March 5, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, King George III was not "the mad king who lost the colonies," says renowned historian David McCullough. "He was a king and did lose the most prosperous land on Earth just as the British Empire was building up steam.". Here's the late great McCullough with the story.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Best Selling historian
and two time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough is the
author of seventeen seventy six. In this masterful work, he
tells the intensely human story of those who marched with
George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence,
(00:31):
beginning in seventeen seventy five. Here he is telling a
little known story about both the British perspective and their
colonies in America. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I wanted to begin in London. I wanted to begin
in late October in London because it's the day that
the King went before Parliament to give one of the
most important speeches ever any king or anyone ever gave
before Parliament. When we find at Lexington and conquered in
at Bunker Hill, we were not fighting for independence. We
(01:05):
were fighting for our rights as freeborn Englishmen. In seventeen
seventy five seventeen seventy six, except for those five hundred
thousand American men, women and children who were held in slavery,
we had the highest standard of living of any people
in the world, which is most people don't understand. So
(01:28):
we weren't fighting for independence, and we were very well
off in world terms, and we had more freedom again,
except for those five hundred thousand black men, women and
children in slavery, we had more freedom than any other
people in the world because people living under the British
system had the most freedom of anyone. But on the
(01:50):
day when the King addressed Parliament, which is very much
like our state of the Union moment, you have the
King coming before a joint session of Commons and the
House of Lords, and he addresses them with his policy.
And his policy was, in essence, the following. The American
(02:11):
colonies are in rebellion. They're leaders, these political firebrands, are traders,
and their real purpose is independence. Nobody, nobody had spoken,
at least publicly or on paper, no one of any
consequence or responsibility here of anything about independence as yet.
(02:36):
And that he, the King, and his cabinet had concluded
that they must send sufficient force to put the rebellion down,
and furthermore, that they were conducting negotiations to hire additional troops,
which as we know, were the Hessians or the German mercenaries.
(02:58):
When that letter fired, that the text of that speech
finally reached this country. It was a blow such as
no one expected. It didn't arrive until the first day
of the new year, January one, seventeen seventy six. It
reached Boston, and right away everybody knew this wasn't going
(03:23):
to be a short war. Washington had written to his
wife Martha to say that he'd be home by Christmas.
When he first took command. Jefferson had written to a
kinsman late in the in August of seventeen seventy five,
excuse me that he looked forward to the moment when
we would be reunited with the mother country in the happy,
good old way. But such illusions of a reconciliation and
(03:49):
went out the window with that speech. Now, George the
Third was not the mad king who lost the colonies.
Mental illness did not come on until twenty years later,
seventeen seventy six. He was a very healthy young man
in his thirties, and his madness was not understood then.
(04:15):
It's a disease called perferia, which is hereditary. Wouldn't be
diagnosed until the twentieth century. George was not a dim wit.
He was a very intelligent, very interesting man. He was
an accomplished musician, an accomplished artist, great lover of literature,
great collector of books, and according to Samuel Johnson, one
(04:40):
of the most interesting, engaging men that he'd ever held
a conversation with. And Johnson was a very severe critic
or judge of other people. He was kind, he was honest,
He was an ardent horticulturist, agriculturist, loved his farm, Windsor
(05:00):
was happiest there working on his farms, as were Adams
or Jefferson or Washington. And he had fifteen children, which
he for whom he was an excellent father. And he
was doing what he sought was his duty as king.
And he had the support of the country and the
(05:21):
support of Parliament. When Fox and Burke and others stood
up and gave their magnificent speeches in the House of
Commons in support or in sympathy with the American point
of view, they were powerful, and they were eloquent to
the point of magnificent. Their speeches, particularly Burke's, are literature.
(05:48):
But they didn't have the boats, and they knew they
didn't have the boats, and they were thus free to
say almost anything they wished. Furthermore, Furthermore, they too would
always refer to our colonies. In other words, they didn't
(06:09):
get it either. It wasn't going to be their colonies.
That was the point. There came a point where where
it's very close. The reconciliation might have happened, but it
was only possible if we gave up the idea of independence,
and we weren't going to do that. John Adams said,
(06:29):
the American Revolution began in the hearts of the Americans,
the American people, long before any war broke out. And
I think that's probably true. And the war could have
gone either way any number of times, six or seven times,
even during the course of the one year seventeen seventy six.
(06:50):
The British didn't lose because their generals were dim bulved
aristocrats who shouldn't have had high command, and they were
excellent officers, some were better than others. Of course, if
Henry Clinton had been in command instead of William Howe,
it might have gone quite differently, because Clinton caught the
(07:10):
point which we were slow to catch, that it wasn't
holding Boston or taking New York, or holding New York
or occupying New Jersey that was going to win the war.
