The Glenn Beck Program - Tyranny and Treason： The Dawn of Independence ｜ The American Story ｜ Ep 6

00:00:00.000 It's pitch black.

00:00:07.360 It's after midnight, April 1775, and the streets of Boston pulse with secret urgency.

00:00:15.240 Paul Revere, the Boston silversmith, veteran of the Boston Tea Party, is on the move again.

00:00:21.960 A rebel's fire is in his eyes.

00:00:23.680 He clamors onto his horse, heart racing as he spurs it into a frantic gallop.

00:00:29.200 The wind whips his face as he tears out of Boston through the countryside, dodging moonlit

00:00:34.940 shadows and the ever-present threat that the British patrols are lurking in the darkness.

00:00:40.360 Every sleepy farmhouse he passes, he voices an urgent warning.

00:00:45.740 The regulars are coming out!

00:00:47.160 The regulars are coming out!

00:00:49.920 Regulars being the colonial term for British troops.

00:00:52.740 He doesn't say the British are coming.

00:00:53.760 the British are coming because in the colonies, all of the Americans consider themselves British

00:00:59.080 at this point. Revere charges straight for the Parsonage in Lexington, where Reverend Jonas

00:01:05.560 Clark harbors two of the revolution's most wanted men, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. These guys

00:01:13.120 are the brains behind the brewing storm, and the British aim to clap them in irons,

00:01:17.580 snuffing out the rebellion before it ever catches fire.

00:01:21.780 The parsonage is guarded by local Minutemen

00:01:24.200 who converge on Revere before they even realize who he is.

00:01:28.800 He finally bursts inside,

00:01:30.900 delivering the intel that might save Adams and Hancock from the gallows.

00:01:35.140 The Redcoats are marching in from Boston

00:01:36.780 and they're going to snatch you and seize the colonists' hidden weapons. 0.90

00:01:41.280 Revere presses on towards nearby Concord,

00:01:43.640 but he doesn't get very far.

00:01:46.140 British soldiers ambush him and surround him.

00:01:49.340 Pistols jammed against his chest and his head.

00:01:52.320 They grill him, threatening execution.

00:01:55.400 It's hard to fathom why they didn't arrest Revere,

00:01:58.660 because he's the most well-connected Patriot operative in Boston.

00:02:03.040 But instead, they let him go.

00:02:04.820 They seize his horse, and then they gallop away.

00:02:09.160 Bruised but unbroken, Revere stumbles back to the parsonage on foot.

00:02:14.680 When he gets there, he can't believe that Adams and Hancock are still there.

00:02:19.540 Hancock has taken his sweet time packing.

00:02:21.720 Adams, meanwhile, only has the clothes on his back, which he escaped Boston a few days earlier.

00:02:27.700 But they're both used to being wanted men.

00:02:30.220 They've dealt with the British government threats and harassment for years now.

00:02:33.760 But it reveres urging the men finally bolt to Hancock's fancy carriage.

00:02:38.760 Later, they pause for breakfast by the road.

00:02:41.200 Yeah, really.

00:02:41.720 When a farmer rushes towards them across a field, breathless, saying,

00:02:45.940 the British troops are closing in on you now.

00:02:48.460 Adams and Hancock then ditch the carriage, scrambling into the woods on foot,

00:02:52.000 hearts pounding as they vanish into the underbrush.

00:02:56.280 They have no idea that in Lexington, the town they just escaped,

00:03:01.600 a war against the most powerful empire on earth has just begun.

00:03:06.780 This is the American story, The Beginnings, adapted from the book of the same title by

00:03:15.440 David Barton and Tim Barton.

00:03:19.000 Episode 6, Tyranny and Treason, The Dawn of Independence.

00:03:28.940 The sun had barely risen over Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, when 77 colonial

00:03:36.240 minute men, left their farms and their shops. They stood there tense and uncertain in ragged lines

00:03:43.020 on the triangular patch of grass in the center of town. They faced the unknown, gripping their

00:03:49.280 muskets knuckles white. Many had never been in combat. All of them had heard the midnight alarm.

00:03:57.360 Among them stood Captain John Parker, a weathered veteran of earlier wars, who is said to have told

00:04:03.440 his men, quote, stand your ground, don't fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war,

00:04:10.440 let it begin here. Down the road marched 700 British regulars, their redcoats flashing beneath

00:04:16.980 a pale sky. They had been dispatched by General Thomas Gage from Boston to seize control of all

00:04:22.300 the colonial weapons in Concord and to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock if possible. 0.79

00:04:28.260 The Redcoats filed into this quiet town.

