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William Walker: Filibuster and (Fantastically Bad) President · Ridiculous History

0:23
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show, fellow ridiculous historians, who wanted to
0:27
Speaker 1: open today with a question, and I don't know, um,
0:32
Speaker 1: the most diplomatic way to phrase this, but what's the
0:35
Speaker 1: ballsiest thing you ever did? Well, Ben, Today's episodes all
0:38
Speaker 1: about diplomacy, you really set the tone properly. Balls You're
0:43
Speaker 1: asking the audience, you're asking me. I'm asking the audience,
0:46
Speaker 1: and I'm asking you know bast thing I ever did?
0:48
Speaker 1: And super producer Casey Pegram feel free to chime in again.
0:53
Speaker 1: For the three of us, that might be a little
0:55
Speaker 1: bit different because we have a caveat. We're saying the
0:59
Speaker 1: ballsiest thing we ever did that we're willing to admit
1:02
Speaker 1: on air. That narrows the pool a little bit. My friend, UM,
1:06
Speaker 1: I don't know. I once uh gosh, when you put
1:11
Speaker 1: it like that, then I just don't have a good answer.
1:14
Speaker 1: It really makes me feel like I've squandered my life.
1:16
Speaker 1: No way, No, we're we're living lives full of strange,
1:20
Speaker 1: ridiculous adventure. Although it always does feel weird to say
1:23
Speaker 1: ridiculous on this show, a little on the nose. But
1:27
Speaker 1: the reason that we were thinking about this off air
1:30
Speaker 1: is that today's episode is about a very, very let's say,
1:36
Speaker 1: self confident guy full of chutzpah, who played a an
1:42
Speaker 1: instrumental role in American history. When we say America, we
1:46
Speaker 1: mean the continents South American North American history. And it's
1:51
Speaker 1: a guy that a lot of people don't know about.
1:53
Speaker 1: I didn't know about him. I know, I knew, I
1:55
Speaker 1: knew of his his type, his type, Yeah, you know,
1:59
Speaker 1: imperialist swine right, yeah, expansionist soldiers of fortune. Yeah, because
2:04
Speaker 1: who knew there apparently was a time where you could
2:06
Speaker 1: just kind of take it upon yourself to, you know,
2:08
Speaker 1: go forth and conquer other countries. Yeah, with nothing but
2:12
Speaker 1: a you know, a wish and a and a dream
2:15
Speaker 1: and a possele like minded reprobates. Yeah. We I was
2:20
Speaker 1: thinking about that too. So imagine if you would have
2:24
Speaker 1: you ever been on vacation somewhere and thought, you know what,
2:28
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna take the flag of another country posted
2:31
Speaker 1: in the ground here and declare myself in charge. Have
2:35
Speaker 1: you ever thought about that? I've never seriously thought about it.
2:39
Speaker 1: It doesn't seem like those rules apply anymore. I think
2:41
Speaker 1: there's a little more paperwork. Yeah, but back in the
2:44
Speaker 1: time of William Walker, there wasn't really that's the subject
2:49
Speaker 1: of today show, William Walker. Could you give us a
2:53
Speaker 1: little introduction to this guy? No, yeah, he he grew
2:56
Speaker 1: up in a pretty um affluent family and you're of
3:00
Speaker 1: the woods, been in Nashville, Tennessee, or as they say
3:02
Speaker 1: around those ways, Nashville was that right, Yeah? And he
3:06
Speaker 1: did everything from like he studied fencing, I want to say,
3:09
Speaker 1: and he went to the University of Nashville, where he
3:12
Speaker 1: graduated at the top of his class by the age
3:15
Speaker 1: of fourteen, which is nuts. And then he earned a
3:19
Speaker 1: degree in medicine. And then he also, you know, had
3:22
Speaker 1: a as if that wasn't enough, he got a law degree.
3:26
Speaker 1: And he was technically, no, not technically, in actual facts,
3:31
Speaker 1: both a lawyer and a doctor. So law doctor. Mom
3:34
Speaker 1: and dad were proud, let's just put it that way, right,
3:37
Speaker 1: And he did, as I think we may have mentioned,
3:39
Speaker 1: come from a prestigious family. One of his uncles was
3:42
Speaker 1: John Norville as senator from Michigan, founder of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Uh.
3:48
Speaker 1: He had sort of a silver spoon life. But he
3:52
Speaker 1: was also a very smart guy. And the thing was,
3:55
Speaker 1: he was very self assured. He practiced law, but not
3:59
Speaker 1: for very long time, because after he was practicing law
4:03
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, he quit and he moved to New Orleans,
4:07
Speaker 1: where he became the editor and co owner of an
4:10
Speaker 1: outfit called the New Orleans Crescent, a paper of note.
4:14
Speaker 1: And then that still wasn't enough, so he moved to
4:17
Speaker 1: San Francisco, and in San Francisco he was a journalist,
4:23
Speaker 1: and his fencing also came into play. Is that right,
4:26
Speaker 1: Well sort of, I'm pretty sure he he shot people,
4:30
Speaker 1: but he wasn't three duels. Oh, that's right, that's right,
4:34
Speaker 1: because he he was a bit of a notorious trash talker,
4:37
Speaker 1: wasn't he. Yes, he wrote these columns and there were
4:40
Speaker 1: a few notable figures who he got into some pretty
4:44
Speaker 1: serious beefs with, isn't that right? Yeah, Yeah, he was.
4:47
Speaker 1: He was quite a bantam figure because he was only
4:50
Speaker 1: five ft two inches tall, but apparently he would fill
4:54
Speaker 1: a room. One of his duels that gained national attention.
