP was starting to become concerned that

many Northern farmers, usually staunch Republican voters, were getting fed up of not being able to feed themselves. Bit of a bummer. So again, it's those Northern farmers, they're just, they're angry with us. They're so picky. Yeah, these farmers started looking at the government that they had voted for and started to ask themselves, why exactly are we voting for a party that constantly looks

after industry instead of us? The war was a long time ago now. Maybe I'll give those Democrats a go. No. Can't do it. Can't. No. Can't do it. Can't do it. Can't do it.

I feel sick. Is there another option, though, they start to discuss? Now, Harrison and McKinley were not insensible to this, so they tried to figure something out. Now, the answer to northern farmers being fed up with tariffs, what could they introduce? Tariffs. Got it in one.

More tariffs, they think. That'll solve the problem. Definitely solve the problem. It was the Republican way at this time. If there's a problem, throw a tariff at it. It's like trying to cure a cut with another cut. Yeah. Well, in this case, it's like curing a cut

by going and walking past the farmer who has a cut on him, walking up to a factory owner and cutting him. Ah, okay. Everyone's being cut. Ah, so it's equality. Equally destruction of all industry. With more money going to the robber barons. More tariffs, only this time on things like wool

and other agricultural products. So it wasn't just the factories that were being protected by the tariffs. Now they were starting to protect things produced by farms as well. Oh, okay. Just tariff everything, basically. All right. Now I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of what exactly was included in the new tariffs.

Good. Because it gets detailed. I started down a rabbit hole and pulled myself back out of it when I realized how bad this rabbit hole could be. I was just an accountant rabbit down there. I looked at me with a cold look and I backed out of the burrow. You got some products being left off as olive branches. Some tariffs were increased, some were actually decreased to please other people. But essentially a lot of time and effort was put into place trying to figure out the perfect balance of tariffs where we can hike them as much as possible,

but people will still be happy. Yeah. If you want to find out the details, look it up. It's all mostly on Wikipedia. It's really easy to look up. I can't guarantee you it's interesting. To sum it up, though, tariffs increased in the country. Harrison and McKinley insisted that this would reduce the government surplus.

However, what most people in the country saw in their day-to-day lives was that goods were becoming more expensive. It's like nowadays, isn't it? Yeah. And the farmers were still not happy. This just didn't do enough to allow them to stop their farms from going under. So this room also just has an angry farmer in it. Oh, not another one.

Yeah, might be the same one. Maybe there's a through door. Yeah, oh no. Oh, he said get out of my land. He throws the silver pitchfork at you. Oh no, I'm out. You're out. I rolled a six, I'm out, I'm fine.

He wong, wong, wong, wongs into the door as you close it. You walk past the truth-telling guard. Can I ask him another question? You can, yeah. I love you. He nods. He doesn't answer anything because it's not a question.

He nods. He gets it a lot. Does he? The truth guard, he's a locker. Yeah, oh, is he? Chiseled. Yes, the blue steely eyes.

Yeah, it is. Anyway, you've got two more doors to choose from. You're going to find your barrow of marshmallows at some point. I've only got one door to go through. Oh, have you? That's why I told you to write it down. Yeah, I did.

The Dependent Pensions. No, no, you've got two. You haven't done the Antitrust Act either. What is that? Oh, I moved it aside. The Sherman Antitrust Act. That's why. Well, let's go with the Sherman Antitrust Act.

There was also a guard on this one. But he's dead. Oh. Yeah. Bleeding out. Pitchfork. Recently been stabbed. Oh.

Yeah. That's concerning. It is. I don't want to go in this room. No, you're going in the room. Which room is it again? The Sherman Antitrust Act. Okay.

I mean, the truth-telling guards. These doors are all lined up in a row, so you could just ask him what happened. Oh, can I? Yeah, if you want. What happened? I killed him. Why? Because I lust for blood.

Oh, are you going to kill me? Yes. That's your three questions. He shuts down then. You've only got three questions. Anyway, go into the room. That was my fifth question. I'm going in.

You're going in, right. Antitrust act, yeah? Yes. Okay. This legislation. You're going in. Right. Antitrust act, yeah? Yes. Okay. This legislation is all about monopolies. Oh, I like that game. Yeah. Way steep in the Gilded Age we are now.

Many workers were striking over the small petty fat that they were all starving to death. Yeah. People, for some reason, started to blame the big businesses. Can't understand why. I'm so whiny. Yeah. People, for some reason, started to blame the big businesses. Can't understand why. They're so whiny. Yeah. Anyway, Harrison, as we saw last episode, did not have the best reputation in this area. Remember, he sided with the big businesses

in the past over strikers. Yeah. And a lot of workers in the country were not best pleased with him in this area. So, one way to make things better, thought Harrison, was to go after monopolies. Personally, he was all for big business, but he was aware that once a company got so big that it crushes all competition,

then they often become, and I'll quote him here, dangerous conspiracies against the public good and should be made the subject of prohibitory and even penal legislation. Is that on size or on usage? Of the prisons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good word, that.

It is. It is. I love the smile while you said it. You're 12. I'll be honest, I am impressed with your reaction. I was expecting more. I was being uncharacteristically restrained. Yes, you were.

Anyway, he let it be known that Congress should look into how much federal government could regulate business. As you can imagine, this doesn't please many big business owners. No. But, in the current climate, many realise that something needs to be done. There are a lot of angry workers. Lots of strikes are going on. People are actually talking about revolution here. Oh, again? Yeah.

I mean, nothing big has happened yet, but I mean things like this happen quickly when they happen. Yeah. Just one or two, well, like a group of people gathering, just having a big shouty conversation. Someone stands on a barrel and starts shouting a bit more.

Yeah, you know how it works. Yeah. Even the big businesses realised something needed to be done. And also, the big businesses loved being big businesses, but they were also wary of monopolies, because after all, monopolies could crush them. So, Sherman drew up a bill. The same Sherman who did the Silver Purchase Act. Yeah. This is the Antitrust Act. Not going to go into the details. It's very detailed, this. But essentially, it put in place measures to stop

business owners curtailing trade or commerce to produce a monopoly. Right. The bill passed almost unanimously. It was a popular blow to the powerful businesses in the public eye. Yeah. And the business owners and the politicians probably knew how it would actually turn out as well.

Because as much as this was in some ways a monumental bill, this is the federal government infringing on businesses, telling businesses what they can and can't do. That is a big deal. Does that go against the Constitution a little bit? No, although it goes against what many people believe in America. Opportunity.

There is certainly nothing in the Constitution to stop it, which is why it passes. But as you can imagine, this is something we've not really seen before. However, it just doesn't really do anything in real life, though. Because who is going to bring these cases against these powerful monopolies? A member of the public?

