August 8, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the founding of the United States didn’t happen in a moment—it unfolded across one of the most difficult years in American history. The late-great historian and author of 1776, David McCullough, shares the story of how a fragile army, led by an untested commander, struggled to hold the cause together against overwhelming odds. Between Boston and New York, the future of the Revolution was shaped not by grand strategy or stirring speeches, but by exhaustion, retreat, and the lingering question of whether any of it would hold.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we love telling stories about history here on this show.
And all of our history stories are sponsored by the
great folks at Hillsdale College, where you can go to
learn all the things that are beautiful in life and
all the things that are good in life. And if
(00:30):
you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you
with their free and terrific online courses. Up next, best
selling historian and two time Pulitzer winner, the late David McCullough.
He's the author of seventeen seventy six. In this master work,
he tells the intensely human story of those who marched
with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration
(00:53):
of Independence. He starts the book in the beginning of
seventeen seventy five. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Washington's own total count of letters just written in this
eighteen month period totals nearly a thousand. For while this
very self controlled, the very model of a leader acting
as a leader in his presence before the troops, always
(01:22):
never revealing doubt, uncertainty, or what was going on in
the inner side of him. In his privacy, and particularly
late at night when he was sleepless, he would pour
out his innermost feelings in a way that is immensely
human and very revealing. He was often full of despair,
often full of doubt, very often full of self pity, and.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Who was to blame him? I'll read you one example.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
This was written the night of January fourteenth, late at
night in his headquarters outside of Boston. The reflection upon
my situation in that of this army produces many an
uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep.
I have often thought how much happier I should have
been if, instead of accepting of a command under such circumstances,
(02:14):
I had taken my musket upon my shoulders and entered
the ranks, Or if I could have justified the measure
to posterity and my own conscience had retired to the
back country and lived in a wigwam. If I shall
be able to rise superior to these and many other
difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe
(02:35):
that the finger of Providence is in it. He's afraid
he's going to fail. He wishes he didn't have the
burden of this impossible command. And he had told the
Congress that he was not up to the command, that
he was not sufficient for the job, and he meant it,
(02:56):
but he also knew that he was more up to
it than anybody else. And he also showed up in
Congress in his uniform indicating he was available. When he
spoke to Congress, he said, if circumstances go against me
and this doesn't work, remember I warned you now. Congress
(03:20):
picked George Washington not because he was a brilliant general
or he had a great war record.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
He didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
He'd served gallantly courageously in the French and Indian War,
but he had been out of military life for more
than fifteen years, and he had no great record as
a tactician or strategist. They picked George Washington because they
knew him as a man, They knew him as a
fellow member of the Continental Congress, and they liked him.
(03:49):
They trusted him, They knew his character, they knew his integrity,
and they made one of the best decisions any Congress
ever made in choosing him to be the commander. When
we start adding up the miracles of the creation of
our country. George Washington is one of them. He would
(04:10):
serve through the entire war, and the only other general
officers who would serve through the entire war were Green
and Knox, these two young New Englanders, whom he spotted
right at the start. Despite the fact that he didn't
like New Englanders, he overcame that bias. He thought they
were dirty, He thought they were rude, and he thought
(04:32):
they had this intolerable notion that they could decide things
for themselves, like only serving if they could elect their
own officers. And often the officers got elected by requiring
little or no discipline or insisting on any kind of
punishment for those who broke the rules. But he overcame
that bias, and as it turned out, those two men
(04:55):
were the best he had, and they would serve the
entire length of the war with him. Now, the fourteenth
of January, the night that he wrote these despairing letters,
was probably as low a pointed as he'd ever known
in his life. There was not enough gunpowder, there was
not enough money. He had to replace virtually his entire army,
(05:19):
because as of December thirty first, an entire army had
been free to go home. Their enlistments were up, and
most of them went home. So he had to replace
that army with new, greener in listees in the face
of the enemy, without the enemy knowing that he had
no gunpowder, had an even greener and less experienced army
(05:41):
taking the place of the army that had moved out,
and he had no money to pay them, and winter
was setting in. They didn't have adequate clothes or adequate barracks,
and so forth. He really felt, honestly that no commander
had ever been put into a tougher position. Four days later,
on January eighteenth, the whole situation changed. It changed because
(06:05):
young Henry Knox had come to him in November with
an idea. Now this is an extremely interesting situation for
two reasons. First of all, that a young minor officer
in the army could go directly to the commander in
chief with an idea. That wouldn't have happened in the
British Army. And it wasn't just the young man could
(06:29):
go from a low rank to the top to convey
this idea, but that the idea could get to the
to the commander in chief. So it's the opportunity of
the individual and the opportunity for ideas, two very powerful
American themes all along in our whole history.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
And you've been listening to David McCullough telling the story
of seventeen seventy six and the months leading up to
that important year. It's in a way one of my
favorite books of his is the Biography of a Year.
But my Goodness, Washington prooved, who's a central figure, and
also that that part about good ideas getting to the
top and how they could not have happened with the
(07:07):
British army. And this has a lot to do with
freedom and free enterprise and looking for the best ideas
to come up rather than filter from the top down.
When we come back more of the story of seventeen
seventy six and its author, David McCullough here on Our
American Stories lihabib here, and I'd like to encourage you
(07:31):
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(07:53):
you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great
American stories coming. And we continue with our American stories
and with pood Surprise winning David McCullough, the late David
(08:16):
McCullough and his book seventeen seventy six. He made this
speech at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
The idea was to go to Taekwonderoga at the southernmost
end of Lake Champlain, and fetch the great guns that
were there, cannon and mortar, and haul them nearly three
hundred miles back to Boston in the dead of winter,
down the Hudson Valley bar as Albany, crossing the Hudson
(08:48):
and then taking him over the Berkshire Mountains, and it
was all virtually wilderness, very few roads. Again, I repeat,
in the dead of winter. Washington liked the idea immediately
and immediately said to Knox, you're in charge.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
And he did it phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
This bookseller from Boston, who never been out of Boston,
never attempted anything of the kind. He was assume the
authorized to spend a thousand, no more than a thousand dollars,
and he could take one man with him so he
took his younger brother, who was nineteen twenty five year
old bookseller and a nineteen year old kid, and they
(09:33):
set off to bring back the guns from Tykonderoga. It's
like something in a myth, and it worked. Now how
they did it, well, you'll have to read my book.