The only thing that would win the war for the
British was to surround Washington and his army and put
them out of business. And Washington too was slow in
(07:30):
realizing this. As long as the army survived, as long
as the army held together, as long as there was
fight in it, the war would go on. And he
also knew how big a country this is. Whether we
would have won had the French not come in, who's
to say if we hadn't won, the war would certainly
(07:51):
have gone on a great deal longer without the French.
Let's not forget that the French didn't come in because
of any great love of democracy. They came in because
it was an opportune chance to stick it to Great Britain,
and in doing so they spent so much money that
they virtually bankrupt themselves, which in the chain reaction, helped
(08:15):
to bring on the French Revolution. Whereas the British, who
were very concerned that if they lost the colonies, that
would be the end of the British Empire. And of
course we know in hindsight that in the eighteenth century
the British Empire was just getting into the second gear
and it wouldn't be until the nineteenth century that the
(08:35):
British Empire really became the powerful force in the world
that it was. There are all kinds of ironies, There
are all kinds of points to remember. The longest war
in our history except for Vietnam, most people don't know that,
and with the bloodiest war in our history per capita,
except for the Civil War, population of two million, five
(08:57):
hundred thousand, twenty five thousand Americans were killed. That's one
percent of the population. If we were fighting a revolution
a war for our independence today, we would lose over
three million people on the same ratio. So for that generation,
for those people, this was a terrible loss and they
(09:17):
would never, in many of them, recover from it. And
it wasn't just those who were killed. It was those
who were wounded, those who lost limbs, those who suffered
acutely from disease and the after effects. We lost more
people from disease than we did from musket balls or
cannon fire. And then much of that was needless. And
(09:39):
again it was lack of discipline in the troops because
the British were quite healthy through most of it, and.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
A terrific job on the production and editing by Greg Hangler,
and you've been listening to the late David McCullough, two
time Pooled Surprise Winner, and he was speaking at the
National Archives, one of the great places and spaces in Washington,
d C. And he was talking about his book seventeen
seventy six, the biography essentially of the Year of Our
(10:06):
Birth and what storytelling it was and is. Indeed, by
the way, if you love our show and you love
listening to it, what you're listening to is free, but
it is not free to make. Go to Our American
Stories and contribute where a nonprofit and your contributions are
needed in Your contributions are welcome. If you love the storytelling,
(10:28):
go to our American Stories dot com and give the
story of the Year of Our Birth seventeen seventy six
as told by David McCullough here on Our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. Best Selling historian
and two time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough is the
author of seventeen seventy six. In this masterful work, he
tells the intensely human story of those who marched with
George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence,
(00:31):
beginning in seventeen seventy five. Here he is telling a
little known story about both the British perspective and their
colonies in America. Let's take a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I wanted to begin in London. I wanted to begin
in late October in London because it's the day that
the King went before Parliament to give one of the
most important speeches ever any king or anyone ever gave
before Parliament. When we find at Lexington and conquered in
at Bunker Hill, we were not fighting for independence. We
(01:05):
were fighting for our rights as freeborn Englishmen. In seventeen
seventy five seventeen seventy six, except for those five hundred
thousand American men, women and children who were held in slavery,
we had the highest standard of living of any people
in the world, which is most people don't understand. So
(01:28):
we weren't fighting for independence, and we were very well
off in world terms, and we had more freedom again,
except for those five hundred thousand black men, women and
children in slavery, we had more freedom than any other
people in the world because people living under the British
system had the most freedom of anyone. But on the
(01:50):
day when the King addressed Parliament, which is very much
like our state of the Union moment, you have the
King coming before a joint session of Commons and the
House of Lords, and he addresses them with his policy.
And his policy was, in essence, the following. The American
(02:11):
colonies are in rebellion. They're leaders, these political firebrands, are traders,
and their real purpose is independence. Nobody, nobody had spoken,
at least publicly or on paper, no one of any
consequence or responsibility here of anything about independence as yet.
(02:36):
And that he, the King, and his cabinet had concluded
that they must send sufficient force to put the rebellion down,
and furthermore, that they were conducting negotiations to hire additional troops,
which as we know, were the Hessians or the German mercenaries.
(02:58):
When that letter fired, that the text of that speech
finally reached this country. It was a blow such as
no one expected. It didn't arrive until the first day
of the new year, January one, seventeen seventy six. It
reached Boston, and right away everybody knew this wasn't going
(03:23):
to be a short war. Washington had written to his
wife Martha to say that he'd be home by Christmas.
When he first took command. Jefferson had written to a
kinsman late in the in August of seventeen seventy five,
excuse me that he looked forward to the moment when
we would be reunited with the mother country in the happy,
good old way. But such illusions of a reconciliation and
(03:49):
went out the window with that speech. Now, George the
Third was not the mad king who lost the colonies.