Obviously not. They'd be crushed. Oh, yeah. The politicians are profiting from these businesses. I mean, if you've got one business who's fully in charge of one sector, how do you bring it down? I mean, who's stopping Facebook? Well, yeah. It's just very hard in real life

to stop a monopoly once it's grown roots. Well, look at Amazon as well. Yeah, exactly. Hashtag second Gilded Age. So anyway, as much as in some ways this is a monumental bill, it ends up having very little teeth.

It doesn't really go anywhere. More ceremonial, rather. Yeah. So because you just see a little bill with little teeth on the floor looking sad. I look like a little puppy. Yeah. You decide to leave the room because there's no bowel with marshmallows. Oh.

Okay. So you've only got one more. Oh, it's a dependent pension room. It's a very old looking door. Old, creaky got one more. Oh, it's a dependent pension room. It's a very old-looking door. Old, creaky, wooden panels. It's good. There's no guard on this door. Oh, okay.

Just a packed lunch that looks abandoned. Oh. Yeah. What a break. The truth guard's still, like, two doors down, but he's the only one around now. Anyway, you open the door, in you go. Candlelit room. Very nice, isn't it?

This is the Dependent Pension Act. Not much to talk about this one. It's a very simple room. As we saw in Cleveland's episode, Cleveland vetoed soldiers from the war from getting a pension if they were unable to support themselves. That was in Cleveland's first term, so that's already happened. Yes. support themselves. That was in Cleveland's first term, so that's already happened.

Yes. With the numbers in Congress, the Republicans decide to make sure this bill goes through now. So it does. Each veteran got $12 a month to help him and his family survive. And if the veteran died, his family would get it.

Yeah. I imagine $12 then is probably a lot more than it is now. This is huge. This is really big. 40% of the government's budget was taken up by paying for these pensions. Would this be just civil war or from now on, if you're in the army, this is your pension? We'll get into that for now. It's just a civil war.

That, for now, is just the Civil War. But, as we see, it could be argued this morphs into a more general pension and then into a social security network. I had no idea America was so socialist. My goodness. Well, we'll see where we're getting there. What a socialist country it is. This is controversial to some. Many opposed it.

But some in the government realised that, as they're trying to get rid of all this money anyway, why not do something to stop our citizens from starving to death? I mean, there's an idea. Since it's lying around. Yeah, it's a very forward-looking country, nice. Yeah. So there you go. I mean, it's just done.

It works. And just overnight, hundreds of thousands of families who were starving to death and struggling to live are suddenly a lot more comfortable. Ain't that nice? Yeah. In fact, it's so nice, you realise there's a barrel full of marshmallows. Oh! Yeah. Yay.

Open the lid. You're climbing. You snuggle down. Oh. And you can't quite get the lid on top, so you call for help. There's a truth guy coming. Truth guy comes in. Yeah. Can you help me with the lid. You're climbing. You snuggle down. Oh. You can't quite get the lid on top, so you call for help. There's a truth guy coming. Truth guy comes in. Yeah.

Can you help me with the lid? No. Why not? I'm going to kill you now. And then he plunges his knife into your heart. But I rolled an eight. Doesn't matter. The dice won't stop a knife.

No. And as the blood slowly seeps into the marshmallows, we end our little adventure. There you go. I hope you liked our little look into the legislation that was passed during Harrison's presidency.

You're dead, aren't you? But it's only Adventure Jamie who's dead. Real Jamie can come back. Oh, okay. Thank you. That was a shocking ending. I did not like that at all. Was it shocking? He literally told you he was going to do it. I don't know. I thought you'd try, but I'd roll my eight. I thought, brilliant, that's a protective shield, but...

He tells the truth. Oh, he really does. He does. Anyway, let's continue this story with Harrison, shall we? All of that's going on throughout the first half of his presidency. It all overlaps. There is no easy way to say all that as a narrative. Yeah.

But just know that lots of bills are going on, some more successful than others. The veterans get their pension, that's good, but the farmers are not pleased, and the black population of the South are still being oppressed. Things were also a lot more expensive nowadays, but there's now a law stopping the big businesses from becoming monopolies, which is nice. As soon as someone actually uses that law, that would be brilliant.

So the Harrisons and his family decide to have a brief holiday in the Pennsylvania mountains. Harrison went on frequent walks with Mamie and his family. Really? Oh yeah. When Mamie was writing to her sister in Samoa, she left

the letter half finished and went off to go and do something else. Writing letters took a long time back then because they wrote long letters. Yes. Anyway, when she came back, she found that Harrison had come by and cheekily written Mamie has been a tolerably agreeable girl

on the letter. And, oh, she sent it anyway. That's disgusting. Yeah, it's really giving off the whole creepy uncle vibe, isn't it? It really is. So, genuinely, was this a thing? We'll talk about that later. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, when the family returned to

Washington, they found a renovated white house oh it's actually white yes uh carrie had been spending her time productively so far she'd been up a ladder whitewashing one hand furiously whitewashing to try and chase away the doubts he loves me he loves me he loves me yeah uh well obviously carrie was on the holiday but she'd left instructions okay yeah and uh yeah so when you said she was busy she wasn't the plans were to make the mansion more up-to-date more modern she had pushed for expanding the building putting on that west wing uh but congress went no now that cost a fortune we have no money at all aren't we spending all our days trying to figure out how to spend all the money we've got

no quick tariff tariff uh so instead uh the mansion was refurbished from head to toe all of the uh the uh stuff that arthur put in. That gets ripped out. The glass walls go. Oh no! Yeah, no longer looks like the Crystal Palace anymore. Oh, well. Oh, Tiffany. Tiffany, that's it, yeah. The most exciting thing was the electric

lighting that was installed throughout. Very unsettling humming when the lights are turned on. Well, Benjamin and Carrie were not best pleased with this modern lighting. I guess it would seem very harsh as well, because it's a lot brighter and if you're used to gas lights your whole life and suddenly these

lights come on and everything's in your eyes. I don't know if this is a British thing, but I have this memory of when they first introduced in the late Victorian times, you'd literally have your lights in the middle of the room and the plug socket would come down there as well, or your power outlet would hang down from the light.

So you'd have things plugged like almost into the seat, like from a dangling cable in the middle of the room. Oh, no, no. You see, it was all very modern in the White House. Was it? Yeah, because they had plastered the wires into the room. It was all explained to them when they came back. You mean there's electricity in the walls?

