The Glenn Beck Program - May 30, 2026


America’s Secret Reboot： The Making of the U.S. Constitution ｜ The American Story ｜ Ep 8


Episode Stats


Length

49 minutes

Words per minute

141.99516

Word count

7,005

Sentence count

484

Harmful content

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:25.660 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. When you travel, travel well.
00:00:30.000 it's june 20th 1783 philadelphia the heart of the american experiment 400 armed soldiers of
00:00:42.940 the continental army march toward independence hall the war is over last shots of the revolution
00:00:48.640 have been fired but the peace that hasn't quite yet arrived the treaty of paris that final
00:00:55.420 diplomatic bow tying off the conflict is still two months from being signed, and now the soldiers
00:01:00.860 who fought for American independence are turning their weapons on the very Congress they once
00:01:05.980 defended. James Madison watches from inside Independence Hall and writes later that the
00:01:12.280 soldiers were pointing muskets to the windows, quote-end-quote. He said that they were drunk,
00:01:17.360 angry and, quote, becoming increasingly abusive. They want their pay.
00:01:26.200 America, this patchwork of 13 states, is buried under a mountain of war debt, loans from France,
00:01:33.440 obligations to the Dutch bankers, and worst of all, back pay owed to the very soldiers who bled
00:01:39.280 for the nation's freedom. The young republic has no real treasury, no power to tax, and barely
00:01:45.180 the power to function. These men, who stared down the redcoats and endured brutal winters
00:01:51.380 of near starvation, are now facing a bitter truth. They might never ever see a dime of what was
00:01:57.760 promised. Whispers in the barracks turn to shouts and suddenly 400 Continental Army troops erupt
00:02:04.520 into action. The soldiers bar the door of Independence Hall. The delegates are now trapped
00:02:10.640 inside, held hostage by their own troops. The crowds outside grow more and more restless,
00:02:16.640 fueled by the rum and their sense of betrayal. It's a full-blown mutiny, a powder keg ready
00:02:23.040 to explode, the fragile unity of a nation barely born. It takes Alexander Hamilton,
00:02:30.800 himself a veteran of revolutionary battles, to calm things down. He negotiates, convincing the
00:02:36.880 soldiers to stand down just enough for congress to leave the building without harm but when congress
00:02:42.560 then begs the pennsylvania state militia for protection the state refuses without any
00:02:48.560 explanation maybe state leaders sympathize with the unpaid troops or perhaps they're too cowardly
00:02:55.200 to confront armed veterans so no help arrives hamilton's blood boils over at the lack of
00:03:01.760 assistance. He later writes to the governor of his home state, New York. The conduct of the
00:03:07.100 executive of this state was to the last degree weak and disgusting. Two days later, the mutiny
00:03:15.200 still simmers. No sign of soldiers backing down. The Confederation Congress makes a humiliating
00:03:22.680 run for it. They flee Philadelphia entirely, packing up what little dignity they have,
00:03:29.700 and they moved the national capital to Princeton, New Jersey.
00:03:34.020 For a nation just born, it feels like a breakdown.
00:03:38.060 The revolution has promised freedom and unity,
00:03:40.260 and it now looks like it's eating itself alive.
00:03:42.980 The government that had won the war can't even protect itself from its own soldiers,
00:03:47.860 and yet this moment of near-mutiny becomes one of the sparks that ignites an essential reboot.
00:03:54.640 Because in 1783, America was not a strong union.
00:03:58.580 It was a fragile experiment, one paycheck away from total collapse.
00:04:03.760 The brand new nation was really not off to a great start.
00:04:07.640 And it was about to get worse.
00:04:12.080 This is the American story, The Beginnings.
00:04:16.180 Adapted from the book of the same title by David Barton and Tim Barton.
00:04:22.640 Episode 8, America's Secret Reboot.
00:04:25.940 The Making of the U.S. Constitution.
00:04:28.580 Picture this. A government on the run, bouncing from one temporary home to another like a
00:04:36.960 bad house guest who can't find a permanent couch to crash on. After that humiliating escape to
00:04:43.020 Princeton, New Jersey, the Confederation Congress just kept moving. Next, to Annapolis, Maryland,
00:04:48.160 then Trenton, New Jersey, and finally it landed in New York City. Each move felt less like progress
00:04:54.780 and more like a symptom of dysfunction.
00:04:57.960 It was a farce, really,
00:04:59.620 and Connecticut delegate Oliver Ellsworth
00:05:01.880 captured the frustration perfectly when he grumbled,
00:05:04.880 It will soon be of very little consequence
00:05:07.800 where Congress go
00:05:09.060 if they are not made respectable
00:05:10.880 as well as responsible,
00:05:13.180 which can never be done
00:05:14.320 without giving them a power to perform engagements
00:05:17.040 as well as make them.
