July 3, 2026 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, after leading the colonies to victory in the American Revolution, George Washington shocked the world by refusing to become king. Instead, he laid the foundation for the American presidency and helped define the future of our republic. Dr. Larry Arnn of Hillsdale College and bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick share the remarkable story.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
Support the show: https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And we continue with our American stories.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Up next to the story of how this country came
to be and how, despite the odds, we managed to
be the largest military force on earth to gain our independence.
Here's our own Monta Montgomery with a story.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
On July fourth, seventeen seventy six, representatives from our thirteen
original colonies came together and agreed to an act of treason,
the Declaration of Independence. Here's Hillsdale College President doctor Arne
with the story of what happened next.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
The stakes were life and death. There was a warrant
issued for their asked to the British general commanding the
troops in North America. In other words, not an order
to a policeman who would put them in jail and
then take them before a judge, a soldier who would
detain them and ship them to England, or hang them
on the spot where they were arrested. So that's, you know,
(01:18):
the last sentence of the Decoration Independence says, in support
of this declaration, we mutually pledged to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor. And many of them
lost those lives or their fortunes, none of them their honor.
So the huge stakes. You know, it's hard for us
to look back on the past and understand that they're
(01:39):
living just the way we are without knowledge of the future.
And if you can grasp that fact about the people
in Philadelphia, those men in that little room, we're both,
by the way, the same room the Decoration of Independence
and the Constitution were drafted and ratified. They just passed
it and put their names on the Declaration of Independence
in that room. And you know, we know what the
(02:02):
king thought. The king thought, this is a crazy claim.
I'm the king. There's always been a king. There has
to be a king, and you have to obey the king,
and the king, by the way, has to be.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Good to you.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And so this is crazy.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
So they're introducing a thing that nobody believes, and then
add to it, they're introducing it in controversy ultimately treason
against the strongest living force the British Empire and its
navy especially, but also it's army recently twice beaten France
(02:38):
and major wars, right, and so what possible chance could
they have, you know, because they when they wrote the
deculi of Independence, they didn't really have anything that you
could call an army and George Washington had been appointed
head of it because he had the most experience of
anybody been in war, of anybody in the Revolutionary side,
(03:02):
but he had never moved a large body of troops
from one place to another or fed them along the
way in his life. And the British were practiced at
all that stuff and had hundreds of staff guys who
knew all about how to do that, and so in
the beginning the war was ridiculous because we couldn't get
(03:22):
our army around anywhere, and the British would always just
encircle us. Right, It was just funny how bad it was.
We didn't have opinion polls back then, but the guesses
tend to congregate around thirty percent strongly for the revolution,
and a majority of the rest again started leaning against,
(03:48):
and a bunch of people trying to make up their minds.
So it wasn't propitious. And if you just think about it,
this is a people, by the way, you have to
remember this. For one hundred and fifty years in settlers
especially had been on the North American continent, and they
had developed the richest, deepest practices and institutions of self
(04:08):
government in human history. And they did that on their own,
and the British had influence on it through the appointment
of a governor general in each of the colonies, but
that was it right, and they raised their own taxes
and they paid their own bills, and so they had
all that, and they're used to deciding things for themselves.
(04:29):
Now on the other hand, this is like a huge
decision and nobody knows where it's going to go. And
we're used to these British and are they really so bad?
And so of course it's plausible to me, although we
don't really know that. Most people were very reluctant about this,
and so the implausibility of it also demonstrates something, and
(04:53):
that is they really believe this, and they were prepared
to die for it, and that's the only reason it was.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
The death robation.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Independence is ratified, and then of course everything goes wrong
for months. They did take Boston because Henry Knox went
and got the cannon from Fort Ticonderoga, which Ethan Allen
had liberated, dragged him across winter roads, got him up
on a hill and they now could shoot down on
the British ships, and the British ships had to leave.
(05:24):
But after that everything was disaster. They went up to
New York because the British going up there.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Now here's Nathaniel Philbrook, author of Valley Ambition, George Washington,
Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, presenting
a Hillsdale College cca with the story of what happened next.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
The Empire is about to strike back, and a huge
fleet arrives in New York, ultimately forty thousand soldiers and
sailors in a fleet of four hundred vessels. This is
more people than in all of Philadelphia, the largest urban
center in North America at that time. And there is
Washington dug into New York and the high Ground in Brooklyn.
