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Short Stuff: James Polk, Disinterred · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, there, everybody, and welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, there's Jerry, And like I said, this is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: short stuff, So let's get to it about James K. Polk.
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  Speaker 1: That's right, James K. Polk, eleventh President of the United States,
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  Speaker 1: former Governor of Tennessee, former Speaker of the House and
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  Speaker 1: House Representative of the state of Tennessee. Former member of
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  Speaker 1: the Senate or was he he clerked for the Senate.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: He did clerk for the Senate. That's where he where
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  Speaker 1: he got his start, which was pretty impressive because he
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: was still in law school, I think. But he made
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  Speaker 1: such a name for himself that they basically said, come
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  Speaker 1: on as our as the Tennessee State Senate mascot, buddy,
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  Speaker 1: and we're gonna we're gonna raise you up from there. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So Polk was born in North Carolina, although he um,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I think people in Tennessee have a lot
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  Speaker 1: of respecting reverence for him. But he was born in
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  Speaker 1: North Carolina or North Kakaaki as we call it. And
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  Speaker 1: when he was ten, they moved to Tennessee what this
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  Speaker 1: article calls the Tennessee Frontier. Yeah, well, I mean it
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  Speaker 1: was at the time why not if you were a
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  Speaker 1: white European settler and his dad, uh, Sammy Polke, Samuel Polk,
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  Speaker 1: his paw, Chuck, we're talking Tennessee, that's right, his paw.
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  Speaker 1: He built a two story house in eighteen sixteen in Colombia,
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  Speaker 1: and that's where James lived for a while as young adult,
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  Speaker 1: and it now serves as the James K. Polk Museum
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  Speaker 1: Home and Museum Presidential Museum. Yeah. So that's like just
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  Speaker 1: a bit of the background of this interesting story about
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  Speaker 1: the fact that James Polk has been exhumed and moved
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  Speaker 1: a couple of times since his death. Yes, this, this
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  Speaker 1: short stuff just got interesting. Even though this article, I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure you noticed, did not say anything about his death
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  Speaker 1: or where he was buried. There's clearly a paragraph or
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  Speaker 1: two missing, I think. So I went back and I
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  Speaker 1: was like, it's there under this, like what's going on here? Um,
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  Speaker 1: But nope, it's not there. So so basically, James Polk
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  Speaker 1: he became the eleventh president of the United States after
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  Speaker 1: John Tyler Um, who was the first president not elected
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  Speaker 1: I believe, to become president. He succeeded William Henry Harrison,
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  Speaker 1: who died after a month. You know that famous Simpsons song,
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  Speaker 1: there's William Henry Harrison. I died in thirty days. Um. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that that's what happened, and John Tyler succeeded him. Well, Um,
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  Speaker 1: James Polk soundly beat uh Taylor Tyler Um. And he
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  Speaker 1: beat him basically saying like, look, I've got some campaign
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  Speaker 1: promises I'm going to handle. I'm going to take care
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  Speaker 1: of these things in one term and then I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to go. And I'm young, and and no one's ever
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  Speaker 1: elected a president this young. No. I think he was
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  Speaker 1: forty nine when he was elected or something like that,
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  Speaker 1: so at the time he was definitely the youngest, although
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  Speaker 1: you'd think in like the eighteen forties or eighteen fifties
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  Speaker 1: that was like old school, but I guess not. But
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  Speaker 1: he was elected and he did what he said he
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  Speaker 1: was going to do. He um established the Naval Academy.
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  Speaker 1: He um oversaw the very first US postal stamp created, right,
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  Speaker 1: and everyone's like, what's that? And he's like, just watch everybody.
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  Speaker 1: Um and then he uh signed into law of the Smithsonian,
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  Speaker 1: which makes me a big fan of him. He also
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  Speaker 1: did something pretty big. He established the Independent Treasury System,
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  Speaker 1: which was the predecessor Chuck to the Federal Reserve. And
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  Speaker 1: at the time you might think, well, federal Reserve, you know,
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  Speaker 1: boo or yeah, or whatever however you feel about it.
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  Speaker 1: It was very much needed at this time because back
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  Speaker 1: then stay owned or private banks would routinely just not
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  Speaker 1: trade you gold and silver for the paper that you
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  Speaker 1: came to trade back in. They would say, we don't
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  Speaker 1: have it, sorry, and this would cause panics over and
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  Speaker 1: over again. So they set up a bank to the banks,
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  Speaker 1: the Independent Treasury System, And that was a big one
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  Speaker 1: that he did because it took a lot of political
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  Speaker 1: clout to overwhelm him the state's interests at the time.