And what happened, Well, what happened. One night, with massive
(09:56):
use of manpower and oxen, nearly a thousand they put
those guns on top of Dorchester Heights and the British
woke up the next morning March fifth, looked up and
saw what had happened and realized they had to get out.
They were right under those guns, well within range, as
(10:17):
were their ships in the harbor, which was maybe even
more important. If the ships were knocked out, they had
no way to escape. So a quiet, unofficial, secret deal
was made. The Americans agreed they would not bombard British
troops in Boston or the ships in the harbor, and
(10:39):
that the British would be free to leave without any
attack on the part of the Americans if the British
agreed not to burn the city of Boston, which they
were well ready to do so. On March seventeenth, the
British sailed away. Evacuation Day, which in Boston often celebrated
(11:01):
for another reason, and that rather reason is a good one,
but it often eclipses what evacuation Day is about. It
was an immensely important event because we had bested them
with sheer manpower, ingenuity, and the capacity to do things.
We couldn't march very well, we couldn't drill very well.
(11:23):
We couldn't fire muskets as rapidly as could the British.
We weren't really very good soldiers at all, unruly bush leaguers,
farmers in from the fields. But we'd bested them, we'd
shamed them, and it filled us with pride and unfortunately
more confidence in ourselves than we should have. What followed
(11:47):
was Washington then moved to New York to defend New
York against the return of the British, which was expected
to come about almost any time. Didn't happen until the
end of June first part of July, and the British
sailed in in such force as to dazzle anyone who
saw it. Over four hundred ships, thirty two thousand troops.
(12:08):
That was more troops than the entire population of Philadelphia.
Which was the largest city in the country at the time,
determined to take New York. Washington decided on his own
that he would defend New York, that he had to
defend New York.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
For political reasons. It was a political decision.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Washington was a political general, very important, important in the
sense that he understood how the system worked, which was
that he wasn't the boss. Congress was boss. And it
was a mistake. We couldn't possibly defend New York. We
had no ships to stop the British from bringing their fleet,
(12:49):
their biggest ships up into the Hudson or smaller warships
up into the East River. Two ships had more canon
power than all the canon we had on all of
New York. And he faced the British for the first
time in the Battle of Brooklyn. Battle of Brooklyn was
an enormous battle covered six miles. They're forty thousand people involved,
(13:14):
and Washington proved quite inept in his first attempt to
command a battle. The British out smarted us, outflanked us,
out fought us. Uh They killed over three hundred early
four hundred American soldiers. They took a thousand of our
men captive prisoners, and three of our generals, and left
(13:37):
Washington trapped there on Brooklyn Heights if they could possibly
bring their ships up into the East River, which they
were unable to do because of the direction of the wind.
If the wind had been in a different direction the
night of August twenty ninth, seventeen seventy six, we'd all
be sipping tea and referring to our flat in New
(13:57):
York and singing God, Praise the Queen. I think it
would have been over because nine thousand men, including their
commander in chief, would have had no escape. As it was,
because they couldn't bring those ships up. Washington attempted a
night withdrawal from Brooklyn. It was the dunkirk of the
Revolutionary War, a phenomenal accomplishment, given that he had dispirited,
(14:22):
defeated troops who were soaking wet, had had very little sleep,
were cold, and they'd never done anything like it before.
The hardest military maneuver is almost as hard as any
military maneuver of all, is to organize orderly withdrawal in
the face of overwhelming enemy force. They did it at night,
(14:45):
across the East River, no running lights, and again providence,
the hand of God entered in and exactly the point
when it looked like the river was too rough because
of the northeast wind for our little makeshift flotilla to
take them start taking the men across. Suddenly the wind
dropped like the parting of the Red Sea, and the
(15:07):
boats started over. When morning came and there were several
thousand men who had still not gotten off, and the
whole thing was going to be revealed to the British
that we were trying to escape under their very noses,
a providential fog came in and covered the entire Brooklyn
side of the East River, fog so dense that people
couldn't see six yards ahead of them, and there was
(15:29):
no fog whatsoever over on the Brooklyn side. They got
nine thousand men, all their equipment, horses and cannon, off
of Brooklyn across the East River, which isn't a river
at all, but a tidal, straight and very treacherous currents
even in the best of conditions, without the loss of
a single man. But it wasn't just providence or chance or.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
The hand of God.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
It was the skill of those mariners manning the boats
under the command of a man named John Glover. They
were mostly all from the north shore of Boston, Marblehead,
Gloucester and such places. And they performed in a way
that few men have ever performed their profession. What they
knew better with larger consequences, riding on their ability. There
(16:22):
were times when most of those boats, because they were
so loaded down, the water was only a matter of
inches below the gunnals. It was a phenomenal feat of navigation, seamanship.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And you're listening to the late David McCullough, two time
Pulitzer Prize winner, author of seventeen seventy six, giving us
a master class of storytelling and dragging us through what
Washington and the troops faced as they tried to withdraw
from Brooklyn. Nine thousand men the dunkirk of the Revolutionary War,
(16:56):
and that is aptly stated. And that East River been
to New York. You know that that's not a river.
What that is is a It's like a roaring canyon
of water that just rips and rips the tide. You
can see that water moving. It's fierce, and not a
single life was lost. Nine thousand men, their equipment, the horses, everything. Providence,
(17:21):
no doubt played a part the way David McCullough described
that fog setting in just remarkable, and of course the
talent involved across the board. When we come back more
of this remarkable story, the Story of the Founding of
our Nation the year seventeen seventy six, a biography essentially
(17:42):
of that year by the great and late David McCullough.
The storytelling continues here on our American stories, and we
(18:08):
continue with our American stories and with two time pooled
surprise winner David McCullough, the late David McCullough, and he's
the author of seventeen seventy six, the book that he's
describing at this remarkable talk he gave at the National Archives.