(06:07):
He's completely out generaled in what will be called the
Battle of Long Island.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
The British just simply completely out maneuvered Washington. I mean,
he was embarrassing and he had to run his army
down New Jersey escaping with their lives.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
He's lost most of his army to desertion. But what
Washington had an ability to do is Washington had an
he was I speak of him.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
He had a true genius.
Speaker 6 (06:34):
He wasn't a genius like let's say founding fathers Thomas
Jefferson and Hamilton. He was not a jitterly, brilliant person,
eloquent and a mind that could go anywhere. He had
the ability to dial out the static of life and
believe me, as Washington retreated across New Jersey to the
other side of the Delaware River, there was a lot
(06:56):
of static out there, a lot of naysayers, you know.
He had the ability to say, Okay, what is the
most important thing for me to do now? And so
there in the Delaware he realized, we've got to have
some kind of comeback strategy here. If we're going to
do it, we have to shock them. It's the only
way we can turn this around.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
In our first year, we're going to have only defeat.
So in Christmas night, he crosses the Delaware and attacks Trenton,
and he hoped to wake them up. He had a
main man in his army, he organized all the boats
to get everybody over, and of course they were three
(07:37):
hours late. So now it's ten o'clock. Their hope of surprise,
they think is gone. And now Washington says, we're going
to go on anyway, because if we don't win here,
we're going to be dead by nightfall. Well, they get
there and the Hessian soldiers and they were from a
German state called Hesha. They'd had a very nice Christmas
night and they were drunk in bed when the Americans
(08:00):
got there, and they took the place and hardly casually
on the American side. And then something bad happened. The
report comes that Cornwallis is coming down in relief. He's
got to stop Cornwallis at Princeville. And when he gets there,
the American troops are in flight, they're running. Washington didn't
(08:21):
say any he just rode his horse directly through the
troops toward the enemy. When Washington got close to the British,
he didn't have any way to know if anybody was
with him, but they had all turned around and fallen
in line alongside Washington. And he pulls his sword out
and his horse is just walking steadily, and there's a
(08:42):
great volley and Washington is shrouded in smoke. And then
the smoke cleared, and there was a great cheer because
he was just still on his horse and the same posture,
still going. And the British they basically just turned around
and ran from him.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And what a story.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You're hearing, and imagine being there not knowing what was
going to happen next, because no one did is doctor
Arn routinely points out to his students. The men then
didn't know what was going to happen, and they did
risk everything everything, fortune and their lives, but not their honor.
As doctor Larry Arn points out, when we come back
more of this remarkable story how America won its independence
(09:26):
and the stakes involved.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Here on our American stories, and.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
We continue with our American stories, and for my money,
one of the greatest stories ever told, not just a
military story, but what happened on July fourth and after,
one of the greatest stories in world history. Let's continue
with two world class historians, Nathaniel Philbrick and President of
Hillsdale College, doctor Larry Arne.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
It's one of the most amazing comebacks in military history.
But what I began to realize with Washington, his genius
was also primarily so political. He had to deal with Congress.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
So most of Washington's career in the Revolutionary War was
a tremendous mess. The Congress wasn't paying them, and it
wasn't paying them because it didn't have any money, and
it didn't have any money because the States wouldn't give
it any money, although they would promise to.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
And the great danger when it came to revolutions and
republics that all of them would end with a military coup.
The civil government in the wake of a revolution is inefficient,
frustrating the military.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Whether it's Caesar, whether.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
It's Cromwell in England or in the future Napoleon, someone
takes control and the dream ends. And this is what
Continental Congress was fearful of. So they kept Washington on
a very tight leash. And the more successful Washington got,
the more untrustworthy Congressman became.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
And the following year would come.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
The Battle of Saratoga, in which, largely through the heroics
of Bennettict Darnold, America would score a great victory with
Horatio Gates as.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
The commanding officer.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Meanwhile, Washington lost a series of battles, the Battle Brandywine
and Germantown, allowing the British to move into Philadelphia. This
got the politicians to wondering whether Washington was the right person.
His army is dug into Valley Forge that terrible winter,
(12:06):
and there is an attempt to replace Washington with Horatio Gates.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
And he suffered with the troops, and he kept it together,
and he kept his army in being.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
You know, he was one of these people.
Speaker 6 (12:20):
He was not necessarily the greatest military strategist in the world,
but he was terrific at working with people, at seeing
the big side of things.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And when people see things like that, it's printed in them.
