1 00:00:13,160 --> 00:00:16,720 Speaker 1: I wanted to start the entire podcast series with George 2 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: Washington because literally we all stand on his shoulders to 3 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:26,439 Speaker 1: the degree that this is a country that has a 4 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:31,360 Speaker 1: remarkable ability for freedom, that is open to everyone, and 5 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:36,040 Speaker 1: that creates a framework within which normal people can lead 6 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: unusual in extraordinary lives. All of that started and was 7 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,479 Speaker 1: based on Washington. One of the best biographies of Washington 8 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:48,040 Speaker 1: describes him as literally irreplaceable, that he is the man 9 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:53,040 Speaker 1: that was the essential person for the entire creation of America. 10 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: And I think that's true every time close than I 11 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 1: go down to Mount Vernon and we look at that 12 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:01,120 Speaker 1: house he lived in with Mark, when we look out 13 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: on the Potomac, and we realized that he had this sense. 14 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 1: He loved being a farmer, He loved the land. He 15 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:13,400 Speaker 1: had a sense of solidness, partly because he was so 16 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: big physically. I always tell people that if you played 17 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:19,880 Speaker 1: Washington in the modern era, you should be basically an 18 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: NFL offensive Lindman. He was physically so large for a 19 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,399 Speaker 1: time when the average man was about five six. He 20 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:28,920 Speaker 1: was also considered the best horseman the colonies, which if 21 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: if you're that big physically and you're that good a 22 00:01:31,319 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: horseman's astonishing, and Washington had this strength, both physical and moral. 23 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 1: Part of his physical strength just came, I think biologically. 24 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:46,280 Speaker 1: He was just that big. And he worked as a farmer, 25 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: he worked as a frontiersman. He used his body his 26 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:52,040 Speaker 1: whole life when he was serving in the legislature, and 27 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:55,520 Speaker 1: people often forget this. Washington was a professional politician. He 28 00:01:55,960 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: ran for office. In fact, it was a very funny story. 29 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:01,160 Speaker 1: He'd been out on the West and thought of himself 30 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:03,640 Speaker 1: as a hero and ran for office the first time. 31 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 1: And in that era, you had a one day election campaign. 32 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:11,720 Speaker 1: Everybody gathered at the polls and the candidates bought alcohol 33 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: and got free beer, free wine, free whiskey. And Washington said, no, 34 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: I am a military hero. I don't need to buy 35 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:23,799 Speaker 1: anything for any one. And he came in last. The 36 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,959 Speaker 1: following election, he bought the largest quantity of alcohol ever 37 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:29,680 Speaker 1: bought in a Virginia election, and he won. People said, oh, 38 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: you're being learned the trade here, which also fed Washington's 39 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: general pattern. Many experts have studied his campaigns and said 40 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,720 Speaker 1: he made many mistakes once, you never finally making the 41 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:43,440 Speaker 1: same mistake twice. So he's down in burger at the 42 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:45,480 Speaker 1: House of Burgesses. And I always recommend to people to 43 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:50,680 Speaker 1: go to Williamsburg because it is such a remarkable recreation 44 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:53,680 Speaker 1: of that era. And you can go to the taverns 45 00:02:53,680 --> 00:02:56,519 Speaker 1: and Washington went to in the evenings. They didn't have TV, 46 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:59,200 Speaker 1: they didn't have computer games, so they'd sit around playing 47 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: cards and drinking and talking with each other. And there 48 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: was a very famous squire named Governor Bird. And Governor 49 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: Bird would find some stranger and he said, I'll bet 50 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:14,960 Speaker 1: you a shilling that George Washington can break a walnut 51 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,639 Speaker 1: between his thumb and his first finger. Now I urge 52 00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:22,800 Speaker 1: you sometime to try this, because it takes extraordinary strength. 53 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:25,360 Speaker 1: And so he'd go over Washington by playing cards or 54 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:30,520 Speaker 1: telling stories. And he'd said, Colonel Washington, at this stage 55 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: he had become an honorary colonel in the Virginia Middle Militia, 56 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: would you mind breaking a walnut? And Washington would break 57 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: the walnut. He'd collect the shilling that presumably bought Washington 58 00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:46,680 Speaker 1: a drink for the favor. But it was again a 59 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: sign of an age when people value being strong physically. 60 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: Washington was the strongest, but it was our show morally 61 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: strong in the sense, first of all, you can you 62 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: can get from Mount Vernon the rules he wrote at 63 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: fourteen years of age, which he had copied out of 64 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,360 Speaker 1: several books, and which were rules for being a gentleman. 65 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:10,920 Speaker 1: And he wanted very much to have respect. He wanted 66 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:15,320 Speaker 1: what the Romans had called thereto, the sense that you 67 00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:18,640 Speaker 1: are a virtuous person, not in our modern sense of sin, 68 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:21,600 Speaker 1: but in the sense that you have served the community. 69 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:24,640 Speaker 1: You're bigger than normal history. You're going to live on 70 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:27,400 Speaker 1: in history as a person who's done his job. And 71 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:32,359 Speaker 1: so Washington wanted to project this sense of authority, the 72 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,280 Speaker 1: sense of I am and it said, in fact, I'm 73 00:04:35,320 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: noble in a world with or there's no nobility in 74 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:41,000 Speaker 1: the new world at that point. There's a famous story 75 00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:47,279 Speaker 1: of Washington in Philadelphia, and I think at the Constitutional Convention, 76 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,680 Speaker 1: and Governor Morris takes a five pound bet that he 77 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:56,760 Speaker 1: can walk over and slap Washington on the shoulder, and 78 00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:01,080 Speaker 1: he goes over, he gets close, he gets closer, Washington 79 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,440 Speaker 1: turns and looks down on him. Because Washington looked down, 80 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:07,320 Speaker 1: and everybody except Jefferson and Morris stands and looks like 81 00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:12,000 Speaker 1: him and says good evening. In general. Washington walks back 82 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,360 Speaker 1: over the gysis five pounds. It is physically impossible to 83 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:21,240 Speaker 1: touch Washington because he is projects this almost force field 84 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:25,479 Speaker 1: of dignity that you can't penetrate, and he used that 85 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:29,160 Speaker 1: to enormous effect. Now, ironically, when he was a general, 86 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:33,280 Speaker 1: for example, serving the places that were pretty desperately valley 87 00:05:33,320 --> 00:05:35,520 Speaker 1: forge in the winter, he would go out and throw 88 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,520 Speaker 1: medicine balls with the troops. He would do He's physically 89 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: very engaged, so it's not that he was incapable of 90 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,279 Speaker 1: being close. He loved to dance. He was capable of 91 00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:48,040 Speaker 1: being close. But when he decided that he was aloof, 92 00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: he was aloof beyond anyone normally being able to deal 93 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: with him, and that was very important. He didn't start 94 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: that way, but he grew into that person. He started 95 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:03,000 Speaker 1: a relatively poor kid, went to the Caribbean, got a 96 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: slight case of smallpox, which turned out to be really 97 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:10,280 Speaker 1: valuable because it meant that he was vaccinated. He also 98 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: was in a position where he watched life in the 99 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 1: Caribbean and realized he didn't particularly like that life. Came 100 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:23,000 Speaker 1: back home. Was not wealthy personally, he's adequately well off, 101 00:06:23,320 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: but he knew he after earn a living, so became 102 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: a surveyor. By the time he is nineteen years of age, 103 00:06:28,440 --> 00:06:30,920 Speaker 1: he is surveying. In fact that he got a little Washington, 104 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:34,400 Speaker 1: which is a town that has a remarkable in called 105 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:37,200 Speaker 1: the in a little Washington, which is a michill in 106 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:39,720 Speaker 1: the first place to get a Michilean star in America. 107 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,760 Speaker 1: Washington laid out the entire town at nineteen years of age. Now, 108 00:06:44,800 --> 00:06:46,400 Speaker 1: to give you a sense of how the world's different, 109 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:49,760 Speaker 1: look at a map, a little Virginia, and it is 110 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:54,159 Speaker 1: about seventy miles west of Washington and about fifty miles south. 111 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:58,760 Speaker 1: That was the frontier. Not Kentucky, not Texas, I mean 112 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:02,719 Speaker 1: western Virginia. It was the frontier. And Washington spent a 113 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,640 Speaker 1: large part of his youth in the frontier, first as 114 00:07:05,640 --> 00:07:08,520 Speaker 1: a surveyor, where he aren't fairly good money. He also 115 00:07:08,600 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: learned something people tend to forget. Surveyors can look at topography. 116 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: So when he's a general officer later, he looks at 117 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:21,120 Speaker 1: a battlefield with a level of technical knowledge that no 118 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: other general officer has because he knows he knows the distances, 119 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: because he's surveyed, he knows the rolling hills, he knows 120 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:31,600 Speaker 1: how to look for gullies. He knows how in an 121 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:33,920 Speaker 1: age when you didn't have helicopters, and you didn't have tanks, 122 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:36,760 Speaker 1: and you didn't have cars, even a small rise is 123 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:38,280 Speaker 1: a big deal if the other guy's got to come 124 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:42,000 Speaker 1: up in because it wears them out and slows them down. 125 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,000 Speaker 1: And so he's very good at looking at terrain and 126 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:47,800 Speaker 1: he learned no this by the time he was nineteen 127 00:07:47,840 --> 00:07:50,679 Speaker 1: and twenty years of age. He's given an assignment. He's 128 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: very precocious. He's very close to the Fairfax family and 129 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: they're among the largest landowners in the colony of Virginia. 