Don't touch them! Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it was explained to them that the wires are in the room. We've plastered over them. And in each room, we've put in a switch in the circuit that can break and reconnect the circuit. And we've put these switches in the wall. And that allows you to control the circuit that can break and reconnect the circuit. And we put these switches in the wall, and that allows you to control the circuit.

So when you turn it on, the lights come on, and when you turn it off, the lights turn off. We call it a light switch. It was all very high-tech. Benjamin and Carrie refused to use the light switches. So I'm not touching that. It's metal, and it's got controlled electricity. It's part of the circuit

i've i've heard how these things work you don't touch the circuit no mr president to be absolutely fine i just need to ask one question do you have any fillings did you put the rubber boots on and the gloves instead the uh domestic staff were instructed to use the switches when they were needed. Benjamin and Carrie didn't go near him. Tony, Tony! Could you turn the light on for me, please? But so I have a family. Come on, Tony, I need to sign it. I can't see this letter.

I don't want to. Just step over Jeremy there. He's still fizzing a bit. He stopped twitching. Must be a good sign he was up after only 10 minutes this morning i think it's getting better uh well the electric lights weren't needed all the time the electric lights were actually uh a backup system there were still gas lamps but if they ran out of gas you could use the electric one in an emergency. That's cool. Just not in rain. I like to think it was all red lighting, the emergency one.

They kick it. Not like strobe lighting. It wasn't designed to be that way. No. Early days. Just a hamster in the water. Anyway, whilst all this is going on, Harrison's back to work. He approved the building up of the Navy.

Three new battleships were commissioned. Six million dollars apiece. Ooh, even now that's... Yeah. Harrison had figured out a way how to get rid of the surplus. How much? Excellent. We'll get three.

Yeah. By this point, the legislation that we talked about before was largely passed or passed over in the case of some. It was recognised that this Congress and the President had got a lot done. But that doesn't mean that it was popular. It just means that a lot was done and the midterms were now upon them. The Republicans did not do well, shall we say. No. Did they lose the both houses? No, actually. We'll get to that. But if you remember the Farmers' Alliances that we talked about in Cleveland's episode. Yes. All those angry farmers started to get together and think,

is there an alternative to the Republicans and the Democrats? Oh. Or maybe there is. Maybe we can start forming our own party here. So especially in the North, this just drains the support of the Republicans. They went from holding the House, having a good, decent majority, to having only 88 seats to the Democrats'

235. Whoa! That's annihilation. They were slaughtered. They held the Senate just, but they lost their massive majority. And the way the Senate works with rotating elections, it just so happened that they were relatively safe in those seats. Yeah. Very similar to how Trump kept the Senate.

But, I mean, he was never going to lose the Senate. And this upcoming election, there's only about 20 Senate seats coming up. Yeah yeah it changes each time because it's weird isn't it third of the house is voted on each time so sometimes you get elections where there's no way it's going to change and sometimes you can get sea changes yeah just depends which seats are up for grabs yeah but anyway so yeah they keep hold of the senate just but i mean mean, this is hugely damaging and an indictment on the president. Well, yeah. Yes. Harrison himself hoped that this was not a sign of the upcoming presidential election in a couple of years.

He attempted to explain the loss away and I'll quote him, I do not believe the Democratic Party had grown in the confidence of the country. Instead, he blamed it on infighting in the Republicans and the rise of the Farmers' Alliances. He's right. Which, yeah, he's right, but it also kind of misses the point. It doesn't matter that the Democrats aren't getting more popular. If your party's falling apart, that's kind of important.

You can't just go, oh, well, not my fault. Still, many Republicans thought the blame lay squarely with one man, and that of course is Harrison. Many started to talk about Blaine stepping in for the next election. Good old Blaine. I mean, he stood down for the last nominations, but surely Blaine should come and do it. Shortly afterwards, however, the president was distracted by some disturbing news. Troops had clashed with a population of Native Americans in South Dakota. Yeah, this is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Wounded Knee, but the Wounded Knee Massacre is a much better description.

Recently, there had been word coming from the West of possible uprisings in the region. Harrison had read these reports and ordered that the military in the region be prepared. We need to make sure we can get a handle on this. Uprising from native American Indians. However, Harrison then received other reports saying that the Sioux in the area were being cheated in land agreements and also the stories of this potential uprising were simply not true,

or at the very least, vastly exaggerated. So you might be being a bit heavy-handed here. Harrison then ordered the Interior Department to make an investigation. Well, what is going on over there, then? A friend of Harrison's from the war, not William Wallace, I did check.

Aww. Yeah. I forgot about him. I could find no mention of him at all during this period. I'm guessing he's around. A lot of people moved into the White House. Let's say he did as well. Hey, got me a room. Yeah, he's just been in that room drinking whiskey the whole time. Just the occasion to hear a weird banging sound.

Yeah. And a shout of expletives. They tried to install electric lighting in that room. He had none of that. I tell you what, you can take your electric lighting and shove it up your arse. That's slightly Irish there. Hey, Celtic.

Same thing. Well, let's say a friend of Harrison's from the war and William Wallace, he can go on this journey as well. Anyway, they went and investigated. A report was put together that essentially, and I am hugely paraphrasing here,

stated that some of the Sioux were breaking the law, but come on now, what do you expect? Look how we're treating them. Yeah. In fact, I will quote it here. The great many of them have the right to expect sympathy, help, and last but by no means least, justice. So yeah, the report was, yeah, it's a bit of trouble, but there's not much, and seriously, by no means least, justice. So yeah, the report was,

yeah, it's a bit of trouble, but there's not much, and seriously, we are awful people. That's neat. You don't often hear things like that, do you? It's quite very, very honest and very kind of weird- It's refreshing.

Harrison was reading this report, probably thinking how refreshing getting a nice, truthful report on the situation when news of the massacre came in. A regiment of US troops had gone into a Lakota camp with the intention of disarming the settlement.

What happened is, as you can imagine, disputed, but the general gist appears to be that the United States troops confiscated most of the weapons from the Lakota, but this led to arguments and tensions, as you can imagine, and then it would appear that a rifle went off as it was being forcibly taken from someone's hand.

The troops then opened fire. The numbers of the villagers killed is disputed, but within the region of 200 to 300 men, women and children were just slaughtered. Harrison was shocked by this. He ordered that the leading commander in the area investigate this massacre immediately. I'll quote him, if there was any unsoldierly conduct, you will relieve the responsible officer.

He also ordered that no more fighting take place. Like, seriously, everyone's on a knife edge here. Just chill out. Put your claymore away, William. You will be shocked to learn that the officer in charge at the time was found not responsible the women children killed were due to them being intermingled with the men fighting back they were not targeted apparently so that's nice just indiscriminate killing. Yeah.