00:05:19.160 The government's foundation,
00:05:21.160 the Articles of Confederation,
00:05:22.500 had been born out of the revolution itself. The name came from none other than Benjamin Franklin
00:05:28.640 who sat on the original drafting committee in 1776. Under the articles, each of the 13 states
00:05:35.900 had one vote in Congress, no matter their population. Virginia, with nearly 20 times as
00:05:41.900 many people as Georgia, counted the same. The number of delegates sent to Congress by the states
00:05:47.280 varied over the years. If those delegates disagreed and split their state's single vote,
00:05:52.900 it didn't count at all. They served one-year terms, unpaid by Congress, relying on their
00:05:58.820 home states to cover the expenses, which many did not. A quorum required seven states just to get
00:06:05.760 any business started, and any matter involving the military, foreign policy, or finances
00:06:11.040 needed the approval of at least nine states.
00:06:14.900 It was a government by committee, strangled by procedure.
00:06:19.760 And when it came to money, the Confederation Congress had absolutely no power to tax.
00:06:25.100 It could only ask states for funds.
00:06:27.900 And most of them just said, nope.
00:06:32.000 Imagine trying to run a country on donations.
00:06:35.860 While George Washington didn't have to imagine,
00:06:37.700 the abysmal funding situation tortured him throughout the Revolutionary War.
00:06:42.620 The states issued their own currencies, had bitter trade wars with each other,
00:06:46.400 and sank under runaway inflation.
00:06:49.620 Congress could declare war, but it couldn't raise an army.
00:06:53.460 It could sign treaties, but it couldn't enforce them.
00:06:56.560 It could appoint ambassadors, but it couldn't pay for any expenses.
00:07:00.960 Just about any of these factors could be fixed by amending the Articles,
00:07:05.440 But any change to the Articles required unanimous approval from all 13 states.
00:07:11.860 Even one holdout could kill a vital reform that an overwhelming majority wanted.
00:07:17.320 Foreign threats were still looming large.
00:07:19.700 Britain refused to vacate its forts in the Northwest Territory and hinted at carving off more land to attach to Canada.
00:07:26.560 Spain schemed in the South, even bribing a retired American general to deliver Tennessee to Spanish control.
00:07:34.140 Spain also closed the lower Mississippi River to all-American trade.
00:07:38.360 Meanwhile, the Barbary pirates in North Africa seized American merchant ships.
00:07:43.500 And the United States, having no navy, couldn't do anything but negotiate ransom.
00:07:49.500 So yeah, plenty of deficiencies.
00:07:52.280 Yet, and this is something our history books often gloss over,
00:07:55.660 the Articles were not a total disaster.
00:07:59.380 They were deliberately weak.
00:08:00.860 they were crafted by men who were deeply suspicious of centralized power after years
00:08:06.120 under Britain's thumb. But this framework did manage to win the war against the world's top
00:08:11.560 military power at the time. It created the first federal departments of foreign affairs, war,
00:08:17.120 and finance, and it navigated the complex treaty of Paris. Most impressively, it created the
00:08:24.180 Northwest Ordinance, which laid out a roadmap for settling western lands, admitting new states,
00:08:29.000 and even banned slavery in those new territories.
00:08:33.360 Still, there was a growing sense that the Articles of Confederation
00:08:36.760 were not going to cut it long-term.
00:08:39.240 As George Washington put it,
00:08:40.840 That it is necessary to revise and amend the Articles of Confederation,
00:08:46.680 I entertain no doubt.
00:08:49.380 But what may be the consequences of such an attempt is doubtful.
00:08:53.760 Yet something must be done, or the fabric must fall.
00:08:59.760 And fall it nearly did.
00:09:03.760 To pay off crushing war debt, Massachusetts raised land taxes to punishing levels.
00:09:09.760 Farmers, many of them veterans, lost their land in foreclosures.
00:09:13.760 They saw this as betrayal by the government that they had fought to create.
00:09:17.760 In Western Mass, the protest turned militant.
00:09:21.760 Farmers stormed into courts and shut down the foreclosures.
00:09:24.960 The state's Supreme Judicial Court labeled them, quote,
00:09:27.720 disorderly, riotous, and seditious persons.
00:09:33.800 Their leader was Daniel Shays.
00:09:36.440 He was a Revolutionary War captain wounded in battle.
00:09:39.520 He was a man who risked everything for independence,
00:09:42.260 serving five years in the war.
00:09:44.480 Now, he led 1,500 rebels calling themselves regulators
00:09:48.640 determined to bring down what they called the tyrannical government of Massachusetts.
00:09:53.720 Many of them wore their old continental uniforms.
00:09:56.620 They invoked the same revolutionary spirit that once had united the colonies.
00:10:02.000 Many of George Washington's friends wrote to warn him about this movement.
00:10:06.460 One pleaded,
00:10:07.240 In one word, my dear General, we are all in dire apprehension
00:10:11.100 that a beginning of anarchy, with all its calamities, has approached.