130 00:07:57,440 --> 00:08:00,480 Speaker 1: He gets an assignment to go west to its supposed 131 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: to be a peaceful assignment. The French should come down 132 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: from Canada. They have occupied the place where the Ohio 133 00:08:08,160 --> 00:08:10,880 Speaker 1: River is formed by two rivers coming together, where the 134 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:14,080 Speaker 1: Three River Stadium is nowadays. He's given a letter to 135 00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: take to them that says you got to get out 136 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:19,720 Speaker 1: of here, and the French basically think you're a nice 137 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: young guy. We're not getting out of here. So Washington 138 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:25,640 Speaker 1: picks a fight. He's not, as he was not assigned 139 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:28,320 Speaker 1: to pick a fight. He's just very pugnaciously, very young 140 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:31,360 Speaker 1: and he then ends up at a place called Ford 141 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 1: in Necessity, where they stop. And I've been out visiting 142 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:39,000 Speaker 1: Ford in Necessity, which still exists as a national historical monument. 143 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:43,320 Speaker 1: And this is clearly a sign that he's not applying 144 00:08:43,360 --> 00:08:45,880 Speaker 1: his survey or skills, because the fort is in the 145 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:48,760 Speaker 1: bottom of a valley where the other guys up above 146 00:08:48,800 --> 00:08:52,080 Speaker 1: are shooting down at you. Furthermore, they have huge rain, 147 00:08:52,280 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: the place gets totally wet, their powder gets wet. They 148 00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:59,080 Speaker 1: have no choice except to surrender. It very fortunate for 149 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:02,360 Speaker 1: America wasn't killed. I mean, at that point, the French 150 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:05,200 Speaker 1: and Indians, who are their allies, are really pissed off 151 00:09:05,200 --> 00:09:08,079 Speaker 1: at Washington. And here's this young guy out here picking 152 00:09:08,120 --> 00:09:12,040 Speaker 1: a fight. And you can literally argue that the Seven 153 00:09:12,120 --> 00:09:14,480 Speaker 1: Years War, which we call the French Indian War, the 154 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: Seven Years War, which is a global war, gives in India, 155 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:21,000 Speaker 1: he goes in Europe, it's in North America's in the Caribbean. 156 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:25,080 Speaker 1: Is started by George Washington who just picks this fight, 157 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:27,680 Speaker 1: and the fight starts going down to the Washington comes 158 00:09:27,720 --> 00:09:31,360 Speaker 1: back home. Imagine this the early twenties, your first biggest simon. 159 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: It's a total mess. So what does he do. He 160 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:36,480 Speaker 1: writes a pamphlet. He says, I was really right. I 161 00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:38,319 Speaker 1: did exactly the right thing, the only thing you could 162 00:09:38,360 --> 00:09:40,520 Speaker 1: have done, and none of it was my fault. And 163 00:09:40,559 --> 00:09:42,319 Speaker 1: I'm really proud of the do it well. I played well. 164 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:44,480 Speaker 1: The average person doesn't know anything. Well, it's gone on. 165 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:48,000 Speaker 1: There's no television, there's no live coverage from Fort Necessity, 166 00:09:48,160 --> 00:09:52,240 Speaker 1: and so the only explanation of what happened is Washington's 167 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,280 Speaker 1: and copies of it get to London, and he's now 168 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: a persona, He's a real person. So along comes the British. 169 00:10:00,040 --> 00:10:01,640 Speaker 1: They said, okay, this is going to be a real war. 170 00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:04,680 Speaker 1: You got to get engaged. They send an army and 171 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:07,800 Speaker 1: Washington gets some of his first basic lessons. And this 172 00:10:07,840 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: is selling people often forget Washington learned a lot about 173 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:15,800 Speaker 1: war by being at war. He didn't learn about war 174 00:10:15,920 --> 00:10:22,319 Speaker 1: by reading theoretical works. And so they need a colonial advisor. No, 175 00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:27,599 Speaker 1: the British aristocracy was totally contemptuous of the colonials, and 176 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 1: I thought they were basically stupid and lazy and cowardly, 177 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:33,720 Speaker 1: and furthermore, they want British aristocrats. They were also contemptuous 178 00:10:33,840 --> 00:10:37,000 Speaker 1: of British soldiers and are contemptuous of Hesh mercenaries because 179 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:41,360 Speaker 1: every British aristocrats. So Washington is assigned and he has 180 00:10:41,440 --> 00:10:44,280 Speaker 1: some advice for him. He says, it is not helpful 181 00:10:44,320 --> 00:10:46,000 Speaker 1: to march down the middle of the road in red 182 00:10:46,040 --> 00:10:49,720 Speaker 1: outfits because the other side will cheat and they will 183 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:52,200 Speaker 1: fire from behind trees and you're going to get killed. 184 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:56,239 Speaker 1: And General Braddock explains to him, you obviously don't understand 185 00:10:57,120 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 1: European warfare, but just relax. They actually leave. If you 186 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:03,719 Speaker 1: go to the Army War College at Carlisle, you can 187 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:07,000 Speaker 1: see the post from which they left, and they again 188 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 1: remember the Carlo Pennsylvania, which is next to Harrisburg, is 189 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,440 Speaker 1: the beginning of the frontier. So they're now marching through 190 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:17,800 Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania forest and surprise, surprise, they get attacked by 191 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:22,240 Speaker 1: people who are cheating. They're wearing outfits to blend into 192 00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:25,200 Speaker 1: the forest, and the French are now wearing the normal 193 00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:28,679 Speaker 1: white French uniforms, which they do when they're informal warfare, 194 00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:31,319 Speaker 1: but when they're fighting in the woods, they're wearing stuff 195 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:33,600 Speaker 1: that fits the woods. The Indians, of course, have no 196 00:11:33,679 --> 00:11:37,240 Speaker 1: uniforms anyway, and so the combined French and Indian force attacks. 197 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: Braddock has killed almost immediately. The British force is disintegrating. 198 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:45,320 Speaker 1: I mean, they're confused, they're scared, they've lost the commander. 199 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:49,360 Speaker 1: And the one guy who's on the tallest horse is Washington, 200 00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:53,079 Speaker 1: and so Washington starts to rally them, get them reorganized, 201 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:55,160 Speaker 1: get them the hell out of the way, because they're 202 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:57,840 Speaker 1: in real danger of being a massacred. The Washington in 203 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:01,360 Speaker 1: that fight has four bullet holes in his coat and 204 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:04,040 Speaker 1: has two horses shot off from He wrenched his brother 205 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:06,840 Speaker 1: the next day that God must have really been protecting him, 206 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:09,280 Speaker 1: because at some point one of those boats should have 207 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:11,640 Speaker 1: hit him, and there was lucky and then he began 208 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:14,600 Speaker 1: a system being up on these horses, which is important 209 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:17,080 Speaker 1: for his men's morale because they can see they at 210 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:19,280 Speaker 1: least have a leader, even if he's a colonial. But 211 00:12:19,559 --> 00:12:21,440 Speaker 1: at the same time, it sort of makes your target. 212 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:24,920 Speaker 1: About a decade later, he runs into an Indian chieftain 213 00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 1: at a tribal council and the chieftain says, God must 214 00:12:27,840 --> 00:12:29,960 Speaker 1: have some big role for you, because I personally shot 215 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,640 Speaker 1: at you thirteen times. He said all of us were 216 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:34,760 Speaker 1: trying to kill you because he was so obvious, and 217 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:39,400 Speaker 1: we just couldn't couldn't at you. That's important later because Washington, 218 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:42,480 Speaker 1: after that fight in his own mind as a man 219 00:12:42,520 --> 00:13:03,560 Speaker 1: of destiny. So he goes back home, marries a very 220 00:13:03,559 --> 00:13:08,719 Speaker 1: wealthy widow who brings him Mount Vernon and I think 221 00:13:08,760 --> 00:13:12,000 Speaker 1: a genuine love match. She has two children. They never 222 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:15,000 Speaker 1: have children on their own. Washington raises the children as 223 00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:17,960 Speaker 1: his own, and he and Martha entertainment. This is one 224 00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:22,640 Speaker 1: of the things to remember colonial Virginia. If you were 225 00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:27,320 Speaker 1: reasonably wealthy in Washington in Land was the wealthiest columnist, 226 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:31,199 Speaker 1: not as wealthy as the Fairfaxes. But the Fairfaxes eventually 227 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:33,960 Speaker 1: leave during the Revolution, at which point he becomes the 228 00:13:33,960 --> 00:13:37,520 Speaker 1: wealthiest person in America in Land, not in money, but 229 00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:40,079 Speaker 1: you always entertain. If you look at if you go 230 00:13:40,200 --> 00:13:42,320 Speaker 1: to Mount Vernon and you look at the register of 231 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,880 Speaker 1: who comes by, there are always people coming to visit. 232 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:50,840 Speaker 1: I mean, at one point later in his life, James 233 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:54,120 Speaker 1: Madison comes over and spends I think six weeks living 234 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:58,360 Speaker 1: with Washington, writing, arguing and writing about the Constitution and 235 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,160 Speaker 1: the dis used to this is it says their life. 236 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:05,560 Speaker 1: Washington regularly will ride up to Alexandria and if you 237 00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:08,400 Speaker 1: want to, you can go to Gatsby's Tavern, which still exists, 238 00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:13,360 Speaker 1: which was the site of Washington's birthday parties, and they'd 239 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:15,160 Speaker 1: all ride up together and have a great party and 240 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:17,760 Speaker 1: have a few drinks. They tended to party during the 241 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:22,160 Speaker 1: daytime so they could get home around dark. But it 242 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:24,560 Speaker 1: was this was all real. It was a social life, 243 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:26,640 Speaker 1: it was a nice life. And Washington's faced with the 244 00:14:26,680 --> 00:14:29,720 Speaker 1: same problem as every other American, which is, you are 245 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:35,160 Speaker 1: trying to have a cash based economy with no cash 246 00:14:36,120 --> 00:14:38,960 Speaker 1: and you're dealing with British merchants who are constantly cheating you, 247 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:41,400 Speaker 1: cheating you in the sense that they want to pay 248 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:43,760 Speaker 1: you less for what you sell and charge you more 249 00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:46,320 Speaker 1: for what they sell. So you're always juggling on this 250 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:50,600 Speaker 1: very tight financial burden and you're not particularly happy with 251 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:54,480 Speaker 1: the British. And Washington is serving in public life as 252 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:59,000 Speaker 1: a legislator, but mostly he's a farmer and a gentleman 253 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:02,160 Speaker 1: who is to people who come wandering through. And then 254 00:15:02,440 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 1: the British decide that they're going to pay for the 255 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:08,520 Speaker 1: debt coming out of the Seven Years' War by raising 256 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:11,560 Speaker 1: taxes on the Americans, and the rationale is not crazy. 