00:04:30.740 Their movements were precise and orderly, 1.00

00:04:33.200 intimidating to the homemade militia with their patchwork of weapons and abilities.

00:04:38.260 But the British just formed ranks opposite the colonists.

00:04:42.100 There was a moment of stillness and unbearable quiet.

00:04:45.520 And then came a sound that ignited a revolution that would reshape the world.

00:04:53.900 No one knows who fired the first shot.

00:04:56.420 General Gage later claimed it was one of the rebels, but Reverend Jonas Clark, the pastor who

00:05:02.100 was sheltering Hancock and Adams in his home, fiercely rejected this version. In sworn testimony,

00:05:07.680 Clark insisted, nothing can be more certain than the contrary and nothing more false, weak,

00:05:15.400 or wicked than such a representation. A cloud of witnesses whose veracity cannot be justly

00:05:22.940 disputed upon oath have declared in the most express

00:05:27.400 and positive terms that the British troops fired first.

00:05:33.400 The British volleyed into the disorganized militia.

00:05:36.700 Acrid smoke clouded the green.

00:05:38.640 Men on both sides fell amid the yelling and confusion.

00:05:44.780 Within a few chaotic minutes,

00:05:46.620 eight Americans were killed and 10 were wounded.

00:05:49.840 The British continued their march,

00:05:52.320 leaving behind shock, blood, and grief.

00:05:56.080 As the British advanced to Concord, colonial militia numbers swelled.

00:06:00.500 By the time the Redcoats reached the town, word had spread like wildfire, and hundreds

00:06:05.120 of armed colonists shadowed the enemy movements.

00:06:08.980 At the North Bridge, around 400 American militiamen confronted the British force.

00:06:14.680 The tense standoff escalated when the British fired warning shots, then came a deadly response.

00:06:21.280 The Americans fired back in volleys and the British line broke.

00:06:28.160 They retreated in disorder, falling back towards Boston through the fields and in the woods

00:06:32.940 where the militiamen fired from behind trees, stone walls and buildings.

00:06:37.660 Letters from the time described the British retreat as chaotic and panicked and very bloody.

00:06:44.900 Houses and farms along the route were burned, many by British troops retaliating against

00:06:49.560 perceived sniper fire. The retreat became a desperate scramble with 273 British casualties.

00:06:58.200 One of the most astonishing stories from that day came from an unlikely warrior,

00:07:02.920 an 80-year-old Captain Samuel Whitmore. When a squad of British soldiers passed near his home,

00:07:09.800 Whitmore ambushed him. He shot and killed one with his own muscle and two others with his

00:07:15.720 his two pistols. One of the troops shot Whitmore in the face, and when he fell to the ground,

00:07:21.780 they struck him on the head with the butt of a musket. The remaining British soldiers swarmed

00:07:26.780 him with bayonets, stabbing him 13 times, and then left him for dead. Whitmore embodied the 1.00

00:07:33.340 patriot grit and the will to survive that would be required of the colonies. Four hours after he

00:07:40.480 was shot and bayoneted, Samuel Whitmore was found lying in a pool of his own blood, trying to reload

00:07:46.580 his musket. He was carried to a doctor, his case pronounced hopeless, but the doctor bandaged him

00:07:52.800 up anyway and sent him home to die. Whitmore somehow or another survived. He lived another

00:07:59.380 18 years with horrible scars and finally dying at the age of 98. Almost one month before the

00:08:07.600 battles of Lexington and Concord, Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull had declared April

00:08:12.460 19th a day of public fasting and prayer, quote, for repentance and for the securing of the liberties

00:08:18.800 of the American colonies. So, when the first bloodshed of the Revolutionary War erupted on

00:08:24.880 that exact day, an entire state was praying. Many colonists interpreted it as no coincidence,

00:08:32.000 but as a sign of divine involvement.

00:08:36.340 Samuel Adams and John Hancock avoided arrest by the British

00:08:39.340 and made it to Philadelphia for the start of the Second Continental Congress in June.

00:08:43.460 John Adams was also a Massachusetts delegate.

00:08:46.740 He rose and nominated George Washington to be the commander of a brand new Continental Army.

00:08:52.360 His cousin, Samuel Adams, seconded the motion.

