The Revolutionary War Strategy

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On the frozen banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, twenty one year old capaptain Alexander Hamilton wonders if it's possible to be any colder than he is right now and survive. 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 Contental Army against the British 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 sixty foot ferry alongside forty of his men But as they work, snow starts to fall Good things get any worse 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. But tonight's attack, they hope might turn the tide 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 three hundred yards, but the river is crammed with other boats carrying soldiers, horses and cannons crew of six jam steel tipped oars into the river bed as the Northeast wind propels hail into their eyes A little upriver, there is the splash of a man falling overoard, and panicked hushed voices as his comrades struggled to hold him back to safety 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 two thousand But then he catches a glimpse of General Washington. The leader welcomes his men as they come ashore his cloak wrapped around him powdered hair escaping from under his black tricon hat Washington is twice Hamilton's age power is undiminished respected by his men, who know he'll never ask any sacrifice of them that he would not gladly make himself. as the last artillerymen assemble It's already hours later than planned. Daylight will make a surprise attack so much harder 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 shoeeless Their injured feet leaving a trail of bright red blood on the snowy ground At least their feet are numbed by the cold. A four long hours The forest thins out There is a smell of wood smoke 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 machioed Hessians emerge from their barracks. shocked by what they discover. These German troops here to fight for the British are perhaps blery eyed too from a few festive beers the night before The Hessians try to fight back. They are tough professionals after all, but they're outgunned. as Hamilton and his men fire cannon balls along the town's cobbled streets The enemy runs for cover The battle at Trenton is over within minutes Only two Americans and twenty two Hessians are killed onene thousand prisoners are seized along with ammunition, muskets, and barrels of rum More importantly Washington's audacious mission raises morale Patriots flock to fight for the cause 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 The phrase Founding Fathers will celebrate their almost godlike status But nearly two hundred and fifty 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 eighteenth century still affect the world today I'm John Hopkins from Noiser. This is a short history of the founding Fathers of the United States of America In sixteen oh seven. one hundred and fifty 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 eighteenth century, there are thirteen British colonies stretching along the Atlantic coast Their combined population has swelled to around one and a half million. To the north are the five New England colonists The middle section includes New York and at the bottom are the five southern colonies, including Virginia and Georgia though each has its own government and identity They all feelel a strong connection to brrick doctor Lindseay M. Cavinsky is a presidential historian and author of The Cabinet, George Washington and The Creation of an American Institution They believe that they were the most loyal British citizens. In fact, the cult of monarchy, things like China sets with the Royal Cst or the familyam 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 Until now Colonies have mostly been left to govern themselves But that hands off rule is about to change It is seventeen sixty three 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 So London looks for the American colonisties to foot the security bill. Starting in seventeen sixty four. They pass a series of acts of Parliament. creating new taxes, first on sugar and molasses. Then 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 idealological 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 emmpire They need to have representation. The phrase, no taxation without representation comomes a rallying cry. pololiticians in London refused to listen to the colonists' protests. when they double down by introducing still more taxes resesistance 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 seventeen seventy The king's soldiers opened fire on protesters throwing stones F fiveive civilians killed The soldiers are brought to trial. and defended by a thirty five year old American lawyer named John Adams He disagrees with the British military presence but still manages to get the soldiers acquitted 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. 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 that didn't really bother him 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 T A which floods the colonies with cheap tea disrupting the independent business of local American merchants and smuggl us. In december seventeen seventy three, Samuel Adams addresses a protest meeting with thousands of people. But the gathering ends with many participants heading for the harbor where they dump three hundred and forty two 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 twelve American colonies to toe the line Backfires, spectacular 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. 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 on their own Britain's so called intolerable acts galvanize the indndependence movement This legislation closes Boston Harbor and brings the city under much more stringent colonial control T months after the Boston tea party fifty six men from twelve of the colonies meet to decide what to do next The first Continental Congress takes place in september seventeen seventy four. in Philadelphia The delegates from the North include Samuel Adams and his lawyer cousin, John and from Virginia in the South A forty two 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 Apart from their desire for change the men and the colonies they represent have little in common When the delegates arrived in Philadelphia for the first Continental Congress in seventeen seventy four M delegates had been to London than had been to Philadelphia. 