It makes them better because they aspire.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
To such things.
Speaker 6 (12:37):
And his integrity was never doubted. He succeeds in getting
through that terrible winter at Valley Forge, and from then on,
particularly with a stellar performance the Battle of Monmouth. He's
in He is the unquestioned face of not only the
continental army, but he is becoming the face of America,
(13:00):
and absolutely essential to all this, one of his best generals,
Bennett Arnold, moves into the other direction. He ultimately decides
that while Washington's destiny to hold the country together, it's
his destiny to try to tear that country apart, and
he unsuccessfully attempts to surrender West Point, where there are
three thousand soldiers and all.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Sorts of armaments and ammunition.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
That is foiled, but America is at an absolute low point.
Recruitment levels in the states were miserable. There just was
nothing going on. But there was good news. In seventeen
seventy eight, after that great victory at Saratoga, France had
decided to enter the revolution on our side. Cornwallis is
(13:49):
dug into a town at the end of the point
formed by the James and York rivers, Yorktown, and the
trap closes around Lord Cornwallis. Carnwallace is forced to surrender,
thus delivering the victory that Washington had foreseen.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
And Washington could have been made a king after this
great victory. Some people wanted him to be, thus ending
our experiment and proving the suspicions of some members in Congress. Right,
But that's not what happened. So what did.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Washington has determined that he will surrender his military commission
to Congress. When George the Third hears that this is
Washington's intention, he says that if Washington does that, he
will be the greatest man in the world. And that's
what Washington did.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
He does that.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he had to
hold his right shaking right hand with his left while
he delivered his speech.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Here is doctor arn delivering that's.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and
pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming
a respectable nation, I resigned with satisfaction the appointment I
accepted with diffidence, a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish
so arduous a task, which, however, was superseded by a
confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of
(15:25):
the supreme power of the Union, and the patronage of Heaven.
It is an indispensable duty to close this last act
of my official life by commending the interests of our
dearest country to the protection of Almighty God. Having finished
the work assigned to me, I retire from the great
theater of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this
(15:47):
august body under whose orders I have so long acted,
I here offer my commission and take my leave of
all the employments of public life. Put a way to end,
you know, which has got to be one of the
most consequential wars in all of human history. Had established
the United States of America, and he was the man
who commanded it. And everyone knew it was his strategies
(16:11):
that had won. And everyone knew that it was his
determination and moral force that it kept an army in
being able to fight through many defeats and through impoverishment
and lack of supply. And so he was the greatest
man in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
So this fourth of July, remember the courage and sacrifice
of our founding fathers to see through to victory a
seemingly unwinnable and at times unpopular war. It's a uniquely
American courage that they displayed, and it's something to be
proud of.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Here's Gerald R.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Ford reflecting on that for America's bi centennial.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
On Washington's birthday in eighteen sixty one, a fortnight after
six states had formed a confederacy of their own, Maraham
Lincoln came here to Independence Hall, knowing that in ten
days he would face the cruelest national crisis of our
eighty five year history. I am filled with deep emotion,
(17:14):
he said, and finding myself standing here in the place
where collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to
principle from which sprang the institutions under which we live today,
we can all share these simple, noble sentiments. Like Lincoln,
(17:37):
I feel both pride and humility, rejoicing and reverence. As
I stand in the place where two centuries ago the
United States of America was conceived in liberty and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are created equal. The
world knows where we stand. The world is ever conscious
(17:59):
of what Americaans are doing, for better or for worse,
because the United States today remains the most successful realization
of humanity's universal hope. The world may or may not follow,
but we leave because our whole history says we must.
Liberty is for all men and women as a matter
(18:23):
of equal and unalienable right. The establishment of justice and
peace abroad will in large measure depend upon the peace
and justice we create here in our own country, where
we still show the way.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And a terrific job on the production and storytelling by
Monte Montgomery himself a Hillsdale grad. A special thanks to
Nathaniel Philbrick, a world class historian, and doctor Larry are In,
not only a world class historian, but a terrific teacher
and leader of his own Hillsdale College proudly supports this
program and we proudly have him as a partner.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
The story of
Speaker 2 (19:08):
The greatest man, the greatest movement, and the greatest document
ever conceived here on our American stories
And we continue with our American stories.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Up next to the story of how this country came
to be and how, despite the odds, we managed to
be the largest military force on earth to gain our independence.