Sorry, murder. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, these things happen. Yeah. Whoopsie. Chocolate to experience, eh? Harrison soon told a friend that he was gratified that the situation had, and I'll quote here, been closed so speedily.

Disgracegate. Yeah. This is pretty much brushed under the carpet after this. No major changes are made whatsoever. Anyway, soon after this, Harrison's attention was turned to international affairs. Now, for time reasons, we're not going to go into a huge amount of detail here, but just know that the United States and Britain got into an argument again, this time over fishing rights. Oh, I feel like us soon. Well, yeah. yeah well because fishing rights are arguably even more boring than tariffs i'm just not going to go into this one just know that there was some dispute over fishing rights was it like over one particular fish i'd like to think this carp is mine i found

him but actually it was more to do with seals at this point oh yeah uh and uh canada and yeah up near alaska that kind of area. They love their seals. Yeah, so there was some falling outs going on, but it was all smoothed over. No war happened. At least it wasn't sealy bad. Then, in Chile, some US sailors on shore leave got into a fight with the locals, which might sound like so.

They're on holiday, of course. Well, this escalates, as you'll see. But the fight was due to tensions between the two countries. Now, we've not gone into this at all. No. Because we've not really needed to. It's the first time you've mentioned Chile. Well, just know that Chile around this time is having a few wars

and actually has one of the most powerful navies in the region, certainly in South America. The United States are growing their navy, what with the new battleships, and they're starting to rival the Chilean navy. So we're starting to see a bit of a power struggle going on here. Because of this, tensions arise between the two countries. Then, when an American ship stops for shore leave in Chile, and some of the soldiers who pop to shore end up being stabbed and killed, this turns into a diplomatic affair. The captain of the ship accused the Chilean government of killing his two men just because they were US troops.

The police attacked them without provocation, apparently. Right. The Chilean government stated, what, no, this was a drunken bar brawl. They happen in every port in the world. Seriously, what are you talking about? Harrison, however, saw this as an insult and demanded an apology. Not just an apology, I'm talking on your knees.

The Chilean government, incredulous, simply stated, no, this is a criminal matter. It was a bar fight. It's literally nothing. Yeah, what are you talking about? Why are you blowing this out of proportion? Harrison responded, and I'll quote him this time, If the dignity as well as the prestige and influence of the United States

are not to be wholly sacrificed, we must protect those who in foreign ports displays the flag or wear the colours. To which T replied, well, you should be representing your flag on the colours and rather getting drunk. No, Chilly then went, okay, we're sorry, here's $75,000. What? Yeah.

This is the United States starting to throw their weight around a little bit more, realizing, actually, we're pretty big now. We've been the plucky underdog for quite some time. No, we're the big dog. This puppy has grown. Yeah, it's like we're building these massive bridges and these colossal statues, and we've got warships and everything now. Well, I say we're building everything. I mean, it's the immigrants and the French. Well, yeah, but it's all very impressive.

Yes, it looks good. Anyway, by this point, the next election was drawing close and there was one important question. Should the Republicans still support the president or should Blaine be put in charge? However, despite Harrison's unpopularity, Blaine's health was failing. So he once more, just like last time, publicly stated he would not run. And all those men around him, once again, wisely nodded and went,

Oh, yes, we understand, sir. Yes. Of course. Tap the noses. Not running. Some, however, remembering last time, went, maybe he actually means this. Yes, he does look very ill.

Is there someone else we can throw our weight behind? I mean, yes, he's gone yellow. Well, some people suggested McKinley. He's doing all right for himself. Nah, I never get it. It's fine. And then there were some who insisted that, no, we should probably stick behind our president. It will look weak if we swap our nominee round. Yeah.

Then, however, rumour starts going round. No, no, Blaine is actually in. Oh. This speculation was helped when Blaine suddenly resigned from the Secretary of State job. Ah. Yeah, like days before the convention. Mm.

It's like, well, that doesn't look good. And he's wearing an I'm in T-shirt. Yeah. It's very suspicious. However, in the end, the Blaine support was just not enough. During the convention, both Blaine and McKinley got a substantial number of votes,

but most supported the president. By most, technically it is most, but it was still only about 60%. It was enough to get the nomination, but it's hardly a glowing endorsement. No. No.

But still, Harrison's up once more. The election campaign started. However, it soon became clear that Harrison was not going to be able to focus on the campaign because Carrie was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Ooh, no. Yeah. That was lots of standing on train stations,

coughing into handkerchiefs and then looking very worried yeah that scene is in every period drama yeah yeah because even in the 50s like it was sort of deadly in the 1800s yeah my grandfather had it at half a long yes i remember you saying in our roman one when when we were talking about consumption, when we realised that consumption was just TB. Yeah. Nasty. Yeah, but getting half a lung removed in the 50s.

Oh. That's not good. No. I mean, getting your jaw redone in the 1800s is insane, but medicine was terrible back then. It really was. Anyway, it was recommended that Carrie rest in their New Jersey cottage. You know, the one that they just

acquired? Oh yes, the one he paid for. Yes. His friend said, I never got that cheque, so just saying. Well... Oh, I definitely sent it. Yeah, so Carrie goes off to rest. Harrison's got to finish off the session of Congress. I mean, he has got

a job to do. But understandably, he could not really focus. In fact, I'll quote him here. Politics and business have been crowding me every day and night. And with the anxiety about your mother, it makes life just about now a burden and ambition an illusion. Aw. Yeah, so he's stopped thinking about the election. He just

he's just worried about Carrie. Goes and gets comfort from Mary. Well, Mamie's with Carrie. She goes with Carrie to look after her. It's even worse. Carrie just coughing up and then looks up. Oh, it's you, is it? Anyway, once Congress was

adjourned, Harrison rushed off to see his wife and was much relieved to see that she seemed somewhat better. She seems to be on the mend. So he starts to plan campaigning. But then another crisis crosses his desk. This is another large-scale strike, this time in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Now, this is actually before the one that we did in Cleveland's's episode because that was during his second term right this is arguably one of the first really organized strikes most of them up until this point have been fairly haphazard spontaneous groups of men just walking out

it evolving yeah this this one was organized the steel workers were striking over a cut of their wages by the Carnegie Steel Company. The strike was a concerted effort to make the company change policy with clear aims from the beginning by the Steel Worker Union. Workers walked out and they surrounded the plant to stop the company from shipping new men in. The factory boss, however, hired the Pinkerton Detective Company to break the strike. The Pinkertons. The Pinkert break the strike. The Pinkertons.