Let's take you back there, and let's pick up where
(18:28):
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
One defeat then followed another Kip Spey who turned into
a route. When the British invaded Manhattan, Washington lost his
self control for one of the few times in his
whole career, struck out with his riding crop, trying to
stop those who were running like rabbits, throwing off their
knapsacks and hats, dropping their muskets in order to run
(18:52):
faster away from the oncoming enemy. Washington on a big
horse kept charging forward, getting closer and closer to the
enemy and his anger. He was in such a rage
that Nathaniel Greene called it almost suicidal. So close did
he get to the enemy. And it was only because
two of his staff managed to get a hold of
the bridle of the horse that they got him off
(19:13):
the field. If Washington had been killed, then, if Washington
had been captured at Brooklyn, it would have been over.
He would be called the indispensable man later on. I
don't think that's an overstatement. There was nobody really with
the stature, with the capacity for leadership, for all of
(19:35):
his mistakes, to take his place. He then made another
grievous performance with the assault on Mount Wash Fort Washington,
which stood on the highest promontory at the north end
of the island of Manhattan, right where George Washington Bridge
comes in today. His problem there was indecision. He couldn't
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decide what to do, so he made no decision at all.
General Green told him he thought the port could be held.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Green was wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The fort fell, They lost another three thousand taken prisoner,
more canon, more material, and from that point on began
their Long March. The Long retreat across New Jersey. At
one point, as the march got closer to Pennsylvania, the
enlistments of two thousand men came up, and two thousand
men said that's it for us and went home. Don't
(20:28):
picture all these soldiers as heroes. They had been deserting
by the hundreds all through the campaign. After every defeat,
people gave up and left. Many defected, went over to
the enemy. We forget that. But some didn't leave. Some
stayed with him, Some would follow him anywhere. Washington was
(20:50):
a leader. He wasn't a brilliant intellectual. He wasn't a
spectacular speaker, he wasn't a brilliant general. He was the leader,
and people would follow him, and some would follow him
through hell. Three thousand of them stayed with him.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
It's all.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
There were three thousand men all that stood in the
way of the end of the revolution and any hope
that the great words, the great ideals of the Declaration
of Independence would mean anything more than words on paper.
And so when we celebrate our fourth of July, we
(21:34):
shouldn't just think of those people who were at Independence
Hall in Philadelphia, the people portrayed by John Trumbull in
the painting of July fourth, seventeen seventy six and the
signing of the Declaration of Independence. Part of our problem
is that we tend to see those figures from the
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eighteenth century as not quite real, like figures in a
costume pageant, in their silks and their powdered hair and
their sort of posed statesmanlike positions. This is another side
of the story. This is another kind of American, another
kind of patriot, another kind of hero. Those three thousand
(22:19):
men when they finally succeeded in putting the Delaware between
them and the oncoming British army. In other words, they
crossed the Delaware at night to get over to the
Pennsylvania side and destroyed all the remaining boats on the
New Jersey side so the British couldn't follow.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Immediately after.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Charles Wilson Peel, the Great Philadelphia Peter, was part of
a militia unit that had turned out to bring some
support for Washington, and he walked among those troops the
morning after their crossing, and he wrote in his diary
that he had never seen such miserable human beings in
all of his life. They were all in rags, they
(23:00):
were half starved. They had no winter clothing, They were
covered with dirt and signs of disease. And he saw
one man that he describes in the diary is the
most wretched mortal he'd ever laid eyes on. He said,
the man was so dirty you could hardly see his
color of his skin. He had nothing, He was naked
(23:22):
except for what they called a blanket coat. His hair
was long and filthy, hanging down over his shoulders, and
his face was covered with sores. And then a few
minutes later he realized the man was his own brother.
So those are some of the people we need to remember.
(23:46):
They stayed there on the Pennsylvania side of the river,
sort of taking stock. And the only conclusion that any
rational person could have come to, and most did, as
had the British, as had the great majority of American citizens,
is that the war was over and we had lost.
(24:07):
But fortunately Washington chose not to see it that way.
He admitted in one of these private letters, in which
he is so very honest and forthcoming, that the game
is about up. So when all hopes gone, he did
what you have to sometimes do under those conditions.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
He attacked.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
He crossed the Delaware at Maconkie's ferry up to the north.
He crossed, as we all know, with ice ice cakes
in the river. And no, he probably wasn't standing up
in the boat. And know the famous painting is filled
with inaccuracies, but you know it doesn't matter, because the
painting conveys the drama, the magnitude, the importance of that
(24:51):
event which would turn history, would change the course of
the war, changed the course of American history, and consequently
change world history. And as tough and as demanding as
the crossing was again managed by John Glover and his
Marblehead Mariners, the worst part of the night was the
(25:13):
march to the south, down the east side of the
river to strike at Trenton. The wind was howling. It
was another northeaster. It was a blinding snow, sleet, hail.
Heaven knows what the wind shill factor was. And they
marched nine miles through the night, men with no winter clothes.
(25:35):
They're in rags. Many of them have no shoes. Their
feet are wrapped in rags. And yes they did some
of them leave bloody footprints in the snow.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
They were so.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Cold on that nine mile march. The two men froze
to death on the march, to give a rough idea
of how terribly difficult it was, the suffering they endured.
And the next morning, no sleep, marching all night, nine
miles through the dark, they struck a Trenton with a
(26:08):
passion such as which they had never shown.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And you're listening to David McCullough tell one of the
greatest stories ever told about the foundation and formation of
our country. And it happened in that year, and it
happened in that moment, and it was real life men,
not guys walking around thinking about the future, and not
people knowing what the future would bring. They were living
(26:32):
in the present. And my goodness, what Washington faced, deserters,
bad weather, retreating pretty much filled now with self doubt,
knowing in the end that almost all was lost. And
so what do you do at that moment? You attack?
And my goodness, what an attack it was. Crossing the Delaware.
(26:55):
We've seen the pictures, but my goodness, this description brutal.
As tough as the crossing was, the worst part of
the night was that long march south nine miles to
be precise. When we come back, this remarkable story continues
as only David McCullough can his talk at the National Archives.
(27:17):
The late David McCullough's storytelling continues here on our American stories,
and we continue with our American stories and with two
(27:40):
time Pulitzer winner, the late David McCullough, and he's talking
about his book seventeen seventy six. Go to Amazon or
wherever you pick up your books and buy seventeen seventy six.
