April 17, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, King George III was not "the mad king who lost the colonies," says renowned historian David McCullough. He was a king, and did lose the most prosperous land on Earth just as the British Empire was building up steam.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Best Selling historian
and two time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough is the
author of seventeen seventy six. In this masterful work, he
tells the intensely human story of those who marched with
George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence,
(00:31):
beginning in seventeen seventy five. Here he is telling a
little known story about both the British perspective and their
colonies in America. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I wanted to begin in London. I wanted to begin
in late October in London because it's the day that
the King went before Parliament to give one of the
most important speeches ever any king or anyone ever gave
before Parliament. When we thought at Lexington and conquered in
at Bunker Hill, we were not fighting for independence. We
(01:05):
were fighting for our rights as freeborn Englishmen. In seventeen
seventy five seventeen seventy six, except for those five hundred
thousand American men, women and children who were held in slavery,
we had the highest standard of living of any people
in the world, which is most people don't understand. So
(01:28):
we weren't fighting for independence, and we were very well
off in world terms, and we had more freedom again,
except for those five hundred thousand black men, women and
children in slavery, we had more freedom than any other
people in the world because people living under the British
system had the most freedom of anyone. But on the
(01:50):
day when the King addressed Parliament, which is very much
like our state of the Union moment, you have the
King coming before a joint session of Commons and the
House of Lords, and he addresses them with his policy.
And his policy was, in essence, the following. The American
(02:11):
colonies are in rebellion. They're leaders, these political firebrands, are traders,
and their real purpose is independence. Nobody, nobody had spoken,
at least publicly or on paper, no one of any
consequence or responsibility here of anything about independence as yet.
(02:36):
And that he, the King, and his cabinet had concluded
that they must send sufficient force to put the rebellion down,
and furthermore, that they were conducting negotiations to hire additional troops,
which as we know, were the Hessians or the German mercenaries.
(02:58):
When that letter fired, that the text of that speech
finally reached this country. It was a blow such as
no one expected. It didn't arrive until the first day
of the new year, January one, seventeen seventy six. It
reached Boston, and right away everybody knew this wasn't going
(03:23):
to be a short war. Washington had written to his
wife Martha to say that he'd be home by Christmas.
When he first took command. Jefferson had written to a
kinsman late in August of seventeen seventy five, that excuse
me that he looked forward to the moment when we
would be reunited with the mother country in the happy,
good old way. But such illusions of a reconciliation and
(03:49):
went out the window with that speech. Now, George the
Third was not the mad king who lost the colonies there.
Mental illness did not come on until twenty years later,
seventeen seventy six. He was a very healthy young man
in his thirties, and his madness was not understood then.
(04:15):
It's a disease called perfheria, which is hereditary. Wouldn't be
diagnosed until the twentieth century. George the Third was not
a dim wit. He was a very intelligent, very interesting man.
He was an accomplished musician, an accomplished artist, great lover
of literature, great collector of books, and according to Samuel Johnson,
(04:39):
one of the most interesting, engaging men that he'd ever
held a conversation with. And Johnson was a very severe
critic or judge of other people. He was kind, he
was honest, He was an ardent horticulturist, agriculturist, loved his farm,
(05:00):
Windsor was happiest there working on his farms, as were
Adams or Jefferson or Washington. And he had fifteen children,
which he for whom he was an excellent father. And
he was doing what he sought was his duty as king.
And he had the support of the country and the
(05:22):
support of Parliament. When Fox and Burke and others stood
up and gave their magnificent speeches in the House of
Commons in support or in sympathy with the American point
of view, they were powerful, and they were eloquent to
the point of magnificent. Their speeches, particularly Burke's, are literature.
(05:48):
But they didn't have the boats, and they knew they
didn't have the boats, and they were thus free to
say almost anything they wished. Furthermore, Furthermore, they too would
always refer to our colonies. In other words, they didn't
(06:09):
get it either. It wasn't going to be their colonies.
That was the point. There came a point where where
it's very close. The reconciliation might have happened, but it
was only possible if we gave up the idea of independence,
and we weren't going to do that. John Adams said,
(06:29):
the American Revolution began in the hearts of the Americans,
of the American people, long before any war broke out.
And I think that's probably true. And the war could
have gone either way any number of times, six or
seven times, even during the course of the one year
seventeen seventy six. The British didn't lose because their generals
(06:52):
were dim bulbed aristocrats who shouldn't have had high command,
and they were excellent officers, some were better than others.