00:10:14.960 Washington's trusted ally from the war, Henry Knox, told him that these rebels wanted to turn private property into, quote, the common property of all.
00:10:25.180 He feared that the movement could spread and plunge the country into civil war.
00:10:31.140 In January 1787, Shays' rebels marched on the Springfield Armory, intent on seizing its muskets and its gunpowder.
00:10:40.760 Even though the armory was a federal facility,
00:10:43.000 no federal troops came to defend it
00:10:44.980 because Congress didn't have any funds to pay them.
00:10:47.660 So local militias rallied instead.
00:10:51.100 On the eve before the clash that seemed inevitable,
00:10:53.820 a message was intercepted that revealed the rebels' plan.
00:10:59.260 Amid swirling snow the next day,
00:11:01.800 the state militias opened fire on the rebels.
00:11:04.820 Four Shays men were killed and 20 wounded.
00:11:09.140 Within weeks, the rebellion collapsed.
00:11:12.420 More than 4,000 rebels signed confessions for amnesty.
00:11:17.200 Daniel Shays, he was indicted but later pardoned.
00:11:21.020 He lived another 37 years drinking heavily and scraping by on the small pension he eventually
00:11:27.220 received for his service in the revolution. 0.93
00:11:30.080 Shays' rebellion, it sent shockwaves across the states.
00:11:33.980 a wake-up call that the article's weaknesses could lead to outright collapse.
00:11:39.920 Few felt that fear more than George Washington.
00:11:42.580 He was back at Mount Vernon, and he had tried to settle back into the quiet farm life that he loved.
00:11:48.060 But the reports of the rebellion and unrest pained him.
00:11:51.900 He wrote to a close friend.
00:11:53.340 I am mortified beyond expression when I view the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that ever dawned in any country.
00:12:02.600 What a triumph for our enemies to verify their predictions.
00:12:07.680 What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves
00:12:14.640 and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious.
00:12:23.340 That letter captured the mood of an entire generation.
00:12:27.960 The revolution had promised liberty.
00:12:30.900 But liberty without order was starting to look a lot like anarchy.
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00:14:23.740 Shays' Rebellion revealed giant cracks in the Young Republic.
00:14:27.820 In September 1786, just weeks after the rebellion began,
00:14:31.540 leaders from several states gathered in Annapolis, Maryland to talk about the crisis.
00:14:37.700 Officially, the meeting was supposed to be about commerce and how to address trade disputes between states.
00:14:43.260 But everyone in the room knew it was really about something much, much bigger.
00:14:48.720 Only five states showed up to the meeting in Annapolis.
00:14:52.080 It could have been a disaster, just another symbol of dysfunction.
00:14:56.100 But one of the delegates was named James Madison.
00:14:59.520 He was a 35-year-old Virginian who had been quietly preparing for this moment for a very long time.
00:15:06.780 He had spent the past few years studying ancient and modern confederacies,
00:15:10.800 from Greece to the Netherlands.
00:15:12.960 He was trying to understand what made all of them collapse.
00:15:16.320 As part of this effort, he received trunkloads of books from his close friend Thomas Jefferson,
00:15:21.480 who was serving as the minister to France at the time.
00:15:25.280 Madison convinced the small group in Annapolis that patchwork fixes would not save the Union.
00:15:31.240 The articles weren't just flawed, they were doomed.
00:15:34.540 He pushed for something radical, overhauling the entire system.
00:15:39.720 Alexander Hamilton agreed.
00:15:41.100 he drafted a provocative resolution calling for a follow-up convention in Philadelphia the next May
00:15:47.020 with the sweeping goal of comprehensive reform.
00:15:52.840 Later that fall, James Madison rode to Mount Vernon to visit George Washington.
00:15:57.620 The Virginia legislature had voted to send seven delegates to the Philadelphia convention,
00:16:02.700 and they wanted George Washington to lead them.
00:16:06.440 But Washington wasn't so sure.
00:16:08.260 He was weary of politics.
00:16:10.400 he was content with his life at Mount Vernon. He thought about it for a while and ended up
00:16:15.720 writing to Virginia's governor Edmund Randolph, formally declining the offer. But the nation's
00:16:22.180 troubles kept tugging at Washington. Letters poured in from Madison, from Henry Knox, from
00:16:26.860 Hamilton, all begging him to reconsider. They needed him to lend his name, his authority,
00:16:32.740 his reputation to a government on the brink. By February 1787, the Confederation Congress
00:16:41.880 finally agreed to endorse the call for a convention in Philadelphia. Officially,
00:16:47.380 Congress said it would be, quote, for the sole express and purposes of revising the Articles
00:16:52.600 of Confederation. But Madison, Hamilton, and others knew the phrase revising the Articles
00:16:58.220 was just polite fiction.