4:59
Speaker 1: The for time he really broke out in the public
5:02
Speaker 1: sphere was when he had a duel with a guy
5:04
Speaker 1: named William Hicks Graham on January twelfth, eighteen fifty one,
5:08
Speaker 1: in San France. Yeah. I think Graham was known as
5:11
Speaker 1: something of a gun slinger. Yeah, yeah, So at the
5:16
Speaker 1: time Walker was the editor of the San Francisco Harold
5:20
Speaker 1: Graham was technically, for his day job, a clerk employed
5:25
Speaker 1: by Judge r In Morrison. And the thing is, as
5:29
Speaker 1: you said, Noel Graham was also a notorious gun slinger,
5:34
Speaker 1: which you could do that back in these days. You
5:36
Speaker 1: could be in the eighteen fifties, both a clerk for
5:39
Speaker 1: a judge and a well known gunsman. Gunsman is a
5:43
Speaker 1: word I just made. I'm into it. I support that.
5:46
Speaker 1: So so what happened with this? So uh Walker and
5:50
Speaker 1: as the editor of of said newspaper of note, was
5:53
Speaker 1: talking some trash about this Judge rn Morrison and dueling.
5:57
Speaker 1: This is you gotta remember this is the time of
5:58
Speaker 1: like the California gold Rush and like you know, deadwood
6:01
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, right, yeah, you know this is
6:04
Speaker 1: also I mean it says it explicitly in books that
6:08
Speaker 1: we checked out for the show, like Age of the Gunfighter.
6:10
Speaker 1: At the time, dueling was a popular means of settling
6:13
Speaker 1: disputes in California, though not technically legal, right, I mean,
6:18
Speaker 1: we're pretty far out west at this time, that's true,
6:21
Speaker 1: that's true. But so this is the funny part. It
6:24
Speaker 1: was such a popular thing that the judge actually had
6:27
Speaker 1: his clerks draw straws to see who would duel on
6:31
Speaker 1: his behalf too, do you know, defend his honor. They
6:34
Speaker 1: were beefed up. Yeah, that just seems really cowardly. But
6:37
Speaker 1: I guess you know, I wouldn't do that for for
6:41
Speaker 1: my boss. No, I don't, but I don't think. We're
6:44
Speaker 1: in a very pro dueling environment. And again, Hicks was
6:48
Speaker 1: you know, he was fond of this pastime. Yeah, William Hicks.
6:53
Speaker 1: Graham had already taken part in numerous duels in the
6:59
Speaker 1: time of the Old and Wild West, and Walker had
7:04
Speaker 1: had some duels before, but the kind of duels he
7:07
Speaker 1: had were duels where you use a single shot revolver,
7:12
Speaker 1: and so you can if you just want to defend
7:14
Speaker 1: your honor but not hurt someone. I'm not gonna say
7:17
Speaker 1: where where this phrase is popular from. I don't want
7:19
Speaker 1: to spoil the musical for everyone, But you can just
7:22
Speaker 1: throw away your shot shooting the air with a single
7:26
Speaker 1: shot firearm. But this fight was a little bit different
7:30
Speaker 1: because it was waged with revolvers colts specifically. Yeah, and
7:35
Speaker 1: they had five shots and all of them were fired
7:38
Speaker 1: and Walker took a bullet through. Yeah, I don't think
7:41
Speaker 1: it actually injured him, but it went through the leg
7:44
Speaker 1: as this as this book describes, through the leg of
7:47
Speaker 1: his pantaloons. And then he also got one, Oh he
7:50
Speaker 1: did get one in the thigh um. And the funny
7:53
Speaker 1: thing is is that Graham got charged with aggravated assault
7:57
Speaker 1: because this was in fact an the illegal active Yeah,
8:01
Speaker 1: he was later found not guilty and no small part
8:05
Speaker 1: I think because while Walker was shot, he was not
8:09
Speaker 1: seriously injured. Right, That's what That's what I found. Also,
8:14
Speaker 1: he from what I understand, Graham walked away without a scratch,
8:18
Speaker 1: like he he got two shots off, and Walker didn't
8:23
Speaker 1: even manage to fire a shot at Graham. And so
8:27
Speaker 1: when he was wounded, Walker eventually conceded and as you said,
8:31
Speaker 1: Noel Graham was arrested but found not guilty. And one
8:35
Speaker 1: of the strangest things about this I this research maybe
8:39
Speaker 1: want to trace the life of William Hicks Graham, because
8:43
Speaker 1: in the books we were reading about this duel, Graham
8:46
Speaker 1: goes on to fight other duels pretty much like immediately
8:50
Speaker 1: after he gets the not guilty verdict. Oh yeah, he's
8:53
Speaker 1: he's he's thirsty for these gunfights, and it sort of
8:57
Speaker 1: shows the kind of attitude this dude had about going
9:00
Speaker 1: out and conquering stuff, you know what I mean. Oh,
9:04
Speaker 1: and I want to correct myself there because I said
9:07
Speaker 1: he wasn't seriously wounded, but I found conflicting reports. Reports
9:11
Speaker 1: of the time described it as a trifling wound, but
9:14
Speaker 1: later historical reports described as a very serious wound. I've
9:19
Speaker 1: always assumed a gunshot is a serious wound. Well assumption, decide.
9:25
Speaker 1: One thing that is great about this duel is despite
9:28
Speaker 1: the fact that he lost the duel, William Walker, as
9:31
Speaker 1: we said, becomes known in the public sphere. He's in
9:36
Speaker 1: the papers, you know what I mean. Lawyer duellist, William
9:39
Speaker 1: Walker not walking for a while. That's a cute man.
9:43
Speaker 1: It's they were very cute papers at the time. So
9:47
Speaker 1: this is just some background about this guy. He's well off,
9:52
Speaker 1: he's a hothead. He's also not shy about his opinions,
9:58
Speaker 1: both his opinions on slavery, he's very much in favor
10:03
Speaker 1: of it, his opinions on the expansion of the United States,
10:08
Speaker 1: and his opinion on how to apply his patriotism. Yeah,
10:13
Speaker 1: and he got a little bit of inspiration from some
10:15
Speaker 1: stuff that was going on in Cuba. There was a
10:19
Speaker 1: dude named Narcisco Lopez who was born in Venezuela and
10:23
Speaker 1: and this was an eighteen fifty by the way, um,
10:26
Speaker 1: and he gathered up a band of mercenaries too basically
10:31
Speaker 1: try to conquer part of Cuba and then make it
10:34
Speaker 1: part of the US, make it part of the US. Like,
10:36
Speaker 1: is that annexing? And what do you what is that that?