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 homeomeland At the end of the Congress, they stopped 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 convinince the people of the colonies to take action that could lead to war. is really important between seventeen seventy four and seventeen seventy six is they worked in coordinated action to bring the American people along with them, to try and build that widespread support 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 unnoticed 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 continent was at the start of the war Thanks to the trade Boy Imports of British goods dropped by a massive ninety seven percent by seventeen seventy five As a next step, the colonies plan to stop exports to the British Empire unless their grievances are taken seriously knownowing 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. 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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 thirty nine year old heads outside and walks swiftly towards the ri He keeps an eye out for British soldiers But this part of the city is quiet tonight Word is that the king's men are massing on the common From where they'll head to Lexington, eleven miles from here to arrest the Patriot leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams. And it is Paul Revere's job Get there first to one arrriving at the river He scrambles down the bank to meet some friends who are waiting with a boat to roam 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 It's part of a complex warning system established by the sons of Liberty Group Rvere himself among them tonight the strength of their network will be the difference between success and failure even between life and death Starting just after eleven, Rvere rides along the Nck, 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 Rre 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 Rvere escapes. 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 Just after midnight, he reaches his destination, a timber framed parsonage. He ties up his horse and knocks quietly on the heavy front door The servant shows him inside Talking at a table near the fireplace, are the men he's been sent to see. The blunt, roughly dressed Aams and the Dbonaire 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 be ready to fight or to flee. Now, a backup messenger arrives, sent in case River was captured along the way The two riders share food and water comparing how many British soldiers they've seen. Hundreds betweenween them. The men deduce The British must be headed to the militia weapons store at Concorde, further west So instead of heading home Daors and Revere get back in the saddle and head west towards Concorde. They are joined by another son of Liberty on the way. But they've only traveled three miles when they spot the red coats of British patrola Rare finds himself surrounded, though his companions get away Gunpoty surrenders He submits to being searched for weapons, thenen, 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 Concorde to warn the militia in time. But when he arrives back in Lexington, he hears a gunshot With no way to know who is firing on whom, his British captors abandon their prisoner and raced to join their compatriots, forcing Revere to hand over his horse As he follows on foot, more shots ring out. The day is breaking He hopes he has done enough That first gunfire will later be described as The shot heard around the world signaling the start of the American Revolutionary War During the first skirmish at Lexington, the British kill eight, but the colonists will have their revenge at Concorde 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. 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 And 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 in the 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. So John Adams engineered the nomination of George Washington, who accepted the command and rode out up to Massachusetts before for the end of the Congress Now the Second Continental Congress makes a critical decision. In june, seventeen seventy six The delegates vote for a resolution which declares in its own words These united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states The Committee of F drafts the declaration It includes John Adams plus a charismatic entrepreneur and inventor called Benjamin Franklin But it is Thomas Jefferson. wealthy thirty three year old Virginian who writes some of the most famous words in the English language. 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 goingorn 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 in total eightighty six edits are made to the first draft Jefferson writes. But one revision in particular is discussed to this day By this time, around a half a million people of African origin. one fifth of the population are enslaved in the colonists. But almost all of them live in the south Working on plantations growing tobacco, rice. A atttitudes are divided along regional lines politicians in the south defending slavery. and many in the North wanting it abolished 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 perpetuating a cruel war. against human nature itself This was a very controversial statement. A lot of people at the Contental 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. they ended up removing that clause, removing that defense against the king so that there is no mention of slavery in the ultimate Delaration A final resolution to declare independence is adopted by Congress On july the second, seventeen seventy six It's that date that many delegates expect to be celebrated in the future 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 fourth of July Two hundred 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 turned into ammunition just over thirteen hundred words The final version of the Declaration of Independence. It 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 But all men are created equal But they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights But among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. cQue of these rights. Governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers Cent The Declaration's preamble is beautiful. It is extraordinary language that inspired other revolutions for many decades thereafter In and 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 you know reassure the fears of the French and the Spanish. that they weren' 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 Soon after the Declaration of Independence British occupy New York City Although Washington and his men are victorious when they cross the Delaware at Christmas in seventeen seventy six There are many challenges and battles ahead 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 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 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. 