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  Speaker 1: Who are who are run by these these influential bankers
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  Speaker 1: who didn't want a federal system above them. So those
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  Speaker 1: were some big ones. He also started the Mexican American War,
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  Speaker 1: which is definitely a mark against him, that's right. But
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  Speaker 1: through all, I mean, he got a lot. A lot
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  Speaker 1: happened in those four years, and like you said, true
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  Speaker 1: to his word, he said, four years, I'm out, and
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  Speaker 1: uh I went back to Tennessee and then I think
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  Speaker 1: let's take a break now and then we'll talk about
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  Speaker 1: how he died and started bouncing around after that. So
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  Speaker 1: Polk died of what they think now is cholera. Um,
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  Speaker 1: he got sick. They kind of denied it was cholera,
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  Speaker 1: but he was surrounded by people with cholera. But they
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  Speaker 1: were like, no, you don't have cholera. And he was like,
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  Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure I have cholera because everyone around me
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  Speaker 1: has cholera. And they said, no, it's not cholera, not you, James.
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  Speaker 1: But I think he died. That's kind of widely believed
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  Speaker 1: to be his cause of death today. Well, the first
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  Speaker 1: place he was interred was the Nashville City Cemetery with
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  Speaker 1: the cholera victims. Yeah, it was a legal thing. It
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  Speaker 1: wasn't called the Nashville City Cemetery back then, but the
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  Speaker 1: way I saw it, it it was basically like if you
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  Speaker 1: died from infectious disease, infectious disease, you had to be
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  Speaker 1: buried there as close to the groundwater as possible. Yeah. So, um,
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  Speaker 1: that's the first place that he's buried. We need like
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  Speaker 1: a ding or something here because he's been interred one time.
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  Speaker 1: I think Jerry could manage a ding. Let's let's hope Jerry. So, um,
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  Speaker 1: he's he's buried there in again the Nashville City Cemetery
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  Speaker 1: like a common caller victim. And somebody said, whoa, this
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  Speaker 1: is no place for a beloved president Um to to
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  Speaker 1: be buried. We need to we need to show some
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  Speaker 1: respect and also more closely follow them the wishes of
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  Speaker 1: his will. Yeah, because he said that he wanted to
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  Speaker 1: be buried at Polk Place, which was his mansion where
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  Speaker 1: he and his wife lived. Um, And they they moved
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  Speaker 1: him there. They actually built him like a pretty sweet
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  Speaker 1: little memorial on the front in the front yard. You
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  Speaker 1: can see drawings of it, and it's like, there's the house,
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  Speaker 1: there's the memorial, like right there in the little front yard.
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  Speaker 1: It was pretty cute. Yeah. And his wife Sarah, thank
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  Speaker 1: you for for remembering her name. I was like frantically
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  Speaker 1: searching for it and couldn't find it. Yeah, his wife Sarah,
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  Speaker 1: I guess you know, she was like, well, let me
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  Speaker 1: just live for another I don't know, forty two years.
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  Speaker 1: I read that. I was like, is that a miss Brent.
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  Speaker 1: It could be in this article, but it's not. Yeah, exactly,
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  Speaker 1: according to this article, he never died. He's right behind you, so,
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  Speaker 1: oh my god. Um, So yeah, she lived another forty
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  Speaker 1: two years, which is outstanding, great, great long life. And
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  Speaker 1: once she finally died, there was a bit of an
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  Speaker 1: argument over the ownership of Polk Place and kind of
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  Speaker 1: like where they should be ultimately in their uh whatever,
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  Speaker 1: what they thought was their final resting place. But everyone
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  Speaker 1: else is like, but where should their real final resting
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  Speaker 1: place be? Right? Well, I think they would technically be there,
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  Speaker 1: but he in his will had had left the stipulation
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  Speaker 1: that the state of Tennessee could take Polk Place and
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  Speaker 1: own it as long as a Polk would be allowed
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  Speaker 1: to live there forever. And Um, Tennessee said, that's an
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  Speaker 1: im perpetuity, which is illegal. So this clause as part
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  Speaker 1: of your will is null and void, which left it
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  Speaker 1: open to his errors to do with what they wished
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  Speaker 1: with this place, um, which was turned around and sell
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  Speaker 1: it to a developer because he didn't have any children. Um.