10:39
Speaker 1: That would be annexing it if it were an authorized
10:43
Speaker 1: state action. That's the thing. This guy has kind of
10:45
Speaker 1: took it upon himself to do it. And uh walker
10:49
Speaker 1: like like the cut of his particular jib and said,
10:52
Speaker 1: huh interesting, I I want to try something like that.
10:56
Speaker 1: And this was known as philipbustering for a lot of
11:01
Speaker 1: a lot of us listening in the US right now
11:04
Speaker 1: today as we record this, in case you happened to
11:07
Speaker 1: be listening three thousand years in the future. For a
11:10
Speaker 1: lot of US, filibustering today only describes the political practice
11:16
Speaker 1: wherein in a congress person will try to put off
11:21
Speaker 1: certain voting actions by just talking forever. Yeah, like we
11:25
Speaker 1: do on this podcast, We're getting we get to the point. Yeah,
11:29
Speaker 1: we know what we do, but we're but we're But
11:31
Speaker 1: I feel like I could be accomplishing so much stuff.
11:33
Speaker 1: I wasn't always just talking into a microphone. I mean
11:36
Speaker 1: you could see that about anything. I think, how many
11:39
Speaker 1: hours a day we spend sleeping. It's like a third
11:41
Speaker 1: of your life. Wow, you put it like that. But
11:45
Speaker 1: these weird statistics aside, and these strange definitions aside. Filibustering
11:50
Speaker 1: at the time described this specific practice illegally going into
11:57
Speaker 1: a foreign country or land and taking it over by
12:01
Speaker 1: force with a usually with a posse mercenaries or like
12:05
Speaker 1: minded people native to the region, and then declaring that
12:08
Speaker 1: land part of the United States. One of the big
12:10
Speaker 1: inspirations for this is the state of Texas. They had
12:15
Speaker 1: broken off from Mexico a few years before, and they
12:18
Speaker 1: were held up as an example of the practice of
12:23
Speaker 1: Americans going out taking over an area and then later
12:27
Speaker 1: making it a state, and filibustering, although illegal in the US,
12:34
Speaker 1: had wide popular support because we have to remember, this
12:37
Speaker 1: is full on expansionist mode. You know what I mean.
12:39
Speaker 1: See the Shining Sea, I mean, manifest that destiny, right,
12:44
Speaker 1: young man? So where did where did Walker go? Yeah?
12:47
Speaker 1: So Walker set his sights down Mexico away specifically, um,
12:54
Speaker 1: a couple of states, one of which was Baja California,
12:57
Speaker 1: which was actually in Mexico and Nora, and there weren't
13:02
Speaker 1: a ton of folks living there at the time, so
13:04
Speaker 1: he gathered a posse of I think around fifty men,
13:07
Speaker 1: right yeah, yeah, yeah, and just you know, marched his
13:11
Speaker 1: way on in there, and he was able to take Lapase,
13:15
Speaker 1: which is the capital of Baja and he raised his
13:19
Speaker 1: own flag that he had designed himself, which I think
13:23
Speaker 1: had like three paralleled stripes on it, and um, yeah,
13:27
Speaker 1: and you know he's like he said earlier, you sort
13:30
Speaker 1: of put down his uh his his flag and and
13:33
Speaker 1: said this is mine now the chuts Bah alone. Yeah,
13:36
Speaker 1: he named he renamed the area of the Republic of
13:39
Speaker 1: Lower California, declared himself president, and then said the new
13:45
Speaker 1: legal system will be uh, well, we're just going to
13:48
Speaker 1: use the laws of the State of Louisiana. Unless you
13:52
Speaker 1: think he is some sort of Indiana Jones type lovable
13:55
Speaker 1: rogue character, uh, we should mention that there's a reason
14:00
Speaker 1: he wanted to use the laws of the State of Louisiana.
14:03
Speaker 1: Who wanted to use those laws because they included legalized slavery.
14:08
Speaker 1: He was again very pro slavery, and words spread in
14:13
Speaker 1: the US. Just imagine people saying, you know, remember that editor,
14:17
Speaker 1: that hot headed editor from San Francisco who disappeared for
14:21
Speaker 1: a while. Well, it turns out he took over Baja
14:24
Speaker 1: California for the US, and he had this massive wave
14:29
Speaker 1: of public support. People would read about this story and
14:33
Speaker 1: then go volunteer to join him as a member of
14:37
Speaker 1: his military force in the Republic of Lower California. And
14:41
Speaker 1: this is where he got a a really weird nickname.
14:44
Speaker 1: You're talking about, the gray eyed Man of Destiny. Yeah,
14:47
Speaker 1: it doesn't quite roll off the tongue. I think it's great.
14:51
Speaker 1: I would I would love people call me that, the
14:52
Speaker 1: gray eyed Man of Destiny. It's it's a lot to say.
14:56
Speaker 1: It feels like it's good to read it in print.
