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PODCAST

American Political History

Jacob Edwards-King

The full story of this country, told through the people who lived it. From the soldier in the mud to the statesman at the table. Chronological, self-contained seasons, built on the primary sources. New episodes Tuesdays and Thursday.

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All Episodes

34:30

The Grand Convention - One Vote

American Political History ·

2026/10/06

On June 11th, 1787, Roger Sherman proposed the settlement — population in the House, one vote per state in the Senate — and the Constitutional Convention voted it down without a debate. This is the story of the 5 weeks it cost to walk back: Luther Martin’s 2-day endurance speech; Benjamin Franklin, 81 and unchurched, asking a deadlocked room why it had never once prayed — and the convention adjourning without a vote because it couldn’t afford a chaplain; Gunning Bedford telling the large stat...

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32:33

The Grand Convention - I Will Never Confederate

American Political History ·

2026/10/01

In the second week of June 1787, the small states stopped losing votes politely. David Brearley proposed erasing every state boundary and redrawing America into 13 equal parts. William Paterson declared New Jersey would never confederate on proportional representation — “I would rather submit to a monarch, to a despot, than to such a fate” — and James Wilson answered that Pennsylvania would never confederate on anything else. This is the story of the counterstroke: the New Jersey Plan, 9 reso...

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29:54

The Grand Convention - Merely Federal

American Political History ·

2026/09/29

On May 29th, 1787, Edmund Randolph — 33 years old, governor of Virginia, owner of the finest voice in the room — rose to open the main business of the Federal Convention, and 3 notebooks took him down. Madison recorded a statesman’s autopsy of the Confederation and an exhortation not to let the moment pass. Doctor McHenry caught the raw material Madison left out: “Are we not on the eve of war?” and the maxim that America’s chief danger arose from “the democratic parts of our constitutions.” A...

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26:54

A Failed Nation - Thirteen Nations

American Political History ·

2026/09/03

There were thirteen United States — and to the rest of the world, there were thirteen nations. This is the story of what that cost. In 1785, pirates out of Algiers seized two American ships and enslaved their crews, and the United States could do nothing to free them: no navy, no money, no power to answer. In London, John Adams sought a commercial treaty with Britain and was quietly refused, because Britain had grasped the essential thing about the new republic — that a treaty with Congress b...

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32:40

A Failed Nation - Driven into a Separation

American Political History ·

2026/09/01

The Treaty of Paris handed the United States a wilderness empire running to the Mississippi and the Great Lakes — and the bankrupt Confederation needed to sell it, fast, because western land was very nearly the only asset it had. There was one problem: the nations who lived there had never been conquered, had signed nothing, and were not leaving. This is the story of how the United States tried to take the Ohio country on the cheap — the dictated treaties that told the Shawnee and the Delawar...

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27:33

A Failed Nation - Shays’ Rebellion

American Political History ·

2026/08/25

In the winter of 1787, a few thousand indebted farmers in western Massachusetts marched on their own government — and though they lost their one real battle in minutes, in the snow outside a federal arsenal, they did more to reshape the country than any army of the age. This is the story of Shays’ Rebellion: the veterans who had won the Revolution and come home to lose their farms to it, the creditor legislature in Boston that taxed them in coin they did not have, and the courthouses they clo...

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30:04

A Failed Nation - Rogue Island

American Political History ·

2026/08/20

In September 1786, a Newport butcher named John Weeden refused to take paper money for a joint of meat, and demanded silver. Under Rhode Island law, that was a crime — punishable by a fine, the loss of his vote, and a trial with no jury and no appeal. This is the story of what happened next: the farmers who took a state government by lawful election and used it to save their farms, the merchants who shut their doors rather than obey, and the courtroom in the Old Colony House where a Continent...

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29:46

A Failed Nation - Pennies on the Dollar

American Political History ·

2026/08/18

In 1786 the Congress of the United States asked the thirteen states for 3.8 million dollars to pay the debts of the Revolution. It collected 663 dollars. This is the story of the broken money machine underneath everything else in these years — the crisis that drove an army to the edge of mutiny, ruined the richest man in America, and finally put muskets in the hands of farmers. A government that could not tax, only ask. Soldiers like Joseph Plumb Martin, who gave 7 years to the war and came h...

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30:31

A Failed Nation - The Financier

American Political History ·

2026/08/13

He was the richest man in America, and for most of the Revolution he was also its treasury. When the United States had no money and no credit, it borrowed on the name of Robert Morris — a Philadelphia merchant who put his own fortune and signature behind a bankrupt government, kept General Washington’s army fed, and personally financed the campaign that won the war at Yorktown. This is the story of the Financier of the Revolution: the reluctant patriot who voted against independence and then ...

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35:32

A Failed Nation - A Dangerous Instrument

American Political History ·

2026/08/11

In the spring of 1783, with the Revolution all but won, the most dangerous enemy of the United States was its own army. Unpaid for years, cheated of their promised pensions, the officers camped at Newburgh, New York, had every reason to be furious — and an anonymous letter, circulating hut to hut, told them the time for begging was over. A faction of politicians in Philadelphia, led by Alexander Hamilton, saw in that fury a weapon they could use to force a helpless Congress into line. Their c...

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1:46

Interlude

American Political History ·

2026/08/04

If you've listening to this, you been with this show a while, scroll back to the beginning of the feed. Everything down there is new. Every episode from the start of this show has been remade. Season one, season two, all of it — re-researched, rewritten, re-recorded, and re-uploaded in place. Some seasons are even totally new content. The old files are gone. You don't have to do anything; if you have the show, you already have them. And they are not the episodes you remember. The early ones r...

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8:41

Washington's Second Term - The British Problem

American Political History ·

2026/07/27

The Royal Navy controls the Atlantic. In November 1793. Whitehall issues orders, any neutral ship trading with France can be seized, cargo confiscated, and the ship taken as a prize. The crews can also be impressed into the Royal Navy.

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8:43

Washington's Second Term - Washington Takes the Field

American Political History ·

2026/07/20

President Washington is not just sending an army, he's personally leading it.

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10:53

Washington's Second Term - The Whiskey Tax Crisis

American Political History ·

2026/07/13

Does the federal government have the authority to use military force against its own citizens? Or can states, or counties, ignore federal taxes they believe are unconstitutional? What happens when citizens believe a law violates their rights?

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5:47

Washington's First Term - The Election of 1792

American Political History ·

2026/06/29

Short, Simple, Duty. President Washing accepts his second term.

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15:11

Washington's First Term - Neutrality Crisis

American Political History ·

2026/06/22

The French revolution breaks out, then France declares war on England. America is unprepared for war.

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14:47

Washington's First Term - Western Troubles

American Political History ·

2026/06/16

We cover the battles to secure the Ohio territory ceded to America in the Treaty of Paris.

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11:21

Washington's First Term - The Emergence of Political...

American Political History ·

2026/06/09

We detail the emergence of political parties from Washington's own cabinet.

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11:57

Washington's First Term - The Bank Wars

American Political History ·

2026/06/02

Secretary Hamilton moves to create the Bank of the United States, in pushing so hard, the national divide over the issue marks the creation of political parties in America.

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15:28

Washington's First Term - The Debt Assumption Fight

American Political History ·

2026/05/25

America still is buried by the accumulation of debt from the revolutionary war. Secretary of Treasury Hamilton has a plan.

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