Episode #1.4

America is faced with a peril like never before.

It's time for the true patriots to reveal themselves.

Take action.

Today,

we bring a reckoning.

I can no longer stay quiet about the dire state of affairs in Washington.

As vice president,

having sworn an oath to safeguard our republic,

I can't sit back and allow…

A tyrant!

A corrupted autocrat in sheep's clothes,

hell-bent on mining power from the states to stoke his own radical agenda.

It's tough to admit.

He's my president,

but Garfield has just not been square with those who put him where he is today.

Not a shred of loyalty.

Merely… broken promises.

-"Broken promises." -Broken promises.

Have you seen him lately? Has any of you?

Attribute me directly. Fuck it.

The president now dodges the American people altogether,

issuing blanket decrees from the closed doors

of his big White House.

Can you imagine?

For a few months, I actually got to be vice president.

I call on every honest, God-fearing citizen

to make their voices heard,

to march up to Pennsylvania Avenue

and demand that their so-called president honor his commitments.

Send him a message.

Loud and clear.

The people will not be ignored!

I'll be glad when you're dead You, rascal, you

This is just about the ports!

Let New York keep its damn collector!

Conkling will call off his dogs.

He's too powerful an enemy.

He will grind regular government to a halt

until you rescind that nomination, sir.

You are some of the most powerful men in Congress!

Conkling casts one look and--

You're fomenting the discord.

You're the one that is tearing this party apart

on account of, I don't know, some petty vendetta that you have!

You're inviting me to knock the teeth out of your mouth…

Really? Violence?!

That's what you think is going to be the solution?

Gentlemen, we have work to do! To do your jobs!

Gentlemen, calm yourselves this instant!

Or I will expel you from this building for good!

That includes you, Mr. Secretary.

Now,

I made a vow to end the rot in our government.

Spoils, patronage, call it what you want.

It's no good.

Do-nothings siphoning taxpayer money for jobs that don't even exist!

Elected officials brazenly peddling their influence at auction.

This is not how democracy endures.

This is wrong.

And all of us know it.

This is our fight.

One day, years from now,

each one of us will be judged by what we do in this moment.

How will they talk about us, I wonder.

Hm.

Suspend all other points of order in the Senate

until Judge Robertson is heard for the collector's post.

What?

Wait, can-- can he do that?

My mind is settled. It will not budge. I have to see my wife.

-Good day. -No, wait! Mr. President!

Mr. President, could--

Weren't you idiots supposed to be a committee of conciliation?

The tide yawed a different way.

Gee, did it?

Then allow me to yaw it back for you.

Any senator that votes to proceed with Garfield's man,

that vote will be his last.

Have you considered

that the body might perhaps be swayed more by compassion than by threats?

Your voice makes me want to hang myself, Levi.

How's that for compassion?

Out!

Okay, come on, let's go.

The seams are starting to show.

What do you feel?

You've got more horse sense than any of them.

Can a collectorship really be so important?

Is it worth expending all your capital on one front?

It's the ports. It's patronage. I have no legacy save for this.

No, you are loved.

Don't you know you're the most popular man in all of New York?

Patronage or no?

Street vendors on every corner tumble over themselves

just to shake your hand.

Parents name their children after you purely out of admiration.

It could all go away in a heartbeat.

You've got too low an opinion of other people,

what moves them.

A good leader

knows when to fight wars and when to bring peace.

You know, Mrs. Sprague…

I might truly be lost without you.

Which is why…

I ended things with the governor

earlier today.

I'm ready.

I don't want to live my whole life in the shadows.

No.

Your husband will blame me for this.

He'll come after me in the press

at a time I need every bit of support.

Is that all you can think about?

Kate, I have a family back in Albany.

Julia and our daughter.

We've hardly been shy.

The entirety of D.C. already knows about us.

Sure, sure.

That won't play in Albany.

You want me to give up my Senate seat?

Both of us must resign, Tom.

I like being a senator, though.

Relax.

It's temporary.

A show of protest to cuckold the fucker at the other end of the avenue.

But with our vacant seats,

the Democrats get a majority in the Senate, we lose control.

For a few weeks, sure.

During which, chaos reigns the day.

We sit back and watch as Garfield sees his whole agenda sacked and pillaged.

That is, until our friends from New York

elect us right back to our old seats by a unanimous vote.

We waltz back into the Senate triumphant with a potent new mandate

and a feckless fucking president flinging himself at our feet, Tom.

Remind Garfield he can't so much as shit without New York's say-so.

First Corinthians, 15:42.

"The body that is sown is perishable."

"It is raised imperishable."

"Now I declare to you, brothers and sisters,

flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God."

"We will not sleep, but we will be changed."

"In a flash, the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet."

"For the trumpet will sound,

and the dead, they will be raised."

"O grave, where is thy victory?"

"O death, where is thy sting?"

"The sting of death is sin,

and in the power of sin we find law--"

What know ye of Christ?!

This city gets stranger by the day.

Hm.

Garfield!

Garfield, I need to speak with you. It will not wait a moment longer.

Certainly.

Do you mind if I do a bit of light packing while we chat?

I'm running dreadfully late as it stands.

You're taking off early?

I'm bringing Crete up to Monmouth to continue her recovery there.

Dr. Edson's advised a gentler air.

Mm.

Shore's good for that.

Mm-hm.

Brought Nellie there when she got sick.

I'm sorry, Chester. All this time, I've never asked you about her.

It's a funny thing.

Even among my closest friends, the topic of my late wife seldom comes up, so…

Mm.

No matter! It's not why I've come here today.

-Please. -No, no, no.

If it's all the same…

Surely you've read the papers.

You know that I spoke against you.

That sounds familiar, yes.

Does it?

Good.

Thusly, I…

submit my resignation as vice president.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't accept it.

-What? -I'm not going to take your resignation.

Not yet, anyway.

I'd really like it if you'd give the job one more go.

Hang on. Uh, no, you must not grasp…

I was openly disloyal.

I-- I called you all sorts of names in the press.

Then I hope you'll come to me first next time

prior to airing your concerns with the public.

I feel it my duty to explain to you that you really ought to fire me.

I'm a truly bad vice president.

Not always.

You didn't reject my other nominees on the Senate floor

when you had the chance to do so.

I didn't approve them in, either.

I didn't even show up to the Capitol!

Eh, sure, but that's not nothing, is it?

Our politics are not the same!

I'm aligned with Conkling.

In two days' time, I'll go to Albany to ensure his and Platt's re-elections.

Well, you must do what you feel is right.