14:58
Speaker 1: I just said it twice, and I love the way
15:00
Speaker 1: it sounds. So I respectfully disagree with you. Then, of course,
15:03
Speaker 1: of course, to each their own and noted. Now, I
15:06
Speaker 1: don't think his vice president got a nickname. That was
15:09
Speaker 1: his former law partner, Henry P. Watkins. We should also
15:14
Speaker 1: mention that when he was filibustering in Mexico, he didn't
15:18
Speaker 1: just try to take over the Baja California territory. He
15:22
Speaker 1: took over another sparsely populated area, the Sonora state. And
15:27
Speaker 1: I do want to say, speaking of diplomacy, he did
15:29
Speaker 1: start off this whole thing by asking the Mexican government
15:33
Speaker 1: to let him make a colony in these areas that
15:37
Speaker 1: were kind of sparsely populated. Um and he referred to,
15:41
Speaker 1: according to this article from History is Now magazine, UH
15:44
Speaker 1: that he wanted to create a buffer zone between Native
15:47
Speaker 1: American and American territories. So Mexico said no, and he
15:53
Speaker 1: decided to go forth with his wild plan. And like
15:57
Speaker 1: uh Gregor McGregor from our earlier show, he funded his
16:02
Speaker 1: project by selling script that was redeemable in the state
16:08
Speaker 1: of Sonora that he would create, so even more ballsy,
16:12
Speaker 1: seriously seriously so yeah he he he. So he staked
16:20
Speaker 1: his claim in Lapase and also in Baja and also
16:24
Speaker 1: in Sonora. And it didn't all go smoothly, obviously. He
16:31
Speaker 1: moved his headquarters twice over the next ninety days or something,
16:36
Speaker 1: once to Cabbo, son Lucas, and then once a little
16:39
Speaker 1: further north to end Sonata because he knew that it
16:44
Speaker 1: would be a really close fight if the Mexican government
16:48
Speaker 1: was able to raise forces to attack and he actually
16:52
Speaker 1: didn't get control of Sonora. He just sort of started
16:57
Speaker 1: saying that the Republic of Lower California was part of
17:01
Speaker 1: the larger Republic of Sonora, even though he didn't actually
17:04
Speaker 1: control it. It's kind of like it's like, imagine if
17:10
Speaker 1: we declared ourselves the emperors of Birmingham, Alabama, despite the
17:17
Speaker 1: fact that we're not in Birmingham, Alabama. That's kind of
17:20
Speaker 1: what happened. That sounds about right. And there was a
17:25
Speaker 1: notable series of attacks that he lost, which further adds
17:30
Speaker 1: Nold to the one of the themes in this guy's life,
17:33
Speaker 1: which is talking a big game and then getting his
17:36
Speaker 1: key star handed to him. One of those relocations he
17:39
Speaker 1: took was a consequence of him losing a skirmish to
17:43
Speaker 1: General Manuel Marques de Leone, and so he was eventually
17:48
Speaker 1: forced to retreat from Mexico entirely. So it's eighteen fifty
17:54
Speaker 1: four and the Gray Eyed Man of Destiny has sort
17:57
Speaker 1: of rallied some troops to support him. He actually was
18:00
Speaker 1: able to get around two hundred Mexicans to back him up,
18:04
Speaker 1: along with another couple of hundred folks from San Francisco
18:08
Speaker 1: who thought this scheme of his, you know, had had legs.
18:12
Speaker 1: But you know, as megalomaniacs often do. Uh. He he
18:17
Speaker 1: didn't really plan this thing out very well, and he
18:20
Speaker 1: didn't have enough supplies, and you know, the folks that
18:24
Speaker 1: were helping him started getting restless, and the Mexican government
18:28
Speaker 1: wasn't having it, and they were able to really make
18:31
Speaker 1: things pretty uncomfortable for the occupying forces there in Lapaz Rights.
18:37
Speaker 1: So at the same time, this is getting domestic support
18:40
Speaker 1: in the US, with hundreds of people um wanting to
18:44
Speaker 1: join the expedition raising the flag of the Republic of
18:47
Speaker 1: Sonora in different streets in the US. Things are getting
18:50
Speaker 1: increasingly hairy for Walker and co. Down there in Baja California.
18:57
Speaker 1: And you know you mentioned earlier that the supply as
19:00
Speaker 1: we're an issue, right, there's a there's a strange thing
19:03
Speaker 1: that happens. He has a ship named the Caroline that's
19:07
Speaker 1: supposed to wait on shore or bring him the AMMO
19:12
Speaker 1: and the and the food stuffs he needs to continue
19:15
Speaker 1: surviving the conflict. And this ship sails away with most
19:21
Speaker 1: of his supplies. And then when two hundred more recruits
19:25
Speaker 1: arrived from San Francisco. His supplies are already so low.
19:29
Speaker 1: He can't feed them, he can't arm them. Wait, so
19:31
Speaker 1: they just bailed on him, with his with his stuff.
19:33
Speaker 1: The ship just left, so it was like they were deserting. Basically,
19:36
Speaker 1: they were like, this is this is it. We're done,
19:38
Speaker 1: and we're taking your ship and your supplies and you know,
19:41
Speaker 1: go after yourself. So the most diplomatic way I found
19:45
Speaker 1: it was in an article from the Virtual Museum of
19:49
Speaker 1: the City of San Francisco by Fanny Judah that says,
19:54
Speaker 1: for some unknown reason, his vessel the Caroline, sailed away
19:58
Speaker 1: with the greater part of his supply eyes. So when
20:01
Speaker 1: these people show up, he sends a group of them
20:04
Speaker 1: towards Toto Santos Bay on a forging expedition, and he says,
20:09
Speaker 1: you know, find us some food to eat, find us
20:11
Speaker 1: some cattle, et cetera. They get in a fight with
20:13
Speaker 1: the natives. This band does because those people don't want
20:17
Speaker 1: to give up their stuff in return for script again
20:21
Speaker 1: the fake money that you can redeem in Sonora, which
20:24
Speaker 1: he does not control. And since they were running low
20:28
Speaker 1: on food, they couldn't get their plundering done. Successfully, the
20:33
Speaker 1: men began to dessert, Walker starts arresting them. He shoots
20:38
Speaker 1: two of them. He has two others publicly flogged, and
20:41
Speaker 1: this makes him even less popular, so much so that, um,
20:45
Speaker 1: he only had a hundred men when he started walking
20:48
Speaker 1: for Sonora or moving on Sonora, and by the time
20:51
Speaker 1: they reached the Colorado River, there were only thirty five
20:54
Speaker 1: people with him. He's Hemorrhageans supports that not a good look.
21:01
Speaker 1: Not a good look for a leader and a conqueror, right,
21:04
Speaker 1: which is why you know, I think reman in Destiny
21:07
Speaker 1: is a good nickname. I just don't think he deserves it.