It's essentially the biography of a year eighteen months technically,
but to understand seventeen seventy six, that year had to
(28:01):
understand the eight months before. Let's pick up now where
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
They tore out of the fields and woods above Trenton
out of this blinding blizzard early in the morning, and
it was all over in about forty five minutes. It
wasn't a big battle. It wasn't a great sort of
stagy eighteenth century battle as Brooklyn had been. It was
a fierce house to house combat and we won decisively,
(28:32):
and that meant worlds because we'd never beat them at fighting,
and we'd beaten them. And we turned around a few
days later again in the bold night march and early
morning attack and struck at Princeton and won there too,
But it was the victory at Trenton after crossing the
(28:55):
Delaware Christmas Night that changed the war because of its
psychological effect, its impact on the morale of the army,
and its impact on the morale of the country. The
words spread like wildfire that we had won, we had
won a fight with the British Empire, and maybe even
equally satisfying, we had beaten the Hessians, who were the
(29:18):
most despised of those we were fighting. I don't think
I don't think we sufficiently understand the history of our
own country, and I don't think we sufficiently respect the
history of our own country. I think we know we
live in a very interesting country, and certainly we do.
(29:40):
We also have a very interesting history, and unlike most
people most countries, we know when we were born, and
they called the Declaration of Independence our birth certificate. Nathaniel
Greene later called George Washington the deliverer of his nation,
which I think is very apt. I want to close
(30:04):
with a scene that to me is as moving as
anything in the whole story, and I'll try to sketch
it as quickly and I hope as effectively as possible.
On December thirty first, seventeen seventy six, the last day
of the year, again, the entire army was free to
(30:25):
go home. All their enlistments were up, and Washington was
desperate to get men to re enlist. He dreaded having
to do what he'd done the previous December of putting
together a whole new, even greener army, and so on
December thirty first, he called the men out into formation, and,
(30:47):
without any authority to do so, standing in front of
them on his horse, resplendent in his magnificent uniform, he
said that they would sign on for another see six months.
He would see to it that they received a bounty
of ten dollars. He had no authority whatever from the
(31:07):
Congress to do that, but, as he wrote to Robert
Morris quite bluntly, I thought it no time to stand
on trifles. One of the soldiers would remember his regiment
being called out, and his Excellency, as Washington was called,
(31:28):
astride on the big horse, addressing them in what the
soldier called the most affectionate manner. The great majority of
these men were New Englanders. They had been with him
from the start, served much longer than anybody, and they
had no illusions about what they were being expected to
do if they signed on again. Those willing to stay
(31:53):
were asked to step forward. The drums rolled, and no
no one moved. Minutes passed, no one moved, and then
Washington turned on his horse and rode away from them,
his back to them. And then he stopped and turned
(32:18):
and came back again and spoke to them a second time.
And here's what he said, My brave fellows, you have
done all I asked you to do, and more than
could be reasonably expected. But your country is at stake,
your wives, your houses, and all you hold dear. You
(32:39):
have worn yourself out with fatigues and hardships, but we
know not how to spare you. If you will consent
to stay one month longer, you will render that service
to the cause of liberty and to your country, which
you can probably never do under any other circumstance. And
(33:00):
the drums rolled, and this time the men began stepping forward.
God Almighty, wrote Nathaniel Green, inclined their hearts to listen
to the proposal, and they engaged anew. What's so interesting
there is that it's a perfect example of what was
so great about Washington, he would not give up. He
(33:21):
speaks to them once, they don't react. He speaks to
them a second time, and they do react. The first
time he's offering them some pay which he knows they
desperately need to support their families, support themselves. Realistic. It's
not just offering the money. It's realistic. He understands that
(33:45):
patriotism only will go so far for people who have
been through hell. But then the second time he does
appeal directly to what Lincoln might call their better angels,
and it works. And I wonder if any of you
are struck by something that has struck me about that speech,
(34:09):
the line, if you will consent to stay one month longer,
you will render that service to the cause of liberty
and to your country, which you can probably never do
under any other circumstance.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
You have a.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Great chance, a great opportunity that others don't have.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Isn't that so? Like the payments speech in Henry the.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Fifth we few, we happy few, and gentlemen in England
now abed shall think themselves accursed that they were not here.
Same idea, same idea, this story again from Shakespeare.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
The good man will teach his son.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
This story is something we should teach our sons and
daughters and grandsons and granddaughters. Congress meantime, had fled taken
off from Philadelphia, terrified that the British were going to
attack and take Philadelphia, and they had abdicated all their
(35:18):
control over Washington and made him virtually a dictator.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
This is very.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Little known by most people. They'd say, we're going You're
in charge. And in their letter transmitting this new resolution,
they said, happy it is for this country that the
general of their forces can safely be entrusted with the
most unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty, nor property
(35:48):
be in the least degree endangered thereby. But even more
interesting is what he wrote to them, instead of thinking
myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of
their con members of Congress, I shall constantly bear in
mind that as the sword was the last resort for
the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be
(36:11):
the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.
And he was, as I think we all know, as
good as he as his word. He went before Congress
when the war finally ended, and gave back his command.
No conquering general had ever done that. This magnificent moment
(36:31):
in our history is memorialized, commemorated in a fine painting
that hangs in the rotunda of the Capitol, again by
John Trumbull. When George the Third was told after the
war had ended by the painter Benjamin West, who was
the court painter to the Crown, and who lived in London,
(36:53):
and who was an American who'd been living there since
well before the war. When George the Third was told
by Benjamin West that Washington would probably do this, George
the Third said, if he does that, he will be
the greatest man in the world.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
I don't think that.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
There's a much more powerful story than the story of
our origins, and I hope that none of us ever
will ever think of them again as figures in a
costume pageant.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to the
late David McCullough, two time Pooled Surprize winner, and he
was giving this address at the National Archives about his
book seventeen seventy six. Go to Amazon with the usual
suspects and pick it up and as always, all of
our history segments are brought to us by the great
(37:49):
folks at Hillsdale College. By the way, take their constitution
one on one course. It's terrific. I learned more in
that course than I did in three years at the
University of Virginia Lost. We know when we were born
as a country, and we were born and birthed in
seventeen seventy six, the story of this great country, David mccullus,
(38:10):
seventeen seventy six. Here on our American stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we love telling stories about history here on this show.
