Pod Insights Short History Of... The Founding Fathers of the US (Re-run) About this episode The founding of the United States on July 4th, 1776, changed the world, and inspired other colonies to control their own destinies. The men responsible for writing and signing the Declaration of Independence - the Founding Fathers - have gone down in history as legends, with an almost ‘God-like status’. But nearly 250 years on, their legacy is challenged and debated. So who were the founding fathers? How did their talents, ideas and flaws shape their nation? And how do the choices they made in the 18th century still affect the world today?
This is a Short History Of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America.
Written by Kate Harrison. With thanks to Dr Lindsay M Chervinsky, a presidential historian, and author of The Cabinet: George Washingon and the Creation of an American Institution.
If you've enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, you might enjoy our new series Founding Fathers: An American Dream, featuring contributions from leading historians and descendants of those involved. Search for Founding Fathers: An American Dream
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Transcript 0:03 Speaker 00 It's the early hours of Christmas morning, 1776. On the frozen banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, 21-year-old captain Alexander Hamilton wonders if it's possible to be any colder than he is right now and survive.
0:21 Speaker 00 The river below is an obstacle course of ice and slush. It's enough to kill a man within seconds of falling in. Yet the water is exactly where Hamilton is headed, the next stage in the fight for George Washington's Continental Army against the British.
0:39 Speaker 00 He leads his men down to where a flotilla of small boats is waiting to take them across the river. Trying to control his hacking cough, he helps to load cannons into a 60-foot ferry alongside 40 of his men.
0:53 Speaker 00 But as they work, snow starts to fall. Could things get any worse?
1:00 Speaker 00 Less than six months ago, the mood was buoyant after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But now, the king's forces have taken New York City, and the dreams of a new nation have been crushed. Hamilton's own company has already lost half its men.
1:18 Speaker 00 But tonight's attack, they hope, might turn the tide.
1:25 Speaker 00 The soldiers settle, and the ferryman orders silence as he unties the flat-bottomed cargo boat sitting low in the freezing water. The crossing is only 300 yards, but the river is crammed with other boats carrying soldiers, horses, and cannons. The crew of six jam steel-tipped oars into the riverbed as the northeast wind propels hail into their eyes.
1:50 Speaker 00 A little upriver, there is the splash of a man falling overboard and panicked, hushed voices as his comrades struggle to haul him back to safety.
2:00 Speaker 00 Eventually, Hamilton's boat reaches the New Jersey side, and he clambers up the bank to join those already assembling. There are fewer than he expected, perhaps only 2,000. But then he catches a glimpse of General Washington.
2:16 Speaker 00 The leader welcomes his men as they come ashore, his cloak wrapped around him, powdered hair escaping from under his black tricorn hat. Washington is twice Hamilton's age, but his power is undiminished, respected by his men who know he'll never ask any sacrifice of them that he would not gladly make himself.
2:36 Speaker 00 As the last artillerymen assemble, it's already hours later than planned. Daylight will make a surprise attack so much harder.
2:45 Speaker 00 But there's no going back. Washington divides his army into two columns to march to Trenton, nine miles away. They take the pitted river road through dense woodland. Hamilton is grateful for his footwear. Many of the men are shoeless, their injured feet leaving a trail of bright red blood on the snowy ground. At least their feet are numbed by the cold.
3:11 Speaker 00 After four long hours, the forest thins out. There is a smell of woodsmoke from houses as they enter the outskirts of the pretty town of Trenton. But there's no other sign of life as the patriots circle the settlement. Hamilton and his men are just wheeling their two six-pound field cannons into place when the first mustachioed Hessians emerge from their barracks.
3:37 Speaker 00 Shocked by what they discover, these German troops, here to fight for the British, are perhaps bleary-eyed too, from a few festive beers the night before.
3:49 Speaker 00 The Hessians try to fight back. They are tough professionals after all, but they are outgunned. As Hamilton and his men fire cannonballs along the town's cobbled streets, the enemy runs for cover.
4:07 Speaker 00 The battle at Trenton is over within minutes. Only two Americans and twenty-two Hessians are killed. One thousand prisoners are seized along with ammunition, muskets, and barrels of rum. More importantly, Washington's audacious mission raises morale, and patriots flock to fight for the cause.
4:30 Speaker 00 The founding of the United States will change the world, inspiring other colonies to control their own destinies. And the decision-makers, Washington, Hamilton, but also Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and more, will become legendary.
4:50 Speaker 00 The phrase “founding fathers” will celebrate their almost god-like status. But nearly 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, their legacy is still challenged and debated. So who were the founding fathers? How did their talents, ideas, and flaws shape their new nation? And how do the choices they made in the 18th century still affect the world today? I’m John Hopkins from Neuzer. This is a short history of the founding fathers of the United States of America.
