The Gold Spoon That Toppled the President
“The 'site' of the presidential palace is perhaps not less conspicuous than the King’s house in many of the royal capitals of Europe … let us enter [the] palace, and survey its spacious courts, its gorgeous banqueting halls, its sumptuous drawing rooms, its glittering and dazzling saloons, with all their magnificent and sumptuous array of gold and silver, crimson and orange, blue and violet, screens of Ionic columns, marble mantels with Italian black and gold fronts, gilt eagle cornices, rich cut glass and gilt chandeliers, suspended by beautiful Grecian chains, gilt eagle candelabras …”
This is not a description from 2025. These are the words spoken by Whig Party Rep. Charles Ogle in 1840 to describe the East Room, a banquet hall in the main building of the White House. Standing before the House of Representatives to oppose the $3,665 appropriated for White House repairs, he rocked the nation by claiming that eighth U.S. President Martin Van Buren was living a life of “regal splendor” within the “Presidential palace.” This speech became known as the Gold Spoon Oration.
According to this speech, Van Buren, who had overseen renovations through various parts of the White House, had the East Room “garnished with gold framed mirrors ‘as big as a barn-door’.” In the reception rooms, he had placed “rich French furniture,” “costly gilded ornaments,” “mahogany gilt-mounted piano forte,” and a “heavy gilt bronze mantel time-piece.” In the banquet hall, he dined on French dishes that most could not pronounce on “massive gold plate[s]” with “knives, forks, and spoons of gold.” Ogle even goes on to sarcastically mock Van Buren for spending “the People’s cash [on] GREEN FINGER CUPS, in which to wash his pretty tapering, soft, white, lily fingers.” Finger cups were used by royalty and aristocrats to wash their fingers during banquets.
As it became widely printed and circulated, this satirical speech played a decisive role in killing Van Buren’s presidential reelection. In truth, the cutlery in question was gold-plated rather than made of gold, and Van Buren had not purchased them. The day after the speech, another congressman from Ogle’s own party made an official correction and apology, clarifying that maintenance of the official residence had cost less during Van Buren’s term than those of previous presidents. However, false rumors of the existence of these gold plates had snowballed. At the time, American society had already drawn a stark contrast between the “hero of the common man” William Henry Harrison and the “aristocratic president” Van Buren. Ogle’s speech served to exacerbate this contrast and boost the Whig Party’s political strategy. The speech ultimately brought about Van Buren’s reelection defeat.
Recently, the story of a “gold spoon” president has again become frequently spoken of in America. This is because on Oct. 20, two days after the “No Kings” protests that drew 7 million people across the United States in chanting “Trump is not a king,” President Donald Trump ordered the unauthorized demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build what CNN dubbed a new “Louis XIV-style” ballroom. All the while, federal government agencies continue to be in a shutdown as Congress fails to reach a budget agreement due to the administration and majority party’s threats to cut health insurance for low-income and middle-class people.
The new banquet hall is said to cost $300 million to build, and Trump invited businesspeople to the White House for a dinner to raise funds for its construction. Mark Schmeller, associate professor of history at Syracuse University, criticized it in a column in The Hill last month: “Regardless of who picks up the tab (or pays the bribe), the gauche opulence of the White House renovations do not easily align with the administration’s vows to combat wasteful government spending,” and “the next Gold Spoon oration almost writes itself, and without the ‘fake news’ of the original." Even now, the White House Historical Association continues to preserve the “Gold-Plated Spoon.” I wonder what relics will remain next.
This is not a description from 2025. These are the words spoken by Whig Party Rep. Charles Ogle in 1840 to describe the East Room, a banquet hall in the main building of the White House. Standing before the House of Representatives to oppose the $3,665 appropriated for White House repairs, he rocked the nation by claiming that eighth U.S. President Martin Van Buren was living a life of “regal splendor” within the “Presidential palace.” This speech became known as the Gold Spoon Oration.
According to this speech, Van Buren, who had overseen renovations through various parts of the White House, had the East Room “garnished with gold framed mirrors ‘as big as a barn-door’.” In the reception rooms, he had placed “rich French furniture,” “costly gilded ornaments,” “mahogany gilt-mounted piano forte,” and a “heavy gilt bronze mantel time-piece.” In the banquet hall, he dined on French dishes that most could not pronounce on “massive gold plate[s]” with “knives, forks, and spoons of gold.” Ogle even goes on to sarcastically mock Van Buren for spending “the People’s cash [on] GREEN FINGER CUPS, in which to wash his pretty tapering, soft, white, lily fingers.” Finger cups were used by royalty and aristocrats to wash their fingers during banquets.
As it became widely printed and circulated, this satirical speech played a decisive role in killing Van Buren’s presidential reelection. In truth, the cutlery in question was gold-plated rather than made of gold, and Van Buren had not purchased them. The day after the speech, another congressman from Ogle’s own party made an official correction and apology, clarifying that maintenance of the official residence had cost less during Van Buren’s term than those of previous presidents. However, false rumors of the existence of these gold plates had snowballed. At the time, American society had already drawn a stark contrast between the “hero of the common man” William Henry Harrison and the “aristocratic president” Van Buren. Ogle’s speech served to exacerbate this contrast and boost the Whig Party’s political strategy. The speech ultimately brought about Van Buren’s reelection defeat.
Recently, the story of a “gold spoon” president has again become frequently spoken of in America. This is because on Oct. 20, two days after the “No Kings” protests that drew 7 million people across the United States in chanting “Trump is not a king,” President Donald Trump ordered the unauthorized demolition of the East Wing of the White House to build what CNN dubbed a new “Louis XIV-style” ballroom. All the while, federal government agencies continue to be in a shutdown as Congress fails to reach a budget agreement due to the administration and majority party’s threats to cut health insurance for low-income and middle-class people.
The new banquet hall is said to cost $300 million to build, and Trump invited businesspeople to the White House for a dinner to raise funds for its construction. Mark Schmeller, associate professor of history at Syracuse University, criticized it in a column in The Hill last month: “Regardless of who picks up the tab (or pays the bribe), the gauche opulence of the White House renovations do not easily align with the administration’s vows to combat wasteful government spending,” and “the next Gold Spoon oration almost writes itself, and without the ‘fake news’ of the original." Even now, the White House Historical Association continues to preserve the “Gold-Plated Spoon.” I wonder what relics will remain next.
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