00:08:55.540 John Hancock, who had presumed John Adams would nominate him,

00:08:59.360 was said to be visibly angered. Washington, however, was a strategic pick by the Adams

00:09:06.380 cousins. The idea was to help bind the southern colonies to the northern cause.

00:09:12.040 Washington left the room for the vote. Congress unanimously approved him.

00:09:17.080 He then accepted the responsibility but gave a solemn response.

00:09:22.700 I am truly sensible of the high honor done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress

00:09:27.940 from a consciousness that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the

00:09:33.280 extensive and important trust. However, as the Congress desire it, I will enter upon the

00:09:39.600 momentous duty and exert every power I possess in their service and for the support of the

00:09:45.160 glorious cause. But lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation,

00:09:51.700 I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the

00:09:56.800 utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.

00:10:02.460 In a private letter to his wife, Martha, Washington confessed,

00:10:06.580 Far from seeking this appointment, I have used every endeavor in my power to avoid it,

00:10:11.780 not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family,

00:10:15.240 but from a consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity.

00:10:20.080 It has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this service.

00:10:23.200 the day after washington's appointment british forces under general william howe launched an

00:10:30.420 assault on colonial fortifications near bunker hill just north of boston the colonial defenders

00:10:36.260 low on ammunition were said to have been ordered not to fire until they saw the whites of their

00:10:41.720 eyes the result was brutal vicious up close combat dr joseph warren a rising political leader and

00:10:49.660 Samuel Adams' closest friend, was among the Boston Volunteers defending Bunker Hill.

00:10:55.060 In the final British push, he was shot in the face, his body brutally mutilated by bayonets.

00:11:01.760 And the British finally took the hill, at the cost of over 1,000 casualties, including 92 officers.

00:11:09.420 The colonists lost 450 men.

00:11:12.420 Though technically a British victory, the cost shook their confidence.

00:11:16.260 many colonists sought as proof they could stand toe-to-toe with the greatest army in the world.

00:11:22.000 But Washington had not yet taken command. The Continental Army was appallingly disorganized,

00:11:28.700 supplies were scarce, rebellion was now tangible but costly, victory was nowhere on the horizon,

00:11:35.580 and a great storm was gathering, one that would test Washington's resolve,

00:11:40.120 his army's endurance, and the very idea of American independence.

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00:12:47.720 july 3rd 1775 cambridge massachusetts on the edge of the common thousands of militiamen sunburned

00:12:58.860 unshaven many of them shoeless crowded to glimpse a tall virginian in a blue uniform

00:13:03.900 approach on horseback. George Washington had arrived to assume official command of the

00:13:10.260 Continental Army encircling Boston. The scene was one of organized chaos, tents sprawled across

00:13:16.600 fields, men drilling awkwardly with whatever weapons they had, and Washington had arrived

00:13:21.920 under the impression that New England had 20,000 battle-ready troops. That was a force to reckon

00:13:27.540 with but reality looked a little bit different a thorough count revealed the harsh truth there

00:13:34.420 were only about 16 000 and after accounting for the sick the absent and those without basic equipment

00:13:40.500 barely 14 000 stood ready for duty it was a gut punch revolutionary zeal and actual readiness

00:13:48.500 were far apart washington dove into assessments riding among the lines noting deficiencies and

00:13:54.740 discipline in supplies. The second reality check came with the gunpowder inventory.

00:13:59.860 They had less than 10,000 pounds in total. It was scarcely enough for nine rounds per soldier

00:14:05.620 in a sustained fight. This revelation stunned Washington. Accounts say he sat speechless for

00:14:12.660 about 30 minutes, his mind reeling from the vulnerability. The shortage could doom them

00:14:17.700 before they even really got started. Meanwhile, back in Philadelphia,

00:14:22.260 the Second Continental Congress grappled with division. Hawks, like the Adams cousins, pushed 1.00

00:14:27.380 for a full break with England, but many of the delegates were still loyal to the Crown at heart 0.77

00:14:32.260 and yearned for reconciliation. This faction successfully pushed for one last try at patching

00:14:38.500 things up with King George III. The Congress drafted the Olive Branch Petition, a humble

00:14:45.700 appeal to the King for peace, affirming allegiance while begging Britain to fix colonial grievances.

00:14:52.260 This petition passed amid heated debate.

00:14:55.500 It was an odd Hail Mary to send,

00:14:57.660 considering the blood-stained ground in Lexington, Concord, and now Boston.