5:32 Speaker 00 In 1607, 150 years before the events that lead to the founding of the United States, the first few hundred British immigrants found the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia. By the middle of the 18th century, there are 13 British colonies stretching along the Atlantic coast. Their combined population has swelled to around 1.5 million. To the north are the five New England colonies. The middle section includes New York, and at the bottom of the five southern colonies, including Virginia and Georgia. Though each has its own government and identity, they all feel a strong connection to Britain.
6:16 Speaker 00 Dr. Lindsay M. Chivinsky is a presidential historian and author of “The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution.”
6:25 Speaker 01 They believed that they were the most loyal British citizens. In fact, the cult of monarchy, things like China sets with the royal crest or the family tree, those were so popular and sold out immediately in the colonies. So, a lot of the colonists really thought of themselves as very loyal citizens, and they wanted to be a part of the imperial project. And critically, they did not think of themselves as second-class citizens. They thought of themselves as on par with those that lived in London or in England.
6:59 Speaker 00 Until now, the colonies have mostly been left to govern themselves. But that hands-off rule is about to change.
7:11 Speaker 00 It is 1763, and Great Britain has just emerged victorious from a long and bloody territorial war against France. The American colonists have played an important role, providing soldiers and funds to help win the conflict. But that war has landed Britain with more debt and more lands to defend.
7:34 Speaker 00 So London looks to the American colonies to foot the security bill. Starting in 1764, they pass a series of Acts of Parliament, creating new taxes, first on sugar and molasses, then on paper.
7:50 Speaker 01 This was a huge insult because colonists needed paper. They sent letters, they loved to consume newspapers and news, they needed legal documents to run a business or to get married. So that really got at the ideological cause, which is, how can Parliament raise funds on the colonists if the colonists don't have any participation in that discussion? If they are not represented? And that got at this idea of, if they are indeed equal citizens within the British Empire, they need to have representation.
8:26 Speaker 00 The phrase "no taxation without representation" becomes a rallying cry. But politicians in London refuse to listen to the colonists' protests. When they double down by introducing still more taxes, resistance grows. Much of the rebellion is centered around the port city of Boston in Massachusetts, and regiments of British troops, known as "regulars," are sent to enforce order. Tensions spill over in 1770, when the king's soldiers open fire on protesters throwing stones. Five civilians are killed. The soldiers are brought to trial and defended by a 35-year-old American lawyer named John Adams.
9:10 Speaker 00 He disagrees with the British military presence, but still manages to get the soldiers acquitted.
9:16 Speaker 01 He felt was an essential demonstration that the nation that they wanted to create was one of laws, not one of men. John Adams also kind of liked being unpopular if he felt like what he was doing was right. He really liked kind of sticking it to people if he felt that he was morally correct, and so that didn't really bother him.
9:39 Speaker 00 As John Adams is defending the British soldiers, his second cousin, Samuel Adams, is rallying the opposition to the occupation of Boston. Yet Britain presses on with the tea act, which floods the colonies with cheap tea, disrupting the independent business of local American merchants and smugglers.
10:02 Speaker 00 In December 1773, Samuel Adams addresses a protest meeting of thousands of people. But the gathering ends with many participants heading for the harbor, where they dump 342 chests of British-supplied tea into the water. In retaliation for what becomes known as the Boston Tea Party, the London government passes laws designed to ruin the city's economy. It's intended to warn the other 12 American colonies to toe the line. But it backfires spectacularly.
10:36 Speaker 01 They felt like the entire colony of Massachusetts was being punished for the actions of a small handful of individuals. And if that were true, then all of the colonies could be punished for the actions of only a few people. And so that was really worrisome for them and led to a sense that there needed to be more coordinated action. And if there was going to be a widespread economic response, for example, then that needed to be planned and coordinated so that it wasn't merchants in certain places taking the hit and really acting on their own.
11:11 Speaker 00 Britain's so-called intolerable acts galvanize the independence movement. This legislation closes Boston Harbor and brings the city under much more stringent colonial control. So 10 months after the Boston Tea Party, a group of 56 men from 12 of the colonies meet to decide what to do next.
11:33 Speaker 00 The First Continental Congress takes place in September 1774 in Philadelphia.
11:41 Speaker 00 The delegates from the North include Samuel Adams and his lawyer cousin John, and from Virginia in the South, a 42-year-old military hero turned politician by the name of George Washington. They'll spend the next seven weeks thrashing out their options, including a boycott of British imports and establishment of their own military force. But apart from their desire for change, the men and the colonies they represent have little in common.
12:11 Speaker 01 When the delegates arrived in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress in 1774, more delegates had been to London than had been to Philadelphia. And that demonstrates that there were no emotional ties really between the colonies. There were very few economic ties between the colonies. They didn't see themselves as a cohesive unit. They saw themselves as attached to the homeland.