257 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:14,760 Speaker 1: The rationale is, look, we saved you from the French, 258 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:17,640 Speaker 1: we saved you from the Indians. Things are relatively safe. 259 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,040 Speaker 1: You ought to pay your fair share. Now. The American 260 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:24,160 Speaker 1: attitude is very different. The American attitude is, you know, 261 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:26,760 Speaker 1: it's not our fault that you're a profited government in 262 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: London and that you waste all your money and the 263 00:15:29,160 --> 00:15:31,640 Speaker 1: year surrounded by corruption, and no, we're not going to 264 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:34,040 Speaker 1: pay anything. You know, we're happy to have you around, 265 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:36,360 Speaker 1: but frankly, since we no longer have any threat from 266 00:15:36,360 --> 00:15:38,880 Speaker 1: the French, why do we need you? And so you 267 00:15:38,960 --> 00:15:42,000 Speaker 1: have this weird moment where the British think that generosity 268 00:15:42,040 --> 00:15:44,440 Speaker 1: is going to leave the Americans out of gratitude, don't 269 00:15:44,440 --> 00:15:46,680 Speaker 1: want to pay taxes, and the Americans are saying no, 270 00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:49,160 Speaker 1: the very fact that one means we don't need you, 271 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:52,440 Speaker 1: and Washington in the faction that's fine. You know, I 272 00:15:52,480 --> 00:15:54,200 Speaker 1: don't think I want to pay any taxes. I mean, 273 00:15:54,520 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: I don't like those guys anyway. They're all always trying 274 00:15:56,760 --> 00:15:59,200 Speaker 1: to cheat me. He's not a firebrand, he's not out 275 00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:02,360 Speaker 1: there saying let's bell, let's do something. But he's clearly 276 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:07,640 Speaker 1: in the group around Patrick Henry and others who want 277 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:10,120 Speaker 1: to stand up to the English, and then, of course 278 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:13,840 Speaker 1: you end up with a series of events. Again thinking 279 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:17,760 Speaker 1: yourself as a planter sitting on the Potomac River having 280 00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:21,280 Speaker 1: a nice life. You're not connected by cable TV, you're 281 00:16:21,320 --> 00:16:24,160 Speaker 1: not connected by the internet. You know, you don't get 282 00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:27,760 Speaker 1: any text messages, occasionally read things, and so one day 283 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 1: you read or you hear from somebody who's riding through 284 00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:34,480 Speaker 1: spending the night that there was the massacre in Boston 285 00:16:34,880 --> 00:16:38,320 Speaker 1: and the British, the British troops had shot Americans who 286 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:42,360 Speaker 1: were protesting. Well, you sort of start thinking about that, 287 00:16:42,760 --> 00:16:46,600 Speaker 1: could that happen here? Could it happened at Williamsburg? Do 288 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 1: I feel a little pissed off that the British are 289 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:54,160 Speaker 1: shooting Americans? And the alienation starts to build, and a 290 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:58,280 Speaker 1: call goes out to come to Philadelphia and let's talk 291 00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:01,200 Speaker 1: about how bad this is getting. The British decide to 292 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:05,000 Speaker 1: impose taxes that the Americans really getting mad about, particularly 293 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:10,600 Speaker 1: tax on tea, which leads to the Bostonians dressing up 294 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:13,399 Speaker 1: as Indians and having a tea party, throwing all the 295 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:17,840 Speaker 1: Indian East Indian Company tea into the river, and ironically 296 00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:20,680 Speaker 1: the British thought they were being clever because they actually 297 00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:23,680 Speaker 1: had organized it so that the price or tea would 298 00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:27,199 Speaker 1: be less under the new rules, even though you pay 299 00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:31,120 Speaker 1: taxes and the Americans got none. Now it's the principle, 300 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,440 Speaker 1: we don't care that it's cheaper, We care that part 301 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:36,639 Speaker 1: of the money goes to you, and we're not going 302 00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: to pay your money. And so they're cheerfully throwing all 303 00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:42,760 Speaker 1: of these bales of tea, which are very valuable, into 304 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:46,040 Speaker 1: the Boston Harbor, which really makes the British pretty mad. 305 00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:48,320 Speaker 1: And so the British decide that they're going to close 306 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:52,119 Speaker 1: down on Boston and ultimately isolate the city of Boston 307 00:17:52,119 --> 00:17:55,080 Speaker 1: to punish it, in the theory that that will then 308 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:58,119 Speaker 1: scare the rest of the Americans into being obedient. But 309 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:00,800 Speaker 1: what it really does is just makes them angry. So 310 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:04,120 Speaker 1: the call goes out, they meet and what is called 311 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:07,040 Speaker 1: the Cotton Heill Congress, which is a huge breakthrough. I mean, 312 00:18:07,240 --> 00:18:10,879 Speaker 1: these people hadn't thought of themselves as Americans. They were Virginians, 313 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:16,159 Speaker 1: they were Georgians, they were Massachusetts. They spoke very different 314 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,720 Speaker 1: dialects in the sense of the tone of their language, 315 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,399 Speaker 1: the patterns they ate differently, and they hadn't really begun 316 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:26,199 Speaker 1: to identify that they were Americans, and now they have 317 00:18:26,320 --> 00:18:28,320 Speaker 1: this problem in Washington. Is one of the people who 318 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,719 Speaker 1: is drifting towards being more and more alienated and more 319 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:34,359 Speaker 1: and more angry, and he's ultimately affected, I think in 320 00:18:34,400 --> 00:18:38,760 Speaker 1: part by Benjamin Franklin. Franklin is a world class scientists 321 00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:42,080 Speaker 1: recognized all over the world. He is a very successful 322 00:18:42,119 --> 00:18:45,520 Speaker 1: businessman who makes enough money by forty to sell his 323 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:49,360 Speaker 1: businesses and devote himself to public life. He writes Poor 324 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:52,920 Speaker 1: Richards Almanac every year and is very widely known as 325 00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:58,280 Speaker 1: the first postmaster General of the colonies, and therefore has 326 00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:01,000 Speaker 1: connections at all of the colonies as he handles the mail. 327 00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:04,600 Speaker 1: And he is sent by the Colony of Pennsylvania to 328 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,560 Speaker 1: London to plead with the British and to basically say, look, 329 00:19:08,880 --> 00:19:12,040 Speaker 1: there's some things we need solved and we can be nice. 330 00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:14,439 Speaker 1: And he spends about seven or eight years in London, 331 00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:20,400 Speaker 1: and he ends up suddenly realizing they'll never accept him. 332 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:24,320 Speaker 1: They are aristocrats. He's not an aristocrat, even though he's 333 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:27,520 Speaker 1: a world famous scientist, even though he's wealthier than some 334 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:31,840 Speaker 1: of the aristocrats. There'll never be anything in British society, 335 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:37,080 Speaker 1: and it's just totally infuriates And somebody once wrote that 336 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:40,040 Speaker 1: he left America as an Englishman and he returned as 337 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:44,520 Speaker 1: an American, and so his spirit made He's very widely respected. 338 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,280 Speaker 1: People like Washington looked to him and say, you know, 339 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:50,000 Speaker 1: you've been there, you've lived there. What do you think 340 00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:53,720 Speaker 1: And he's basically saying, I don't think we have any choice. 341 00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:57,000 Speaker 1: These people are never going to treat us fairly. They 342 00:19:57,040 --> 00:20:00,359 Speaker 1: think they were servants. And so the spirit against the 343 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:04,880 Speaker 1: build and the British began sending troops to Boston. They're 344 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 1: determined to crush the spirit of resistance and they think 345 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:11,240 Speaker 1: that if they can break Boston, that will symbolically shift 346 00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:14,800 Speaker 1: the whole country. Now, one of the myths about Washington 347 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,840 Speaker 1: is that he's sort of self effacing, that he's this 348 00:20:18,880 --> 00:20:22,959 Speaker 1: guy who really wasn't ambitious. But I've always saw one 349 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:25,480 Speaker 1: of the most telling things in the Comminal Congress, there 350 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:29,560 Speaker 1: is only one person wearing a military uniform. He's also 351 00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:32,199 Speaker 1: one of the two biggest people of Jefferson and the 352 00:20:32,240 --> 00:20:36,080 Speaker 1: other Jefferson stim but tall, very call the Washington is big. 353 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,640 Speaker 1: I see this huge guy walking around on the uniform 354 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:44,960 Speaker 1: of a Virginia militia and saying to everybody, of course, 355 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:48,800 Speaker 1: I wouldn't want to go to Boston. I don't want 356 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:51,000 Speaker 1: you to think I'm a military man just because I'm 357 00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:53,399 Speaker 1: standing here in my uniform. But it just seemed to 358 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:56,240 Speaker 1: me it was the appropriate thing to wear. And gradually 359 00:20:56,280 --> 00:20:59,080 Speaker 1: they all look around each thing. Hha. Because they have 360 00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:03,199 Speaker 1: a problem politically. They need a Southerner to go to 361 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: Boston because they need to unify columnies. They can't appoint 362 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:11,760 Speaker 1: a Bostonian or a New Hampshire right to be command 363 00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:16,480 Speaker 1: of the army because they'll have no linkage to New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 364 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:19,440 Speaker 1: and Virginia is the biggest colony and wealth and population 365 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:24,320 Speaker 1: at that point, so they can turn to Washington. He says, 366 00:21:24,480 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: with great reluctance, I will accept this burden, although I 367 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:31,840 Speaker 1: fear that I will be inadequate and I probably will fail. 368 00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:35,000 Speaker 1: But as long as you recognize that I'm only doing 369 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 1: this because you wanted them to, I will go to Boston. 