And all of our history stories are sponsored by the
great folks at Hillsdale College, where you can go to
learn all the things that are beautiful in life and
all the things that are good in life. And if
(00:30):
you can't get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you
with their free and terrific online courses. Up next, best
selling historian and two time Pulitzer winner, the late David McCullough.
He's the author of seventeen seventy six. In this master work,
he tells the intensely human story of those who marched
with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration
(00:53):
of Independence. He starts the book in the beginning of
seventeen seventy five. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Washington's own total count of letters just written in this
eighteen month period totals nearly a thousand. For while this
very self controlled, the very model of a leader acting
as a leader in his presence before the troops, always
(01:22):
never revealing doubt, uncertainty, or what was going on in
the inner side of him. In his privacy, and particularly
late at night when he was sleepless, he would pour
out his innermost feelings in a way that is immensely
human and very revealing. He was often full of despair,
often full of doubt, very often full of self pity, and.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Who was to blame him? I'll read you one example.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
This was written the night of January fourteenth, late at
night in his headquarters outside of Boston. The reflection upon
my situation in that of this army produces many an
uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep.
I have often thought how much happier I should have
been if, instead of accepting of a command under such circumstances,
(02:14):
I had taken my musket upon my shoulders and entered
the ranks, Or if I could have justified the measure
to posterity and my own conscience had retired to the
back country and lived in a wigwam. If I shall
be able to rise superior to these and many other
difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe
(02:35):
that the finger of Providence is in it. He's afraid
he's going to fail. He wishes he didn't have the
burden of this impossible command. And he had told the
Congress that he was not up to the command, that
he was not sufficient for the job, and he meant it,
(02:56):
but he also knew that he was more up to
it than anybody else. And he also showed up in
Congress in his uniform indicating he was available. When he
spoke to Congress, he said, if circumstances go against me
and this doesn't work, remember I warned you now. Congress
(03:20):
picked George Washington not because he was a brilliant general
or he had a great war record.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
He didn't.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
He'd served gallantly courageously in the French and Indian War,
but he had been out of military life for more
than fifteen years, and he had no great record as
a tactician or strategist. They picked George Washington because they
knew him as a man, They knew him as a
fellow member of the Continental Congress, and they liked him.
(03:49):
They trusted him, They knew his character, they knew his integrity,
and they made one of the best decisions any Congress
ever made in choosing him to be the commander. When
we start adding up the miracles of the creation of
our country. George Washington is one of them. He would
(04:10):
serve through the entire war, and the only other general
officers who would serve through the entire war were Green
and Knox, these two young New Englanders, whom he spotted
right at the start. Despite the fact that he didn't
like New Englanders, he overcame that bias. He thought they
were dirty, He thought they were rude, and he thought
(04:32):
they had this intolerable notion that they could decide things
for themselves, like only serving if they could elect their
own officers. And often the officers got elected by requiring
little or no discipline or insisting on any kind of
punishment for those who broke the rules. But he overcame
that bias, and as it turned out, those two men
(04:55):
were the best he had, and they would serve the
entire length of the war with him. Now, the fourteenth
of January, the night that he wrote these despairing letters,
was probably as low a pointed as he'd ever known
in his life. There was not enough gunpowder, there was
not enough money. He had to replace virtually his entire army,
(05:19):
because as of December thirty first, an entire army had
been free to go home. Their enlistments were up, and
most of them went home. So he had to replace
that army with new, greener in listees in the face
of the enemy, without the enemy knowing that he had
no gunpowder, had an even greener and less experienced army
(05:41):
taking the place of the army that had moved out,
and he had no money to pay them, and winter
was setting in. They didn't have adequate clothes or adequate barracks,
and so forth. He really felt, honestly that no commander
had ever been put into a tougher position. Four days later,
on January eighteenth, the whole situation changed. It changed because
(06:05):
young Henry Knox had come to him in November with
an idea. Now this is an extremely interesting situation for
two reasons. First of all, that a young minor officer
in the army could go directly to the commander in
chief with an idea. That wouldn't have happened in the
British Army. And it wasn't just the young man could
(06:29):
go from a low rank to the top to convey
this idea, but that the idea could get to the
to the commander in chief. So it's the opportunity of
the individual and the opportunity for ideas, two very powerful
American themes all along in our whole history.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
And you've been listening to David McCullough telling the story
of seventeen seventy six and the months leading up to
that important year. It's in a way one of my
favorite books of his is the Biography of a Year.
But my Goodness, Washington prooved, who's a central figure, and
also that that part about good ideas getting to the
top and how they could not have happened with the
(07:07):
British army. And this has a lot to do with
freedom and free enterprise and looking for the best ideas
to come up rather than filter from the top down.
When we come back more of the story of seventeen
seventy six and its author, David McCullough here on Our
American Stories lihabib here, and I'd like to encourage you
(07:31):
to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the
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story you missed or want to hear again can be
found there daily again. Please subscribe to the Our American
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(07:53):
you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great
American stories coming. And we continue with our American stories
and with pood Surprise winning David McCullough, the late David
(08:16):
McCullough and his book seventeen seventy six. He made this
speech at the National Archives in Washington, DC.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
The idea was to go to Taekwonderoga at the southernmost
end of Lake Champlain, and fetch the great guns that
were there, cannon and mortar, and haul them nearly three
hundred miles back to Boston in the dead of winter,
down the Hudson Valley bar as Albany, crossing the Hudson
(08:48):
and then taking him over the Berkshire Mountains, and it
was all virtually wilderness, very few roads. Again, I repeat,
in the dead of winter. Washington liked the idea immediately
and immediately said to Knox, you're in charge.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
And he did it phenomenal.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
This bookseller from Boston, who never been out of Boston,
never attempted anything of the kind. He was assume the
authorized to spend a thousand, no more than a thousand dollars,
and he could take one man with him so he
took his younger brother, who was nineteen twenty five year
old bookseller and a nineteen year old kid, and they
(09:33):
set off to bring back the guns from Tykonderoga. It's
like something in a myth, and it worked. Now how
they did it, well, you'll have to read my book.
