The Public Square® · The American Policy Roundtable

TPS 60: Christmas in America 1837, Part I

·1 hr·3 clips

Adams asks why the nation’s birthday is linked to "the birthday of the Savior of the world."

1. The Public Square® episode "Christmas in America 1837, Part I" uses a Christmas frame to look at America in 1837. 2. Wayne Shepard hosts with David Zanotti, who is identified as chairman of the American Policy Roundtable and the show’s resident historian. 3. The episode asks where America fits in the Christian story and calls it "the search for the manger." 4. The hosts locate the story 61 years after the Declaration of Independence and 23 years before the Civil War. 5. Martin Van Buren is named as the eighth president, and the union is described as having 26 states. 6. The show points out that Tennessee is 41 years old, Ohio is 34, Illinois is 19, and Florida is still a territory. 7. The episode says 1837 had no light bulbs, radios, telegraphs, television sets, or feature films. 8. The year’s number one sheet-music seller is identified as "Woodman, Spare That Tree." 9. The lyric about protecting the tree from the ax is used to illustrate how people valued nature and memory. 10. The hosts name Thomas Davenport of Forestdale, Vermont, as the inventor who received the first U.S. patent for a version of an electric motor. 11. They say Davenport built the first electric car, which ran on a small track. 12. The episode notes that his wife cut up her wedding dress to insulate the wires for his motor. 13. Davenport is described as spending his life trying to find buyers for the motor and dying in 1851 at age 48, broke. 14. The show shifts to Chicago, which it says was officially founded on March 4, 1837, with about 4,000 residents. 15. Franklin Frog appears in the Chicago segment and says the city had no Navy Pier, Wrigley Field, or Bean in Millennium Park. 16. The Chicago material also mentions William B. Ogden, Marshall Field’s store, and a rejection of ketchup on a Chicago hot dog. 17. The episode then turns to Isaiah 9:6 and Handel’s Messiah as the biblical and musical anchor for Christmas. 18. John Quincy Adams is presented as a "founding son" whose diaries contain 221 references to the word Christmas. 19. The tone is lecture-like and theatrical, with live narration, humor, music cues, and scripted characters like Franklin Frog. 20. Listeners interested in American history, Christmas music, and John Quincy Adams will get the most from it; listeners wanting a short modern news recap may skip it.

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