Of course, if Henry Clinton had been in command instead
of William Howe, it might have gone quite differently, because
Clinton caught the point which we were slow to catch,
(07:12):
that it wasn't holding Boston or taking New York, or
holding New York or occupying New Jersey that was going
to win the war. The only thing that would win
the war for the British was to surround Washington and
his army and put them out of business. And Washington
too was slow in realizing this. As long as the
(07:33):
army survived, as long as the army held together, as
long as there was fight in it, the war would
go on. And he also knew how big a country
this is. Whether we would have won had the French
not come in, who's to say if we hadn't won,
the war would certainly have gone on a great deal
longer without the French. Let's not forget the French didn't
(07:57):
come in because of any great love of democracy. They
came in because it was an opportune chance to stick
it to Great Britain, and in doing so they spent
so much money that they virtually bankrupt themselves, which in
the chain reaction, helped to bring on the French Revolution.
(08:17):
Whereas the British, who were very concerned that if they
lost the colonies, that would be the end of the
British Empire. And of course we know in hindsight that
in the eighteenth century the British Empire was just getting
into the second gear and it wouldn't be until the
nineteenth century that the British Empire really became the powerful
(08:39):
force in the world that it was. There are all
kinds of ironies, There are all kinds of points to remember.
The longest war in our history except for Vietnam. Most
people don't know that, and with the bloodiest war in
our history per capita, except for the Civil War, population
of two million, five hundred thousand thousand Americans were killed.
(09:02):
That's one percent of the population. If we were fighting
a revolution a war for our independence today, we would
lose over three million people on the same ratio. So
for that generation, for those people, this was a terrible
loss and they would never, in many of them recover
from it. And it wasn't just those who were killed.
(09:23):
It was those who were wounded, those who lost limbs,
those who suffered acutely from disease and the after effects.
We lost more people from disease than we did from
musket balls or cannon fire. And then much of that
was needless. And again it was lack of discipline in
the troops because the British were quite healthy through most
of it.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
Greg Hangler and you've been listening to the late David McCullough,
two time Pooled Surprise Winner, and he was speaking at
the National Archives, one of the great places and spaces
in Washington, d C. And he was talking about his
book seventeen seventy six, the biography essentially of the Year
(10:05):
of Our Birth and what storytelling it was and is. Indeed,
by the way, if you love our show and you
love listening to it, what you're listening to is free,
but it is not free to make. Go to Our
American Stories and contribute where a nonprofit and your contributions
are needed in your contributions are welcome. If you love
(10:27):
the storytelling, go to our American Stories dot com and
give the story of the Year of Our Birth seventeen
seventy six, as told by David McCullough here on Our
American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Best Selling historian
and two time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough is the
author of seventeen seventy six. In this masterful work, he
tells the intensely human story of those who marched with
George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence,
(00:31):
beginning in seventeen seventy five. Here he is telling a
little known story about both the British perspective and their
colonies in America. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I wanted to begin in London. I wanted to begin
in late October in London because it's the day that
the King went before Parliament to give one of the
most important speeches ever any king or anyone ever gave
before Parliament. When we thought at Lexington and conquered in
at Bunker Hill, we were not fighting for independence. We
(01:05):
were fighting for our rights as freeborn Englishmen. In seventeen
seventy five seventeen seventy six, except for those five hundred
thousand American men, women and children who were held in slavery,
we had the highest standard of living of any people
in the world, which is most people don't understand. So
(01:28):
we weren't fighting for independence, and we were very well
off in world terms, and we had more freedom again,
except for those five hundred thousand black men, women and
children in slavery, we had more freedom than any other
people in the world because people living under the British
system had the most freedom of anyone. But on the
(01:50):
day when the King addressed Parliament, which is very much
like our state of the Union moment, you have the
King coming before a joint session of Commons and the
House of Lords, and he addresses them with his policy.
And his policy was, in essence, the following. The American
(02:11):
colonies are in rebellion. They're leaders, these political firebrands, are traders,
and their real purpose is independence. Nobody, nobody had spoken,
at least publicly or on paper, no one of any
consequence or responsibility here of anything about independence as yet.
(02:36):
And that he, the King, and his cabinet had concluded
that they must send sufficient force to put the rebellion down,
and furthermore, that they were conducting negotiations to hire additional troops,
which as we know, were the Hessians or the German mercenaries.
(02:58):
When that letter fired, that the text of that speech
finally reached this country. It was a blow such as
no one expected. It didn't arrive until the first day
of the new year, January one, seventeen seventy six. It
reached Boston, and right away everybody knew this wasn't going
(03:23):
to be a short war. Washington had written to his
wife Martha to say that he'd be home by Christmas.
When he first took command. Jefferson had written to a
kinsman late in August of seventeen seventy five, that excuse
me that he looked forward to the moment when we
would be reunited with the mother country in the happy,
good old way. But such illusions of a reconciliation and
(03:49):
went out the window with that speech. Now, George the
Third was not the mad king who lost the colonies there.
