July 4, 2025 • 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.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories in our July
fourth special All show long, we're celebrating America and the
things that make our nation what it is. 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
(00:31):
our own Montay Montgomery with a story.
Speaker 2 (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 3 (00:56):
The stakes were life and death. There was a warrant
issued for theirs 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
(01:40):
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 Decoration 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 good
to you. And so this is crazy. So they're introducing
a thing that nobody believes, and then add to it,
(02:23):
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 and major wars, right,
and so what possible chance could they have you know,
(02:45):
because they when they wrote the declar 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 in war, of
anybody in the revolutionary side, but he had never moved
a large body of troops from one place to another
(03:08):
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 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
(03:33):
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, 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,
(03:55):
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 government in human history.
And they did that on their own, and the British
had influence on it through the appointment of a governor
(04:16):
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. 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,
(04:38):
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 that is they
really believe this, and they were prepared to die for it,
(04:58):
and that's the only reason it was the decoration. 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
(05:19):
Hill and they now could shoot down on the British ships,
and the British ships had to leave. But after that
everything was disaster. They went up to New York because
the British going up there.
Speaker 2 (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 4 (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 herb
in the center in North America at that time. And
there is Washington dug into New York and the high
(06:05):
Ground in Brooklyn. He's completely out generaled in what will
be called the Battle of Long Island.
Speaker 3 (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 4 (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. He had a true genius.
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
(06:46):
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
of static out there about of naysayers. He had the
ability to say, say, okay, what is the most important
thing for me to do now? And so there in
(07:08):
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 3 (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
(07:58):
and they were drunk in bed when the Americans 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 say anything.
(08:22):
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 great volley
(08:44):
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 in 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 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
(09:24):
America won its independence and the stakes involved here on
our American STORYE. And we continue with our July fourth
(10:10):
special here on 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 4 (10:30):
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 3 (10:42):
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 4 (10:57):
And the great danger when it came to revolution 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. Whether it's Caesar, whether it's Cromwell in
England or in the future Napoleon, someone takes control and
(11:19):
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.
And the following year would come the Battle of Saratoga,
in which, largely through the heroics of Bennettict Darnold, America
(11:41):
would score a great victory with Horatio Gates as the
commanding officer. 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
(12:07):
terrible winter, and there is an attempt to replace Washington
with Horatio Gates.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
And he suffered with the troops, and he kept it together,
and he kept his army in being.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
You know, he was one of these people. 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 3 (12:32):
And when people see things like that, it's printed in them.
It makes them better because they aspire to such things.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
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, and absolutely
(13:03):
essential to all this, one of his best generals, Bennett Darnold,
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 sorts of armaments and ammunition that is foiled.
(13:28):
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 dug into a
(13:52):
town at the end of the point formed by the
James and York rivers, Yorktown, and the trap closes around
Lord Cornwallas. Lord Cornwallis is forced to surrender, thus delivering
the victory that Washington had foreseen.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
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 4 (14:29):
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. He does that. He was so overwhelmed
(14:52):
with emotion that he had to hold his right shaking
right hand with his left while he delivered his speech.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yours doctor, delivering that speech, 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,
(15:22):
was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause,
the support of 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
(15:44):
retire from the great theater of action, and bidding an
affectionate farewell to this 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
(16:04):
of human history. Had established the United States of America,
and he was the man who commanded it, and everyone
knew it was his strategy 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
(16:29):
so he was the greatest man in the world.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
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. Here's Gerald R. Ford reflecting on that for
America's bi centennial.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
On Washington's birthday in eighteen sixty one, a fortnight after
six dates had formed a confederacy of their own, Abraham
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,
(17:15):
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.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Today.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
We can all share these simple, noble sentiments. Like Lincoln,
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
(17:56):
world knows where we stand. The world it is ever
conscious of what Americans 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.
(18:20):
Liberty is for all men and women as a matter
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
(18:41):
we still show the way.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
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 the story
(19:10):
of the greatest man, the greatest movement, and the greatest
document ever conceived. Here on our American Stories. Our July
fourth Special continues
And we continue with our American stories in our July
fourth special All show long, we're celebrating America and the
things that make our nation what it is. 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
(00:31):
our own Montay Montgomery with a story.
