Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia. My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, December 1848, President James K. Polk delivered his annual end-of-year message to Congress,

and in it spent a good amount of time talking about the gold that had been

discovered in California earlier that year. Among his remarks, he said, quote,

The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory are of such an extraordinary

character as would scarcely command belief, were they not corroborated by the authentic

reports of officers in the public service who have visited

the Mineral District. Basically, Polk is saying, yeah, all those rumors are true. There is gold

and then there hills. Reports indicate that by the time Polk had finished his sentences,

half the members of Congress had grabbed a bucket and a pickaxe and sprinted out of the room

and headed for the hills to pan for gold.

That part is not true, but it's not that far from true because the way that people were behaving in 1848 was kind of wild. And Polk's remarks do signal a shift from 1848, where it really was

a sort of scattershot gold rush full of rumor and speculation to all of a sudden the government

giving its official stamp of approval, taking things in 1849 to a whole new level.

So let's talk about this sort of pivot point from gold fever to a real institutional investment

in many ways into the gold in California.

Here to discuss, as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wesley.

Hey there.

Hello, Jody.

Hey there.

I want to talk about Polk's remarks because, I mean, part of it is just like, well, here's

the president blowing up our spot.

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