The Pinkertons, yes. The Pinkertons, a large force of them, they recruited some new members just for this, decide to approach the factory via river. A river flowed past the factory, which was common. So they came floating down the river on large boats or barges. At some point, the strikers notice the Pinkertons floating towards them and shouts out a warning. There was lots of angry shouting, and then a shot was fired. That's not a...

That's never a good sign. And then everyone starts shooting. Yeah. Yeah. The two sides run for cover, the strikers on the shore and the Pinkertons on their barges. And for the next few hours, they just take potshots at each other. You could argue it's escalated somewhat. It has escalated.

Every now and again, someone will get hit and die. Oh dear. Yeah. Could have been me. The Pinkertons, who, like I say, many of them were new recruits for this raid, they start to panic. They didn't sign up this morning for this. No.

Yeah. The Pinkerton captain threatened to shoot any new recruit who fled. Fair enough. Yeah. However, still, apparently a lot of the Pinkertons who were not in the mood for this congregated on the barge that was furthest away from the shore and just refused to join in.

Sit down, arms crossed. Nope, not doing it. Screw you. The strikers then attempted several ways to burn the barges that the Pinkertons were on. This fire helps. Well, fire does help, so they set fire to another barge and push it out towards the...

Really slowly. Yeah, it doesn't get to them, doesn't work. They try rolling a... What sounded like, it was hard to tell, but you know, like those carriages on tracks that would be used to shovel, to move coal around. Oh, the wheelie up and down thing. No. No.

On the back of the... Just like a big, big bucket that you'd put coal in and move it along the tracks. Yeah, they set fire to one of them and just rolled it down the hill towards the shore in the hope that it would just, like, fling into the river. No, it didn't work. Of course it didn't.

It just hit the shore and stopped. Oh, yeah. However, then someone, let's call him Lucky Dave, came wandering up and said, Hey, look, lads, look what I found holding out sticks of dynamite. Oh. Yeah. So the strikers light of dynamite. Oh. Yeah. So the strikers light their dynamite

and start hurling them towards the barges. Most of them miss completely. One damages one of the barges slightly, but it doesn't actually have the effect that Hollywood would have you believe it would. No. There were massive explosions, fireballs. No.

Yeah, so that didn't really happen. I'm feeling sorry for the poor dogs that were with them. It's like, fetch. Okay. Brought them back. No. Yes, that didn't really happen. I'm feeling sorry for the poor dogs that were with them. It's like, fetch, okay. Brought them back. No! So after several hours, the Pinkertons surrender. They were assured that they would be given safe passage to the edge of town. Which they sort of

were, but as you can imagine, the mood was not a good one. And as the Pinkerton were led from the factory, many started throwing stones at them or just lumps of sand. A couple of Pinkerton men were clubbed unconscious. Ah, yeah. The rest were led to the outskirts of town, however, and told to go away.

It was not long, however, before the state militia arrived, as you can imagine. The strikers had hoped they could get the militia on side. I mean, the state militia, these are men from around here. Maybe they'll join us. Nope.

No. Definitely not. With the overwhelming force of the militia, the Carnegie factory just starts up again. Yeah. The strike is broken. The press focused on the treatment of the surrendering Pinkertons more than anything else,

and public support for the strikers collapsed. They were seen as a dangerous group of rebels. Was that due to propaganda, do you think, as well? Well, again, I mean, the rubber band ones own the press. They get to show how this went down through their eyes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's not to say the strikers were all angelic, wonderful people.

Oh, no, of course not. I mean, they were clubbing people to death, throwing sticks of dynamite at people. But they were doing it for a reason. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, the union was utterly destroyed by this, the steel union, that was doing quite well up to this point. Yeah.

Yeah, workers just stop joining this union. It collapses. And workers' rights take another setback. And ten men were killed that day. Oh. Now, Harrison, not personally involved in this at at all obviously, but it didn't look good. No. I mean remember at the start he had promised that his tariffs would aid workers in the

country. Everyone was going to be better off he said. But here were people dying because wages were being argued over. Yeah. Yeah. So Harrison plans to deliver some speeches to defend his tariffs. Look, it's actually fine. I know that we just had this massive

battle over wages and people died, but honestly, the tariffs are a good thing. Yeah, because um And that's about as far as he gets, because then news comes from the doctors. Carrie had suddenly taken a turn for the worst.

She was brought back to the White House, where four days later, she dies. Oh no. Yeah. Harrison, understandably, was devastated. He dealt with the funeral back home in Indianapolis, and all but forgot the fact that he was running for president. The campaign just shuts

down. It would be. Yeah, if you remember, I mentioned Cleveland just stops campaigning. This is the most low-key election in American history. I mean, if you were Harrison's sort of campaign manager, you'd think, sympathy vote? Well, yeah, even sympathy for the widower president could not persuade the public to give Harrison a second chance. However, a lot of people in his own party were fed up with him.

The general public certainly were. Cleveland won a decisive victory. Many tried to explain the reasons for Harrison's loss. Perhaps it was the strike before the election. Maybe it was the high tariffs. Maybe it was fear that he would push the lodge bill again from the South. Harrison had one theory, though.

He blamed all of the working men who had not gotten behind his tariffs protecting industry. In fact, I'll quote him here. The working man declined to walk under the protective umbrella because it shouted his employer also. He has smashed it for the fun

of seeing the silk stockings in the rain. The kind of attitude that perhaps was the real reason for Harrison's loss, I can't help but feel. Yes, I think so. Yeah. What's it called? The sheer ambivalence, the... Lack of empathy?

Yes. Yeah. He just, like many in this age who were rich, they just did not understand that these poor factory workers were living under horrible conditions and just wanted a better life. And if they were in poor conditions, it's their own fault. Oh, yes, of course.

Which I think is still a view. Yeah, unfortunately so. Anyway, Harrison just then planned to work out the remaining months and then retire, get back home. However, one more incident crosses his desk before he can do so. Now for time reasons, unfortunately we can't really

go into this in detail, but the Hawaiian Queen was overthrown, mainly from American born immigrants, or at least descended from American immigrants. To simplify this hugely, many of the American immigrants were rich sugar plantation owners. Yes, I don't think factory worker immigrants here. These were rich men who went over, claimed a plantation, grew sugar, and made a fortune. Now, because they made so much money, whatever tax they made went to the Hawaiian government. So these plantation owners started

saying, well, if we give you this much money, we should have more of a say in your government. The current queen of Hawaii pushed back. It's like, no, you can't. And then a revolt broke out. It just so happened that a US warship happened to be nearby with some US troops on. Oh, very convenient. Very convenient. Yeah, Harrison received word from the Queen of Hawaii not long afterwards asking him not to annex the country and stating that US forces had taken a lead in the revolt. What are you up to? Are you taking us over?