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, 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 aid to Kamp Alexander Hamilton is young but gifted. Born in the West Indies raaised by an unwed mother He is sent to America with the support of business peopleople and plantation owners who spark his incredible potential. 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 boss 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 in autumn of seventeen seventy seven Less than a year after Washington led the morale raazing crossing of the Delaware The British have also occupied the capital Philadelph But in October Washington's army decisively defeats these superior British troops in the Battle of Saratoga patriots need now There's more allies more money to keep fighting And that diplomatic campaign centers on Europe. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. who works together on the Declaration of Independence must now forge critical alliances with France and Spain 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 and Commerce and Defense was signed in seventeen seventy eight The French also convinced Spain to support the United States 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 distant civil war Now becomes a globally significant conflict Hey, it's Kelly Roland. You may not know this, but I have eczema. so I get how it can steal your time. But why let eczema take over when you can talk to your doctor about EBLlS? 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Ask your doctor about EBLS and visit eGlS dot com or call one eight hundred Lily RX or One eight hundred, five four five, five nine, seven nine. wishing you could be there live for the big game, soaking up the atmosphere of the crowd Too often, life gets busy or the price hld you back Priceeline is here to help you make it happen With millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars, you can go see the game live Don't just dream about the trip. book it with Priceline. Download the prriceline app or visit priceline. comot Actual prices may vary, limited time offer Washington's army has endured a savage winter in its efforts to reclaim Philadelphia. His men withdraw to a nearby plateau but of twelve thousand men who caught her there in December two thousand die of disease. But the survivors emerge powerful. United Force They strike again. and in June of seventeen seventy eight forced the British to abandon Philadelphia As French and later Spanish funds and forces arrive to support the Continental Army There's a stalemate in the North as action switches to the southern colonistiess The British are convinced many colonists there are still loyal to the King But it's not enough byy the autumn of seventeen eighty one King's army, led by General Cornwallace, are under siege on the Yorktown Peninsula in Virginia Washington leads an army of fourteen thousand against them supportupped by thirty six French warships who stopp the British getting away. Corn Wallace surrenders on october the nineteenth with his entire force of seven thousand men And although the war doesn't officially end for another two years, British troops begin to withdraw in seventeen eighty two King George sends negotiators to the French capital to work out the details of a peace treaty 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 Newfoundlands and recognition of territory. It was signed in seventeen eighty three and officially ended the war one of my favorite depictions of that treaty is a painting that was done partway through the process in which The British ministers were supposed to be depicted and the American minters 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 Department in Washington, DC today Over twenty five thousand Americans die during the Revolutionary War Perhaps fewer than a quarter of those fell in battle The others perish from disease or as prisoners of war The British losses are less well recorded Though around twenty four thousand are thought to have been killed, injured, or captured along with around seven thousand five hundred mercenaries history has been made precedent has been set for other colonists hoping to break free from larger empires What's left for those who so believed in their vision of freedom is a completely different task. That of founding a new nation 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 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 floor 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. being ruled for so long by distant kings. Many Americans are hugely resistant to centralized power They fear losing the individual freedom so many died defending. with the economy suffering drastic measures are needed In the summer of seventeen eighty seven Members of the new government ditch the old articles Their convention creates a document that becomes the US Constitution brings the states together creating a common currency and military force But even those behind the new agreement No, it's far from perfect It was really a series of compromises that had been patched together to try and address some of the problems that they had seen 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 Criticism immediately focuses on the issues they've avoided including that question of slavery 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 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. Bright South Carolina and some of the other states threaten to leave the Constitutional Convention if any effort was made to curtail slavery 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 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 It was a deeply flawed document 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 The First Amendment establishes the right to freedom of religion, speech and the press. Well the second deals with the right to bear arms Later amendments guarantee fair and speedy trials and prohibit cruel and unusual punishment Finally, in april seventeen eighty nine 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 Hamilt Hamilton takes charge of the economy paying off massive war debts and finding funds to grow the country Tensions soon erupt over an unexpected commodity Whiskey Hamilton decides to tax spirits distilled in the US. arguing that they are a luxury But the people of Western Pennsylvania don't see it that way Roughly seventeen thousand people eke out a difficult living in its remote plains and valleys Cut off by poor transport 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 So the seventeen ninety one tax will hit almost every family and shows how little the fancy urban politicians know about real life here Anger