12:43 Speaker 00 At the end of the Congress, they stop short of choosing to pursue independence immediately. Instead, in a compromise, they issue a petition to King George III, asking him to consider their many grievances and repeal the intolerable acts. But they'll have their work cut out to convince the people of the colonies to take action that could lead to war.
13:07 Speaker 01 What is really important between 1774 and 1776 is they worked in coordinated action to bring the American people along with them, to try and build that widespread support. But even then, John Adams later said, when he was talking about the Revolution, that about one-third of Americans were ardent patriots. One-third were ardent loyalists. And one-third were in the middle, just trying to survive, just trying to get by, just trying to avoid a notice by whatever army happened to be closest to them. And while those exact numbers might not be perfectly accurate, I think it does give a pretty good sense of where the continent was at the start of the war.
13:53 Speaker 00 Thanks to the trade boycott, imports of British goods dropped by a massive 97% by 1775. As a next step, the colonies plan to stop exports to the British Empire, unless their grievances are taken seriously.
14:09 Speaker 00 Knowing armed conflict is likely, each colony recruits and trains its own militia. Meanwhile, the British Army tries to disrupt the preparations for war by arresting patriot leaders and seizing stores of weapons and ammunition. The colonists establish intelligence and warning networks to stay one step ahead of the king's men.
14:37 Speaker 00 This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History Of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four.
15:19 Speaker 00 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
15:32 Speaker 00 It's 10 p.m. on the night of April the 18th, 1775. In a timber house in downtown Boston, Paul Revere, a silversmith and father of eight, pulls on his thick boots and woolen coat. Knowing the dangerous mission he's about to undertake, his wife kisses him goodbye, warning him to take care. Then, the 39-year-old heads outside and walks swiftly towards the river.
16:01 Speaker 00 He keeps an eye out for British soldiers, but this part of the city is quiet tonight.
16:07 Speaker 00 Word is that the king's men are massing on the common, from where they'll head to Lexington, 11 miles from here, to arrest the patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. And it is Paul Revere's job to get there first to warn them.
16:26 Speaker 00 Arriving at the river, he scrambles down the bank to meet some friends who are waiting with a boat to row him across. Night crossings are forbidden, so they move silently, slipping unnoticed past a British warship. The boat grinds onto the shore, and Revere sprints into town. There, his supporters have a horse ready, having already seen the lanterns lit in a nearby church to warn them of danger.
16:52 Speaker 00 It's part of a complex warning system established by the Sons of Liberty group, Revere himself among them. Tonight, the strength of their network will be the difference between success and failure, even between life and death.
17:08 Speaker 00 Starting just after eleven, Revere rides along the Neck, a strip of land where water flows either side. But soon he's spotted by two British officers on horseback. He pushes his horse into a gallop, but one officer overtakes to slow him down, while another tries to unsaddle him. As Revere pulls the reins, his horse turns sharply. His pursuers try to follow, but one officer's horse plunges into a clay pond. As his companion tries to drag him out, Revere escapes.
17:41 Speaker 00 He rides for another hour to Lexington, stopping along the way to warn other patriots. But he spots more and more king's men. Surely, it doesn't take this many redcoats to make an arrest.
17:57 Speaker 00 Just after midnight, he reaches his destination, a timber-framed parsonage.
18:03 Speaker 00 He ties up his horse and knocks quietly on the heavy front door.
18:08 Speaker 00 A servant shows him inside. Talking at a table near the fireplace are the men he's been sent to see: the blunt, roughly-dressed Adams, and the debonair and charming Hancock. There are others here too, brought together by the common goal of independence from Britain. The men form a plan, deciding that the leaders should stay put for now, but be ready to fight or to flee.
18:34 Speaker 00 Now, a backup messenger arrives, sent in case Revere was captured along the way.
18:40 Speaker 00 The two riders share food and water, comparing how many British soldiers they've seen. There must be hundreds. Between them, the men deduce the British must be headed to the militia weapons store at Concord, further west. So instead of heading home, Dawes and Revere get back in the saddle and head west towards Concord.
19:04 Speaker 00 They are joined by another son of liberty on the way, a doctor. But they've only traveled three miles when they spot the red coats of British patrolmen. Revere finds himself surrounded, though his companions get away.
19:19 Speaker 00 At gunpoint, he surrenders. He submits to being searched for weapons. Then, after he's questioned about his mission, he is forced to ride with them back towards Lexington. He can only hope the others have been able to get all the way to Concord to warn the militia in time.
19:36 Speaker 00 But when he arrives back in Lexington, he hears a gunshot.