370 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:42,960 Speaker 1: And I think it's hard for us to realize. You're 371 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:48,000 Speaker 1: this guy who's in many ways in aristocrat. He's very wealthy, 372 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,560 Speaker 1: you know, He rides a horse very well in the 373 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:52,920 Speaker 1: style of arist If you're a farmer, you don't ride 374 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:55,280 Speaker 1: a horse the way George Washington does. He rode to 375 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,040 Speaker 1: the foxes and he shows up, and you have to 376 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 1: think about this. You have a new England Army and 377 00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:05,760 Speaker 1: this weird guy shows up from Virginia, speaking in slightly 378 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:09,360 Speaker 1: strange English and with an attitude of being sort of 379 00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:13,600 Speaker 1: a little muste and a little you know. And he's 380 00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:16,280 Speaker 1: got to really think about this because he realizes he 381 00:22:16,400 --> 00:22:18,560 Speaker 1: got to find a way to get all these lenders 382 00:22:18,760 --> 00:22:22,760 Speaker 1: to follow him, or he's got a problem. And so 383 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,040 Speaker 1: he really works at it, and he spends a lot 384 00:22:25,080 --> 00:22:28,160 Speaker 1: of time with the troops. And again, I think there's 385 00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:32,960 Speaker 1: an advantage that we underestimate. If you imagine this as 386 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: a movie scene, you'd have this, as I said, a 387 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:38,199 Speaker 1: guy in the modern era who's the size of an 388 00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:43,520 Speaker 1: NFL offensive lineman. You're walking around the camp. Well, it's 389 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:46,119 Speaker 1: pretty obvious when he walks around the camp because he 390 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:51,200 Speaker 1: towers over everybody. He's also the strongest guy in the army. Well, 391 00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,119 Speaker 1: it gives them a certain sense of immediate acceptance that 392 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,520 Speaker 1: he should be the leader. And he designs a very 393 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,439 Speaker 1: intelligent strategy, and they move the cannon in a position 394 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,600 Speaker 1: where the British have to flee. And so Washington, in 395 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:06,199 Speaker 1: a matter of a couple of months has driven the 396 00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: British out of Boston, which is an enormous achievement. And 397 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:14,320 Speaker 1: at that point you can imagine everybody's excited and everybody's positive, 398 00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:19,399 Speaker 1: and there's a problem because of the British chavonating and 399 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:22,800 Speaker 1: they're not leaving. They just left Boston. They went to 400 00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:25,880 Speaker 1: Canada to regroup, and they're probably going to come back 401 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: to New York, which is in many ways the keytown 402 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,119 Speaker 1: for the whole the whole war, because it's it's a 403 00:23:31,160 --> 00:23:34,320 Speaker 1: big port at links. If you can break New York, 404 00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:36,639 Speaker 1: then you cut off New England from the rest of 405 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,639 Speaker 1: the country. So Washington takes his army and marches to 406 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:43,919 Speaker 1: New York, and they feel them pretty good about themselves, 407 00:23:45,000 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 1: and in his first great outing he's been very successful, 408 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:54,720 Speaker 1: and he has their Clish independence read to everybody, and 409 00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:59,240 Speaker 1: they're all pumped up, and they have a real problem. 410 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,840 Speaker 1: It's not a good army. They're not trained very well, 411 00:24:02,920 --> 00:24:05,840 Speaker 1: they don't have very good equipment, and they're up against 412 00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,440 Speaker 1: the best army in the world and the British land 413 00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:14,080 Speaker 1: and just knock them all over the place, Capture a 414 00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 1: bunch of them, kill a bunch of them, and they're 415 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:19,760 Speaker 1: in real danger of being annihilated. And one of those 416 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:23,399 Speaker 1: miracles in Washington refers to when he has said later 417 00:24:23,440 --> 00:24:27,440 Speaker 1: in life that anybody who thinks so that God wasn't 418 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:33,239 Speaker 1: watching over us, he used the word providence misunderstands how 419 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:38,120 Speaker 1: it happened. Because what happens is the Gloucester fishermen come 420 00:24:38,160 --> 00:24:41,639 Speaker 1: and say, look, we can get the army across and 421 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,040 Speaker 1: get you out of Brooklyn before you're annihilated if we 422 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,800 Speaker 1: go at night and the Royal Navy probably won't see us, 423 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,400 Speaker 1: and we'll get certainly a large part of you across. Well, 424 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:55,760 Speaker 1: the night they decided to do this, a huge fog 425 00:24:55,840 --> 00:25:00,840 Speaker 1: rows in and the British can't see anything. And so 426 00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:04,280 Speaker 1: Washington's getting these troops and he goes last. He's getting 427 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,320 Speaker 1: all these troops in these boats. They're rolling across to Manhattan. 428 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,480 Speaker 1: But they've been beaten. There's no question they they just 429 00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:14,440 Speaker 1: ran head out into the British and lost. They get 430 00:25:14,480 --> 00:25:19,920 Speaker 1: into Manhattan, well they're this huge problem. One British man 431 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:24,440 Speaker 1: of war has more artillery than the entire American army 432 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,200 Speaker 1: has at any point in the Reflush River War. These 433 00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:30,360 Speaker 1: are big ships, they're the equivalent of modern naval aircraft. 434 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:34,520 Speaker 1: Payers they're powerful, and if you're close to water, they're 435 00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,959 Speaker 1: going to just knock you about with artillery. And so 436 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:41,960 Speaker 1: they're driven out of Manhattan. Were they losing him And 437 00:25:42,680 --> 00:25:46,520 Speaker 1: at one point General Greene of Rhode Island has probably 438 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,399 Speaker 1: his best general, has this clever idea, We're going to 439 00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:52,480 Speaker 1: name this fort Fort Washington, and the moral effect of 440 00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:57,480 Speaker 1: defending Fort Washington, three thousand men will stand firm well 441 00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:01,440 Speaker 1: for Washington falls because in fact they're not capable of 442 00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:06,000 Speaker 1: fighting the version. So Washington suggests a greely in the 443 00:26:06,040 --> 00:26:08,800 Speaker 1: future they should probably not try. Gimmicks looked up, and 444 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:11,840 Speaker 1: he flees across to White Plains, and then he flees 445 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,119 Speaker 1: across into New Jersey, and a week by week he 446 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:19,600 Speaker 1: gets smaller, tirer, more defeated. Washington, who's a very smart 447 00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:23,080 Speaker 1: guy about people in a way that you wouldn't expect 448 00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,919 Speaker 1: given his austerity. Washington knows that Thomas Paine has written 449 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:31,880 Speaker 1: tremendously important pamphlet on the Revolution and probably the best 450 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:35,840 Speaker 1: selling pamphlet describing the revolution, and so he goes to 451 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,480 Speaker 1: him and he says, look, you wrote that when everything 452 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:42,240 Speaker 1: was great in the summer. He had a problem because 453 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:43,800 Speaker 1: all of us thought we were going to win easily, 454 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:48,040 Speaker 1: and now we're getting beat and I need a new pamphlet, 455 00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:51,200 Speaker 1: and so paid, I don't need you to be a rifle. 456 00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,080 Speaker 1: Pain's actually in the army and he says he had 457 00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:57,320 Speaker 1: written Common Sense. It's the most widely read explanation of 458 00:26:57,320 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 1: the revolution. And he says, go to Philadelphia and right 459 00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:05,720 Speaker 1: explained to us what we're living through. And so Pain 460 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:11,080 Speaker 1: writes the crisis which begins these are the times the 461 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:15,399 Speaker 1: triben souls. And people read it and they said, they go, 462 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:19,280 Speaker 1: oh yeah, this is what I'm living through. And Pain 463 00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:22,639 Speaker 1: basically says, luck, you know, Hell is going to grab 464 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:24,800 Speaker 1: onto you as long as it can, and it's not 465 00:27:24,880 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: going to be easy to be, and you've got to 466 00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,159 Speaker 1: be and he compares basically fighting the British, trying to 467 00:27:30,160 --> 00:27:32,880 Speaker 1: fight your way out of hell. And people read it 468 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,120 Speaker 1: and they go, look, okay, it's not going to be easy. 469 00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:38,720 Speaker 1: It's not going to be this week. So Washington ends 470 00:27:38,800 --> 00:27:44,120 Speaker 1: up Christmas Day the week before Christmas, he's dropped from 471 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:49,280 Speaker 1: thirty thousand men to five thousand. Of the five thousand 472 00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:54,840 Speaker 1: twenty five hundred or sick, so he's actually got twenty 473 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:58,880 Speaker 1: five hundred effectives. Of the twenty five hundred effectives, one 474 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,080 Speaker 1: third do not have and are actually marching in burlap bags, 475 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:07,800 Speaker 1: leaving a trail of blood. So Washington is sitting here 476 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:13,119 Speaker 1: left across the river in New Jersey, Washington Pennsylvania. Across 477 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:16,639 Speaker 1: the river in New Jersey is the British Army, and 478 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:20,439 Speaker 1: Washington brings all of his generals and says, we have 479 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:24,480 Speaker 1: a really big problem. We don't win a victory. Most 480 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:29,480 Speaker 1: of our men actually expire in their enlistment sometime in January. 481 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:34,880 Speaker 1: If they don't have some reason to stay, we will 482 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,400 Speaker 1: have no army left. So we have to win something. 