21:10
Speaker 1: Here's the thing, though, Ben, I didn't realize this. I mean,
21:12
Speaker 1: we're talking about how the laws were different and how
21:15
Speaker 1: it was a little bit easier just to kind of like,
21:17
Speaker 1: you know, go forth and conquer, but it was in
21:20
Speaker 1: fact illegal, just like dueling. It was. It was, it
21:23
Speaker 1: was widely done, and I guess, you know, it was
21:25
Speaker 1: just kind of like if you don't get caught, but
21:26
Speaker 1: filibustering was illegal. And after this debacle and he returned
21:30
Speaker 1: back to San Francisco, he and his remaining ten dudes
21:34
Speaker 1: or whatever got arrested by the army right for violation
21:38
Speaker 1: of US neutrality laws. Exactly. So how did this how
21:42
Speaker 1: did this trial actually go? I wonder if he was
21:45
Speaker 1: able to represent himself. He was a lawyer, right, there
21:48
Speaker 1: was a doctor, lawyer, lawyer, duellist, imperialist, conqueror man. His
21:53
Speaker 1: business card must have been extra logue. Do you think
21:56
Speaker 1: he was bone? Yeah, phone line. So the thing is, yes,
22:03
Speaker 1: he is arrested, he's tried for these multiple violations of
22:06
Speaker 1: US neutrality laws. But in the US the population is
22:10
Speaker 1: still supportive of him. The trial goes to a jury.
22:15
Speaker 1: They list all the charges. Prosecution makes the argument, defense
22:18
Speaker 1: makes our argument to your point, noal, I would be
22:20
Speaker 1: fascinated to know whether he represented himself. And the jury
22:24
Speaker 1: leaves to deliberate. They come back eight minutes later. What
22:27
Speaker 1: do you think happened? They let him go, right, Yeah,
22:30
Speaker 1: he's acquitted of all charges. He's a true America. Do
22:34
Speaker 1: you think it's because of the chutzpah you keep talking about? Then?
22:37
Speaker 1: Do you think the people were just like, you know,
22:39
Speaker 1: this guy is a real American, and why would we
22:42
Speaker 1: put him away for just doing what Americans do, which is,
22:45
Speaker 1: you know, going out and conquering the wilds I think
22:49
Speaker 1: it was. You know, I think there's something to it, honestly,
22:52
Speaker 1: because I believe that the public support for manifest destiny
22:56
Speaker 1: and expansionism was at such a fee her pitch that
23:01
Speaker 1: people were maybe having conversations where they said, well, there's
23:05
Speaker 1: a difference between what's right and what's legal sometimes right.
23:09
Speaker 1: And so after he gets away unscathed through this adventure
23:14
Speaker 1: attempting to capture Baja California and Sonora, he says, you
23:18
Speaker 1: know what, I'm gonna go back to practicing law a
23:21
Speaker 1: little bit. They've got a reputation. Maybe I'll just go
23:24
Speaker 1: be a lawyer. And that last a little less than
23:27
Speaker 1: a year. Oh, I'm sorry, I just want to interject
23:29
Speaker 1: really quick. Band I remembered something. Um, the reason we
23:32
Speaker 1: don't hear about him practicing medicine is because as a
23:36
Speaker 1: right out of medical school, he saw his mother die
23:40
Speaker 1: very horribly, so his traumatized. He was traumatized and turned
23:43
Speaker 1: away from ever practicing medicine. So that's why the whole
23:46
Speaker 1: doctor lawyer thing didn't didn't work out. I didn't really
23:49
Speaker 1: couldn't really do the combo. There. That's a tragedy. Please
23:51
Speaker 1: go on, Well, I'm setting you up to tell one
23:54
Speaker 1: of the strangest turns in this story. Right, he got
23:58
Speaker 1: away unscathed from his ill needed adventures in Baja California
24:02
Speaker 1: in Sonora, and he says, you know what, I'm gonna
24:04
Speaker 1: go practice law again. That lasts for about a year,
24:07
Speaker 1: and then he gets that itch, that conquering itch. Yes,
24:11
Speaker 1: he gets that filibuster. Rich he needs to be filibustering
24:15
Speaker 1: every day, filibuster, and so he sets his sights on Nicaragua. Weird.
24:20
Speaker 1: It's really really far, far, far far away from San Francisco.
24:23
Speaker 1: You know, Mexico made sense, you know, on the on
24:25
Speaker 1: the border, and it's sparsely populated. He also, by the way,
24:28
Speaker 1: he gets a lot of public support because he's saying
24:31
Speaker 1: that he's setting up this buffer colony to protect people
24:35
Speaker 1: from the Apache. That's right. That's right. Because it was
24:37
Speaker 1: during the gold Rush and there was a lot of
24:39
Speaker 1: like these little settlements there in Indian attacks and the like,
24:41
Speaker 1: but not the case with Nicaragua. For this, this was
24:44
Speaker 1: purely exploitative on his part. Because Nicaragua was having some
24:49
Speaker 1: serious problems. They were like in the absolute throes of
24:53
Speaker 1: a horrible civil war, and there were these factions that
24:58
Speaker 1: we're trying to control the government of the country. Um.
25:02
Speaker 1: And they were the Leonese and the Granadins. The Leonese
25:07
Speaker 1: were more liberal and the Granadans were more conservative. And
25:12
Speaker 1: if I butcher that pronunciation, I don't know. You know,
25:15
Speaker 1: you got it. I just don't even care anymore, Ben did,
25:18
Speaker 1: I just don't care. Hey, chick up man, you know, no,
25:20
Speaker 1: I'm good. I just I just really, you know, pronunciations
25:24
Speaker 1: be damned well. Also, English is a living language. That's
25:27
Speaker 1: just that's just a thing. Dumb people say that mispronounced words.
25:30
Speaker 1: Are you accusing me? Noah, that you're just trying to
25:33
Speaker 1: make me feel better? No, no, it is. It is
25:36
Speaker 1: a living language. I mean, look, when's the last time
25:38
Speaker 1: you heard filibustering described in this way? That's a very
25:41
Speaker 1: good word. Has changed over I have never heard it actually,
25:43
Speaker 1: because we thought, I mean, it's not even in the
25:46
Speaker 1: Webster's definition. We're yeah, we gotta bring it back. I'm
25:50
Speaker 1: gonna start filibustering places like our local bar across the street.