Mental illness did not come on until twenty years later,
seventeen seventy six. He was a very healthy young man
in his thirties, and his madness was not understood then.
(04:15):
It's a disease called perfheria, which is hereditary. Wouldn't be
diagnosed until the twentieth century. George the Third was not
a dim wit. He was a very intelligent, very interesting man.
He was an accomplished musician, an accomplished artist, great lover
of literature, great collector of books, and according to Samuel Johnson,
(04:39):
one of the most interesting, engaging men that he'd ever
held a conversation with. And Johnson was a very severe
critic or judge of other people. He was kind, he
was honest, He was an ardent horticulturist, agriculturist, loved his farm,
(05:00):
Windsor was happiest there working on his farms, as were
Adams or Jefferson or Washington. And he had fifteen children,
which he for whom he was an excellent father. And
he was doing what he sought was his duty as king.
And he had the support of the country and the
(05:22):
support of Parliament. When Fox and Burke and others stood
up and gave their magnificent speeches in the House of
Commons in support or in sympathy with the American point
of view, they were powerful, and they were eloquent to
the point of magnificent. Their speeches, particularly Burke's, are literature.
(05:48):
But they didn't have the boats, and they knew they
didn't have the boats, and they were thus free to
say almost anything they wished. Furthermore, Furthermore, they too would
always refer to our colonies. In other words, they didn't
(06:09):
get it either. It wasn't going to be their colonies.
That was the point. There came a point where where
it's very close. The reconciliation might have happened, but it
was only possible if we gave up the idea of independence,
and we weren't going to do that. John Adams said,
(06:29):
the American Revolution began in the hearts of the Americans,
of the American people, long before any war broke out.
And I think that's probably true. And the war could
have gone either way any number of times, six or
seven times, even during the course of the one year
seventeen seventy six. The British didn't lose because their generals
(06:52):
were dim bulbed aristocrats who shouldn't have had high command,
and they were excellent officers, some were better than others.
Of course, if Henry Clinton had been in command instead
of William Howe, it might have gone quite differently, because
Clinton caught the point which we were slow to catch,
(07:12):
that it wasn't holding Boston or taking New York, or
holding New York or occupying New Jersey that was going
to win the war. The only thing that would win
the war for the British was to surround Washington and
his army and put them out of business. And Washington
too was slow in realizing this. As long as the
(07:33):
army survived, as long as the army held together, as
long as there was fight in it, the war would
go on. And he also knew how big a country
this is. Whether we would have won had the French
not come in, who's to say if we hadn't won,
the war would certainly have gone on a great deal
longer without the French. Let's not forget the French didn't
(07:57):
come in because of any great love of democracy. They
came in because it was an opportune chance to stick
it to Great Britain, and in doing so they spent
so much money that they virtually bankrupt themselves, which in
the chain reaction, helped to bring on the French Revolution.
(08:17):
Whereas the British, who were very concerned that if they
lost the colonies, that would be the end of the
British Empire. And of course we know in hindsight that
in the eighteenth century the British Empire was just getting
into the second gear and it wouldn't be until the
nineteenth century that the British Empire really became the powerful
(08:39):
force in the world that it was. There are all
kinds of ironies, There are all kinds of points to remember.
The longest war in our history except for Vietnam. Most
people don't know that, and with the bloodiest war in
our history per capita, except for the Civil War, population
of two million, five hundred thousand thousand Americans were killed.
(09:02):
That's one percent of the population. If we were fighting
a revolution a war for our independence today, we would
lose over three million people on the same ratio. So
for that generation, for those people, this was a terrible
loss and they would never, in many of them recover
from it. And it wasn't just those who were killed.
(09:23):
It was those who were wounded, those who lost limbs,
those who suffered acutely from disease and the after effects.
We lost more people from disease than we did from
musket balls or cannon fire. And then much of that
was needless. And again it was lack of discipline in
the troops because the British were quite healthy through most
of it.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
Greg Hangler and you've been listening to the late David McCullough,
two time Pooled Surprise Winner, and he was speaking at
the National Archives, one of the great places and spaces
in Washington, d C. And he was talking about his
book seventeen seventy six, the biography essentially of the Year
(10:05):
of Our Birth and what storytelling it was and is. Indeed,
by the way, if you love our show and you
love listening to it, what you're listening to is free,
but it is not free to make. Go to Our
American Stories and contribute where a nonprofit and your contributions
are needed in your contributions are welcome. If you love
(10:27):
the storytelling, go to our American Stories dot com and
give the story of the Year of Our Birth seventeen
seventy six, as told by David McCullough here on Our
American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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