00:15:02.580 But in September, the emissary from Congress sailed to London

00:15:06.320 to hand-deliver the Olive Branch petition.

00:15:09.720 It was a wasted effort.

00:15:10.780 King George, incensed by continual reports of rebellion,

00:15:14.800 refused to even read the petition.

00:15:16.980 He branded Congress an illegal assembly of traitors.

00:15:20.440 This slammed the door shut on negotiation.

00:15:24.200 Now, all-out war seemed inevitable.

00:15:28.580 The same month that King George waved off the olive branch from Congress,

00:15:32.620 George Washington faced another blow to his struggling camp in Boston.

00:15:36.960 Dr. Benjamin Church, a respected Boston physician and Surgeon General of the Army,

00:15:42.340 turned out to be a traitor.

00:15:44.640 Dr. Church had been a member of the Sons of Liberty.

00:15:46.820 he was trusted by Samuel and John Adams and Paul Revere and John Hancock. Suspicion arose when a

00:15:53.920 coded letter written by Dr. Church was intercepted on its way to the British lines. Once deciphered,

00:15:59.880 the letter revealed detailed intelligence on American troops' strength, plans, and weaknesses.

00:16:05.900 Church claimed the letter was just a ruse to mislead the enemy, but the evidence piled up.

00:16:10.900 He had been on the British General Gage's payroll for months.

00:16:16.240 Church was tried by a military court, convicted, and thrown in prison.

00:16:21.500 The episode rocked the young army and Congress and put everybody on edge,

00:16:26.660 as if they weren't facing enough massive obstacles without also having to worry about traitors in their midst.

00:16:33.740 As autumn chilled into winter, a 25-year-old Boston bookseller named Henry Knox

00:16:39.420 came to Washington with an innovative idea. A colonel in the Continental Army, Knox was a

00:16:45.140 self-taught artillery expert. His idea was to undertake a mission to Fort Ticonderoga in

00:16:52.160 upstate New York. The British fort had been seized six months earlier by Ethan Allen and

00:16:58.380 Benedict Arnold with a small militia force. The fort contained dozens of British cannons that

00:17:04.620 were just sitting there. Knox thought they could be hauled back to Boston, where they would be

00:17:09.540 desperately needed. Washington sent Knox on the mission right away. It was the first of many

00:17:15.080 gambles the war would require of this ragtag military. Meanwhile, Washington tried to keep

00:17:20.820 his amateur army together outside of Boston. There was still far too little gunpowder,

00:17:26.580 Congress dragging its feet on funding, leaving soldiers in tattered uniforms, unpaid and grumbling.

00:17:32.120 As New Year's Day 1776 dawned, disaster struck.

00:17:37.980 Thousands of one-year enlistments expired, and men streamed towards home, weary of the hardships.

00:17:44.580 Some new recruits replaced them, but the army didn't have enough weapons to supply the new men.

00:17:50.420 Washington now had under 10,000 troops, only half the number, fit for duty because of rampant illness.

00:17:57.220 In private, sleepless moments in the middle of the night, Washington confessed his anguish.

00:18:03.220 The reflection upon my situation and that of this army produces many an uneasy hour when all around me are wrapped in sleep.

00:18:11.220 Few people know the predicament we are in.

00:18:14.220 To his trusted military secretary Joseph Reed, he wrote candidly,

00:18:18.220 Could I have foreseen what I have and am like to experience?

00:18:22.220 No consideration upon earth should have induced me to accept this command.

00:18:26.220 command. Yet amid the gloom and against the odds, Henry Knox showed up in Boston with his captured

00:18:32.260 cannons, which provided a lift to the shivering army. Knox and his team built 42 massive sleds

00:18:40.140 from felled trees, harnessing teams of oxen and horses to drag 59 guns, totaling 120,000 pounds

00:18:48.340 across 300 miles of wilderness. For two months, they endured blizzards, crossed frozen rivers,

00:18:56.220 climbed mountains without losing a single cannon. It was a logistical miracle.