483 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 1: So I propose, let's cross the Delaware at night during 484 00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:49,440 Speaker 1: a snowstorm in the ice, march eleven miles to travel 485 00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:54,840 Speaker 1: surprise the British Army actually who are there, who are 486 00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,320 Speaker 1: paid mercenaries, but which is an honorable job. Back then 487 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:03,160 Speaker 1: and then we'll have won a great victory, and then 488 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:06,320 Speaker 1: people will be excited, and okay, every one of his 489 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:09,840 Speaker 1: generals looks at him Miki's and said, and they go, 490 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:14,560 Speaker 1: we've been we've been losing now since September. We've shrunk 491 00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:19,280 Speaker 1: down from thirty twenty five hundred and Washington has a 492 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:21,920 Speaker 1: plan which has three units that are going to cross 493 00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 1: the river at three different places in the coordinated attack, 494 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,240 Speaker 1: which even a first class professional army would have had 495 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,840 Speaker 1: a hard time to do it. And they're just staring 496 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:33,120 Speaker 1: at him. And it's really important at this point to 497 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:39,680 Speaker 1: go back and think about Washington in the ambush, because 498 00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:41,960 Speaker 1: he's sitting there as a guy who's had two horses 499 00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:44,240 Speaker 1: shot out from under him and four bullet holes, and 500 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,520 Speaker 1: you think him, you got to take risks. You know, 501 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:49,120 Speaker 1: they are all guys who hadn't had that experience, and 502 00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:51,480 Speaker 1: they're going, I don't take are you crazy? I don't 503 00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:53,520 Speaker 1: want to take this risk. And then he has the 504 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:59,120 Speaker 1: winning argument. He says, look, this army disappears, the revolutions over, 505 00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:05,640 Speaker 1: the revolutions over, we're all going to be hung, so 506 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:09,800 Speaker 1: you don't have anything to rest, so we might as 507 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:12,640 Speaker 1: well try to wounds. At least that way we have 508 00:30:12,680 --> 00:30:16,920 Speaker 1: a shot. So they cross over, and interestingly, he has 509 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:21,800 Speaker 1: the officers who can read reading pains the crisis to 510 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:25,320 Speaker 1: the troops as they get in the boats. Again, this 511 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,400 Speaker 1: is not this is a very subtle man he has. 512 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:31,600 Speaker 1: He's got to get them morale up and then stay line. 513 00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:34,560 Speaker 1: Malsey dun One said all power comes out of the 514 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,640 Speaker 1: end of a rifle, and somebody corrected it and said, no, 515 00:30:39,120 --> 00:30:41,280 Speaker 1: all power comes from the person is willing to shoot 516 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:45,760 Speaker 1: the road. And it's exactly right. You've got to keep 517 00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:48,920 Speaker 1: them morale up. So he takes his twenty five men 518 00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 1: and then, in a situation which can only be described 519 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:58,400 Speaker 1: as a miracle, they cross over. There's this huge snowstorm 520 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:02,320 Speaker 1: coming from the north, which means it's coming to their back, 521 00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,360 Speaker 1: but it's coming to the face of the Hassian troops. 522 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:11,520 Speaker 1: The Hashians run into a small Virginia unit which is 523 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:14,280 Speaker 1: off on its own without any authority, which arouses them 524 00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:16,720 Speaker 1: about two or three in the morning. They jump up 525 00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:18,959 Speaker 1: to the stand arms. They're all getting cold and wet, 526 00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:21,760 Speaker 1: and this small unit takes off. The Washington runs into 527 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:25,080 Speaker 1: this unit and thinks they've ruined the chance of success. 528 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:27,959 Speaker 1: The Hessians are going to be awake, probably gonna get 529 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,400 Speaker 1: slaughtered by what the hell choice, Well, just the opposite happened. 530 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,120 Speaker 1: The Hashians stand outside for about an hour, they get 531 00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: totally soaked. They realize that this was just a burly 532 00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:40,480 Speaker 1: unit that was wandering through. They all go to bed. 533 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:43,120 Speaker 1: It's not that the Hassions were drunk. The Hashians were 534 00:31:43,120 --> 00:31:44,880 Speaker 1: in the middle of a snowstorm. Now here's the key 535 00:31:44,920 --> 00:31:48,600 Speaker 1: thing to remember. In Europe, there are no real battles 536 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:53,960 Speaker 1: fought in winter. I think seventeen sixty seven to nineteen 537 00:31:54,080 --> 00:31:57,960 Speaker 1: forty four, the German Army never launches a winter offenses 538 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:01,080 Speaker 1: I pre created. This is the last one. I think 539 00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,920 Speaker 1: it's in seventeen sixty seven, and then the Battle of 540 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:07,920 Speaker 1: Balls in forty four because the winter is hard. I 541 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,680 Speaker 1: mean it's cold and it's miserable. Americans deer hunt in 542 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:14,960 Speaker 1: the winter. Americans are all in the woods in the winter. 543 00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,840 Speaker 1: So the Americans are gone, Oh we got a snowstone. Okay, 544 00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:21,160 Speaker 1: passions are gone. We're going to snowstone to stay in 545 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:24,040 Speaker 1: the house because no rational European army would be out 546 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:28,840 Speaker 1: on a snowstone. So they're safe. Well, they wake up 547 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,280 Speaker 1: in the morning and Trending back then is a very 548 00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:35,200 Speaker 1: small town and has just two streets, and so if 549 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:37,800 Speaker 1: you put cannon. At the end of the two streets. 550 00:32:38,120 --> 00:32:41,320 Speaker 1: You control the town, and the Hashians are all in 551 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:45,120 Speaker 1: these little houses and they can't get out of them, 552 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:49,720 Speaker 1: and they finally get semi organized. Washington captures eight hundred 553 00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:53,680 Speaker 1: first class professional soldiers for the loss of one American 554 00:32:54,800 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 1: and then does a very intelligent thing. They run like 555 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:02,240 Speaker 1: hill because the British armies going, and they get across 556 00:33:02,360 --> 00:33:05,959 Speaker 1: the river before the British can get there. Now victory 557 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,080 Speaker 1: really matters. They go from twenty five hundred effectives than 558 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:12,400 Speaker 1: two weeks to fifteen thousand. These people, this is cool, 559 00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:16,320 Speaker 1: we're winning, saying the fact up as a football, you know, 560 00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:18,000 Speaker 1: people like to ar of the game where they win. 561 00:33:18,200 --> 00:33:20,280 Speaker 1: So they show up in Washington is enough troops to 562 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,480 Speaker 1: go back across the river. And one of those important 563 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:28,880 Speaker 1: examples of Washington system, they get to Trenton this time 564 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,800 Speaker 1: corn Wallace and the British are ready. They are charging 565 00:33:31,840 --> 00:33:38,080 Speaker 1: down the road from Princeton. Washington calls a council of war. 566 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:40,920 Speaker 1: And in the Council of war they are two farmers. 567 00:33:41,560 --> 00:33:45,880 Speaker 1: And I always said, I'm teaching military courses, I always 568 00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,520 Speaker 1: say that the officers, why do you think they are 569 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:51,360 Speaker 1: two farmers? Because they are the only two people who 570 00:33:51,480 --> 00:33:54,800 Speaker 1: knew the territory. So the British would never have done 571 00:33:54,800 --> 00:33:57,960 Speaker 1: this because as an aristocrat, you don't listen to farmers. 572 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:01,400 Speaker 1: They haven't had military training. You only have one great advantage, 573 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:04,239 Speaker 1: you actually know the neighborhood. Well, it turns out that 574 00:34:04,240 --> 00:34:07,760 Speaker 1: there is a sunken road on the south side of Trenton. 575 00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:12,200 Speaker 1: He goes from Trenton to Princeton that you cannot see 576 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:14,840 Speaker 1: if you're on the northern road from Princeton to Trenton. 577 00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,120 Speaker 1: So Washington takes his in Tara army runs down the 578 00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,880 Speaker 1: road and the British are running towards Trenton. He's running 579 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 1: towards Princeton, and my favorite Washington painting is Washington and 580 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:31,040 Speaker 1: Princeton with the cannon sitting there and the British captured 581 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:34,040 Speaker 1: British flags behind it, and Washington at this point is 582 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:39,040 Speaker 1: about forty four years old, is standing jauntily leaning on 583 00:34:39,080 --> 00:34:41,880 Speaker 1: a British cannon, looking like the fox cunner who has 584 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,560 Speaker 1: caught the fox. I mean it's the best picture because 585 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:47,839 Speaker 1: we tend to see Washington backwards. We see the guy 586 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,920 Speaker 1: who's president late in his life. This is still a 587 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:59,920 Speaker 1: young energetic, aggressive guy. So the revolutionists survived, and Washington's 588 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:03,400 Speaker 1: now in a position to continue to develop the army. 589 00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:08,960 Speaker 1: But it's an important remember this is not everybody worships Washington. 590 00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,320 Speaker 1: I mean, if you're not in the army with Washington, 591 00:35:12,320 --> 00:35:14,799 Speaker 1: you're thinking, this guy's not had a very good run here. 592 00:35:14,840 --> 00:35:18,359 Speaker 1: I mean, okay, did okay in Boston? Got cleaned out 593 00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:20,799 Speaker 1: in New York, I cleaned out in New Jersey. I mean, 594 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:25,120 Speaker 1: can we do better? Of course, during this period, when 595 00:35:25,120 --> 00:35:30,600 Speaker 1: the Americans win Saratoga with the British army collapses, you 596 00:35:30,719 --> 00:35:34,319 Speaker 1: suddenly have an interest in somebody other than Washington. So 597 00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,800 Speaker 1: there's about a third of the continent of Congress would 598 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:42,040 Speaker 1: like to fire Washington and is actively plotting. And one 599 00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:44,480 Speaker 1: of the reasons when Washington ends up the next year 600 00:35:44,920 --> 00:35:48,400 Speaker 1: going into Valley Forge, where he'd been promised it'd be food, 601 00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:52,759 Speaker 1: there'd be equipment to build houses, etc. And they had nothing. 602 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:12,600 Speaker 1: People in Congress are deliberately setting him up to fail 603 00:36:14,480 --> 00:36:17,360 Speaker 1: because they wouldn't get rid of it. And again you 604 00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:20,560 Speaker 1: get a sense of washington subtlety. Washington, who had no 605 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:24,799 Speaker 1: children himself, had basically adopted the Marquis de Lafayette, who 606 00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:28,720 Speaker 1: was in his early twenties, as kind of like a stepson. 