And what happened, Well, what happened. One night, with massive
(09:56):
use of manpower and oxen, nearly a thousand they put
those guns on top of Dorchester Heights and the British
woke up the next morning March fifth, looked up and
saw what had happened and realized they had to get out.
They were right under those guns, well within range, as
(10:17):
were their ships in the harbor, which was maybe even
more important. If the ships were knocked out, they had
no way to escape. So a quiet, unofficial, secret deal
was made. The Americans agreed they would not bombard British
troops in Boston or the ships in the harbor, and
(10:39):
that the British would be free to leave without any
attack on the part of the Americans if the British
agreed not to burn the city of Boston, which they
were well ready to do so. On March seventeenth, the
British sailed away. Evacuation Day, which in Boston often celebrated
(11:01):
for another reason, and that rather reason is a good one,
but it often eclipses what evacuation Day is about. It
was an immensely important event because we had bested them
with sheer manpower, ingenuity, and the capacity to do things.
We couldn't march very well, we couldn't drill very well.
(11:23):
We couldn't fire muskets as rapidly as could the British.
We weren't really very good soldiers at all, unruly bush leaguers,
farmers in from the fields. But we'd bested them, we'd
shamed them, and it filled us with pride and unfortunately
more confidence in ourselves than we should have. What followed
(11:47):
was Washington then moved to New York to defend New
York against the return of the British, which was expected
to come about almost any time. Didn't happen until the
end of June first part of July, and the British
sailed in in such force as to dazzle anyone who
saw it. Over four hundred ships, thirty two thousand troops.
(12:08):
That was more troops than the entire population of Philadelphia.
Which was the largest city in the country at the time,
determined to take New York. Washington decided on his own
that he would defend New York, that he had to
defend New York.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
For political reasons. It was a political decision.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Washington was a political general, very important, important in the
sense that he understood how the system worked, which was
that he wasn't the boss. Congress was boss. And it
was a mistake. We couldn't possibly defend New York. We
had no ships to stop the British from bringing their fleet,
(12:49):
their biggest ships up into the Hudson or smaller warships
up into the East River. Two ships had more canon
power than all the canon we had on all of
New York. And he faced the British for the first
time in the Battle of Brooklyn. Battle of Brooklyn was
an enormous battle covered six miles. They're forty thousand people involved,
(13:14):
and Washington proved quite inept in his first attempt to
command a battle. The British out smarted us, outflanked us,
out fought us. Uh They killed over three hundred early
four hundred American soldiers. They took a thousand of our
men captive prisoners, and three of our generals, and left
(13:37):
Washington trapped there on Brooklyn Heights if they could possibly
bring their ships up into the East River, which they
were unable to do because of the direction of the wind.
If the wind had been in a different direction the
night of August twenty ninth, seventeen seventy six, we'd all
be sipping tea and referring to our flat in New
(13:57):
York and singing God, Praise the Queen. I think it
would have been over because nine thousand men, including their
commander in chief, would have had no escape. As it was,
because they couldn't bring those ships up. Washington attempted a
night withdrawal from Brooklyn. It was the dunkirk of the
Revolutionary War, a phenomenal accomplishment, given that he had dispirited,
(14:22):
defeated troops who were soaking wet, had had very little sleep,
were cold, and they'd never done anything like it before.
The hardest military maneuver is almost as hard as any
military maneuver of all, is to organize orderly withdrawal in
the face of overwhelming enemy force. They did it at night,
(14:45):
across the East River, no running lights, and again providence,
the hand of God entered in and exactly the point
when it looked like the river was too rough because
of the northeast wind for our little makeshift flotilla to
take them start taking the men across. Suddenly the wind
dropped like the parting of the Red Sea, and the
(15:07):
boats started over. When morning came and there were several
thousand men who had still not gotten off, and the
whole thing was going to be revealed to the British
that we were trying to escape under their very noses,
a providential fog came in and covered the entire Brooklyn
side of the East River, fog so dense that people
couldn't see six yards ahead of them, and there was
(15:29):
no fog whatsoever over on the Brooklyn side. They got
nine thousand men, all their equipment, horses and cannon, off
of Brooklyn across the East River, which isn't a river
at all, but a tidal, straight and very treacherous currents
even in the best of conditions, without the loss of
a single man. But it wasn't just providence or chance or.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
The hand of God.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
It was the skill of those mariners manning the boats
under the command of a man named John Glover. They
were mostly all from the north shore of Boston, Marblehead,
Gloucester and such places. And they performed in a way
that few men have ever performed their profession. What they
knew better with larger consequences, riding on their ability. There
(16:22):
were times when most of those boats, because they were
so loaded down, the water was only a matter of
inches below the gunnals. It was a phenomenal feat of navigation, seamanship.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And you're listening to the late David McCullough, two time
Pulitzer Prize winner, author of seventeen seventy six, giving us
a master class of storytelling and dragging us through what
Washington and the troops faced as they tried to withdraw
from Brooklyn. Nine thousand men the dunkirk of the Revolutionary War,
(16:56):
and that is aptly stated. And that East River been
to New York. You know that that's not a river.
What that is is a It's like a roaring canyon
of water that just rips and rips the tide. You
can see that water moving. It's fierce, and not a
single life was lost. Nine thousand men, their equipment, the horses, everything. Providence,
(17:21):
no doubt played a part the way David McCullough described
that fog setting in just remarkable, and of course the
talent involved across the board. When we come back more
of this remarkable story, the Story of the Founding of
our Nation the year seventeen seventy six, a biography essentially
(17:42):
of that year by the great and late David McCullough.
The storytelling continues here on our American stories, and we
(18:08):
continue with our American stories and with two time pooled
surprise winner David McCullough, the late David McCullough, and he's
the author of seventeen seventy six, the book that he's
describing at this remarkable talk he gave at the National Archives.