00:19:02.620 The turning point came on the night of March 4th, 1776. Under the night sky, 2,000 American troops

00:19:09.500 moved like ghosts towards Dorchester Heights. It was a strategic overlook of Boston Harbor,

00:19:15.180 and to muffle the noise they wrapped wagon wheels in hay and straw, hauling Knox's cannons uphill

00:19:21.100 in silence. The earthworks rose from the frozen soil, fortified with barrels of dirt and felled

00:19:27.420 trees. And at dawn, British lookouts blinked in disbelief at the full fortress that had not

00:19:33.420 existed the night before, with artillery threatening their ships below. One British

00:19:38.300 officer gasped in awe. My God, these fellows have done more work in one night than I could make my

00:19:44.120 army do in three months. British General Howe ordered an assault, massing troops for a Bunker

00:19:50.400 hill-type assault. But that night, the weather intervened. A ferocious nor'easter unleashed

00:19:57.260 howling winds, driving rain, and waves that swamped the British landing boats. The attack

00:20:02.720 had to be called off. General Howe found his position untenable with the Colonials controlling

00:20:07.920 the high position with so much firepower. He decided best to evacuate the city.

00:20:13.680 Almost two weeks after Washington's daring overnight move to take Dorchester Heights

00:20:20.620 11,000 British troops and loyalists boarded ships

00:20:24.080 And they sailed away as Bostonians cheered from the shores

00:20:27.860 Abigail Adams, watching from her home near Boston, wrote her husband in wonder

00:20:33.240 The more I think of it, the more amazed I am that they should leave such a harbor

00:20:37.300 Such fortifications, such entrenchments

00:20:40.400 and that we should be in peaceable possession of a town which we expected would cost us a river of

00:20:46.140 blood. Surely it is the Lord's doings, and it is marvelous in our eyes. As celebrations echoed

00:20:54.100 across Boston Harbor, a small pamphlet rippled through the colonies. The incendiary words it

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00:23:54.760 Thomas Paine. New character. He arrived in America in 1774 as a down-on-his-luck Englishman,

00:24:01.800 fresh from failures as a corset maker, teacher, and tax collector. Armed with a letter of

00:24:07.340 introduction from Benjamin Franklin, he landed in Philadelphia, a city buzzing with discontent.

00:24:13.720 Paine, with his razor-sharp mind and gift for plain speech, soon joined the Patriot Press.

00:24:18.360 In January 1776, as Henry Knox slid into Boston with his trove of cannons,

00:24:24.140 Thomas Paine published something he called Common Sense.

00:24:27.660 It was a 47-page pamphlet that exploded like a bombshell in the minds of colonists,

00:24:33.580 arguing that monarchy was absurd.

00:24:36.840 A royal brute like King George deserved no loyalty. 0.51

00:24:40.620 Paine called for the immediate independence,

00:24:43.040 framing it as common sense for an enlightened people.

00:24:46.140 At the time, it sold 120,000 copies in three months. It was the best-selling printed work

00:24:54.300 by a single author in American history up to that time. It was read aloud in taverns and homes. It

00:25:00.160 dramatically shifted public opinion. Its influence was unrivaled in turning colonial minds towards

00:25:06.900 independence. As John Adams rode through New York on his way from Boston to Congress in late January,

00:25:13.480 he bought two copies of Common Sense. He sent one to his wife Abigail with a note on its power.

00:25:19.660 Payne's words democratized the debate, making independence feel inevitable and urgent. By June

00:25:26.160 1776, the idea of separation from Britain simmered in Philadelphia's statehouse. Virginia's Richard

00:25:33.380 Henry Lee proposed a resolution for independence, sparking weeks of fierce debate in Congress.

00:25:40.600 A vote was postponed until July 1st to allow the colony's time to consider.

00:25:45.520 And in the meantime, a committee was appointed to write a Declaration of Independence.

00:25:50.400 Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston.

00:25:55.680 The committee decided Jefferson was the best suited to tackle the first draft.

00:25:59.680 So the 33-year-old Jefferson sequestered himself in an upstairs parlor of a rented brick house on the outskirts of Philadelphia,

00:26:07.040 where he would, quote, have the benefit of circulating air.

00:26:13.060 In that summer heat, he wrote page after passionate page.

00:26:17.100 With input from the committee, he crafted an eloquent, powerful rationale for breaking up with Britain.

00:26:23.880 Liberty was not granted by kings, but endowed by God.

00:26:28.240 When Jefferson finished, Adams read the draft aloud to the committee.

00:26:32.040 Franklin suggested a few small edits.

00:26:34.380 Adams defended the boldest phrases.

00:26:37.040 And by June 28, the document was ready for debate.

00:26:40.480 On July 1, Congress reconvened for final arguments.