19:42 Speaker 00 With no way to know who is firing on whom, his British captors abandon their prisoner and race to join their compatriots, forcing Revere to hand over his horse. As he follows on foot, more shots ring out. The day is breaking, and he hopes he has done enough.
20:03 Speaker 00 That first gunfire will later be described as "the shot heard around the world", signaling the start of the American Revolutionary War.
20:13 Speaker 00 During the first skirmish at Lexington, the British kill eight. But the colonists will have their revenge at Concord. The doctor who was riding with Revere manages to get a warning through, so the patriots are ready to protect their weapons and send the British back in retreat to Boston. British casualties outnumber colonist losses two to one, and both Samuel Adams and John Hancock are free to continue their work.
20:41 Speaker 00 As the military conflict gets underway, more people rally to the course. And though the Continental Congress sends another petition to George III in a final attempt to avoid all-out war, they know it probably won't succeed. It is time to establish the Continental Army. But who should lead it? Lawyer John Adams understands how critical the choice will be.
21:09 Speaker 01 This was a very calculated strategic decision that was largely engineered by John Adams. He understood that the military conflict had started in Massachusetts. In a lot of ways, a lot of people blamed the rebels in Boston for instigating the conflict more broadly. And so the commander needed to be from Virginia, which was the biggest state among the colonies at the time. It was the wealthiest, and it needed to be a national effort. Among the Virginians, George Washington was the obvious choice. He looked the part. He had a lot of military experience. And he had showed up suggestively in military uniform just in case anyone forgot about his previous military experience.
21:53 Speaker 01 So John Adams engineered the nomination of George Washington, who accepted the command and rode out up to Massachusetts before the end of the Congress.
22:06 Speaker 00 Now, the Second Continental Congress makes a critical decision. In June 1776, the delegates vote for a resolution which declares in its own words that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.
22:26 Speaker 00 A committee of five drafts the Declaration. It includes John Adams, plus a charismatic entrepreneur and inventor called Benjamin Franklin. But it is Thomas Jefferson, a wealthy 33-year-old Virginian, who writes some of the most famous words in the English language.
22:45 Speaker 01 He inherited a ton of land from basically the moment he was born because he was his father's oldest son. And so he really was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. There was always an expectation that he was going into politics because that's what men of his class did. He was a beautiful writer, and again, it should come from Virginia. It should be a unified process. So he spent the next couple of weeks working on a draft. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams then made some tweaks to that draft before they submitted it to Congress in early July.
23:20 Speaker 00 In total, 86 edits are made to the first draft Jefferson writes. But one revision in particular is discussed to this day.
23:32 Speaker 00 By this time, around half a million people of African origin, one-fifth of the population, are enslaved in the colonies. But almost all of them live in the South, working on plantations, growing tobacco, rice, and other crops.
23:48 Speaker 00 Attitudes are divided along regional lines, with politicians in the South defending slavery, and many in the North wanting it abolished.
23:58 Speaker 00 Jefferson's original draft included references to the evil of slavery, even though he himself kept hundreds of enslaved people. He suggests that the British king is to blame for transporting slaves to America and perpetuating a cruel war against human nature itself.
24:18 Speaker 01 This was a very controversial statement. A lot of people at the Continental Congress felt that it muddied the waters. It made the argument for independence much more complicated because they weren't setting about to eradicate slavery, they were setting about to separate themselves. And so they ended up removing that clause, removing that offense against the king, so that there is no mention of slavery in the ultimate declaration.
24:51 Speaker 00 The final resolution to declare independence is adopted by Congress on July the 2nd, 1776. It's that date that many delegates expect to be celebrated in the future. But the wording is debated for two more days before the new draft is approved. The operation to spread the word starts right away. Overnight, on the 4th of July, 200 copies are printed. One is dispatched to George Washington and his army in New York City, where he reads it out to the troops to boost morale. In response, his men topple a statue of King George, which is melted down to be turned into ammunition.
25:36 Speaker 00 At just over 1,300 words, the final version of the Declaration of Independence details the many grievances the colonies have against King George III. But it's the opening preamble that will become world famous and inspire people over the centuries to come. "We hold these truths to be self-evident," it says, "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."
26:21 Speaker 01 The Declaration's preamble is beautiful. It is extraordinary language that inspired other revolutions for many decades thereafter. But in it of itself, it was actually a document that was trying to explain why they were taking this action. It was very much an international-facing statement of purpose. It explained to the other monarchies around the globe that they weren't anti-monarchy per se. They were trying to reassure the fears of the French and the Spanish that they weren't trying to destroy all monarchies, but that there were very specific grievances that had not been addressed, and therefore they were justified in taking this action.
27:04 Speaker 00 Soon after the Declaration of Independence, the British occupy New York City. Although Washington and his men are victorious when they cross the Delaware at Christmas in 1776, there are many challenges and battles ahead.