607 00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:33,320 Speaker 1: He loved Lafayette, Lafayette loved him, and so Lafayette happens 608 00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:36,520 Speaker 1: to write a letter to the Congress that says, you know, 609 00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:41,520 Speaker 1: French King thinks so highly of General Washington that if 610 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,640 Speaker 1: something were to happen to him and he was no 611 00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 1: longer in command, I really fear that all French money, 612 00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:55,880 Speaker 1: French ammunition, French uniforms, French assistants would disappear. And I, certainly, 613 00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:58,879 Speaker 1: because of my deep belief in the Revolution, wouldn't want 614 00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:04,799 Speaker 1: that to happen. Well, that's it. Washington has reasserted that 615 00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:07,800 Speaker 1: he's in charge. He also understands that he still doesn't 616 00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,440 Speaker 1: have a very good army. And a guy shows up 617 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:14,839 Speaker 1: named m Strauben, who is a character in his own right. 618 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,920 Speaker 1: I mean, almost somebody to do an entire novel. But 619 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:25,360 Speaker 1: he's a German officer, claims more credit than he really deserves, 620 00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:29,520 Speaker 1: claims higher rank than he really deserves, shows up and says, 621 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,400 Speaker 1: you know, I can train your army. And this is 622 00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:34,800 Speaker 1: one of those miracles, A little bit like Washington listening 623 00:37:34,800 --> 00:37:37,439 Speaker 1: to farmers, because when Strouman looks around for a little 624 00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,719 Speaker 1: while and realizes, if I try to apply European systems, 625 00:37:42,840 --> 00:37:47,640 Speaker 1: they will all rebuilt because they're Americans. So I can't 626 00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:50,239 Speaker 1: just go and enforce the ban. In Europe, I can 627 00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:53,440 Speaker 1: force obedience because the peasants expect me to force him. 628 00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:56,880 Speaker 1: In the US, all you know, does just throw me out. 629 00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:00,520 Speaker 1: And so he figures out, you have to tell Americans 630 00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:03,920 Speaker 1: why you're doing it. But if you'll tell them why 631 00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:06,760 Speaker 1: you're doing it, they actually learned faster than the Europeans. 632 00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:10,439 Speaker 1: And so he begins to train his army, and when 633 00:38:10,440 --> 00:38:13,759 Speaker 1: they're in Valley Forge Worshaton again is very careful about 634 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:17,359 Speaker 1: a number of things. They have a huge bakehouse which 635 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:20,879 Speaker 1: makes all the bread for the army, and they turn 636 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:24,960 Speaker 1: it into a theater, and so they make bread in 637 00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:29,000 Speaker 1: the morning. In the evening they have plays Orhaton's favorite 638 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:34,800 Speaker 1: plays Cato, which is a remarkable study. In the eighteenth 639 00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,560 Speaker 1: century Britain, you could not directly attack the king because 640 00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,919 Speaker 1: that would be treason. So they tended to write about 641 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:43,440 Speaker 1: the Romans because you could write about tyranny and corruption 642 00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:46,600 Speaker 1: in Rome, and that's not really attacking the king. Although 643 00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:48,919 Speaker 1: everybody who sees the play knows you're talking about the king. 644 00:38:49,480 --> 00:38:56,160 Speaker 1: So Cato is about the Roman senator who, at the 645 00:38:56,200 --> 00:39:02,920 Speaker 1: time of Caesar refuses to accept Caesar as the head 646 00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:07,320 Speaker 1: of the government, and Caesar ultimately chases him across the 647 00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:11,640 Speaker 1: Mediterranean and ends up face to face and says, look, 648 00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:14,879 Speaker 1: I want you to live. You're my friend, I really 649 00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,800 Speaker 1: believe in you. All you have to do is swear 650 00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:22,040 Speaker 1: loyalty and you'll be rich and happy to us joy, 651 00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,880 Speaker 1: and Kato basically says, you know, my son's already been killed. 652 00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:30,239 Speaker 1: Freedom is worth everything. Who would rather die as a 653 00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:35,120 Speaker 1: free person than live swearing loyally? View says Washington's favorite play. 654 00:39:35,160 --> 00:39:37,600 Speaker 1: He cried every time he saw it, and it was 655 00:39:37,640 --> 00:39:41,560 Speaker 1: the center in the way of Washington's own belief that 656 00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,719 Speaker 1: he is in rebellion because he is a freeman and 657 00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:48,120 Speaker 1: he is not going to give him and so they would. 658 00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:51,719 Speaker 1: I think they showed it three times that winner, and 659 00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,840 Speaker 1: then they showed other things. He was very concerned about morale. 660 00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,200 Speaker 1: How do you keep morale up? And they began to 661 00:39:57,239 --> 00:39:59,959 Speaker 1: build a real army. They collide with the British short 662 00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:03,479 Speaker 1: after Valley Forge, and they beat them head to head, 663 00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:06,800 Speaker 1: and the British suddenly realized they have a real problem. 664 00:40:07,080 --> 00:40:09,200 Speaker 1: They can no longer count on the Americans breaking them. 665 00:40:10,080 --> 00:40:14,240 Speaker 1: Washington then chases them across New Jersey and the British 666 00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,319 Speaker 1: ended up going back into New York City where the 667 00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:20,399 Speaker 1: Royal Navy can sustain them. Now by this stage you've 668 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,640 Speaker 1: also got a French army showing up, you have a 669 00:40:22,680 --> 00:40:25,880 Speaker 1: French Navy occasionally showing up, your French money showing up, 670 00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:32,320 Speaker 1: which is really important. But Washington can't win. He cannot 671 00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:35,600 Speaker 1: break into New York. You can't drive the British out 672 00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:38,239 Speaker 1: of New York. What the British have done is they've 673 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:42,719 Speaker 1: got Washington sucked into basically laying siege to New York 674 00:40:43,520 --> 00:40:46,640 Speaker 1: while the British army is moving troops into South Carolina 675 00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:50,480 Speaker 1: and Georgia and trying to reconquer the colonies from the 676 00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:54,360 Speaker 1: South coming north, which turns out also to fail because 677 00:40:54,880 --> 00:40:59,480 Speaker 1: Washington sons Green was his best general, and they organize 678 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,920 Speaker 1: worl of warfare and ultimately organized regular warfare and gras 679 00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:06,680 Speaker 1: you started chewing up the British in the South. But 680 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:09,920 Speaker 1: as the Southern War is a really miserable, nasty war, 681 00:41:10,400 --> 00:41:12,239 Speaker 1: and it was good that Washington couldn't go there because 682 00:41:12,239 --> 00:41:16,800 Speaker 1: he would not have liked it. It isn't who he wanted. 683 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:20,360 Speaker 1: He believed deeply you had to have a regular army 684 00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,960 Speaker 1: that had discipline, because it was the base of civilization. 685 00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:26,759 Speaker 1: He did not want to be involved in gal war. 686 00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:29,640 Speaker 1: He knew how to him He'd fought the Indians. He 687 00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:33,279 Speaker 1: understood a lot about how to fight. He thought in 688 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:36,000 Speaker 1: the end would be so bitter and so bloody that 689 00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:39,600 Speaker 1: it would shatter the society. And so he really worked 690 00:41:39,600 --> 00:41:42,800 Speaker 1: hard to keeping on together. And one of the great gambles. 691 00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:44,560 Speaker 1: If you ever get a chance to look at him, 692 00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:50,360 Speaker 1: app Washington sitting in New York, the French armies actually 693 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:54,960 Speaker 1: sitting in Rhode Island, and all of a sudden cornwallis 694 00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:59,680 Speaker 1: who has a large British army, finds himself cooped up 695 00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,719 Speaker 1: in Virginia. I remember this is people are marching with 696 00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:08,560 Speaker 1: no trains, no airplanes, no cars, and Washington has to 697 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:15,120 Speaker 1: make a decision if I leave New York, there's people 698 00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:19,520 Speaker 1: are really getting terrible. For seven years, I leave New York. 699 00:42:20,280 --> 00:42:28,280 Speaker 1: I marched down through Philadelphia and get to Yorktown. Will 700 00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:32,680 Speaker 1: Cornwall still be there? Will the French navies show up? 701 00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:37,480 Speaker 1: And will the French army walk go with me? And 702 00:42:37,520 --> 00:42:43,040 Speaker 1: can I raise the money to pay the troops And 703 00:42:43,360 --> 00:42:45,640 Speaker 1: if it works, I might be able to win the 704 00:42:45,680 --> 00:42:49,160 Speaker 1: battle that will lead to victory in the war. If 705 00:42:49,200 --> 00:42:52,960 Speaker 1: it fails, we may well collapse them because we've we've 706 00:42:52,960 --> 00:42:54,680 Speaker 1: been at this so long and it was so tired. 707 00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:57,640 Speaker 1: This is one of the great strategic game I think 708 00:42:57,719 --> 00:43:02,520 Speaker 1: some normm if you imagine the reach to sit there 709 00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:05,400 Speaker 1: and think this through and go, you know what I'm 710 00:43:05,440 --> 00:43:09,400 Speaker 1: gonna do is I'm gonna move. I'm gonna I'm gonna 711 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:12,960 Speaker 1: decoy the British and just enough forces left behind that 712 00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:15,759 Speaker 1: they think I'm still in New York and We're going 713 00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:18,920 Speaker 1: to march as fast as we can. And when I 714 00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:20,800 Speaker 1: get to Philadelphi, I'm going to see Governor Morris and 715 00:43:20,920 --> 00:43:23,480 Speaker 1: big him to bring together all the rich people in 716 00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:26,120 Speaker 1: the city to see whiz enough money to pay the 717 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:29,719 Speaker 1: army to keep moving. And hopefully by the time I 718 00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:34,040 Speaker 1: get to Yorktown, if you're marching, this is a long march. 719 00:43:34,920 --> 00:43:37,680 Speaker 1: Hopefully by them the French navy will have shown up 720 00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:41,040 Speaker 1: so we can cut Cornwallis off so he can't the 721 00:43:41,080 --> 00:43:47,560 Speaker 1: British Navy can't take him off Yorktown. Well, it is 722 00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:55,319 Speaker 1: said that when Washington crossed the last ridge and could 723 00:43:55,360 --> 00:43:59,160 Speaker 1: see Yorktown and beyond Yorktown could see the French fleet, 724 00:43:59,560 --> 00:44:03,840 Speaker 1: that he physically jumped off his horse and did a jig. 725 00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:06,719 Speaker 1: He's the only people said, it's the only time in 726 00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:09,120 Speaker 1: the entire war that he saw him just lose control. 