25:54
Speaker 1: Is that where you hang out for a really long time.
25:56
Speaker 1: I think I think the main thing is I need
25:59
Speaker 1: a flag. It seems like flags are really key here.
26:02
Speaker 1: I need. I need it. So if you're a good vexologist,
26:05
Speaker 1: which is the fancy word for flag lover vexologists, that's
26:10
Speaker 1: you vexillologist. If you are a vexillologist, one who is
26:16
Speaker 1: very familiar with the study of history, symbolism, and usage
26:19
Speaker 1: of flags, then hit us up and let us know
26:21
Speaker 1: what kind of flags we should have. I'm open to ideas.
26:25
Speaker 1: Are you on board with this? I don't want a pigeonhole,
26:27
Speaker 1: you know, man, pigeonhole away? Okay, I'm malleable. I will
26:30
Speaker 1: bend to your whims. You're a gray eyed man of
26:33
Speaker 1: destiny that you, buddy, I wouldn't I I will follow
26:36
Speaker 1: you till the ends of the year. I would much
26:38
Speaker 1: prefer that you take the nickname gray Eyed Man of
26:42
Speaker 1: Destiny over this Walker character. That's very kind. Member. You
26:45
Speaker 1: can be the power behind the gray eyed throne man.
26:48
Speaker 1: I just want a filibuster, which sounds like we haven't
26:51
Speaker 1: learned our lesson. We're mostly joking, except you know, let
26:54
Speaker 1: us know if you have a good idea for a flag.
26:57
Speaker 1: So Walker is aware of this situation that Noel you
27:02
Speaker 1: just described. In Nicaragua, the Granada faction, the more conservative faction,
27:07
Speaker 1: is at the time, winning winning so hard, like winning
27:13
Speaker 1: to the nth degree, and the Leonese seem set for defeat.
27:18
Speaker 1: Walkers sees an opportunity in this chaos. And this is
27:24
Speaker 1: again we have to remember, these are the days before
27:26
Speaker 1: the Panama Canal. So a lot of shipping went through Nicaragua.
27:31
Speaker 1: It was a it was a tremendously important crossroads for trade.
27:36
Speaker 1: Wasn't this kind of masterminded by Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was
27:40
Speaker 1: like the railroad tycoon that trade position. Well, he think
27:45
Speaker 1: I think he sort of had the idea of of
27:46
Speaker 1: building this canal, and he wanted to connect, you know,
27:50
Speaker 1: the Caribbean with the Pacific Ocean. And so Walker, knowing this,
27:56
Speaker 1: saw what a strategic stronghold economically Nicaragua was and decided
28:03
Speaker 1: to roll the dice and offered his assistance to the Leonese. Right, yes,
28:07
Speaker 1: he's he offered his assistance, and he did it with
28:12
Speaker 1: very sketchy support from the US government. So he says,
28:16
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get down there and get with the Leonese,
28:19
Speaker 1: used them to augment my fighting forces. We're gonna take
28:23
Speaker 1: over Nicaragua for America. Who's with me? Who's with me?
28:27
Speaker 1: Kind of like that scene in Half Baked how many
28:29
Speaker 1: were with him? Then sixty sixty people said, well, I'll
28:33
Speaker 1: do it. It's not enough. That's not enough. I'm I'm no, uh,
28:37
Speaker 1: you know, master of war. But that that seems a
28:39
Speaker 1: little on the light side. We have never, in fact,
28:41
Speaker 1: purposely filibustered, but just ballparking. That seems yeah, that seems low.
28:47
Speaker 1: So here's the thing though, here's what the sketchy support was.
28:50
Speaker 1: He's got the sixty people and says, Okay, we're gonna
28:52
Speaker 1: set sail. It's eighteen fifty five by this time, and
28:56
Speaker 1: the United States Marshal tries to events Walker and his
29:01
Speaker 1: men from leaving, but the federal officials who earlier tacitly
29:06
Speaker 1: supported him in his quest to take over parts of Mexico,
29:10
Speaker 1: they're still on his side. In fact, before he sets sail,
29:14
Speaker 1: Walker meets with a guy named General Wool who is
29:18
Speaker 1: the military commander of the Pacific Coast, and Wool had
29:22
Speaker 1: special powers granted from the President to suppress all filibustering expeditions.
29:28
Speaker 1: But this guy, this guy meets with Walker. Walker says, yeah,
29:32
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go take over Nicaragua for America. I'm gonna
29:36
Speaker 1: make it like its own thing first, but then I'm
29:38
Speaker 1: gonna hand it off to the US and the general.
29:42
Speaker 1: Here's this plan, And he says, you know what, not
29:44
Speaker 1: only am I not going to interfere, but break a leg, buddy,
29:48
Speaker 1: I wish you well. Yeah, totally. I got a question
29:50
Speaker 1: for you, Ben and all of this, how how is
29:52
Speaker 1: he benefiting? Like? Is he is he cashing in on
29:55
Speaker 1: on all of these exploits like areas He just totally
29:58
Speaker 1: power mad and just wants to like be the king
30:00
Speaker 1: of a country. Yeah, it's it's tough for us to
30:04
Speaker 1: ascribe motive. We know he didn't come from impoverished means
30:08
Speaker 1: or anything. I just think he was obsessed and driven
30:11
Speaker 1: and like just like kind of to a completely uh
30:14
Speaker 1: self destructive level. Yeah. I think he just really dug power.
30:23
Speaker 1: So I think you are right. I think you're right.
30:26
Speaker 1: I think it was about the power for him. It
30:29
Speaker 1: was about the drive to conquer and to rule. As
30:32
Speaker 1: soon as they land in San Juan del Sur, he
30:36
Speaker 1: starts to flex his muscles. He's got his sixty people
30:40
Speaker 1: with him, he's got those Leonese troops, and he starts
30:45
Speaker 1: fighting the Granada faction at the Battle of Rivas and
30:49
Speaker 1: because he wins the day for the Leonese gets another title.