Do you know what? I'd never imagined that Hawaii was its own country before. You have, on many times in this podcast, been shocked at the existence of Hawaii or the fact that people even know that it's around. It's always a mythical place. Yeah, because it's just a little tiny island in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean. It's just so small and it's like, place. Yeah, because it's just a little tiny island in the middle of nowhere. The Pacific Ocean.

It's just so small. And on a map, it's just in the middle of literally nowhere. There's nothing there. But it's a country. I had no idea. I had a queen. No idea. Yeah.

The history of Hawaii is a fascinating one. We just don't have time to go into it. We should do a special episode about it. That would be amazing. We should. Harrison had a think about what was going on in Hawaii. He decided that restoring the Queen was not really in the interest of the United States. It's incompatible with United States projected aims.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it was decided, I know, let's let Cleveland deal with this. Which he did, if you remember in Cleveland's episode. And again, it kind of got just tacked on on the end like it has this time. But Cleveland was less enthusiastic than Harrison about annexing the island. And just went, no, we really shouldn't do this. So it does get scaled back.

But as you can see, the United States are very interested in Hawaii. It's now on their radar. Yeah. That'd make a fantastic holiday destination. Anyway, Harrison then retires. He moves back home with his daughter and his grandchildren and gets used to life without Carrie. He soon settled down

as a retired grandfather, but he was missing something. Something in his life seemed empty. Oh. His wife is dead. He writes a letter. Oh. His wife is dead. He writes a letter. Oh. Mamie soon arrives. His daughter Mary, not impressed. Really not impressed. I have refrained from writing, Mamie, and surely, though my silence would be taken as hint enough that she was not wanted by me, at least, I am keeping calm, but the day will come yet when father will realise that his treatment of his children has been anything

but kind. Yeah. Mary doesn't like Mamie. It would appear they fell out whilst they were at the White House. And, uh... Well, I can see why. Yeah. If you remember, Mary and Mamie are practically the same age as each other. Ooh, that's weird.

Mary's a year older. Which Mary? Mary's daughter is a year older than Mamie. Oh, that's really creepy. Anyway, Mamie starts visiting the house more and more often and Mary grows more

and more annoyed. I'll quote her again. I freely confess that I so thoroughly despise the woman so much that I cannot form an unbiased opinion. Yeah. Mary and Russell therefore were utterly horrified when their father told them

that he intended to marry their cousin. Say hello to your new mummy. Slash cousin. Yeah. The family fall out big time. Mary and Russell move their things out of the large family home. And Harrison wrote to

Mamie, angered with his children's selfishness. Still, the two get married. In 1896, Mamie gave birth to their daughter in 1897. 18 years away from World War I. Yeah, yeah, we're close.

Wow. And then in 1901, Harrison developed a bad case of flu. 1901? Yeah. Mamie was the only one with him when he died. His children hated him by this point. Died of the flu. So, there we go.

That's Harrison. Interesting life, actually. More interesting than I was anticipating because everyone just said he's really dull, really boring, and you just said it multiple times. I get the impression he was a boring person to be around.

Yes. I think he was perhaps quite dull. But, yeah, it's certainly not a run-of-the-mill life. No. No. Anyway, let's rate him. Let's do it. Statesmanship!-the-mill life. No. No. Anyway, let's rate him.

Let's do it. Statementship! Well, he got a lot done. He's known for that. But it was a mixed bag, wasn't it? Yeah, I mean, like you said, you know, he got a lot done, but not everyone was happy. It depends who you are, I imagine. Yeah, I mean, a lot of it seemed well-intentioned.

I mean, the antitrust law was like let's go after the monopolies. It just didn't really work. The tariffs, I mean, you get the impression Harrison genuinely believed high tariffs would be better for the country. You don't get the impression he was in bed with the big companies. It wasn't like Arthur or Cleveland to some extent

where you're like, really? Or are you just doing this to line the pockets of your friends? Well, that's the thing. My impression's always been he was sort of manipulated into it. Quite possibly, yeah. This would be great to do. Yeah.

Advise to do that, and then, you know, that advisor's suddenly becoming a millionaire. Yeah. Anyway, I mean, the tariffs, it just, it messes up the economy. It does. It does.

Well, I mean, certainly the Silver Purchase Act does. The move to try and secure voting rights for black men was a good move. In fact, Benjamin Harrison was well-liked by many of the black population of America. Frederick Douglass, who's still around, declared that Benjamin Harrison was the best Republican president, therefore best president there had been. Even better than

Lincoln, because he actually was trying to do something for the black people of America. But unfortunately, you can't get away from the fact that it failed. I mean, it got traded away, which is a shame. Is it a shame for him because he should have pushed for it more? Well, I mean, you do get the impression he did push for it

and there is only so much a president can do if Congress are deciding to go another way. Yeah. So, I mean... And that makes him look not very powerful as well. Well, yeah, we are very much in an age where the president doesn't seem as powerful. Which is a good thing. It's how the government was set up, yeah, we are very much in an age where the president doesn't seem as powerful. Which is a good thing.

Because it's how the government was set up. Yeah. Congress should really have certainly at least as much power as the president. We, at the moment, really don't have that. Anyway, the pensions, though. I mean, that's a good thing. Yes. There were people literally starving to death, unable to provide for themselves.

And they were suddenly able to survive. Yes. Thanks to the government. Yeah. That's just a big tick, that one. Yeah, it is. Yeah. That's great.

Probably a double tick. Yeah. He was a bit heavy-handed when it came to foreign policy. Chilly and... Well, yeah, I mean, this is something that won support at the time. Well, yeah. Yeah. In fact, this is something that would win a lot of support

still now i imagine but perhaps this is my outside of you as not being american myself as i said earlier we're starting to get to the point where the united states are no longer the plucky underdogs throwing your weight around doesn't look quite as good if you're everybody else yeah yeah when you're fighting against the brit Empire and you're doing well, it's like, yeah, go America. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you're picking on Hawaii, go America. And the thin slither of chili. Oh, chili were quite powerful at that point.

No, no, they were powerful. But, yeah. But, yeah. We certainly see more of this to come. We do. We're living in it rob wow yeah um that's about it really he certainly i mean he worked in the senate for a while i know he talked about tariffs mostly it's his statesmanship isn't it yeah so i mean he didn't look after the farmers i mean wanted to but he didn't yeah the gold standard thing but he was against that wasn't he he was unsure he didn't

want he had little faith in the silver purchase act but he recognized that he needed to do something to modify the farmers unfortunately it just wasn't enough to modify the farmers and it also messed up the economy yeah so i mean i've got to give him a for effort yeah but i think it just wasn't that great, though, was it? No, I couldn't give him more than a four, I don't think. I'm going to go half marks. Really? Mainly because I'm really impressed with the pensions.