Mental illness did not come on until twenty years later,
seventeen seventy six. He was a very healthy young man
in his thirties, and his madness was not understood then.
(04:15):
It's a disease called perferia, which is hereditary. Wouldn't be
diagnosed until the twentieth century. George was not a dim wit.
He was a very intelligent, very interesting man. He was
an accomplished musician, an accomplished artist, great lover of literature,
great collector of books, and according to Samuel Johnson, one
(04:40):
of the most interesting, engaging men that he'd ever held
a conversation with. And Johnson was a very severe critic
or judge of other people. He was kind, he was honest,
He was an ardent horticulturist, agriculturist, loved his farm, Windsor
(05:00):
was happiest there working on his farms, as were Adams
or Jefferson or Washington. And he had fifteen children, which
he for whom he was an excellent father. And he
was doing what he sought was his duty as king.
And he had the support of the country and the
(05:21):
support of Parliament. When Fox and Burke and others stood
up and gave their magnificent speeches in the House of
Commons in support or in sympathy with the American point
of view, they were powerful, and they were eloquent to
the point of magnificent. Their speeches, particularly Burke's, are literature.
(05:48):
But they didn't have the boats, and they knew they
didn't have the boats, and they were thus free to
say almost anything they wished. Furthermore, Furthermore, they too would
always refer to our colonies. In other words, they didn't
(06:09):
get it either. It wasn't going to be their colonies.
That was the point. There came a point where where
it's very close. The reconciliation might have happened, but it
was only possible if we gave up the idea of independence,
and we weren't going to do that. John Adams said,
(06:29):
the American Revolution began in the hearts of the Americans,
the American people, long before any war broke out. And
I think that's probably true. And the war could have
gone either way any number of times, six or seven times,
even during the course of the one year seventeen seventy six.
(06:50):
The British didn't lose because their generals were dim bulved
aristocrats who shouldn't have had high command, and they were
excellent officers, some were better than others. Of course, if
Henry Clinton had been in command instead of William Howe,
it might have gone quite differently, because Clinton caught the
(07:10):
point which we were slow to catch, that it wasn't
holding Boston or taking New York, or holding New York
or occupying New Jersey that was going to win the war.
The only thing that would win the war for the
British was to surround Washington and his army and put
them out of business. And Washington too was slow in
(07:30):
realizing this. As long as the army survived, as long
as the army held together, as long as there was
fight in it, the war would go on. And he
also knew how big a country this is. Whether we
would have won had the French not come in, who's
to say if we hadn't won, the war would certainly
(07:51):
have gone on a great deal longer without the French.
Let's not forget that the French didn't come in because
of any great love of democracy. They came in because
it was an opportune chance to stick it to Great Britain,
and in doing so they spent so much money that
they virtually bankrupt themselves, which in the chain reaction, helped
(08:15):
to bring on the French Revolution. Whereas the British, who
were very concerned that if they lost the colonies, that
would be the end of the British Empire. And of
course we know in hindsight that in the eighteenth century
the British Empire was just getting into the second gear
and it wouldn't be until the nineteenth century that the
(08:35):
British Empire really became the powerful force in the world
that it was. There are all kinds of ironies, There
are all kinds of points to remember. The longest war
in our history except for Vietnam, most people don't know that,
and with the bloodiest war in our history per capita,
except for the Civil War, population of two million, five
(08:57):
hundred thousand, twenty five thousand Americans were killed. That's one
percent of the population. If we were fighting a revolution
a war for our independence today, we would lose over
three million people on the same ratio. So for that generation,
for those people, this was a terrible loss and they
(09:17):
would never, in many of them, recover from it. And
it wasn't just those who were killed. It was those
who were wounded, those who lost limbs, those who suffered
acutely from disease and the after effects. We lost more
people from disease than we did from musket balls or
cannon fire. And then much of that was needless. And
(09:39):
again it was lack of discipline in the troops because
the British were quite healthy through most of it, and.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
A terrific job on the production and editing by Greg Hangler,
and you've been listening to the late David McCullough, two
time Pooled Surprise Winner, and he was speaking at the
National Archives, one of the great places and spaces in Washington,
d C. And he was talking about his book seventeen
seventy six, the biography essentially of the Year of Our
(10:06):
Birth and what storytelling it was and is. Indeed, by
the way, if you love our show and you love
listening to it, what you're listening to is free, but
it is not free to make. Go to Our American
Stories and contribute where a nonprofit and your contributions are
needed in Your contributions are welcome. If you love the storytelling,
(10:28):
go to our American Stories dot com and give the
story of the Year of Our Birth seventeen seventy six
as told by David McCullough here on Our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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