Here's our own Monta Montgomery with a story.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
On July fourth, seventeen seventy six, representatives from our thirteen
original colonies came together and agreed to an act of treason,
the Declaration of Independence. Here's Hillsdale College President doctor Arne
with the story of what happened next.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
The stakes were life and death. There was a warrant
issued for their asked to the British general commanding the
troops in North America. In other words, not an order
to a policeman who would put them in jail and
then take them before a judge, a soldier who would
detain them and ship them to England, or hang them
on the spot where they were arrested. So that's, you know,
(01:18):
the last sentence of the Decoration Independence says, in support
of this declaration, we mutually pledged to each other our lives,
our fortunes, and our sacred honor. And many of them
lost those lives or their fortunes, none of them their honor.
So the huge stakes. You know, it's hard for us
to look back on the past and understand that they're
(01:39):
living just the way we are without knowledge of the future.
And if you can grasp that fact about the people
in Philadelphia, those men in that little room, we're both,
by the way, the same room the Decoration of Independence
and the Constitution were drafted and ratified. They just passed
it and put their names on the Declaration of Independence
in that room. And you know, we know what the
(02:02):
king thought. The king thought, this is a crazy claim.
I'm the king. There's always been a king. There has
to be a king, and you have to obey the king,
and the king, by the way, has to be.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Good to you.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
And so this is crazy.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
So they're introducing a thing that nobody believes, and then
add to it, they're introducing it in controversy ultimately treason
against the strongest living force the British Empire and its
navy especially, but also it's army recently twice beaten France
(02:38):
and major wars, right, and so what possible chance could
they have, you know, because they when they wrote the
deculi of Independence, they didn't really have anything that you
could call an army and George Washington had been appointed
head of it because he had the most experience of
anybody been in war, of anybody in the Revolutionary side,
(03:02):
but he had never moved a large body of troops
from one place to another or fed them along the
way in his life. And the British were practiced at
all that stuff and had hundreds of staff guys who
knew all about how to do that, and so in
the beginning the war was ridiculous because we couldn't get
(03:22):
our army around anywhere, and the British would always just
encircle us. Right, It was just funny how bad it was.
We didn't have opinion polls back then, but the guesses
tend to congregate around thirty percent strongly for the revolution,
and a majority of the rest again started leaning against,
(03:48):
and a bunch of people trying to make up their minds.
So it wasn't propitious. And if you just think about it,
this is a people, by the way, you have to
remember this. For one hundred and fifty years in settlers
especially had been on the North American continent, and they
had developed the richest, deepest practices and institutions of self
(04:08):
government in human history. And they did that on their own,
and the British had influence on it through the appointment
of a governor general in each of the colonies, but
that was it right, and they raised their own taxes
and they paid their own bills, and so they had
all that, and they're used to deciding things for themselves.
(04:29):
Now on the other hand, this is like a huge
decision and nobody knows where it's going to go. And
we're used to these British and are they really so bad?
And so of course it's plausible to me, although we
don't really know that. Most people were very reluctant about this,
and so the implausibility of it also demonstrates something, and
(04:53):
that is they really believe this, and they were prepared
to die for it, and that's the only reason it was.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
The death robation.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Independence is ratified, and then of course everything goes wrong
for months. They did take Boston because Henry Knox went
and got the cannon from Fort Ticonderoga, which Ethan Allen
had liberated, dragged him across winter roads, got him up
on a hill and they now could shoot down on
the British ships, and the British ships had to leave.
(05:24):
But after that everything was disaster. They went up to
New York because the British going up there.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Now here's Nathaniel Philbrook, author of Valley Ambition, George Washington,
Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, presenting
a Hillsdale College cca with the story of what happened next.
Speaker 6 (05:45):
The Empire is about to strike back, and a huge
fleet arrives in New York, ultimately forty thousand soldiers and
sailors in a fleet of four hundred vessels. This is
more people than in all of Philadelphia, the largest urban
center in North America at that time. And there is
Washington dug into New York and the high Ground in Brooklyn.
(06:07):
He's completely out generaled in what will be called the
Battle of Long Island.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
The British just simply completely out maneuvered Washington. I mean,
he was embarrassing and he had to run his army
down New Jersey escaping with their lives.
Speaker 6 (06:24):
He's lost most of his army to desertion. But what
Washington had an ability to do is Washington had an
he was I speak of him.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
He had a true genius.