00:17:01.880 George Washington rarely made snap decisions.
00:17:05.140 He mulled things over.
00:17:06.500 He got feedback from trusted friends.
00:17:08.760 So after months of consideration,
00:17:11.300 Washington changed his mind about the Philadelphia Convention.
00:17:14.880 He still had reservations, but he wrote to Governor Randolph once again.
00:17:18.920 I declare to you that my assent is given contrary to my judgment.
00:17:23.820 I have yielded, however, to what appeared to be the earnest wishes of my friends, and I will hope for the best.
00:17:33.580 Washington and his enslaved valet, William Lee, rode north that May.
00:17:39.280 Lee was by Washington's side through every step of the Revolutionary War, even in battle.
00:17:44.840 In Washington's will, he provided for the eventual freedom of all of his slaves at Mount Vernon, but Lee's freedom was immediate.
00:17:51.540 He also gave Lee an annual pension and the right to live in Mount Vernon for life.
00:17:58.200 When Washington arrived in Philadelphia, he stayed in the home of Robert Morris.
00:18:02.720 He was one of the wealthiest men in America and a delegate from Pennsylvania.
00:18:07.060 The city buzzed with rumors about what the secret convention just might do.
00:18:12.680 Twelve states sent delegates.
00:18:14.560 Only Rhode Island refused.
00:18:16.380 Its citizens were just too distrustful of a strong central government.
00:18:20.100 That defiance earned them the nickname Rogue Island.
00:18:24.920 The convention met daily, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Pennsylvania Statehouse,
00:18:30.160 better known as Independence Hall, since that's where the declaration had been approved and signed almost 11 years earlier.
00:18:38.260 There were 55 delegates, though not all would stick around to the end.
00:18:42.960 The average age was 42.
00:18:45.380 They were planters and lawyers, merchants and judges.
00:18:48.980 21 of them had fought in the war.
00:18:51.360 Seven had been governors.
00:18:53.260 Most had served in the Continental Congress, and eight had signed the Declaration itself.
00:18:59.140 On the Convention's first day, Benjamin Franklin, now 81,
00:19:03.520 nominated Washington to serve as President of the Convention.
00:19:07.400 He was, once again, unanimously elected.
00:19:11.140 It was really a brilliant move.
00:19:12.640 If Washington led the proceedings, it would help the public trust whatever came out of that room.
00:19:17.860 The delegates made a pledge of total secrecy, and Washington enforced it with military precision.
00:19:24.740 The windows were shut tight, the curtains were drawn, no one spoke to the press, not a single word of debate leaked out.
00:19:32.680 Americans had no clue as to what was really going on inside of Independence Hall.
00:19:38.040 One day, a delegate accidentally dropped a copy of the proposed resolutions in the hall.
00:19:43.860 Someone found them and brought them to George Washington.
00:19:47.040 Like a schoolteacher, Washington stood at his desk at the front of the hall and addressed the convention.
00:19:52.460 Gentlemen, I am sorry to find that some one member of this body has been so neglectful of the secrets of the convention
00:20:01.260 as to drop in the statehouse a copy of their proceedings, which by accident was picked up and delivered to me this morning.
00:20:10.480 I must entreat the gentleman to be more careful, lest our transactions get into the newspapers and disturb the public repose by premature speculations.
00:20:24.060 I do not know whose paper it is, but there it is.
00:20:29.040 Let him who owns it take it.
00:20:31.600 No one ever dared admit ownership.
00:20:34.260 Inside that locked room, James Madison took meticulous notes, often word for word. He vowed
00:20:41.660 never to release them until every delegate had died. True to his word, he outlived them all,
00:20:48.380 dying in 1836. Madison, with approval from the Virginia delegation, had spent months before the
00:20:54.740 convention drafting a master plan. Virginia's governor, Edmund Randolph, presented this plan
00:21:00.840 on opening day. It called for three branches of government, legislative, executive, and judicial,
00:21:08.080 each one with checks and balances on the other. The legislature would have two chambers, both
00:21:15.140 based on proportional representation, giving big states more power than the small ones.
00:21:20.640 It also proposed that Congress could veto any state law it deemed unconstitutional.
00:21:26.820 Only parts of the Virginia plan made it into the final constitution,
00:21:31.180 but Virginia succeeded in setting the agenda for the convention.
00:21:35.620 The delegates realized this convention wasn't about revising the articles.
00:21:40.460 It was about replacing them entirely.
00:21:44.300 This was a bombshell proposal that made smaller states furious.
00:21:50.180 Over the next four months, through sweltering summer heat,
00:21:52.920 they argued, they compromised, they slowly invented an unprecedented system of government.
00:21:59.320 Tempers flared, delegates stormed out, and 12 eventually quit altogether. On many days,
00:22:07.260 the experiment seemed seconds away from collapse. Slavery, of course, proved to be a political
00:22:13.300 landmine. The convention blew their opportunity to rid the nation of slavery almost right away,
00:22:18.340 Yet, there's no way slave states would have signed on if an outright ban was the only option.