727 00:44:09,680 --> 00:44:14,480 Speaker 1: He was so excited because he had him. So the 728 00:44:14,520 --> 00:44:19,799 Speaker 1: French and the British, and the French name Americans, lay siege. Cornwallis, 729 00:44:19,800 --> 00:44:23,200 Speaker 1: who's a good professional British officer and later on goes 730 00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:26,480 Speaker 1: on to become a very successful governor General of India, 731 00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:30,680 Speaker 1: recognizes after a couple of days that you know, he 732 00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:35,040 Speaker 1: can't win. So he sends the word that he's prepared 733 00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:40,040 Speaker 1: to surrender to the French, and the French sender went back, 734 00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:43,960 Speaker 1: Now he surrender to Washington. And then Cornwallis says, I 735 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:47,080 Speaker 1: am not swarving to Washington, I'm sending a junior officer, 736 00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:50,440 Speaker 1: at which point of Washington says, fine, I'm sending to 737 00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:53,960 Speaker 1: junior offs. So General Lincoln has I think a brigadier 738 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,200 Speaker 1: general at the time, accepts the surrender of the British, 739 00:44:57,239 --> 00:44:59,960 Speaker 1: and supposedly the band plays the world turned up. Said, 740 00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:11,120 Speaker 1: Now Washington at that point does the most like that, 741 00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:17,640 Speaker 1: which people really undervalue. They go back north because the 742 00:45:17,680 --> 00:45:20,640 Speaker 1: war is not over. I mean, the fighting's over now. 743 00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:22,880 Speaker 1: The diplomats are negotiating. You got to work out all 744 00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:25,120 Speaker 1: the details, so you have to keep an army indeed, 745 00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:28,480 Speaker 1: and his officers getting really angry because they're not getting paid. 746 00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:31,200 Speaker 1: The Congress in that period was setting a standard to 747 00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:35,480 Speaker 1: current Congress's match. It was often irresponsible, often failed to 748 00:45:35,480 --> 00:45:37,880 Speaker 1: do what it should do, often had to really done policies, 749 00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:41,000 Speaker 1: and in this period they weren't paying the army. So 750 00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:44,560 Speaker 1: a group of the officers get together and decide that 751 00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:48,360 Speaker 1: Washington should become a dictator. And there was a precedent 752 00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:51,080 Speaker 1: for this because one hundred years earlier in the English 753 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:56,000 Speaker 1: Civil War, Cromwell had emerged and established a dictation. And 754 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:58,480 Speaker 1: in fact a lot of people had worried about Washington 755 00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:02,640 Speaker 1: getting to be two power and too popular, precisely because 756 00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:05,360 Speaker 1: he would become Cromwell. There's a great scene where the 757 00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:10,640 Speaker 1: officers have met in the school room and Washington's and 758 00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:15,759 Speaker 1: as he recounted, he took out his glasses in order 759 00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:19,000 Speaker 1: to remind him that he'd grown old in the service 760 00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:21,960 Speaker 1: of his country, and he pulls out this letter, and 761 00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,040 Speaker 1: he feeds a letter the essence of which is, do 762 00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:28,600 Speaker 1: you really think that we rebelled against George the Third 763 00:46:29,560 --> 00:46:35,160 Speaker 1: to create George the first? This would destroy everything that 764 00:46:35,239 --> 00:46:40,000 Speaker 1: we fought for four years. The officers all go, Okay, 765 00:46:39,239 --> 00:46:43,520 Speaker 1: won't be dictator. I guess we'll continue. He then does 766 00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:47,719 Speaker 1: something that is remarkable, and George the third says, if 767 00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:51,120 Speaker 1: Washington gives up power, it'll be the greatest man of 768 00:46:51,160 --> 00:46:55,560 Speaker 1: the center. So Washington on the way home, having been 769 00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:57,759 Speaker 1: I always tell people when they get frustrated and they 770 00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:00,799 Speaker 1: get tired of trying to do something. Washington eighty years 771 00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,640 Speaker 1: in the field, he's a non burning for two weeks 772 00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:07,759 Speaker 1: in the entire war, and he loves member. So now 773 00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,600 Speaker 1: he's on the way home. So he goes to Annapolis, 774 00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:13,359 Speaker 1: where the Commonal Congress's meeting, and you can actually go 775 00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:15,880 Speaker 1: to the State House. They still have the room, and 776 00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:19,400 Speaker 1: they haven't set up with statues. The Congress is sitting. 777 00:47:21,040 --> 00:47:24,520 Speaker 1: Washington is standing in the Congress is sitting to show 778 00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:31,080 Speaker 1: that he is obedient to them, but that they are 779 00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:33,920 Speaker 1: his superior to collective, and he gives them his sword. 780 00:47:33,960 --> 00:47:37,160 Speaker 1: He literally says, I've now done my job. I'm returning 781 00:47:37,160 --> 00:47:41,560 Speaker 1: to you the sword that I was given back in Philadelphia, 782 00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:44,080 Speaker 1: and he then goes home. He's at home, he's happy 783 00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:50,640 Speaker 1: as being a farmer. Martha's happy. And things don't work 784 00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:54,880 Speaker 1: very well. And it turns out people forget this. Virtually 785 00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:58,080 Speaker 1: every state, as they've now become ceased to be colonists, 786 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:03,160 Speaker 1: has to rewrite his cause they all fail. And so 787 00:48:03,320 --> 00:48:06,799 Speaker 1: yet people getting pretty good practice of writing constitutions, and 788 00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:13,040 Speaker 1: people got involved in a variety of fairly dumb ideas, 789 00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:17,920 Speaker 1: repudiating the debt, inflating the currency, and people begin to 790 00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:20,319 Speaker 1: write Washington and say, you know, we're going to have 791 00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:22,000 Speaker 1: to do something to fix this. And this is not 792 00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:25,960 Speaker 1: working and it's creating a vacuum where the British and 793 00:48:26,000 --> 00:48:28,799 Speaker 1: the French and the Spanish can come in and exploit its. 794 00:48:29,960 --> 00:48:33,000 Speaker 1: Washington write several of this fund and says, no, people 795 00:48:33,040 --> 00:48:37,080 Speaker 1: aren't tired enough you. They've got to finish celebrating. We've 796 00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:41,120 Speaker 1: got to finish getting over this. And I'm not going 797 00:48:41,200 --> 00:48:43,360 Speaker 1: to go now because if I go now, it'll be 798 00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:48,080 Speaker 1: too soon. And so he's very patient. Now again, everybody 799 00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:50,279 Speaker 1: in their brothers coming to Mount Vernon to spend the night, 800 00:48:50,320 --> 00:48:53,200 Speaker 1: to have dinner, to chat with him. He's receiving letters 801 00:48:53,239 --> 00:48:55,400 Speaker 1: from all over the country. Finally, a group gets together 802 00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:57,320 Speaker 1: in Annapolis and they get him to come to the meeting, 803 00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:02,160 Speaker 1: and they say, we've got to fix the Articles of 804 00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:04,719 Speaker 1: Confederation because they're not working. We need to have a 805 00:49:04,719 --> 00:49:09,919 Speaker 1: meeting to fix the current system. So he's the center 806 00:49:09,920 --> 00:49:13,520 Speaker 1: of this. If he's willing to sign the letter, people 807 00:49:13,560 --> 00:49:16,680 Speaker 1: will show up. If he doesn't sign the letter, it 808 00:49:16,719 --> 00:49:19,880 Speaker 1: would never happen. So he agrees he's the lead signer. 809 00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:23,480 Speaker 1: It basically says, I'm gonna go to Philadelphia and how 810 00:49:23,480 --> 00:49:26,400 Speaker 1: to fix this. Why don't you come journey, So every 811 00:49:26,400 --> 00:49:33,560 Speaker 1: stage sends a delegation to Philadelphia. In Man, again, it's 812 00:49:33,680 --> 00:49:37,480 Speaker 1: very different than people who think. First of all, when 813 00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:41,840 Speaker 1: they meet for fifty five days, it's in secret. There's 814 00:49:41,840 --> 00:49:45,880 Speaker 1: no press corps, there's no press secretary. They don't tell 815 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:50,879 Speaker 1: anybody anything. Second, at several points it almost breaks down. 816 00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:54,720 Speaker 1: At one point, the oldest man there, Benjamin Franklin, says 817 00:49:54,920 --> 00:49:56,880 Speaker 1: we need we need to stop, have a day of 818 00:49:56,960 --> 00:49:59,799 Speaker 1: fast and prayer and get our head on street because 819 00:49:59,800 --> 00:50:02,960 Speaker 1: I now we're just scrown up. They do that, They 820 00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:06,959 Speaker 1: get a sermon, they pray, they fast, they're together, they talk, 821 00:50:07,680 --> 00:50:10,480 Speaker 1: and people who study carefully make the point that I 822 00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:15,920 Speaker 1: think it is often very misunderstood about Washington. Washington is 823 00:50:16,080 --> 00:50:21,759 Speaker 1: presiding inevitably, and so he's sitting up here and you 824 00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:24,480 Speaker 1: actually go and look at the room and occurs him 825 00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:31,479 Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. But at lunch, at breakfast, at dinner, he's 826 00:50:31,600 --> 00:50:36,880 Speaker 1: constantly politics. What if we did this, what if we 827 00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:39,840 Speaker 1: fixed that? What if we pulled this to you? Maybe 828 00:50:39,840 --> 00:50:41,520 Speaker 1: if you work with so and so, you can work 829 00:50:41,560 --> 00:50:47,000 Speaker 1: something out. So his underlying influence is enormous. But it's 830 00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:51,360 Speaker 1: all private. It's not public speeches, it's not you know, 831 00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:57,279 Speaker 1: speaking from the chair. He represents the whole convention and 832 00:50:57,360 --> 00:51:00,600 Speaker 1: they do something which is really quite remarkable. They're sent 833 00:51:00,719 --> 00:51:04,520 Speaker 1: there to fix the articles of Confederation and by the 834 00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:06,240 Speaker 1: time they all get there, they go, this is stupid. 835 00:51:06,480 --> 00:51:09,120 Speaker 1: They are not going to work. Let's just write a constitution. 836 00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:11,839 Speaker 1: So what you technically have a coup daytime. I mean, 837 00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:14,480 Speaker 1: you have a group of people who decide they're going 838 00:51:14,520 --> 00:51:18,040 Speaker 1: to fix the whole thing. They have no authority to 839 00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:21,640 Speaker 1: do it. They just assert it. They then publish it, 840 00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:26,440 Speaker 1: and again Washington when this thing started, and Madison in 841 00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:28,799 Speaker 1: particular was all over Washington, You've got to go do this, 842 00:51:28,880 --> 00:51:31,319 Speaker 1: you gotta go do this. The reason Madison ends up 843 00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:33,880 Speaker 1: living in Nount Vernon for I was Washington, fine, you 844 00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:36,600 Speaker 1: come here, you do the reading, you put the other writing, 845 00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:38,839 Speaker 1: you do all the work, and when you get that done, 846 00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:42,000 Speaker 1: I'll think they're going. But I'm not going to do 847 00:51:42,040 --> 00:51:44,480 Speaker 1: all that junk. You're the intellectual. I'm not. I'm going 848 00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:48,040 Speaker 1: to run my farm. And so Washington's happily entertaining at 849 00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:51,600 Speaker 1: night and walk going around running this farm. Poor Madison's trapped, 850 00:51:51,719 --> 00:51:54,000 Speaker 1: who loves it, is trapped in a room at Mount 851 00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:58,360 Speaker 1: Vernon thinking through the whole thing. They then do something's 852 00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:02,759 Speaker 1: quite remarkable. They go to the thirteen states and they say, basically, 853 00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:06,920 Speaker 1: you have to vote. We will not be legitimate unless 854 00:52:06,920 --> 00:52:12,200 Speaker 1: you vote. And the greatest political brochure in history is 855 00:52:12,239 --> 00:52:14,880 Speaker 1: the Federalist Papers, because that's what it is. It's a 856 00:52:14,880 --> 00:52:21,120 Speaker 1: campaign document. And Jay and Hamilton and Madison writed, and 857 00:52:22,160 --> 00:52:26,200 Speaker 1: you get Washington sending a letter after the whole country 858 00:52:26,200 --> 00:52:29,279 Speaker 1: saying basically, this is what we've done. We need you 859 00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:33,080 Speaker 1: to vote. Yes, this is important, not an overwhelming margin. 