00:26:44.460 Pennsylvania's John Dickinson, a cautious lawyer, rose passionately against it,

00:26:49.340 warning that declaring independence now was, quote,

00:26:52.680 to brave the storm in a skiff made of paper.

00:26:56.440 His eloquence swayed some, but John Adams countered with what witnesses called the greatest speech of his life,

00:27:02.820 a two-hour masterpiece defending liberty, dismantling Dickinson's fears with logic and

00:27:08.980 fire. The debate stretched on for nine grueling hours. Finally, the next day, July 2nd, the vote

00:27:16.880 came. Twelve colonies approved Lee's resolution. Only one, New York, abstained, waiting for

00:27:25.800 instructions for home. Independence was decided. John Adams wrote Abigail that night with a vision

00:27:33.160 on how Independence Day should be celebrated. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated

00:27:37.460 by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day

00:27:44.900 of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and

00:27:52.340 parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this

00:28:01.280 continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore. The rest of July 2nd and 3rd were

00:28:08.500 spent by Congress editing Jefferson's draft of the Declaration. Nearly a quarter of it was altered

00:28:14.580 or deleted. Jefferson sat fuming as words were struck out line by line. He was especially upset

00:28:21.900 when his searing condemnation of the slave trade was cut at the insistence of delegates from South

00:28:27.500 Carolina and Georgia. Still, the final version rang with clarity and conviction. On July 4th,

00:28:35.500 Congress officially approved and adopted the Declaration of Independence.

00:28:41.580 When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political

00:28:47.860 bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth

00:28:52.680 the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle

00:28:58.360 them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare

00:29:03.800 the causes which impel them to the separation.

00:29:07.280 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed

00:29:13.460 by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty,

00:29:19.460 and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,

00:29:25.840 deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government

00:29:31.380 becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it,

00:29:37.340 and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form

00:29:44.640 as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.

00:29:50.120 That night, a handwritten copy was rushed to the local print shop of John Dunlap,

00:29:55.160 who labored through the early morning of July 5th to typeset and print about 200 broadsides.

00:30:01.740 Couriers on horseback fanned out, delivering copies to every colony.

00:30:06.380 No one knows what happened to that very first handwritten copy that was rushed to Dunlap's shop.

00:30:12.000 Of those first Dunlap broadsides, only 26 are known to survive today,

00:30:16.720 scattered among libraries and private collections.

00:30:20.200 The official copy, known as the engrossed copy,

00:30:23.760 was then prepared on a single giant sheet of parchment.

00:30:28.040 On August 2nd, one by one, the delegates stepped up and signed their name.

00:30:33.840 By doing so, they were committing high treason, punishable by death.

00:30:39.400 Years later, Dr. Benjamin Rush wrote to John Adams, recalling that solemn morning.

00:30:44.520 Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up,

00:30:50.900 one after another, to the table of the President of Congress,

00:30:55.000 to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrants?

00:31:00.000 the silence and the gloom of the morning was interrupted i well recollect only for a moment

00:31:08.360 by colonel harrison of virginia who said to mr jerry at the table i shall have a great advantage

00:31:15.640 over you mr jerry when we are all hung for what we are now doing from the size and weight of my body

00:31:23.800 I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body, 0.99

00:31:29.140 you will dance in the air an hour or two before you are dead. 0.83

00:31:34.700 The speech procured a transient smile,

00:31:38.040 but it was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was conducted.

00:31:44.260 Fifty-six men signed the declaration.

00:31:48.240 Historian T.R. Fehrenbach later described their sacrifice in doing so.

00:31:53.660 Nine signers died of wounds or hardships during the Revolutionary War.

00:31:58.860 Five were captured or imprisoned, in some cases with brutal treatment.

00:32:04.620 The wives, sons, and daughters of others were killed, jailed, mistreated, persecuted,

00:32:11.020 or left penniless. One was driven from his wife's deathbed and lost all his children.

00:32:18.080 The houses of twelve signers were burned to the ground.

00:32:21.700 Seventeen lost everything they owned.

00:32:25.280 Every signer was prescribed as a traitor.

00:32:28.200 Everyone was hunted.

00:32:30.460 Most were driven into flight.

00:32:32.420 Most were at one time or another barred from their families or homes.

00:32:36.580 Most were offered immunity, freedom, rewards, their property,

00:32:42.840 or the lives and release of loved ones to break their pledged word or to take the king's protection.