00:22:25.500 Ben Franklin had recently been named the president of the Philadelphia Abolition Society.
00:22:31.680 He planned to propose condemning slavery in a new constitution, but the northern delegates persuaded him not to.
00:22:39.320 Instead, the framers avoided the word slavery entirely, tiptoeing around it as if it didn't exist.
00:22:45.820 and every clause that dealt with it was a compromise.
00:22:50.340 They determined that Congress would be blocked
00:22:52.280 from ending the slave trade for 20 years until 1808.
00:22:57.240 Then came the notorious three-fifths compromise.
00:23:01.140 This was proposed by James Wilson of Pennsylvania
00:23:03.760 who personally opposed slavery.
00:23:06.760 It counted each slave as three-fifths of a person
00:23:10.100 for the purpose of determining representation in Congress.
00:23:13.160 That proposal drew an angry response from another Pennsylvania delegate, Governor Morris.
00:23:19.240 The admission of slaves into the representation, when fairly explained, comes to this,
00:23:26.400 that the inhabitant of Georgia and South Carolina, who goes to the coast of Africa
00:23:31.260 and in defiance of the most sacred laws of humanity, 0.94
00:23:35.720 tears away his fellow creatures from their dearest connections
00:23:39.460 and damns them to the most cruel bondages shall have more votes in a government instituted for 0.59
00:23:46.480 protection of the rights of mankind than the citizen of Pennsylvania or New Jersey who views
00:23:52.900 with a laudable horror so nefarious a practice. Many people, even today, misinterpret the
00:24:00.720 compromise as a declaration that enslaved people were three-fifths human. The truth was crueler.
00:24:07.160 The slaveholders were the ones demanding that their slaves count fully to increase their
00:24:13.160 political power. The northern delegates didn't want them to be counted at all.
00:24:18.460 The compromise was about political clout, not humanity. And yet, as divisive as the slavery
00:24:25.940 question was, it wasn't the issue that almost ended the convention. That fight was just getting
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00:26:05.940 When an unexpected pregnancy happens, the focus is almost always on the mother and the dads.
00:26:11.620 Too often, they're overlooked, pushed to the side, left feeling like their voice doesn't matter.
00:26:15.600 Maybe that's how you would feel too.
00:26:17.720 You want to be supportive, you want to do the right thing, but fear sets in.
00:26:21.000 Questions start racing.
00:26:22.360 Can I really do this?
00:26:23.640 Can I be a good father?
00:26:24.920 That's exactly how John felt.
00:26:26.660 John wrote to me and he said, me, dad, that didn't even feel possible.
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00:27:05.100 slash Glenn. The convention had been simmering for weeks. Nothing came easy. But the issue that
00:27:15.740 almost imploded the convention was proportional representation. Who should hold power in the new
00:27:22.160 Congress, the people, or the states. The Virginia Plan, with its proportional representation,
00:27:29.000 basing congressional seats on population, gave the larger states like Virginia and Pennsylvania
00:27:34.320 much more influence. The smaller states had no intention of surrendering equal power that
00:27:40.300 they'd enjoyed under the Articles of Confederation, so they came back with their own idea. The New
00:27:45.680 Jersey plan. One chamber, one vote per state, no matter the population. 13 sovereign entities
00:27:53.480 side by side. James Wilson of Pennsylvania, one of the most articulate men in the room,
00:27:59.400 stood to argue for proportional representation. He was an immigrant from Scotland who spoke with
00:28:05.240 a strong Scottish brogue. Can we forget for whom we are forming a government? Is it for men or for
00:28:12.540 of the imaginary beings called states.
00:28:15.240 The room erupted.
00:28:17.680 Some applauded, others groaned.
00:28:20.340 Then William Patterson of New Jersey rose to respond.
00:28:24.560 We are met here as the deputies
00:28:26.620 of 13 independent sovereign states for federal purposes.
00:28:32.500 Can we consolidate their sovereignty and form one nation
00:28:36.940 and annihilate the sovereignties of our states
00:28:39.660 who have sent us here for other purposes?
00:28:42.840 The people of America are sharp-sighted
00:28:45.400 and not to be deceived.
00:28:47.580 The idea of a national government
00:28:49.980 as contradistinguished from a federal one
00:28:52.700 never entered into the mind of any of them.
00:28:56.240 To understand this debate,
00:28:58.060 you have to understand what the word federal meant back then.
00:29:03.640 Under the articles, federal meant a partnership,
00:29:07.200 a loose association of equal states. Sovereignty ultimately rested with the states and, by
00:29:13.300 extension, the people. The nationalists, like Madison and Hamilton, were redefining that word.