860 00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:36,440 Speaker 1: The country says yes, and they adopt a constitution, at 861 00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:38,640 Speaker 1: which point, of course, they turn a meeting and go, gosh, 862 00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:42,479 Speaker 1: we're going to need a first president now. Washington saying, 863 00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:46,000 Speaker 1: wait a second, I'm in Mount Vernon. I've done you know, 864 00:52:46,040 --> 00:52:48,560 Speaker 1: I've done my share. No, no, no, you've got to 865 00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:51,920 Speaker 1: come up. So he agrees. He and marthayot to New 866 00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:55,080 Speaker 1: York by the end of the first term. And he's 867 00:52:55,200 --> 00:52:58,399 Speaker 1: very consciously he is setting the precedence which we still 868 00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:01,520 Speaker 1: live by, and he knows that, and he operates that way. 869 00:53:02,080 --> 00:53:04,920 Speaker 1: He convinces Jefferson Anne Hamilton to serve in the cabinet. 870 00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:08,640 Speaker 1: They hate each other. They each subsidize a newspaper to 871 00:53:08,680 --> 00:53:11,839 Speaker 1: attack the other. He doesn't care. He says, you guys 872 00:53:11,840 --> 00:53:14,279 Speaker 1: are invaluable. You're got to stay here. And if I 873 00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:31,600 Speaker 1: got to be here, you got to be here. Late 874 00:53:31,640 --> 00:53:34,920 Speaker 1: in the first term, New York newspapers are attacking Martha 875 00:53:35,040 --> 00:53:38,319 Speaker 1: for holding high tea, which they regard as the first 876 00:53:38,360 --> 00:53:43,520 Speaker 1: step towards monarchy. Washington is so angry that he says, 877 00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:47,840 Speaker 1: I'm going home. I've served a term. It's over. I 878 00:53:47,880 --> 00:53:50,000 Speaker 1: am not going to subject my wife Martha to this 879 00:53:50,200 --> 00:53:54,239 Speaker 1: kind of vicious behavior. The threat of Washington leaving is 880 00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:58,399 Speaker 1: so central to the survival of the United States as 881 00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:02,759 Speaker 1: a concept that Jefferson and Hamilton, who have become bitter opponents, 882 00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:08,440 Speaker 1: put aside their hostility, get together jointly go to see him, 883 00:54:08,960 --> 00:54:12,279 Speaker 1: and they say, you can't go home. The country's not 884 00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:17,160 Speaker 1: stable enough without your leadership, without your prestige, the country 885 00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:20,560 Speaker 1: won't last. You have to stay for one more term. 886 00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:25,360 Speaker 1: He very grudgingly agrees, if he really is so angry 887 00:54:25,680 --> 00:54:28,480 Speaker 1: about the news media treatment of his wife, but they 888 00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:33,120 Speaker 1: convince him that for the country he has to stay, 889 00:54:33,719 --> 00:54:35,880 Speaker 1: and as a patriot in the end, he's going to 890 00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:39,000 Speaker 1: do what the country needs. And it's a very important, 891 00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:43,200 Speaker 1: very difficult period. Britain and France are engaged in a 892 00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:46,880 Speaker 1: deep war which will last until eighteen fifteen. He's trying 893 00:54:46,920 --> 00:54:49,200 Speaker 1: to make sure the United States doesn't get drawn in 894 00:54:49,239 --> 00:54:52,439 Speaker 1: on either side, because he understands it will just tear 895 00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:56,960 Speaker 1: the country apart. So he's being very careful about not 896 00:54:57,040 --> 00:55:00,920 Speaker 1: getting into European politics and not getting into flint. At 897 00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:04,799 Speaker 1: the same time, on our western frontier, particularly in Pennsylvania, 898 00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:09,839 Speaker 1: farmers have gotten really angry about a tax break which 899 00:55:09,960 --> 00:55:12,880 Speaker 1: was designed to help big distillers in the East and 900 00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:15,719 Speaker 1: actually hurts the small farmers in the West who are 901 00:55:15,719 --> 00:55:19,400 Speaker 1: producing corn, whiskey and small batches, and so they're refusing 902 00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:22,480 Speaker 1: to pay their taxes. And there's what became known as 903 00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:26,520 Speaker 1: the Whiskey Rebellion. And it takes the prestige of Washington 904 00:55:27,320 --> 00:55:30,480 Speaker 1: to insist that the law be enforced, and he literally 905 00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:33,560 Speaker 1: organizes an army which they are about to send into 906 00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:38,240 Speaker 1: western Pennsylvania in order to force people to pay their taxes. 907 00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:43,520 Speaker 1: Confronted by Washington's prestige and by Washington's seriousness and by 908 00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:46,920 Speaker 1: the size of the army he's raising, the farmers automoly caved. 909 00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:49,399 Speaker 1: The laws are changed a little bit so that they 910 00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:53,000 Speaker 1: have a face saving way out. The Whiskey Rebellion disappears. 911 00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:56,760 Speaker 1: But that's the kind of thing going on that indicates 912 00:55:56,480 --> 00:56:00,640 Speaker 1: how shaky this new country is, and how little people 913 00:56:00,719 --> 00:56:04,239 Speaker 1: understand the concept of a central government and that it 914 00:56:04,320 --> 00:56:06,719 Speaker 1: has power which can reach all the way to the 915 00:56:06,719 --> 00:56:11,160 Speaker 1: boundaries of the country. Without Washington's prestige, that might not 916 00:56:11,280 --> 00:56:14,759 Speaker 1: have been survivable. He does stay, and then he really 917 00:56:14,840 --> 00:56:16,759 Speaker 1: has done and one of the greatest things he does 918 00:56:17,239 --> 00:56:22,120 Speaker 1: is he goes home. And that's really important because it 919 00:56:22,360 --> 00:56:26,080 Speaker 1: sends a signal that power is loan to you, you 920 00:56:26,120 --> 00:56:29,200 Speaker 1: don't own it, and that you have a duty to 921 00:56:29,320 --> 00:56:32,600 Speaker 1: limit yourself to be disciplined. And with the exception of 922 00:56:32,640 --> 00:56:36,280 Speaker 1: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and World War Two, no president 923 00:56:36,360 --> 00:56:40,200 Speaker 1: has violated the Washington principle of a maximum of two terms. 924 00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:43,640 Speaker 1: And in fact, after Roosevelt, we pass the Constitutional Amendment 925 00:56:44,040 --> 00:56:47,239 Speaker 1: to block anybody from serving more than two terms. So 926 00:56:47,360 --> 00:56:51,680 Speaker 1: Washington set the principle that he served the people, they 927 00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:57,080 Speaker 1: didn't serve him, that power was deliberately limited. He goes home, finally, 928 00:56:57,239 --> 00:57:00,920 Speaker 1: to Mount Vernon, a place he loves. He relaxes, he 929 00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:04,440 Speaker 1: goes back to being a gentleman farmer. He's just drowning 930 00:57:04,440 --> 00:57:07,600 Speaker 1: in visitors because everybody wants to drop by and see 931 00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:11,680 Speaker 1: the great man. He's out riding on a wet, cold, 932 00:57:11,920 --> 00:57:17,120 Speaker 1: rainy day. He comes down with a fever. In that generation, 933 00:57:17,240 --> 00:57:19,400 Speaker 1: the doctors thought they would help you by bleeding you. 934 00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:23,440 Speaker 1: They put leeches on him, probably hurting him by draining 935 00:57:23,480 --> 00:57:26,840 Speaker 1: some of his blood, although there are some modern studies 936 00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:30,440 Speaker 1: that indicate the leeches actually had for some kind of diseases. 937 00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:33,640 Speaker 1: They were actually very helpful because they had certain things 938 00:57:33,680 --> 00:57:36,000 Speaker 1: that they've actually put in your body. But in the 939 00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:39,400 Speaker 1: case of Washington, they probably further weakened him. His throat 940 00:57:39,480 --> 00:58:02,040 Speaker 1: seized up, and he finally died. Martha has left alone. 941 00:58:02,480 --> 00:58:05,720 Speaker 1: She probably did something which every historian ever since has regretted. 942 00:58:06,120 --> 00:58:10,360 Speaker 1: She burned all of their personal letters because she felt 943 00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:12,800 Speaker 1: it was private. She didn't want people to see what 944 00:58:12,960 --> 00:58:15,400 Speaker 1: Washington had written to her, or she'd written to Washington, 945 00:58:15,880 --> 00:58:21,160 Speaker 1: and so she literally shortly after his death, eliminates all 946 00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:23,680 Speaker 1: of the personal records which had grown up over a 947 00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:28,680 Speaker 1: long lifetime and would have been fascinated. The country mourns him. 948 00:58:29,240 --> 00:58:32,360 Speaker 1: The country realizes that he only had been the father 949 00:58:32,440 --> 00:58:35,920 Speaker 1: of the country, that he really was first in their hearts, 950 00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:40,800 Speaker 1: and that he was the symbol of what a free 951 00:58:40,840 --> 00:58:43,160 Speaker 1: society was supposed to be, which is why our national 952 00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:46,360 Speaker 1: capital's named for him, and why the Washington Monument stands 953 00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:50,720 Speaker 1: there as a memorial to a man who had literally 954 00:58:51,240 --> 00:58:54,920 Speaker 1: created the modern system of freedom under the rule of 955 00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:59,040 Speaker 1: law that we've come to take regretted. So when you 956 00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:01,720 Speaker 1: look around the world and you see countries failing, you 957 00:59:01,800 --> 00:59:05,720 Speaker 1: see people who are in desperate trouble. You see places 958 00:59:05,720 --> 00:59:11,560 Speaker 1: with the rule of law doesn't exist. You look at kleptocracy, corruption, dictatorship. 959 00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:15,919 Speaker 1: It's really important to remember that the United States could 960 00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:18,800 Speaker 1: have been that kind of country. It's still consumed to 961 00:59:18,920 --> 00:59:22,600 Speaker 1: be that kind of country, but that people can make 962 00:59:22,600 --> 00:59:27,320 Speaker 1: an enormous difference. The founding fathers, collectively and by their 963 00:59:27,360 --> 00:59:30,760 Speaker 1: commitment to the rule of law, to the Constitution, made 964 00:59:30,760 --> 00:59:35,160 Speaker 1: that difference. And the person who was indispensable, who really 965 00:59:35,200 --> 00:59:38,560 Speaker 1: surmounted all of the others. They all looked up to him, 966 00:59:38,720 --> 00:59:42,880 Speaker 1: they all followed his judgment. Who's president of Washington, first 967 00:59:42,880 --> 00:59:46,480 Speaker 1: as a general, then as president, but above all as 968 00:59:46,480 --> 00:59:53,040 Speaker 1: a human being. Washington personified the kind of dignified patriotism 969 00:59:53,120 --> 00:59:54,720 Speaker 1: that was at the heart of the rule of law. 970 00:59:55,720 --> 00:59:59,480 Speaker 1: Each of us can learn from Washington. Each of us 971 00:59:59,520 --> 01:00:04,800 Speaker 1: can learn about freedom, about discipline, about persistence. Each of 972 01:00:04,840 --> 01:00:09,080 Speaker 1: us can come to understand why he loved America so 973 01:00:09,160 --> 01:00:11,800 Speaker 1: much and why he loved freedom so much. And then 974 01:00:11,880 --> 01:00:15,680 Speaker 1: we can teach others that anybody anywhere on the planet 975 01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:18,880 Speaker 1: can learn to be free, can learn to live under 976 01:00:18,880 --> 01:00:21,920 Speaker 1: the rule of law, can learn to pursue happiness. And 977 01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:26,280 Speaker 1: Washington in that sense is a person for all of humanity, 978 01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:29,760 Speaker 1: not just America, and a person for all time, not 979 01:00:29,920 --> 01:00:39,200 Speaker 1: just the eighteenth century. I want to thank my long 980 01:00:39,240 --> 01:00:42,960 Speaker 1: time writing partner and fellow George Washington historian Bill Fortune. 981 01:00:43,160 --> 01:00:45,920 Speaker 1: I also want to thank the Fred W. Smith National 982 01:00:46,000 --> 01:00:49,080 Speaker 1: Library for the study of George Washington at Mount Vernon 983 01:00:49,280 --> 01:00:51,479 Speaker 1: and frankly a person who did more than anybody else 984 01:00:51,520 --> 01:00:56,560 Speaker 1: to create that library. Gay gains News World is produced 985 01:00:56,760 --> 01:01:01,080 Speaker 1: by gaining Which three sixty and iHeart Media Executive producers 986 01:01:01,160 --> 01:01:05,240 Speaker 1: Debbie Myers. Our producer is Garnsey Sloan, and our researcher 987 01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:09,480 Speaker 1: is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show was created 988 01:01:09,520 --> 01:01:12,960 Speaker 1: by Steve Endler. Special thanks to the team at Gingwich 989 01:01:13,000 --> 01:01:16,760 Speaker 1: three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newts World, I hope 990 01:01:16,760 --> 01:01:19,400 Speaker 1: you'll go to Apple Podcasts and both rate us with 991 01:01:19,480 --> 01:01:22,800 Speaker 1: five stars and give us a review so others can 992 01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:26,000 Speaker 1: learn what it's all about. I'm new Gingwish. This is 993 01:01:26,080 --> 01:01:26,640 Speaker 1: news World.