30:54
Speaker 1: That name he gets, yeah, not not not a nickname,
30:57
Speaker 1: this is almost an official title general at least some
31:00
Speaker 1: General Lissimo. And he's a white man. He's from from
31:04
Speaker 1: from Nashville, right right. I just it's so crazy how
31:10
Speaker 1: he found himself in this situation. I just don't understand
31:12
Speaker 1: like the impulse to do that. Maybe I'm just my
31:15
Speaker 1: brain doesn't work like this. But yeah, so he's General
31:18
Speaker 1: Lissimo now and he declares himself to be the new
31:22
Speaker 1: president of Nicaragua for days. Yeah, and the population of
31:29
Speaker 1: the U S here's about this, and they love it.
31:32
Speaker 1: And soon pro slavery advocates begin trying to recruit more
31:38
Speaker 1: people to help with this cause. In Nicaragua, large southern
31:43
Speaker 1: cities host public meetings and fundraisers and Walker gets to
31:49
Speaker 1: really settle in and make himself comfortable. And this is
31:52
Speaker 1: where he makes a powerful enemy. And Nol, I'm so
31:55
Speaker 1: glad you mentioned this guy earlier. We had a little foreshadowing. Yeah,
31:58
Speaker 1: this Vanderbilt does not play because I believe that General
32:04
Speaker 1: Lissimo l Presidente Walker did not allow his ships to
32:10
Speaker 1: travel through like we were saying before he saw the
32:14
Speaker 1: strategic power of controlling Nicaragua. So I guess, yeah, there
32:18
Speaker 1: there was money he he was getting he was I mean,
32:20
Speaker 1: come on, he had to have been cashing in on this, no,
32:23
Speaker 1: no question about it, because he had such power that
32:26
Speaker 1: he was actually able to revoke the deal with Vanderbilt's company. Yeah,
32:30
Speaker 1: the Vanderbilt steamship. Come, that's right to allow them to
32:33
Speaker 1: travel through that very important region for getting from you know,
32:39
Speaker 1: the Caribbean, the Pacific Ocean. This is before the Panama Canal. Right, yes, yeah,
32:42
Speaker 1: this for the Panama Canal, and Dad insult to injury,
32:46
Speaker 1: Walker gives that right of transit uh to a guy
32:50
Speaker 1: named Edmund Randolph, the competitor of Vanderbilts, for a term
32:54
Speaker 1: of twenty five years. And then as soon as he's
32:58
Speaker 1: consolidating his power, he reverses the anti slavery laws that
33:03
Speaker 1: nickarag Wood had for the last thirty two years. And
33:07
Speaker 1: because this guy is essentially reinstituting slavery, revolts begin to
33:12
Speaker 1: break out. Also, there's a there's a puppeteer helping strengthen
33:18
Speaker 1: and augment these acts of revolt. It's Vanderbilt, the owner
33:23
Speaker 1: of the steamship company. This has become a proxy war
33:26
Speaker 1: for him, Dang making waves. He is he is uh
33:32
Speaker 1: and Costa Rica declares war against Walker as well. Things
33:37
Speaker 1: just go to go to pot They go pair shaped
33:40
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. And you know, it's not hard to see why.
33:44
Speaker 1: If somebody came in and took over a US state
33:47
Speaker 1: and reinstituted slavery right and then angered the largest corporations
33:53
Speaker 1: in the area, of course, things would be incredibly unsustainable.
33:57
Speaker 1: And so after about two years, as a result of
34:01
Speaker 1: these various conflicts, in May of eighteen fifty seven, Walker
34:04
Speaker 1: has to surrender. He has to leave Nicaragua until that is,
34:09
Speaker 1: he convinces people to join him on his second Nicaragua campaign.
34:13
Speaker 1: So he's in Mobile, Alabama, and he organizes the second
34:18
Speaker 1: Nicaragua Expedition. How do you get to Mobile? Where were
34:22
Speaker 1: that come into play? It's when he left Nicaragua behind
34:26
Speaker 1: it for Mobile. He went back to the States. He
34:28
Speaker 1: was forced by Central American Armies and the government of
34:32
Speaker 1: Costa Rica to surrender to US Navy Commander Charles Henry Davis,
34:39
Speaker 1: and so he was taken back to New York City.
34:43
Speaker 1: And then when he got to New York at first
34:45
Speaker 1: there was fan fair. You know, imagine the confetti, the applause.
34:49
Speaker 1: People are like, this guy's a real American hero. But
34:52
Speaker 1: then the public turned against him when he said, the
34:56
Speaker 1: only reason I lost is because of the U. S. Navy. Also,
34:59
Speaker 1: he was using airy dirty tactics in the war. He
35:02
Speaker 1: was purposefully contaminating water wells with corpses. Yeah, he's waging
35:09
Speaker 1: biological wars. Caused a cholera epidemic. What a guy. And
35:14
Speaker 1: so now the the U. S. Public is starting to
35:17
Speaker 1: turn against him. He goes from New York, makes his
35:20
Speaker 1: way down to Mobile, Alabama, starts his second Nicaragua expedition,
35:26
Speaker 1: and then he gets arrested by the U. S. Navy
35:30
Speaker 1: under the command of a guy named Commodore Hiram Paulding
35:34
Speaker 1: gets returned to the US again, writes a book War
35:37
Speaker 1: in Nicaragua, published in eighteen sixty, and then he goes back.
35:41
Speaker 1: But this time he says, you know what, if Nicaragua
35:43
Speaker 1: didn't work, if Baja California didn't work, there's another place
35:46
Speaker 1: I can try. Let's Honduras with the same you know,
35:52
Speaker 1: the same designs in mind as he's had the whole time.