Speaker 6 (06:34):
He wasn't a genius like let's say founding fathers Thomas
Jefferson and Hamilton. He was not a jitterly, brilliant person,
eloquent and a mind that could go anywhere. He had
the ability to dial out the static of life and
believe me, as Washington retreated across New Jersey to the
other side of the Delaware River, there was a lot
(06:56):
of static out there, a lot of naysayers, you know.
He had the ability to say, Okay, what is the
most important thing for me to do now? And so
there in the Delaware he realized, we've got to have
some kind of comeback strategy here. If we're going to
do it, we have to shock them. It's the only
way we can turn this around.
Speaker 4 (07:17):
In our first year, we're going to have only defeat.
So in Christmas night, he crosses the Delaware and attacks Trenton,
and he hoped to wake them up. He had a
main man in his army, he organized all the boats
to get everybody over, and of course they were three
(07:37):
hours late. So now it's ten o'clock. Their hope of surprise,
they think is gone. And now Washington says, we're going
to go on anyway, because if we don't win here,
we're going to be dead by nightfall. Well, they get
there and the Hessian soldiers and they were from a
German state called Hesha. They'd had a very nice Christmas
night and they were drunk in bed when the Americans
(08:00):
got there, and they took the place and hardly casually
on the American side. And then something bad happened. The
report comes that Cornwallis is coming down in relief. He's
got to stop Cornwallis at Princeville. And when he gets there,
the American troops are in flight, they're running. Washington didn't
(08:21):
say any he just rode his horse directly through the
troops toward the enemy. When Washington got close to the British,
he didn't have any way to know if anybody was
with him, but they had all turned around and fallen
in line alongside Washington. And he pulls his sword out
and his horse is just walking steadily, and there's a
(08:42):
great volley and Washington is shrouded in smoke. And then
the smoke cleared, and there was a great cheer because
he was just still on his horse and the same posture,
still going. And the British they basically just turned around
and ran from him.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
And what a story.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You're hearing, and imagine being there not knowing what was
going to happen next, because no one did is doctor
Arn routinely points out to his students. The men then
didn't know what was going to happen, and they did
risk everything everything, fortune and their lives, but not their honor.
As doctor Larry Arn points out, when we come back
more of this remarkable story how America won its independence
(09:26):
and the stakes involved.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Here on our American stories, and.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
We continue with our American stories, and for my money,
one of the greatest stories ever told, not just a
military story, but what happened on July fourth and after,
one of the greatest stories in world history. Let's continue
with two world class historians, Nathaniel Philbrick and President of
Hillsdale College, doctor Larry Arne.
Speaker 6 (10:28):
It's one of the most amazing comebacks in military history.
But what I began to realize with Washington, his genius
was also primarily so political. He had to deal with Congress.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
So most of Washington's career in the Revolutionary War was
a tremendous mess. The Congress wasn't paying them, and it
wasn't paying them because it didn't have any money, and
it didn't have any money because the States wouldn't give
it any money, although they would promise to.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
And the great danger when it came to revolutions and
republics that all of them would end with a military coup.
The civil government in the wake of a revolution is inefficient,
frustrating the military.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Whether it's Caesar, whether.
Speaker 6 (11:11):
It's Cromwell in England or in the future Napoleon, someone
takes control and the dream ends. And this is what
Continental Congress was fearful of. So they kept Washington on
a very tight leash. And the more successful Washington got,
the more untrustworthy Congressman became.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
And the following year would come.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
The Battle of Saratoga, in which, largely through the heroics
of Bennettict Darnold, America would score a great victory with
Horatio Gates as.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
The commanding officer.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
Meanwhile, Washington lost a series of battles, the Battle Brandywine
and Germantown, allowing the British to move into Philadelphia. This
got the politicians to wondering whether Washington was the right person.
His army is dug into Valley Forge that terrible winter,
(12:06):
and there is an attempt to replace Washington with Horatio Gates.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
And he suffered with the troops, and he kept it together,
and he kept his army in being.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
You know, he was one of these people.
Speaker 6 (12:20):
He was not necessarily the greatest military strategist in the world,
but he was terrific at working with people, at seeing
the big side of things.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And when people see things like that, it's printed in them.
It makes them better because they aspire.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
To such things.