27:19 Speaker 00 The colonists are going to war against an imperial superpower. To many, it seems like an impossible fight. To date, no colony has managed to declare and gain independence. The British Navy is the most powerful in the world, and its army is notorious for its discipline and skill.
27:39 Speaker 00 Yet, it's not a one-sided conflict. Many of the men in the Continental Army have fought alongside the British and understand how they think. And their commander is an exceptional man.
27:54 Speaker 01 Historians generally like to avoid statements like "this one person was indispensable", but in the case of George Washington, it is really accurate and we can't overstate his importance to the revolution because he was the only person, probably, that could have held the Continental Army together. By the midway point in the war, Congress was referring to the troops as Washington's troops as opposed to American troops because they were so loyal to him and adored him so much that they probably wouldn't have fought for anyone else. And he had a very keen sense that his self-sacrifice was essential to this conflict, so he didn't ever go home. He didn't ever leave his troops. He was there the entire time
28:39 Speaker 01 and knew that as long as he didn't die and as long as the army didn't disintegrate, that it was going to be almost impossible for the British to win.
28:50 Speaker 00 His aide to camp, Alexander Hamilton, is young but gifted. Born in the West Indies, raised by an unwed mother, he is sent to America with the support of businesspeople and plantation owners who spot his incredible potential.
29:06 Speaker 01 Hamilton had such great communication and organizational skills. He could master and maintain more information than most people would be able to process. And so not only did he very quickly adopt Washington's voice, so he could write for Washington and knew what his bosses wanted him to say, but he could also manage those around him. And so he almost became like a chief of staff at the headquarters.
29:32 Speaker 00 In autumn of 1777, less than a year after Washington led the morale-raising crossing of the Delaware, the British have also occupied the capital, Philadelphia. But in October, Washington's army decisively defeats the superior British troops in the Battle of Saratoga.
29:52 Speaker 00 What the Patriots need now is more allies and more money to keep fighting. And that diplomatic campaign centers on Europe. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, who worked together on the Declaration of Independence, must now forge critical alliances with France and Spain.
30:13 Speaker 01 Benjamin Franklin was hard at work trying to get supplies and money and funds from the French, which they initially supplied secretly and then supplied officially once the Treaty of Amity in Commerce and Defense was signed in 1778. The French also convinced Spain to support the United States.
30:34 Speaker 00 John Adams, whose no-nonsense style doesn't go down well with the French, has more luck getting loans from Dutch bankers. And when the European nations back the colonists, it's a turning point. A distant civil war now becomes a globally significant conflict.
30:55 Speaker 00 This October, on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators Returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen's stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes's short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four.
31:38 Speaker 00 Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
31:46 Speaker 00 Washington's army has endured a savage winter in its efforts to reclaim Philadelphia. His men withdraw to a nearby plateau, but of 12,000 men who quarter there in December, up to 2,000 die of disease. But the survivors emerge as a powerful, united force.
32:07 Speaker 00 They strike again, and in June of 1778, force the British to abandon Philadelphia. As French and later Spanish funds and forces arrive to support the Continental Army, there is a stalemate in the North as action switches to the Southern colonies.
32:26 Speaker 00 The British are convinced many colonists there are still loyal to the king. But it's not enough. By the autumn of 1781, the king's army, led by General Cornwallis, are under siege on the Yorktown Peninsula in Virginia.
32:42 Speaker 00 Washington leads an army of 14,000 against them, supported by 36 French warships who stop the British getting away. Cornwallis surrenders on October 19th with his entire force of 7,000 men. And although the war doesn't officially end for another two years, British troops begin to withdraw in 1782.
33:05 Speaker 00 King George sends negotiators to the French capital to work out the details of a peace treaty.
33:15 Speaker 01 Through those negotiations, they were able to come up with the Treaty of Paris, which was a remarkably generous treaty to the new United States, including fishing rights in the Newfoundland and recognition of territory. It was signed in 1783 and officially ended the war. One of my favorite... Depictions of that treaty is a is a painting that was done partway through the process in which the British ministers were supposed to be depicted and the American ministers were supposed to be depicted. But because the treaty was viewed as sort of a betrayal of British interests by a lot of the British people, the British ministers refused to sit for it. And so it is a permanently unfinished painting, that a copy of which is still in the State
33:59 Speaker 01 Department in Washington DC today.
34:04 Speaker 00 Over 25,000 Americans die during the Revolutionary War. But perhaps fewer than a quarter of those fell in battle. The others perished from disease or as prisoners of war. The British losses are less well-recorded, though around 24,000 are thought to have been killed, injured, or captured, along with around 7,500 mercenaries.