Speaker 2 (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 3 (00:56):
The stakes were life and death. There was a warrant
issued for theirs 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
(01:40):
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 Decoration 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 good
to you. And so this is crazy. So they're introducing
a thing that nobody believes, and then add to it,
(02:23):
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 and major wars, right,
and so what possible chance could they have you know,
(02:45):
because they when they wrote the declar 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 in war, of
anybody in the revolutionary side, but he had never moved
a large body of troops from one place to another
(03:08):
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 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
(03:33):
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, 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,
(03:55):
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 government in human history.
And they did that on their own, and the British
had influence on it through the appointment of a governor
(04:16):
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. 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,
(04:38):
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 that is they
really believe this, and they were prepared to die for it,
(04:58):
and that's the only reason it was the decoration. 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
(05:19):
Hill and they now could shoot down on the British ships,
and the British ships had to leave. But after that
everything was disaster. They went up to New York because
the British going up there.
Speaker 2 (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 4 (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 herb
in the center in North America at that time. And
there is Washington dug into New York and the high
(06:05):
Ground in Brooklyn. He's completely out generaled in what will
be called the Battle of Long Island.
Speaker 3 (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 4 (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. He had a true genius.
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
(06:46):
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
of static out there about of naysayers. He had the
ability to say, say, okay, what is the most important
thing for me to do now? And so there in
(07:08):
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 3 (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
(07:58):
and they were drunk in bed when the Americans 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 say anything.
(08:22):
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 great volley
(08:44):
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 in 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 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
(09:24):
America won its independence and the stakes involved here on
our American STORYE. And we continue with our July fourth
(10:10):
special here on 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 4 (10:30):
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 3 (10:42):
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 4 (10:57):
And the great danger when it came to revolution 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. Whether it's Caesar, whether it's Cromwell in
England or in the future Napoleon, someone takes control and
(11:19):
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.
And the following year would come the Battle of Saratoga,
in which, largely through the heroics of Bennettict Darnold, America
(11:41):
would score a great victory with Horatio Gates as the
commanding officer. 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
(12:07):
terrible winter, and there is an attempt to replace Washington
with Horatio Gates.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
And he suffered with the troops, and he kept it together,
and he kept his army in being.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
You know, he was one of these people. 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 3 (12:32):
And when people see things like that, it's printed in them.
It makes them better because they aspire to such things.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
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, and absolutely
(13:03):
essential to all this, one of his best generals, Bennett Darnold,
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 sorts of armaments and ammunition that is foiled.
(13:28):
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 dug into a
(13:52):
town at the end of the point formed by the
James and York rivers, Yorktown, and the trap closes around
Lord Cornwallas. Lord Cornwallis is forced to surrender, thus delivering
the victory that Washington had foreseen.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
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 4 (14:29):
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. He does that. He was so overwhelmed
(14:52):
with emotion that he had to hold his right shaking
right hand with his left while he delivered his speech.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yours doctor, delivering that speech, 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,
(15:22):
was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of our cause,
the support of 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
(15:44):
retire from the great theater of action, and bidding an
affectionate farewell to this 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
(16:04):
of human history. Had established the United States of America,
and he was the man who commanded it, and everyone
knew it was his strategy 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
(16:29):
so he was the greatest man in the world.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
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. Here's Gerald R. Ford reflecting on that for
America's bi centennial.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
On Washington's birthday in eighteen sixty one, a fortnight after
six dates had formed a confederacy of their own, Abraham
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,
(17:15):
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.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Today.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
We can all share these simple, noble sentiments. Like Lincoln,
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
(17:56):
world knows where we stand. The world it is ever
conscious of what Americans 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.
(18:20):
Liberty is for all men and women as a matter
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
(18:41):
we still show the way.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
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 the story
(19:10):
of the greatest man, the greatest movement, and the greatest
document ever conceived. Here on our American Stories. Our July
fourth Special continues
Host
Lee Habeeb
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