35:55
Speaker 1: This guy's just got like stars in his eyes about
35:58
Speaker 1: his conquering. I just I still want to know, like,
36:00
Speaker 1: how is he how is he benefiting from this? It
36:02
Speaker 1: sure seems like he's putting himself in harm's way. You know,
36:06
Speaker 1: I think he maybe just got off on the the
36:08
Speaker 1: chaos and the chaos I guess. Yeah, this is very interesting,
36:11
Speaker 1: very interesting character. Doesn't seem like he was doing much
36:14
Speaker 1: to institute sustainable government after he took over, or even
36:19
Speaker 1: had any real plans on how to do it. He
36:21
Speaker 1: just wanted to declare himself the president. He just wanted
36:24
Speaker 1: to be important, you know what I mean. But all
36:26
Speaker 1: this bad behavior finally caught up with him in the
36:30
Speaker 1: form of a firing squad. Yeah, that's right. So after
36:35
Speaker 1: he's organized this other expedition, put it together New Orleans,
36:39
Speaker 1: set sail for Central America. He lands near Troshio in Honduras,
36:45
Speaker 1: and he's still thinking, you know what, eventually I'm gonna
36:48
Speaker 1: get to Nicaragua. But his men, probably thinking we have
36:52
Speaker 1: heard this before, they desert him. So eventually, as he
36:58
Speaker 1: is probably trying to take over nick Araguay, he has
37:01
Speaker 1: to surrender himself to the captain of a British naval vessel,
37:04
Speaker 1: that was nearby off the coast. This guy, Commander Noel Salmon,
37:09
Speaker 1: who would later become Admiral Sir Noel Salmon, for reasons
37:14
Speaker 1: that aren't completely clear, decided that instead of returning Walker
37:20
Speaker 1: to the US, he was just going to deliver him
37:22
Speaker 1: to the authorities of Honduras, along with his chief of staff,
37:26
Speaker 1: Colonel A. F. Rutler. Ruddler was sentenced to four years
37:32
Speaker 1: hard labor in the minds Aaron Hondoras, which in many
37:37
Speaker 1: ways was a death sentence. But as he said, Walker
37:40
Speaker 1: met a different thing. Yeah. And and we've got a
37:43
Speaker 1: really good account of it from The New York Times,
37:44
Speaker 1: published in October five, eighteen sixty, by John E. Norville,
37:49
Speaker 1: And this is how he describes it. He marched from
37:51
Speaker 1: his cell to the place of execution with a steady
37:53
Speaker 1: step and unshaken. Mean a chair had been placed for him,
37:57
Speaker 1: with his back toward of the castle. Having taken his seat,
38:00
Speaker 1: he was blindfolded. Three soldiers stepped forward to within twenty
38:03
Speaker 1: ft of him and discharged their muskets. The balls entered
38:06
Speaker 1: his body and he leaned a little forward, but it
38:09
Speaker 1: being observed that he was not dead, a fourth soldier
38:12
Speaker 1: mercifully advanced so close to the suffering man the muzzle
38:15
Speaker 1: of the musket almost touched his forehead, and, being there discharged,
38:18
Speaker 1: scattered his brains and skull to the winds. Thus ends
38:22
Speaker 1: the life of the gray eyed Man of Destiny. And
38:24
Speaker 1: I have to make this joke, Ben, they were using
38:26
Speaker 1: musket balls. You live by the balls? Were you planning on? That?
38:32
Speaker 1: Just just just great in my head. I had to,
38:35
Speaker 1: had to, had to kind of give it wings. Yeah, yeah,
38:37
Speaker 1: let it fly. And so this is the conclusion of
38:42
Speaker 1: the story of the the Man, the Myth, the Monster.
38:47
Speaker 1: William Walker side note, I don't know if we mentioned this.
38:51
Speaker 1: Do you know how old he was and that firing
38:53
Speaker 1: squad got him? No, I don't. I didn't see that here.
38:55
Speaker 1: Thirty six years old. She did all that, he did
38:58
Speaker 1: all these terrible things in thirty six. Then I just
39:00
Speaker 1: turned thirty five. I never conquered a country even half successfully. Hey,
39:06
Speaker 1: you know what, neither is he? That's true? No, he
39:08
Speaker 1: was half successful. I don't know. I think he just
39:12
Speaker 1: raised the ruckets and then he was never legally recognized
39:17
Speaker 1: by another country. But you know what, we've still we've
39:20
Speaker 1: still got time to start countries of our own. Maybe
39:24
Speaker 1: on the moon when SpaceX gets his stuff together, but
39:27
Speaker 1: that's a story for another day. Thank you so much
39:30
Speaker 1: for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed the tale of
39:33
Speaker 1: William Walker and stay tuned for our next episode when
39:38
Speaker 1: we break down the story of what are they know
39:41
Speaker 1: monkey hangers the Hartlepool Monkey or why Hartlepoolians are known
39:46
Speaker 1: as monkey hangers. That's happening. That's happening with a vengeance,
39:51
Speaker 1: my friend, it is inevitable. In the meantime, hit us
39:54
Speaker 1: up on the internet. We are ridiculous at how stuff
39:57
Speaker 1: works dot com. You can join our Facebook group a
39:59
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians on on the Facebook. All you gotta do
40:03
Speaker 1: is name one of our names. It's a pretty low bar.
40:07
Speaker 1: That's the magic entry question. And you know what, if
40:09
Speaker 1: you don't know, or you say something clever, we'll still
40:11
Speaker 1: let you in. Yeah, we like jokes. Your knowl and Ben.
40:13
Speaker 1: That's Casey. That's us. Oh and we want to thank
40:17
Speaker 1: Casey super producer, Casey pegrum Wann, I think Alex Williams
40:20
Speaker 1: who composed this track. Our research associates Christopher Hasciotis and
40:24
Speaker 1: Eve's Jeff Cote, and most important to you out there,
40:28
Speaker 1: in podcast land, specifically on YouTube. Then you really, you
40:33
Speaker 1: really carried me on this one, I gotta say, and
40:36
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Oh man. Oh last thing. Please, No,
40:39
Speaker 1: we're serious. Send us flag designs if you have. For
40:43
Speaker 1: seeon