Speaker 6 (12:37):
And his integrity was never doubted. He succeeds in getting
through that terrible winter at Valley Forge, and from then on,
particularly with a stellar performance the Battle of Monmouth. He's
in He is the unquestioned face of not only the
continental army, but he is becoming the face of America,
(13:00):
and absolutely essential to all this, one of his best generals,
Bennett Arnold, moves into the other direction. He ultimately decides
that while Washington's destiny to hold the country together, it's
his destiny to try to tear that country apart, and
he unsuccessfully attempts to surrender West Point, where there are
three thousand soldiers and all.
Speaker 5 (13:22):
Sorts of armaments and ammunition.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
That is foiled, but America is at an absolute low point.
Recruitment levels in the states were miserable. There just was
nothing going on. But there was good news. In seventeen
seventy eight, after that great victory at Saratoga, France had
decided to enter the revolution on our side. Cornwallis is
(13:49):
dug into a town at the end of the point
formed by the James and York rivers, Yorktown, and the
trap closes around Lord Cornwallis. Carnwallace is forced to surrender,
thus delivering the victory that Washington had foreseen.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
And Washington could have been made a king after this
great victory. Some people wanted him to be, thus ending
our experiment and proving the suspicions of some members in Congress. Right,
But that's not what happened. So what did.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Washington has determined that he will surrender his military commission
to Congress. When George the Third hears that this is
Washington's intention, he says that if Washington does that, he
will be the greatest man in the world. And that's
what Washington did.
Speaker 5 (14:48):
He does that.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
He was so overwhelmed with emotion that he had to
hold his right shaking right hand with his left while
he delivered his speech.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Here is doctor arn delivering that's.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Happy in the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, and
pleased with the opportunity afforded the United States of becoming
a respectable nation, I resigned with satisfaction the appointment I
accepted with diffidence, a diffidence in my abilities to accomplish
so arduous a task, which, however, was superseded by a
confidence in the rectitude of our cause, the support of
(15:25):
the supreme power of the Union, and the patronage of Heaven.
It is an indispensable duty to close this last act
of my official life by commending the interests of our
dearest country to the protection of Almighty God. Having finished
the work assigned to me, I retire from the great
theater of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this
(15:47):
august body under whose orders I have so long acted,
I here offer my commission and take my leave of
all the employments of public life. Put a way to end,
you know, which has got to be one of the
most consequential wars in all of human history. Had established
the United States of America, and he was the man
who commanded it. And everyone knew it was his strategies
(16:11):
that had won. And everyone knew that it was his
determination and moral force that it kept an army in
being able to fight through many defeats and through impoverishment
and lack of supply. And so he was the greatest
man in the world.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
So this fourth of July, remember the courage and sacrifice
of our founding fathers to see through to victory a
seemingly unwinnable and at times unpopular war. It's a uniquely
American courage that they displayed, and it's something to be
proud of.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Here's Gerald R.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Ford reflecting on that for America's bi centennial.
Speaker 7 (16:51):
On Washington's birthday in eighteen sixty one, a fortnight after
six states had formed a confederacy of their own, Maraham
Lincoln came here to Independence Hall, knowing that in ten
days he would face the cruelest national crisis of our
eighty five year history. I am filled with deep emotion,
(17:14):
he said, and finding myself standing here in the place
where collected together the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to
principle from which sprang the institutions under which we live today,
we can all share these simple, noble sentiments. Like Lincoln,
(17:37):
I feel both pride and humility, rejoicing and reverence. As
I stand in the place where two centuries ago the
United States of America was conceived in liberty and dedicated
to the proposition that all men are created equal. The
world knows where we stand. The world is ever conscious
(17:59):
of what Americaans are doing, for better or for worse,
because the United States today remains the most successful realization
of humanity's universal hope. The world may or may not follow,
but we leave because our whole history says we must.
Liberty is for all men and women as a matter
(18:23):
of equal and unalienable right. The establishment of justice and
peace abroad will in large measure depend upon the peace
and justice we create here in our own country, where
we still show the way.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
And a terrific job on the production and storytelling by
Monte Montgomery himself a Hillsdale grad. A special thanks to
Nathaniel Philbrick, a world class historian, and doctor Larry are In,
not only a world class historian, but a terrific teacher
and leader of his own Hillsdale College proudly supports this
program and we proudly have him as a partner.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
The story of
Speaker 2 (19:08):
The greatest man, the greatest movement, and the greatest document
ever conceived here on our American stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com