34:30 Speaker 00 But history has been made, and a precedent has been set for other colonies hoping to break free from larger empires.
34:38 Speaker 00 What's left for those who so believed in their vision of freedom is a completely different task: that of founding a new nation.
34:48 Speaker 01 In a lot of ways, declaring independence and winning the war was the easy part, and actually existing was much, much harder. Because when the colonies had a common enemy of Great Britain, they could kind of focus on that. And once they lost that common enemy, they kind of became each other's enemy.
35:08 Speaker 00 The new government already has some ground rules in place, known as the Articles of Confederation, which were adopted during the war. But these have one big flaw.
35:20 Speaker 01 Congress did not have the right, under the Articles, to enforce the collection of taxation, so it had no money. So it couldn't pay any of its officials, it couldn't pay off its debts from the war, it couldn't pay for an army to defend its new borders, it could do nothing. The states were squabbling with each other over economic principles and defense of its borders, over the right to navigate different rivers and set taxes, all of these things. And all of the international empires, as well as the native nations on the western borders, were ready and waiting for the country to fall apart and to pick off the pieces to tuck back into their territories. So it was a very calamitous situation.
36:05 Speaker 00 After being ruled for so long by distant king, many Americans are hugely resistant to centralized power. They fear losing the individual freedoms so many died defending. But with the economy suffering, drastic measures are needed. In the summer of 1787, members of the new government ditch the old articles. Their convention creates a document that becomes the US Constitution. It brings the states together, creating a common currency and military force. But even those behind the new agreement know it's far from perfect.
36:46 Speaker 01 It was really a series of compromises that had been patched together to try and address some of the problems that they had seen, to try and give future generations flexibility to solve problems that they could not yet possibly foresee, or problems like slavery that they understood were going to be a huge issue but didn't know yet how to solve.
37:09 Speaker 00 Criticism immediately focuses on the issues they've avoided, including that question of slavery.
37:16 Speaker 01 There were a lot of people at the time who were very opposed to slavery. And there were a lot of people who understood the hypocrisy of talking about liberty and freedom while owning other human beings. And many British observers actually talked about that the loudest yelps for liberty were coming from those that owned people. There were a lot of people who wanted to give the federal government more power to regulate slavery. There were a lot of people who felt that it was wildly unfair to give southern states more representation in Congress while they were depriving other people of their liberties. But South Carolina and some of the other states threatened to leave the Constitutional
37:59 Speaker 01 Convention if any effort was made to curtail slavery.
38:04 Speaker 00 Enslaved people are not the only ones whose rights are ignored. Women don't get to vote. Native Americans are also at a huge disadvantage.
38:12 Speaker 01 Native nations, in theory, had the right to negotiate with the United States as another sovereign nation. But in practice, the United States often trampled over those rights or forced nations into very detrimental agreements that ceded a lot of their land to the United States. There were also a lot of wars fought against Native nations. So it was a deeply flawed document.
38:41 Speaker 00 Many also fear the power granted to the new federal government is too great. So the Constitution is amended almost immediately, when the Bill of Rights sets out individual freedoms that must be protected.
38:54 Speaker 00 The first amendment establishes the right to freedom of religion, speech, and the press, while the second deals with the right to bear arms. Later amendments guarantee fair and speedy trials and prohibit cruel and unusual punishment.
39:11 Speaker 00 Finally, in April 1789, George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States. His Secretary of State is Thomas Jefferson, and the first Secretary of the Treasury is his former wartime aide, Alexander Hamilton.
39:29 Speaker 00 Hamilton takes charge of the economy, paying off massive war debts and finding funds to grow the country. But tensions soon erupt over an unexpected commodity: whiskey.
39:44 Speaker 00 Hamilton decides to tax spirits distilled in the US, arguing that they are a luxury.
39:51 Speaker 00 But the people of western Pennsylvania don't see it that way. Roughly 17,000 people eke out a difficult living in its remote plains and valleys, cut off by poor transport and the vast Appalachian mountain range. Whiskey in these parts is a much more reliable currency than cash. The spirit is used for everyday purchases and services.
40:15 Speaker 00 So the 1791 tax will hit almost every family and shows how little the fancy urban politicians know about real life here.
40:25 Speaker 00 Anger spills over into violent protests against the men who are collecting the new tax.
40:37 Speaker 00 It's early in the morning on the 16th of July 1794. As the sun rises over the Bauer Hill Estate near Pittsburgh, dozens of enslaved men and women are already at work. Among them is 21-year-old carpenter Will, repairing the roof of the building that houses the whisky still. He learned his craft from his father, who helped to build this luxurious mansion house for its owner, General John Neville. All around are fields swaying with rye, almost ripe for harvesting.
41:13 Speaker 00 He's almost done when another man calls for him to hurry. The general wants everyone to gather outside the house. That can only mean trouble.