00:29:19.660 They envisioned a shared sovereignty, where state and national governments cooperated in parallel,
00:29:27.100 but ultimate authority rested with the national one. In other words, not a partnership, but a
00:29:33.440 hierarchy. Then came the quiet voice from the back of the room, Roger Sherman of Connecticut.
00:29:41.380 He was a man who was on the committee to write both the Declaration of Independence
00:29:44.660 and the Articles of Confederation. He suggested a middle ground. What if the lower house,
00:29:52.160 the House of Representatives, was based on population, while the upper house,
00:29:56.020 the Senate, gave each state equal votes. This had potential, but the delegates set it aside and
00:30:04.380 held a vote for the proportional representation in the House. It passed, yet emotions were still
00:30:09.620 running hot. They weren't ready for Sherman's meet-in-the-middle approach yet. The debate
00:30:14.360 about the Senate raged on. Luther Martin of Maryland, fiery and long-winded, took to the
00:30:21.280 floor for a three-hour tirade. He accused the big states of scheming for domination. He thundered
00:30:27.920 that if Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts insisted on control, the smaller states would walk
00:30:33.860 out and form their own confederation. The tension was unbearable. Then Gunning Bedford of Delaware
00:30:42.920 spoke up. Referring to the big states, he said, they insist they never will hurt or injure the
00:30:49.640 lesser states. I do not, gentlemen, trust you. Adding that if the smaller states form their
00:30:57.260 own confederation, the fault will be yours and all the nations of the earth will justify us.
00:31:03.460 The large states dare not dissolve the confederation. If they do, the small ones will
00:31:10.500 find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith to take them by the hand and do them justice.
00:31:19.380 Bedford was immediately shouted down.
00:31:24.980 Alexander Hamilton, exhausted, slipped away to New York on business.
00:31:29.080 And as he left, he passed Washington a note.
00:31:33.000 I fear that we shall let slip the golden opportunity of rescuing the American empire from disunion, anarchy and misery.
00:31:40.400 One of Washington's former French officers visited him in Philadelphia and said,
00:31:45.740 The expression on his face reminded me of its expression during the terrible months we were in Valley Forge camp.
00:31:52.740 The mood was bleak.
00:31:55.480 Delegates muttered that the convention might collapse entirely.
00:31:59.100 And then, on June 28th, the oldest man in the room stood up.
00:32:04.080 That was Benjamin Franklin.
00:32:06.120 He was 81 years old.
00:32:07.840 He was weak from illness.
00:32:10.160 Every day he was transported from his house to the hall in a chair
00:32:13.900 carried by four prisoners from the local jail.
00:32:17.340 When he had something to say during the convention,
00:32:19.500 he usually handed prepared statements to James Wilson, who just read them aloud.
00:32:24.400 But this time, Franklin stood and spoke on his own.
00:32:29.240 In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain,
00:32:32.040 when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection.
00:32:38.200 Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.
00:32:43.580 All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor.
00:32:51.020 To that kind providence, we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity.
00:33:01.560 And have we now forgotten that powerful friend?
00:33:03.780 I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this
00:33:11.600 truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without
00:33:19.480 his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, sir,
00:33:27.280 in the sacred writings
00:33:28.900 that except the Lord build the house,
00:33:32.020 they labor in vain that build it.
00:33:34.860 I firmly believe this.
00:33:37.200 And I also believe that without His concurring aid,
00:33:40.040 we shall succeed in this political building 0.96
00:33:42.280 no better than the builders of Babel.
00:33:45.380 We shall be divided by our little partial local interests. 0.93
00:33:49.420 Our projects will be confounded,
00:33:51.420 and we ourselves shall become a reproach
00:33:53.960 and a byword down to future ages.
00:33:57.280 And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance
00:34:02.540 despair of establishing governments by human wisdom
00:34:06.160 and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.
00:34:10.580 I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers
00:34:15.080 imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberations
00:34:19.300 be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business,
00:34:24.420 and that one or more of the clergy of the city
00:34:26.660 be requested to officiate in that service.
00:34:30.600 According to Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey,
00:34:33.200 The doctor sat down, and never did I behold a countenance at once so dignified and delighted
00:34:39.680 as was that of Washington at the close of the address.
00:34:43.880 Nor were the members of the convention generally less affected.
00:34:47.780 Franklin's motion failed, technically.
00:34:51.200 Hamilton and others objected that bringing in clergy would violate their vow of secrecy,
00:34:55.940 and besides, the convention had no funds to pay for ministers.
00:34:59.320 But Franklin's words changed something intangible.
00:35:02.960 The mood softened, bitterness cooled,
00:35:06.140 and just in time, because the biggest vote of the summer was coming.
00:35:14.820 July 2nd, 1787.
00:35:19.080 The question before the delegates,
00:35:20.980 should every state have equal votes in the Senate?
00:35:25.120 The roll was called, and when the final tally came in, it was a deadlock.