I think there are things that overbalance it for me, that sort of push it beyond that. Give it a nine. Nine? Yeah, I'm happy with nine. Let's go on. Disgrace game. The cottage! Well, he is definitely one of the more squeaky clean presidents. There is very little to go

on here. There's only three things, really. Maybe four. Number one, the cottage. Yeah. It seemed a bit dodgy. That's a good chance it was. But maybe he was just there's nothing else in his story like this though so maybe he genuinely was just buying the cottage

he just thought it's a lovely oh yeah okay yeah maybe it was just one of those things that kind of got away from him and he went oh god that actually looks really bad doesn't it because because this this okay trump's not a politician So he sometimes will react to things and just do things. Yeah. Just that's the way I would do it without realising, no, you shouldn't be doing that. Like similar to this in a way. Yeah, possibly. Although he was a politician.

Lack of experience. Yeah, but he seemed a bit, he never gave the impression of a politician that's in control. Maybe it just got away from him there. Then we've got the Wounded Knee Massacre. Yeah. I mean, let's face it, that was just a whitewash of that afterwards. I'm going to call it the Wounded Knee Murder. Yeah, I mean, it was a horrible, tragic occurrence.

And it was afterwards just kind of brushed to one side. Let's pretend that that's all been sorted out close the books close the books yeah i mean that's not great william wallace out of there quick but he certainly was not pushing for things like that to happen no we have seen previous presidents uh exacerbating situations that's true harrison wasn't trying to make things worse for people are we coming out of that sort of stage now where it's sort of like attack, attack is more sort of let's just hide things now.

Well, yeah, I mean, Harrison, again, another president who firmly believed that what we should be doing for the Native Americans is civilising them. And they don't need that much land if they're civilised. I mean, it's awful. And it's a continuation of that.

But it's not the forced death marches we saw in the early days. So anyway, it's not great. Then finally, Mamie. Yeah, go on. It's tempting to give points for the affair that he was having with his niece whilst he was president.

But it would appear that he wasn't actually. Really? There is no evidence to suggest that he was having a full-blown affair, apart from the fact that he kept going for long walks with her. I mean, it's suspicious, to say the least, and his daughter certainly had an opinion or two, but there is no evidence written down anywhere that Carrie and Mamie didn't get on.

And in fact, Mamie was with Carrie when she was dying at the end. You would have thought Carrie would tell her to do one. So, I mean, maybe there wasn't anything. They just were close. And then once Carrie was gone, Harrison saw his opportunity. Yeah, because it's easy to look at a close relationship between two genders and assume they're ulterior motives.

But yeah, you're right. So even if they weren't having the affair, though, it's still got a lot of creepy uncle vibes. Yes, especially afterwards. Yes. By marrying someone a year younger than his daughter. Yeah. That's going to freak your daughter out. His daughter's cousin.

Oh, yeah. No. It's a bit sort of in the family. But at least they weren't blood related. No, exactly. Exactly. And he hadn't watched Grow Up. No.

It's better than Cleveland. Yeah. What was it with this period? I guess things weren't frowned upon as much as they are sort of now. Oh, and there was one last thing. He did eat the forbidden cucumber. Well, that's 10 minus 10 straight away. Yeah, definitely.

We had a couple of people write to us on postcards about the forbidden cucumber. Apparently, it's the water in the cucumbers. Apparently, raw vegetables, especially vegetables with high water content, were supposed to increase male libido and tempt them to do sinful things. I'm assuming you've heard of the graham cracker being introduced to try and dry men out. Oh, because it's a similar reason. Cornflakes. Yes, yes, exactly.

Kellogg's. Yeah, so... Interesting. Yeah, so it's a similar reason. Cornflakes. Yes, yes, exactly. Kellogg's. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, so it's quite possibly. It's nothing to do with the water. It's the shape of it. Because a lot of assumption, that looks like a penal colony.

So it's going to have penal colony things. Yeah. Anyway. It's very imbalanced. It's sort of like that scraping under the horrible murders is awful, but not as bad as previous. Yeah. I'm gonna give him minus three. Yeah, I'm thinking minus

three. Yeah. Well, maybe minus two to get him to minus five in total. So he was the grandson of a former president. He grew up not destitute, but not rich. He worked hard at school. He ate a cucumber.

He decided not to be a minister, but instead a lawyer. He signed up during the war. Did very well. Fought with William Wallace. Oh, he did, yeah. But don't forget, in real life... No. No. We can't be giving him points just because we're picturing Braveheart.

No, that's exactly what happened. If I was doing a film, that's what I would do. Oh, and it would be a good film. Yeah, it would be amazing. No explanation whatsoever. Just William Wallace's battle cucumbers at the side. Yeah. After the war,

he progressed in local politics. He became a senator. He argued about tariffs a lot. And then he became president. Then, I didn't mention this in the main episode, because I forgot to put it in my notes, but then he got some pets. Oh, did he?

Yeah. Oh, no. It's the Victorian times. What did he get? Oh, yes. A gorilla. No, no. He had two possums, or or opossums depending on how you

pronounce that they're very funny i've seen lots of pictures if people in america have the possums they look really aggressive or they look really really cute do you want to know their names yes mr reciprocity and mr protection that right. He named his opossums after the tariffs. Oh. He was boring, wasn't he? He really was, yes. Do you think that could have been like a propaganda

like a public thing? Oh, look how good it is. So he didn't have a silver back then? Not as far as I'm aware. That would have been amazing. That would have been amazing. That would have been great. It explains why they had to change the gas works in the White House.

Just called him sugar-free trade. I haven't even gone into the whole sugar thing. There was so much to talk about sugar, by the way, with Harrison's presidency. And it got to the point where I got fed up of looking at the word sugar. I'm like, you know what? I'm cutting every mention of sugar. This is my mountain lion dependent pension. Yeah.

Anyway, so he became president. Everything we covered today happened. But most of that is not very cinematic. No. To the point that we made up an adventure story for you just to make it seem more interesting. Yeah, yes. I think if there was a film, it would be mainly around his relationship with Mamie.

That's what I'd focus on. Yeah, definitely. This is a love story. And then his wife dying at the end. Tragic love story. Yeah, so, I mean, you've got that part. And then marrying Mamie and falling out with his kids. Yeah.