41:22 Speaker 00 In front of the mansion, Will joins a score of other men. Laid out on the ground are rifles. The general, a white man in his 60s, orders him to grab one and load it.
41:36 Speaker 00 He explains that a local group of militia are on their way, angry that he has worked alongside a federal marshal to collect the new whisky taxes.
41:47 Speaker 00 General Neville demands that Will and the others defend his property with him, though the enslaved women and children can shelter inside the mansion until the danger passes. Now, Will's younger brother Putnam is running up from the field, waving and shouting. They're coming. Will can make out their silhouettes against the sun, forty or so men, charging up the hill, fanning out.
42:13 Speaker 00 Neville orders defensive positions and Will and Putnam flank him, rifles cocked. The two young men are crack shots, often boasting of the 100-pound wolf they shot and killed as kids. This, though, is completely different.
42:30 Speaker 00 Will doesn't want to fire on people. But with no choice, he'll do what he's told and protect Bower Hill. Not for the general's sake, but for his mother and sisters, who are sheltering in the house his own father built.
42:45 Speaker 00 The men demand Neville hands over the marshal. When the general tells them he's not here, they say they're coming in to make sure. The general raises his rifle and aims into the crowd. He fires, a man drops, and then all hell breaks loose.
43:04 Speaker 00 Bullets fly from both directions, and several of the mob fall. Soon, the militia retreat, but Will knows they'll be back. Ten soldiers arrive as reinforcements from a local barracks, but their major insists the general leave for his own safety.
43:21 Speaker 00 For the rest of the day, the brothers take their turns keeping watch. That night, no one sleeps.
43:31 Speaker 00 After thirty-six tense hours, the mob returns.
43:37 Speaker 00 Six hundred or more drunken, angry men, ready for revenge. Massively outnumbered, the army major asks that the women and children are allowed to leave, and Will's mother and sister run for their lives. They have barely taken cover in the woods when the attack begins.
43:56 Speaker 00 Soon, Will can't see where he's shooting for the smoke, or hear himself think. He fires, reloads, fires again, until abruptly, the battle stops.
44:10 Speaker 00 Maybe thinking that the defenders have surrendered, the rebel leader strides confidently towards the mansion. Except now, there's another single shot, and the man drops to the ground.
44:26 Speaker 00 For a moment, the rebels can't take in what's happened, but then the fury of betrayal takes hold.
44:35 Speaker 00 The renewed onslaught is ferocious, even after the major does surrender. The mob swarms over the mansion like locusts, throwing out paintings and fine furniture, ransacking the whiskey.
44:48 Speaker 00 In the chaos, Will drags his brother away towards the woods. When he spots his mother and sister sheltering in the ravine, he is overcome with relief.
44:59 Speaker 00 He looks back up at the house, expecting the gunpowder smoke to clear.
45:04 Speaker 00 Instead, it thickens. It's the mansion, going up in flames.
45:17 Speaker 00 None of the enslaved men are hurt defending Bower Hill, but the burned-out mansion will never be rebuilt, and Will and the others will live on a different estate for another nine years. Finally, on his deathbed, General Neville orders their freedom, or manumission.
45:39 Speaker 00 When word of the attack on Bower Hill reaches Philadelphia in August 1794, Washington prepares to send in 13,000 troops to suppress the rebellion. But critics rail against the idea of the first president taking up arms against his own citizens.
45:58 Speaker 00 Faced with such overwhelming force, the movement fizzles out within months. 150 rebels are arrested, and though 20 stand trial, only two are found guilty of treason. They are sentenced to hang, but the president pardons them, having already made a critical point about how the nation will operate.
46:20 Speaker 01 If the federal government could not pass taxes and could not raise revenue, it would fail. It was an essential moment because it was a demonstration that the nation could indeed survive and do what it needed to, to exist on the world stage.
46:40 Speaker 00 This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, Real Dictators returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On Short History Of, we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On Real Survival Stories, a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea, and a man is struck blind, all alone, at the very top of the world.
47:11 Speaker 00 In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
47:31 Speaker 00 In 1797, Washington surprises his people by stepping aside after serving only two four-year terms. It's an astonishing act in an era when men cling on to power for as long as possible. His decision sets a precedent for the future, though the two-term limit isn't made official until the Twenty-Second Amendment takes effect in 1951.
47:57 Speaker 00 The second president is Boston lawyer and former vice president John Adams. He invests in the nation's defenses and is the first leader to move into the White House. But Adams serves just one term before losing to Thomas Jefferson.
48:14 Speaker 00 In 1803, during Jefferson's presidency, the size of the nation doubles after he agrees to buy the Louisiana Territory from the French for $15 million.