00:35:32.200 The solution, a special committee, one delegate from each state to hammer out a deal.
00:35:38.560 Two days later, July 4th, the convention recessed for Independence Day celebrations.
00:35:45.260 Cannon fire echoed through the streets.
00:35:47.540 Bells rang out from church towers.
00:35:49.380 the delegates were reminded at least for a day of what they had fought and sacrificed so much for.
00:35:55.740 When they reconvened, the committee presented its plan. The House of Representatives would
00:36:00.740 be based on population. The Senate would give each state two seats, chosen by state legislators.
00:36:08.180 Senators would not be elected by popular vote until the progressive 17th Amendment was passed
00:36:14.640 in 1913. The delegates debated, then they voted, and the compromise passed.
00:36:22.700 This was the turning point, the moment when the convention shifted from despair to hope.
00:36:29.680 James Wilson said, we should consider that we are providing a constitution for future
00:36:35.480 generations, and not just for the circumstances of the moment. Alexander Hamilton later marveled
00:36:42.620 how the Constitution came together.
00:36:44.340 For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system which, without the finger of God,
00:36:50.040 never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests.
00:36:54.820 After months of chaos, sweat, and near collapse, they had finally found common ground.
00:37:02.140 But they still had to get across the finish line.
00:37:05.480 for 250 years americans have believed in one powerful idea we're meant to live free we're
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00:38:09.360 for more of the history that inspired this podcast series be sure to read
00:38:17.660 the american story the beginnings by david barton and tim barton available now at wallbuilders.com
00:38:32.480 By September of 1787, the heat had finally broken in Philadelphia, but inside Independence Hall, the atmosphere was still thick with exhaustion, tension, and the smell of ink and candle wax.
00:38:48.560 For four long months, the delegates had argued, compromised, and nearly walked out more times than anybody could count.
00:38:55.480 But now, at last, the Constitution was ready.
00:39:00.440 The final draft had been polished by a special committee that included James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Governor Morris.
00:39:07.940 This was the moment that Madison had dreamed of.
00:39:11.840 Though he never really wanted credit years later when somebody called him the father of the Constitution,
00:39:17.720 he dismissed the title, writing,
00:39:19.620 You give me a credit to which I have no claim in calling me the writer of the Constitution of the United States.
00:39:26.820 This was not, like the fabled goddess of wisdom, the offspring of a single brain.
00:39:32.880 Morris drafted the preamble that echoes still today through American history.
00:39:37.680 We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,
00:39:42.220 establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,
00:39:48.180 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
00:39:54.200 posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
00:40:01.640 Monday, September 17th, 1787. The delegates gathered one final time. George Washington,
00:40:10.640 stoic and reserved as ever, called the meeting to order and recognized Benjamin Franklin.
00:40:16.780 Franklin once again rose from his seat and handed a written statement to James Wilson, who read it aloud.
00:40:23.620 I confess that there are several parts of this Constitution that I do not at present approve,
00:40:30.620 but I am not sure that I shall never approve them.
00:40:34.580 For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information
00:40:41.720 or fuller consideration to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right
00:40:49.860 but found to be otherwise. In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this constitution with all its
00:40:58.200 faults, if they are such. I consent, sir, to this constitution because I expect no better
00:41:05.440 and because I am not sure that it is not the best.
00:41:10.040 I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of this convention,
00:41:14.500 who may still have objections to it, would with me on this occasion
00:41:19.080 doubt a little of his own infallibility
00:41:21.960 and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.
00:41:28.760 Franklin's humility set the tone.
00:41:31.460 Many delegates still had deep reservations,
00:41:33.620 But in that moment, unity mattered more than perfection.
00:41:39.540 One by one, the delegates stepped forward to sign.
00:41:43.760 Washington signed first in bold, clear script.
00:41:47.560 Then the others followed, 39 in all.
00:41:51.080 Not everyone could bring themselves to do it.
00:41:53.620 Luther Martin had already stormed out.
00:41:56.320 Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts refused.
00:41:59.100 George Mason and Edmund Randolph, both Virginians, declined as well.
00:42:03.620 Randolph had been one of the two to introduce the Virginia Plan four months earlier,
00:42:08.120 but now he feared the Constitution went too far in creating a powerful central government.
00:42:13.800 The fallout was personal.
00:42:17.040 Washington's 30-year friendship with George Mason collapsed over the disagreement.
00:42:22.160 They never reconciled.
00:42:24.500 As Franklin stepped forward to sign, tears streaked his face.
00:42:28.340 When it was done, he looked towards Washington's chair,
00:42:31.320 which had a carved sun at the top of the high back.
00:42:35.340 He turned to those around him, and James Madison recorded his words.
00:42:39.500 I have often, in the course of the session, looked at that sun behind the president
00:42:47.080 without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting.
00:42:52.440 But now at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.