Three. It's not brilliant, is it? No. Two. It's not. No, three. I like the idea of his family falling out with him at the end. Yeah. Three. It's not brilliant, is it? No. Two. It's not. No, three. I like the idea of his family falling out of them at the end. Yeah. And him dying all alone. If it wasn't for Carrie

dying and Mamie, I'd be in the one or even the zero category I think. Oh no, the war actually. I'll give him a point or two for his war stories because he had quite a few of those. People with like wood chunks in their arms and him having to do battlefield surgery on them yeah i'll give him a couple for that and i'll give him one for

the love story but i'm going for three though you have three yeah i'm going to have six what do you think he's going to look like them i don't know i imagine my sort of height, so under six foot, thin, bit of a beard, and well-kept hair. How off am I? Here we go. Oh, see, they're very big coat, or he's very large. Oh, that's my granddad. That's weird. Oh, very traditional painting.

Like, you know, hand-on book that's on a red table. Yeah, we're back with the red background on the books again. Notice it's books, not scroll. Yes, yeah, modern times. Ooh, there's a Kindle there. Yeah, it's a very Victorian garb. He's got a pocket watch, which is nice to see. That is good.

He's got a flower in his waistcoat. He's got an early version of a tie. Larger than I was expecting. A trim beard. Yes. A trim silver beard. Yeah, white haired fox. Kindly face.

Yeah, no, he looks like a nice man, doesn't he? Yeah. It's all right. He just kindly looks nice. I'm going six. I'm going five. I'm less impressed. Actually, I'll go six as well.

No, you want to go five? You go five. It's easy to divide. I would just take off 0.25. All right, I'll go five then. So that is 12 divided by four is three. So'll just take off 0.25. Alright, I'll get 5 then. So that is 12 divided by 4 is 3. So that's 2.75.

Bonus! Terms, 1. He served one term. Assassination, 0. No one tried to kill him. Election, 0. He lost the popular vote. So, we go only one bonus point oh dear oh dear what do you think he got 9.75 oh no more than that 13.75 all right okay not but it's bad well it's bad yeah it's bad but not minus numbers yeah that's good. That is good. Yeah. Vaguely positive. Did he beat his grandad, though?

Oh, oh, I've just double checked his grandad's score. Go on. Remind me again of Benjamin's score? 13.75. 13.75 is just not good enough, Benjamin. Oh. Because grandaddy got 14. Oh.

Oh. Oh, dear. Oh. And he died. After 30 days? Oh, dear. That's a shame. Arguably one of the most productive congresses in American history, Benjamin presided over.

And he's still beaten by William Harrison. Yeah. Well, there you go. Oh, there still beaten by William Harrison. Yeah. Well, there you go. Oh, there's a question though. American or American? No. I see no reason. So, there you go. And we are done with Benjamin Harrison.

So next is obviously Cleveland Part 2, as in his second term, which we've already covered. Yeah. So we'll have to just remember what happens there. And next episode will be McKinley Part 1. Mm-hmm.

Interested? Um, yes. I've heard a few people say it'd be interesting to see what you think about McKinley. And also, you were compared to McKinley. Oh! Yeah. So he's my guy. So whatever he's like, that's exactly what I'm like exactly i like it we will have to wait and see oh he's lazy isn't he i've

got no idea i don't know much about mckinley at all he is definitely useless useless and lazy we will find out okay right thank you very much for listening don't forget you can download us on pop bean and itunes and uh please't forget, you can download us on Popbean and iTunes. And please leave reviews if you can. That would be amazing. It helps our standings in iTunes. Yeah. And spreads the word.

But until next time. Goodbye. Goodbye. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much for agreeing to speak with us this morning. My name is Hickory. And I'm Chad. And we are in charge of your safety in the new renovated White House. And as we know, it is our job to make sure that you can fulfil your role and do your job of running this country successfully and for the benefit of all of the people.

At the same time, we will be doing our job, making sure that you can go to the lavatory without frying yourself. So if you care to look above your head, you can see these what look like large marbles on the ceiling. Yes, these are our new emergency electric lighting system wow yes so obviously we're not going to put them on right now oh god no we know we're not suicidal no enough to fry you all yes uh but but they are there in case of an emergency for For example, if someone tries to infiltrate the White House. Yes, or if you're just in the middle of a dang good book and you need a bit of light.

Step number one. If you should need to use the Emergency Electric Lighting System, or EELS, the first thing you'll need to do is don the protective gear. As we can see, the protective gear has a four-inch rubber heel, a rubber boot going right up to the knee, and a reinforced rubber codpiece. Can't be too careful, chaps, can we? No.

And, well, the rest is rubber, as you can see. Anyway, once you've put that on, which Steve at the back has done, yes? Come on, Steve. Now, the first thing he's going to do is approach the light switch from the front never never the left never the left it arcs a lot from the left ah yes and as you can see steve is approaching from the front in a crouching position using the seven foot wooden pole provided and he is reaching out now and And there we go, there we go. He has switched on switch number one. Now that humming sound and the fizzing sound might be quite distressing for some

of you. However, it is perfectly normal. Just don't go into room four. So now the eel system is what we like to call primed. And we are now ready to go on to switch number two. Now this is where it does get a little more tricky switch number two obviously for safety reasons is in philadelphia so just put the call through on the telephone yes the electric telephone and use the number one and you will be put through to stephen now stephen who is a finely trained operative, will also don his electrical gear and swiftly walk towards the correct switch, which will have a WH atop of it, indicating White House. He will flip that switch from a distance of seven feet with a seven foot pole. And then this is where it gets very exciting.

At that point, in theory, the light bulb will turn on. Yes. Oh, Chad. Yes. light bulb will turn on. Yes. Oh, oh. Chad? Yes? Is that bulb turning on? Oh, God. Okay, people, we have approximately ten minutes to evacuate the building in a very orderly fashion.

If you please follow the... A... Damn it, I was going to look up how to... Shammy? Is it Shammy? It's spelled C-H-A-M-O-I-S. Chamois. Because O-I-S is only a W-O-I sound, isn't it? Yeah, but it's not that. Chamois.

I'm going to look this up because... W-O-I. It's going to bug me. Chamois. Chamois. Chamois. Chamois. Chamois. Chamois. An agile goat antelope with short hooked horns

found in mountainous areas of Europe from Spain to the Caucasus. Oh, a type of soft pliable leather. Namely from sheepskin or lambskin. Shammy. Oh. Chamois. Shammy. Chamois.

Shammy.wa Shammy Shamwa No, say it and do that He's wearing a Shamwa Shammy C H A

M O I S This is podcast gold. Chamois for the cloth. Chamois for the animal. Ah, chamois.

You better leave all of that in. It's all going at the end, that's for sure.