250 Years of America

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we've about arrived at the fourth of July, the
Grand American holiday remembering and celebrating how our country was born.
In twenty twenty six, it'll be Independence Day plus two
fifty About what will you be thinking this Independence Day?
Donald Trump? American vets, parades, fireworks. It was the late

(00:21):
Wally mcnott, American history teacher of mine at Southeast High School,
from whom I first learned of and came to appreciate
the true meaning of Independence Day. For it was in
the remarkable courage of fifty six men, the signers. Now
just who were they? These fifty six who started history's

(00:41):
greatest revolution, giving birth to human history's greatest country. The
last line on the Declaration of Independence, which rests today
in The Smithsonian, authored by Thomas Jefferson, reads, we mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our
sacred honor. And then one by one they signed their

(01:05):
names to a death warrant. This was an active sedition
against the King of England. They were now fugitives. Would
you do that for your country today? I think I would.
And then again, other than my life and my family,
I don't have a lot to lose. They did. Virtually
all of them lost far more than their fortunes. Nine

(01:28):
of the fifty six lost their lives fighting for it.
Seventeen of them lost every penny and every parcel of property.
Would you give up every penny and everything you own
for your country? They did, and at the time it
wasn't even a country. They did it for an idea.
They did it with no promise that it would ever happen,

(01:51):
and in fact, the odds were overwhelmingly against them. But
they did it before there was anything known as unemployment
benefits federal bailouts. These were fifty six real people, flesh
and blood, with loving families and dear friends, who built
everything they had with their bare hands. William Ellery of

(02:13):
Rhode Island, his entire estate was burned to the ground
by the British. Francis Lewis of New York was destroyed,
His wife was captured and died in a British prison.
Philip Livingston of New York, his signature on that paper
invited the British to seize everything he had his estate plundered,
died in abject poverty. Just two years after the war.

(02:37):
New Jersey's John Hart signed the declaration and was rushed
home to be by his dying wife's side. He didn't
make it. The British forced them to flee. He never
saw any of his thirteen children again. Robert Morris of
Pennsylvania gave his entire fortune to finance the revolution, never repaid.

(02:57):
Thomas Nelson of Virginia lived in yorktoe Out, which was
the war's final battle. The American guns were shelling the
British army positions. When Nelson noticed that they were sparing
his considerable house just then, he personally ordered the cannon
to be trained on it. Nelson was no less willing
to sacrifice than any of his fellow Virginians. He loaned

(03:20):
the country all of his two million dollar estate, never repaid.
All of the members of the South Carolina delegation were
captured by the British at Charleston, beaten, humiliated, finally released
to their plantations, only to find them burned to the ground.
John Adams house was looted. Thomas Jefferson was forced to
flee his home to avoid capture. High treason against King

(03:44):
George the Third came with a very high price. It
was as if you and I were to renounce our citizenship.
But unlike here and now then, you weren't just allowed
to leave. You were punished. We look back now two
hundred fift fifty years later, knowing how it turned out,
how we won that war. They brought this birth to term.

(04:07):
But these men had no premonition. In fact, their wisdom
was lost on the reality that it was likely the
British would prevail. The English Empire stretched across two oceans,
enjoyed the greatest army in most robust economy on the globe,
and yet not a single one renigged on their pledge
to stand in support of the declaration. Not one of

(04:30):
the fifty six ever recanted, nor did they ever apologize.
It may be history's greatest test and triumph of courage.
They gave it all up just to be free.