Let's take you back there, and let's pick up where
(18:28):
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
One defeat then followed another Kip Spey who turned into
a route. When the British invaded Manhattan, Washington lost his
self control for one of the few times in his
whole career, struck out with his riding crop, trying to
stop those who were running like rabbits, throwing off their
knapsacks and hats, dropping their muskets in order to run
(18:52):
faster away from the oncoming enemy. Washington on a big
horse kept charging forward, getting closer and closer to the
enemy and his anger. He was in such a rage
that Nathaniel Greene called it almost suicidal. So close did
he get to the enemy. And it was only because
two of his staff managed to get a hold of
the bridle of the horse that they got him off
(19:13):
the field. If Washington had been killed, then, if Washington
had been captured at Brooklyn, it would have been over.
He would be called the indispensable man later on. I
don't think that's an overstatement. There was nobody really with
the stature, with the capacity for leadership, for all of
(19:35):
his mistakes, to take his place. He then made another
grievous performance with the assault on Mount Wash Fort Washington,
which stood on the highest promontory at the north end
of the island of Manhattan, right where George Washington Bridge
comes in today. His problem there was indecision. He couldn't
(19:57):
decide what to do, so he made no decision at all.
General Green told him he thought the port could be held.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Green was wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
The fort fell, They lost another three thousand taken prisoner,
more canon, more material, and from that point on began
their Long March. The Long retreat across New Jersey. At
one point, as the march got closer to Pennsylvania, the
enlistments of two thousand men came up, and two thousand
men said that's it for us and went home. Don't
(20:28):
picture all these soldiers as heroes. They had been deserting
by the hundreds all through the campaign. After every defeat,
people gave up and left. Many defected, went over to
the enemy. We forget that. But some didn't leave. Some
stayed with him, Some would follow him anywhere. Washington was
(20:50):
a leader. He wasn't a brilliant intellectual. He wasn't a
spectacular speaker, he wasn't a brilliant general. He was the leader,
and people would follow him, and some would follow him
through hell. Three thousand of them stayed with him.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
It's all.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
There were three thousand men all that stood in the
way of the end of the revolution and any hope
that the great words, the great ideals of the Declaration
of Independence would mean anything more than words on paper.
And so when we celebrate our fourth of July, we
(21:34):
shouldn't just think of those people who were at Independence
Hall in Philadelphia, the people portrayed by John Trumbull in
the painting of July fourth, seventeen seventy six and the
signing of the Declaration of Independence. Part of our problem
is that we tend to see those figures from the
(21:56):
eighteenth century as not quite real, like figures in a
costume pageant, in their silks and their powdered hair and
their sort of posed statesmanlike positions. This is another side
of the story. This is another kind of American, another
kind of patriot, another kind of hero. Those three thousand
(22:19):
men when they finally succeeded in putting the Delaware between
them and the oncoming British army. In other words, they
crossed the Delaware at night to get over to the
Pennsylvania side and destroyed all the remaining boats on the
New Jersey side so the British couldn't follow.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Immediately after.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Charles Wilson Peel, the Great Philadelphia Peter, was part of
a militia unit that had turned out to bring some
support for Washington, and he walked among those troops the
morning after their crossing, and he wrote in his diary
that he had never seen such miserable human beings in
all of his life. They were all in rags, they
(23:00):
were half starved. They had no winter clothing, They were
covered with dirt and signs of disease. And he saw
one man that he describes in the diary is the
most wretched mortal he'd ever laid eyes on. He said,
the man was so dirty you could hardly see his
color of his skin. He had nothing, He was naked
(23:22):
except for what they called a blanket coat. His hair
was long and filthy, hanging down over his shoulders, and
his face was covered with sores. And then a few
minutes later he realized the man was his own brother.
So those are some of the people we need to remember.
(23:46):
They stayed there on the Pennsylvania side of the river,
sort of taking stock. And the only conclusion that any
rational person could have come to, and most did, as
had the British, as had the great majority of American citizens,
is that the war was over and we had lost.
(24:07):
But fortunately Washington chose not to see it that way.
He admitted in one of these private letters, in which
he is so very honest and forthcoming, that the game
is about up. So when all hopes gone, he did
what you have to sometimes do under those conditions.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
He attacked.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
He crossed the Delaware at Maconkie's ferry up to the north.
He crossed, as we all know, with ice ice cakes
in the river. And no, he probably wasn't standing up
in the boat. And know the famous painting is filled
with inaccuracies, but you know it doesn't matter, because the
painting conveys the drama, the magnitude, the importance of that
(24:51):
event which would turn history, would change the course of
the war, changed the course of American history, and consequently
change world history. And as tough and as demanding as
the crossing was again managed by John Glover and his
Marblehead Mariners, the worst part of the night was the
(25:13):
march to the south, down the east side of the
river to strike at Trenton. The wind was howling. It
was another northeaster. It was a blinding snow, sleet, hail.
Heaven knows what the wind shill factor was. And they
marched nine miles through the night, men with no winter clothes.
(25:35):
They're in rags. Many of them have no shoes. Their
feet are wrapped in rags. And yes they did some
of them leave bloody footprints in the snow.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
They were so.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Cold on that nine mile march. The two men froze
to death on the march, to give a rough idea
of how terribly difficult it was, the suffering they endured.
And the next morning, no sleep, marching all night, nine
miles through the dark, they struck a Trenton with a
(26:08):
passion such as which they had never shown.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And you're listening to David McCullough tell one of the
greatest stories ever told about the foundation and formation of
our country. And it happened in that year, and it
happened in that moment, and it was real life men,
not guys walking around thinking about the future, and not
people knowing what the future would bring. They were living
(26:32):
in the present. And my goodness, what Washington faced, deserters,
bad weather, retreating pretty much filled now with self doubt,
knowing in the end that almost all was lost. And
so what do you do at that moment? You attack?
And my goodness, what an attack it was. Crossing the Delaware.
(26:55):
We've seen the pictures, but my goodness, this description brutal.
As tough as the crossing was, the worst part of
the night was that long march south nine miles to
be precise. When we come back, this remarkable story continues
as only David McCullough can his talk at the National Archives.
(27:17):
The late David McCullough's storytelling continues here on our American stories,
and we continue with our American stories and with two
(27:40):
time Pulitzer winner, the late David McCullough, and he's talking
about his book seventeen seventy six. Go to Amazon or
wherever you pick up your books and buy seventeen seventy six.