48:26 Speaker 00 The Native Americans who live there are not part of the negotiation.
48:31 Speaker 01 The real losers in this situation were the Native nations that had been allies with Spain or allies with France. They still retained a lot of their own power, both their military power and their economic powers. But there was a sense by some that it was only a matter of time before white settlers started to encroach on their land.
48:53 Speaker 00 As time passes, the founders' influence wanes. After a short illness, George Washington dies in 1799, aged 67, prompting an outpouring of national grief. But it is the shocking death of Alexander Hamilton, five years later, that reveals how violent politics can still be. Now living in a country house in Manhattan and running a newspaper, Hamilton continues his involvement in government. In July 1804, animosity between him and a rival, Aaron Burr, leads to the two men meeting for an illegal duel on the banks of the Hudson.
49:36 Speaker 00 Burr comes from a privileged background, while Hamilton has never quite shaken the feeling of inferiority about his own humble origins. It's not clear who fires the first shot, but while Hamilton misses, Burr doesn't. Hit in the abdomen, Hamilton dies the next day. He was 47 years old. Hamilton's death is premature, but many of the others who formed the first government are now aging. In a stranger-than-fiction coincidence, both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the same day, July 4, 1826,
50:15 Speaker 00 exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence. The founding fathers have overcome the immediate challenges of unifying the colonies, forging international alliances, and forming the financial and defensive institutions an independent country needs. But with the cracks that will lead to civil war already beginning to show, the loss of those elder statesmen is deeply felt.
50:43 Speaker 01 There was a recognition of this great generation was no longer with us. And in the 1820s, the first of a series of battles over the future of slavery started to crop up. And so there was a lot of anxiety and fear about what the future of the nation was going to be and how was the loss of this generation and its leadership and its stewardship going to affect the future of the nation. We see an explosion of the cult of the founding generation after the Civil War.
51:18 Speaker 00 It's not until the 20th century that the label "founding fathers" is adopted. President Warren G. Harding is the first person recorded as using it in speeches from 1916 onwards. The phrase catches on.
51:32 Speaker 01 And that's where you start to see this almost worship of figures like Washington and Benjamin Franklin and the other people who had led the nation. So in the 1870s, in the 1970s, or when the nation is in a particularly tense moment, it is helpful for a lot of people to have this touchstone that they can refer to as either something that is calming or as a justification for their actions.
52:02 Speaker 00 Though the term recognizes the critical role the politicians played, it also draws criticism for excluding so many who also fought for independence.
52:12 Speaker 01 Other people played a really important role and supported those efforts, supported those work, whether it was getting the word out to neighbors or sewing uniforms or assisting with diplomacy, that women and people of color and a much broader range of what we would think of as Americans were part of this process. I think if we want to use more accurate terminology, there are two options. One, if we're talking about the Constitution and the example set out to us by the first generation, then framers is most accurate because those were the people in the room that were actually crafting the language on the text. If we're talking about the people that fought in the war,
52:54 Speaker 01 the founding generation is, I think, most accurate because that does encompass all of the people that were alive at that point and their various roles, whether they were conflicting or supporting or central to the project.
53:13 Speaker 00 The legacies of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and their contemporaries still affect how Americans see themselves and how the world sees America. Washington and Jefferson are literally set in stone, memorialized in granite at Mount Rushmore. But the legacies of all the founding fathers are constantly being reinterpreted in everything from political rallies to Broadway shows. Yet ultimately, the men who won independence for their nation in the Revolutionary War would themselves have admitted they were simply human beings with talents and limitations.
53:51 Speaker 01 That is actually a much more inspirational story because it suggests that flawed people doing the very best that they can can create something extraordinary, can inspire future generations both in the United States and in nations across the world to create extraordinary things and to never give up trying to create something better or to improve what they already have. It is much less impressive to me if we think of them as these demigod figures because then of course you expect extraordinary heroics from godlike figures. But if it's flawed men, that's really very inspirational
54:34 Speaker 01 and suggests that we can have future generations that also do extraordinary things.
54:45 Speaker 00 If you've enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, you might enjoy our new series, "Founding Fathers: An American Dream", featuring contributions from leading historians and descendants of those involved. Search for "Founding Fathers: An American Dream" on your podcast app and click "Follow" for more episodes. This October on the Noiser Podcast Network, "Real Dictators" returns. We're in the Dominican Republic for the story of Rafael Trujillo. On "Short History Of", we'll uncover the secrets of the Hoover Dam and follow Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster. On "Real Survival Stories", a modern Viking adventure as a replica Norse vessel embarks on a daring voyage across the North Sea
55:27 Speaker 00 and a man is struck blind all alone at the very top of the world. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes short stories, Holmes and Watson unpick an epic mystery of hidden treasure and murder in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.
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