spills over into violent protests against the men to the new tax It's early in the morning on the sixteenth of july, seventeen ninety four As the sun rises over the Bower Hill estate near Pittsburgh, dozens of enslaved men and women are already at work. Among them is twenty one year old carpenter Will, repairing the roof of the building that houses the whiskey 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. He's almost done when another man calls for him to hurry. The general wants everyone to gather outside the house I can only be in trouble In front of the mansion, Will joins a score of other men Laid out on the ground are rifos The general, a white man in his sixties, orders him to grab one and load it He explains that a local group of militia are on their way, angry that he has worked alongside a federal marshal to the newew Whiskey Texas General Neille 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 up their silhouettes against the sun, forty or so men, charging up the hill, fanning out Neville orders defensive positions and Will and Putnam flank him rifles cocked. The two young men are crack shots offten boasting of the one hundred pound wolf they shot and killed as kids Thisough completely different. Will doesn't want to fire on people 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 The men demand Neville hands over the marshal But 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 Bullets fly from both directions, and several of the mob form. 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 For the rest of the day the brothers take their turns keeping watch. That night No one sleeps After thirty six th hours The mub returns 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 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 Maybe thinking that the defenders have surrendered, the rebel leader strides confidently towards the mansion Except now, there's another single shot. the man drops to the ground for a moment The rebels can't take in what's happened But then the fury of betrayal takes hold The renewed onslaught is ferocious. E after the major does surrender, the mob swarms over the mansion like locusts, throwing out paintings and fine furniture, ransacking the whiskey 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 He looks back up at the house, expecting the gunpowder smoke to clear Instead, it thickens It's the mansion. going up in flames. None of the enslaved men are hurt defending Baower Hill The burned out mansion will never be rebuilt and will and the others will live on a different estate for another nine years Finally, O his deathbed General Neville orders their freedom or manum mission When word of the attack on Bower Hill reaches Philadelphia in august seventeen ninety four. Washington prepares to send in thirteen thousand troops to suppress the rebellion. Critics rail against the idea of the first president taking up arms against his own citizens. faced with such overwhelming force The movement fizzles out within months onene hundred and fifty rebels are arrested, and though twenty stand trial two are found guilty of treason. They are sentenced to hang the presresident pardons them having already made a critical point how the nation will operate if the federal government could not pass taxes and could not raise revenue. 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On your next great shot Dial in your game this summer with Lululemon Golf gear, available in stores and at lululemon. com In seventeen ninety seven 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 onto power for as long as possible His decision sets a precedent for the future though the two term limit isn't made official The twenty second ammendment takes effect in nineteen fifty one The second president is Boston Lwyer 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 In eighteen oh three during Jefferson's presidcy The size of the nation doubles After he agrees to buy the Louisiana territory from the French for fifteen million dollars the Native Americans who live there are not part of the negotiation 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 . They're both their military power and their economic powers There was a sense by some that it was only a matter of time before white settlers started to encroach on their land This time passes Founders influence Waynees After a short illness, George Washington dies in seventeen ninety nine, aged sixty seven prrompting an outpouring of national grief 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 eighteen oh four animosity between him and a rival Eron Burr leads to the two men meeting for an illegal duel on the banks of the Hudson Burr comes from a privileged background whileile 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 Birr doesn't in the abdomen Hamilton dies the next day. He was forty seven years old Hamilton's death is premature But many of the others who formed the firstirst Government are now aging A stranger than fiction coincidence Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the same day july fourth, eighteen twenty six Exactly fifty years after the Declaration of Independence The foundounding fathers have overcome the immediate challenges of unifying the colonists. forging international alliances and forming the financial and defensive institutions an independent country needs that will lead to civil war already beginning to show The loss of those elder statesmen ly felt There was a recognition of this great generation was no longer with us. And in the eighteen twenties, 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 genereration after the Civil War It's not until the twentieth century that the label Founding Fathers is adopted President Warren G. Harding is the first person recorded as using it in speeches from nineteen sixteen onwards phrase catches on. 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 eighteen seventies, in the nineteen seventies 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 Though the term recognizes the critical role the politicians played It also draws criticism for excluding so many who also fought for independence. O 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 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 Fing generation is I think, most accurate because that does encompass all of the people that were alive at that point and they' various roles, whether they were conflicting or supporting or central to the project 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 grranite at Mount Rushmore But the legacies of all the foundounding 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 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