It's essentially the biography of a year eighteen months technically,
but to understand seventeen seventy six, that year had to
(28:01):
understand the eight months before. Let's pick up now where
we last left off.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
They tore out of the fields and woods above Trenton
out of this blinding blizzard early in the morning, and
it was all over in about forty five minutes. It
wasn't a big battle. It wasn't a great sort of
stagy eighteenth century battle as Brooklyn had been. It was
a fierce house to house combat and we won decisively,
(28:32):
and that meant worlds because we'd never beat them at fighting,
and we'd beaten them. And we turned around a few
days later again in the bold night march and early
morning attack and struck at Princeton and won there too,
But it was the victory at Trenton after crossing the
(28:55):
Delaware Christmas Night that changed the war because of its
psychological effect, its impact on the morale of the army,
and its impact on the morale of the country. The
words spread like wildfire that we had won, we had
won a fight with the British Empire, and maybe even
equally satisfying, we had beaten the Hessians, who were the
(29:18):
most despised of those we were fighting. I don't think
I don't think we sufficiently understand the history of our
own country, and I don't think we sufficiently respect the
history of our own country. I think we know we
live in a very interesting country, and certainly we do.
(29:40):
We also have a very interesting history, and unlike most
people most countries, we know when we were born, and
they called the Declaration of Independence our birth certificate. Nathaniel
Greene later called George Washington the deliverer of his nation,
which I think is very apt. I want to close
(30:04):
with a scene that to me is as moving as
anything in the whole story, and I'll try to sketch
it as quickly and I hope as effectively as possible.
On December thirty first, seventeen seventy six, the last day
of the year, again, the entire army was free to
(30:25):
go home. All their enlistments were up, and Washington was
desperate to get men to re enlist. He dreaded having
to do what he'd done the previous December of putting
together a whole new, even greener army, and so on
December thirty first, he called the men out into formation, and,
(30:47):
without any authority to do so, standing in front of
them on his horse, resplendent in his magnificent uniform, he
said that they would sign on for another see six months.
He would see to it that they received a bounty
of ten dollars. He had no authority whatever from the
(31:07):
Congress to do that, but, as he wrote to Robert
Morris quite bluntly, I thought it no time to stand
on trifles. One of the soldiers would remember his regiment
being called out, and his Excellency, as Washington was called,
(31:28):
astride on the big horse, addressing them in what the
soldier called the most affectionate manner. The great majority of
these men were New Englanders. They had been with him
from the start, served much longer than anybody, and they
had no illusions about what they were being expected to
do if they signed on again. Those willing to stay
(31:53):
were asked to step forward. The drums rolled, and no
no one moved. Minutes passed, no one moved, and then
Washington turned on his horse and rode away from them,
his back to them. And then he stopped and turned
(32:18):
and came back again and spoke to them a second time.
And here's what he said, My brave fellows, you have
done all I asked you to do, and more than
could be reasonably expected. But your country is at stake,
your wives, your houses, and all you hold dear. You
(32:39):
have worn yourself out with fatigues and hardships, but we
know not how to spare you. If you will consent
to stay one month longer, you will render that service
to the cause of liberty and to your country, which
you can probably never do under any other circumstance. And
(33:00):
the drums rolled, and this time the men began stepping forward.
God Almighty, wrote Nathaniel Green, inclined their hearts to listen
to the proposal, and they engaged anew. What's so interesting
there is that it's a perfect example of what was
so great about Washington, he would not give up. He
(33:21):
speaks to them once, they don't react. He speaks to
them a second time, and they do react. The first
time he's offering them some pay which he knows they
desperately need to support their families, support themselves. Realistic. It's
not just offering the money. It's realistic. He understands that
(33:45):
patriotism only will go so far for people who have
been through hell. But then the second time he does
appeal directly to what Lincoln might call their better angels,
and it works. And I wonder if any of you
are struck by something that has struck me about that speech,
(34:09):
the line, if you will consent to stay one month longer,
you will render that service to the cause of liberty
and to your country, which you can probably never do
under any other circumstance.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
You have a.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Great chance, a great opportunity that others don't have.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
Isn't that so? Like the payments speech in Henry the.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Fifth we few, we happy few, and gentlemen in England
now abed shall think themselves accursed that they were not here.
Same idea, same idea, this story again from Shakespeare.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
The good man will teach his son.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
This story is something we should teach our sons and
daughters and grandsons and granddaughters. Congress meantime, had fled taken
off from Philadelphia, terrified that the British were going to
attack and take Philadelphia, and they had abdicated all their
(35:18):
control over Washington and made him virtually a dictator.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
This is very.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Little known by most people. They'd say, we're going You're
in charge. And in their letter transmitting this new resolution,
they said, happy it is for this country that the
general of their forces can safely be entrusted with the
most unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty, nor property
(35:48):
be in the least degree endangered thereby. But even more
interesting is what he wrote to them, instead of thinking
myself freed from all civil obligations by this mark of
their con members of Congress, I shall constantly bear in
mind that as the sword was the last resort for
the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be
(36:11):
the first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.
And he was, as I think we all know, as
good as he as his word. He went before Congress
when the war finally ended, and gave back his command.
No conquering general had ever done that. This magnificent moment
(36:31):
in our history is memorialized, commemorated in a fine painting
that hangs in the rotunda of the Capitol, again by
John Trumbull. When George the Third was told after the
war had ended by the painter Benjamin West, who was
the court painter to the Crown, and who lived in London,
(36:53):
and who was an American who'd been living there since
well before the war. When George the Third was told
by Benjamin West that Washington would probably do this, George
the Third said, if he does that, he will be
the greatest man in the world.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
I don't think that.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
There's a much more powerful story than the story of
our origins, and I hope that none of us ever
will ever think of them again as figures in a
costume pageant.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to the
late David McCullough, two time Pooled Surprize winner, and he
was giving this address at the National Archives about his
book seventeen seventy six. Go to Amazon with the usual
suspects and pick it up and as always, all of
our history segments are brought to us by the great
(37:49):
folks at Hillsdale College. By the way, take their constitution
one on one course. It's terrific. I learned more in
that course than I did in three years at the
University of Virginia Lost. We know when we were born
as a country, and we were born and birthed in
seventeen seventy six, the story of this great country, David mccullus,
(38:10):
seventeen seventy six. Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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