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  Speaker 1: These were all relatives who didn't give a spit about
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  Speaker 1: what happened to this to his beloved home. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 1: can't believe that was sold by developers in and they
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  Speaker 1: demolished it. They demolished it, and this was like this
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  Speaker 1: they were Tennessee was thinking of turning this into the
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  Speaker 1: governor's mansion and preserving this, and they said, no, get
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  Speaker 1: rid of it. So they actually disinterred him. So the
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  Speaker 1: state of Tennessee disinterned he and Sarah and moved their
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  Speaker 1: remains to the state capital. And you'd think, okay, that
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  Speaker 1: would be the end of the story. The guy's been
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  Speaker 1: buried to two times now, no, one to three times.
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  Speaker 1: He's been buried three times. Let him rest in peace, right,
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  Speaker 1: but it's not buried buried? And then was it three times? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he was buried in the city since twice buried? Yeah, right,
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  Speaker 1: I know. It kind of concerned me too. It's like
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  Speaker 1: trying to understand economics. Yeah, that's the old saying. Uh buried,
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  Speaker 1: never mind buried thrice, but moved only twice. That's it.
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  Speaker 1: So they, like you said, they moved into the capitol
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  Speaker 1: and uh, you know, a place of great reverence and
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  Speaker 1: respect where people can can go see. Although he is
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  Speaker 1: sort of in the shadow of these two, he doesn't
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  Speaker 1: have the kind of monuments that Jackson and Johnson have. No,
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  Speaker 1: and that's why there's some people in the Tennessee State government,
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  Speaker 1: specifically a guy named um oh what's that that State
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  Speaker 1: senators Joe Joey Hensley, which is number one, not a
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  Speaker 1: senator's name if you ask me a number two, not
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  Speaker 1: a Tennessee senator's name. But there you have it, Joey
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  Speaker 1: Hensley right exactly. Um he I could see him on
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  Speaker 1: like Jersey Shore or something like that. He's like bright orange.
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  Speaker 1: His hair stands up like a mile high. Anyway, Senator
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  Speaker 1: Joey Hensley is like, look, man, I I I have
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  Speaker 1: been up here for fourteen years working in the in
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  Speaker 1: the Tennessee legislature, and I can tell you James Polk
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  Speaker 1: is not getting his reverence. Yeah, people don't know he's
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  Speaker 1: buried there. They barely mentioned him on the tour. He's
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  Speaker 1: literally in the shadows of um Jackson and Johnson statues.
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  Speaker 1: Like you said, we got to do something better. Let's
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  Speaker 1: move this guy to his presidential library at his father's
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  Speaker 1: house in Columbia, Tennessee. Yeah, this is a couple of
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  Speaker 1: years ago, in two thousand seventeen, and a lot of
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  Speaker 1: hoops have to be jumped through to move a dead
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  Speaker 1: president's body. Believe it or not. Um. It did pass
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  Speaker 1: the State Senate in March, which was just you know,
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  Speaker 1: like kind of like the first stop to getting this done. Uh.
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  Speaker 1: The governor has to approve it, the House has to
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  Speaker 1: approve it, a local judge, and then most importantly in
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  Speaker 1: this case, the Tennessee Historical Commission has to approve it. Um.
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  Speaker 1: And that's the one that said no, I don't think
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  Speaker 1: you should do that. Yeah, and his his um family
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  Speaker 1: UH is kind of divided about it. Some people are like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: of course this would be a great place for him,
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  Speaker 1: it's his presidential library, and other people like who right?
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  Speaker 1: But then I and I didn't understand why anybody would
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  Speaker 1: be opposed to moving him if he's not getting his
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  Speaker 1: due in the capital. But the opposition's position seems to
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  Speaker 1: be that he wanted to be buried at Polk Place
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  Speaker 1: in Nashville. Right, Polk Place isn't around anymore, So he's
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  Speaker 1: still buried in Nashville and at the Capitol. Get that
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  Speaker 1: so um. I saw also in two thousand and eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: the issue was brought back up again and it got
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  Speaker 1: voted down by one vote by the state Senate this time.
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  Speaker 1: So he's not going anywhere. It doesn't look like he's
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  Speaker 1: going anywhere. Uh. So you know, if you're ever in Nashville,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: go eat some hot chicken. Maybe go cut a record
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  Speaker 1: at Jack White's little Recording booth. Don't forget to pick
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: up a molda rama while you're there. Pick up a
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  Speaker 1: molda rama and go uh if you want to pay
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  Speaker 1: your respects to James Polk Short stuff out. Stuff You
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• 11:58
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