00:43:07.600 Signing the U.S. Constitution was only half the battle.
00:43:11.980 It still had to be ratified by at least nine of the 13 states.
00:43:16.640 About that prospect, Washington wrote,
00:43:19.300 Should everything proceed with harmony and consent according to our actual wishes and
00:43:25.580 expectations, it will be so much beyond anything we had a right to imagine or expect 18 months ago
00:43:33.960 that it will, as visibly as any possible event in the course of human affairs,
00:43:41.020 demonstrate the finger of providence. The public ratification fight did not proceed
00:43:46.760 with the harmony that he had hoped for.
00:43:49.280 It was another long, heated debate.
00:43:52.100 Within weeks, newspapers all across the states
00:43:54.500 lit up with editorials both for and against the new Constitution.
00:43:59.320 John Lansing of New York,
00:44:01.040 who had walked out of the convention in protest,
00:44:03.400 called the Constitution
00:44:04.480 a triple-headed monster, 0.63
00:44:07.140 as deep and wicked a conspiracy
00:44:08.940 as ever was invented in the darkest ages
00:44:11.780 against the liberties of a free people.
00:44:14.680 Critics attacked everything,
00:44:16.760 a federal court system, the presidency, even the idea of a permanent capital city.
00:44:21.660 Some worried the new executive branch looked too much like a monarchy.
00:44:26.040 Benjamin Franklin had suggested a small executive council instead of a single president.
00:44:31.780 To shape the debate, the Constitution's supporters got creative with branding.
00:44:36.600 The Nationalists, Madison, Hamilton, and their allies,
00:44:40.360 knew the word national sounded threatening to a lot of Americans.
00:44:43.960 So they rebranded themselves as Federalists, a term that evoked balance and cooperation.
00:44:51.680 Their opponents, who feared centralized power, became known as the Anti-Federalists.
00:44:57.720 It wasn't entirely accurate as a label since they weren't opposed to a federal system in the traditional sense.
00:45:04.560 They just simply believed power should rest primarily with the states.
00:45:08.200 To win over skeptics, Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay launched a coordinated campaign in New York newspapers under the shared pen of Publius.
00:45:18.760 The essays they wrote are called the Federalist Papers.
00:45:22.820 They became a defense of the Constitution's logic, structure, and necessity.
00:45:28.140 In Federalist No. 51, Madison explained,
00:45:31.260 What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?
00:45:36.200 If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
00:45:41.720 In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men,
00:45:46.140 the great difficulty lies in this.
00:45:49.040 You must first enable the government to control the governed,
00:45:53.080 and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.
00:45:57.700 The Anti-Federalists, meanwhile, warned of tyranny,
00:46:01.620 not from a king, but from the new government itself.
00:46:04.680 They worried about the absence of explicit protections for individual rights, but even
00:46:11.340 they agreed that the current system under the Articles could not survive.
00:46:16.060 Ultimately, the argument wasn't over whether to fix the government, but how.
00:46:23.360 Each state held its own ratifying convention.
00:46:26.160 By May 1788, eight states had ratified.
00:46:30.000 In June, New Hampshire became the ninth, pushing the document into law.
00:46:34.240 But everyone knew that without Virginia and New York, the Union might fracture anyway.
00:46:40.060 The vote in Virginia was close, but they did ultimately approve it.
00:46:44.680 So did New York, after Hamilton's relentless campaigning.
00:46:49.140 Only North Carolina and Rhode Island held out.
00:46:52.680 Both however would eventually join.
00:46:57.580 The United States had a brand new government.
00:47:01.500 The Revolution had won independence, but now the Constitution had secured survival.
00:47:09.140 In the end, what happened inside that locked, sweltering room in 1787 wasn't just a political
00:47:15.660 negotiation.
00:47:16.660 It was a fusion of ambition, vision, and insight about human nature that somehow produced something
00:47:24.000 enduring.
00:47:25.940 The United States was finally, hopefully, off and running.
00:47:30.860 But there was one top priority for the Anti-Federalist, which for many of them was the number one
00:47:36.540 incentive for ratifying the Constitution, the creation of a Bill of Rights.
00:47:45.360 Coming up on The American Story, The Beginnings.
00:47:50.280 He looks out over his farm, it's the place he loves more than any battlefield, any council
00:47:55.580 chamber, any capital city, and he understands. If he says yes, his life will once again no longer
00:48:03.740 be his own. Washington closes his eyes, and in that moment, he knows. He's under no illusion
00:48:13.000 about how difficult it will be. I should consider myself as entering upon an unexplored field,
00:48:19.980 Enveloped on every side with clouds and darkness
00:48:24.580 America is about to choose its first president
00:48:28.880 Just a reminder
00:48:36.340 I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast
00:48:39.700 And pass this on to a friend
00:48:41.020 So it can be discovered by other people
00:48:49.980 We'll be right back.