00:32:50.220 Their fortunes were forfeited, but their honor was not.

00:32:54.720 No signer defected or changed his stand throughout the darkest hours.

00:32:59.780 Their honor, like the nation, remained intact.

00:33:03.520 John Adams later wrote,

00:33:05.340 A warning, meant for us.

00:33:08.140 Posterity.

00:33:08.820 You will never know how much it costs the present generation to preserve your freedom.

00:33:14.900 I hope you will make a good use of it.

00:33:17.540 If you do not, I shall repent in heaven that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.

00:33:24.720 On July 9, 1776, in New York City, General George Washington assembled his troops on the commons.

00:33:32.080 A freshly printed broadside of the Declaration was read out loud, and cheers erupted.

00:33:38.280 That night, soldiers and civilians marched to the equestrian statue of King George III

00:33:43.560 and pulled it down with ropes.

00:33:46.160 The lead was then melted to make more than 42,000 musket balls for the coming fight.

00:33:52.700 But the euphoria was very short-lived.

00:33:56.140 Off of Staten Island, 400 British naval ships filled the harbor.

00:34:00.520 It was the largest force ever assembled to that point in world history.

00:34:05.360 Under British General William Howe, 32,000 troops had landed on Staten Island,

00:34:10.700 more soldiers than the entire population of Philadelphia, which was America's largest city at the time.

00:34:16.780 From his post, Washington's military secretary, Joseph Reed, wrote to his wife,

00:34:21.860 When I look down and see the prodigious fleet they have collected, the preparations they have made,

00:34:27.860 and consider the vast expenses incurred,

00:34:30.360 I cannot help being astonished that a people should come 3,000 miles at such risk, trouble and expense to rob, plunder and destroy another people because they will not lay their lives and fortunes at their feet. 0.78

00:34:46.460 The storm, the true test of independence, had just arrived. 0.96

00:34:52.060 when you travel well your KLM Royal Dutch Airlines ticket takes you to more than just

00:35:00.780 your destination it takes you to front row views voices lost in the music and new shared memories

00:35:08.240 and when the last song fades welcome aboard KLM Royal Dutch Airlines crew is here to ensure your

00:35:16.960 journey home hits all the right notes. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. When you travel, travel well.

00:35:25.520 We all get a little older every day, whether we like it or not. And one of the things that tends

00:35:29.460 to come with getting older is aches and pains. Joints start to wear down. Old injuries jump back

00:35:34.260 into life. And the normal exercise of everyday living begins to catch up with you. See, I told

00:35:39.260 you exercise is bad for you. All of the years of walking and lifting and bending and climbing

00:35:43.800 stairs getting out of chairs carrying groceries doing you know what we all do now the body is

00:35:49.420 sending you a bill that's the bad news but the good news is you don't have to just accept it

00:35:54.940 that's why i want to tell you about relief factor it's a daily drug-free supplement designed to

00:35:59.520 help reduce or eliminate pain by addressing inflammation and over a million people have

00:36:04.320 tried relief factor at this point and two-thirds of them have gone on to take more year after year

00:36:09.820 I'm one of them. This year, as we celebrate 250 years of freedom, ask yourself, are you living

00:36:15.220 with the freedom you deserve from pain? Try the three-week quick start. Do it today. See how it

00:36:20.280 works for you. Relieffactor.com or call 800-4-RELIEF. For more of the history that inspired

00:36:28.740 this podcast series, be sure to read The American Story, The Beginnings by David Barton and Tim

00:36:35.420 Barton. Available now at wallbuilders.com. Late August 1776. From the bluffs of Brooklynites,

00:36:49.600 George Washington watched the British armada glide into position. The British invasion force

00:36:55.220 in New York Harbor had swelled into a spectacle of power. 400 ships, 32,000 troops, including

00:37:02.680 thousands of hired German Hessian mercenaries. For the first time, Washington truly saw what

00:37:09.900 his aspiring nation was up against. On August 27th, the British struck. It became the largest

00:37:16.440 battle ever fought in North America to that point. Over 40,000 soldiers clashing across the fields

00:37:22.780 and woods of Long Island. British General Howe pulled off a key flanking maneuver,

00:37:28.000 Slipping troops through an unguarded road at night.

00:37:31.460 American scouts missed it, and by morning, redcoats poured into the rear of Washington's forces.

00:37:36.400 When the British trap snapped shut, chaos erupted.

00:37:41.360 Muskets roared, cannons thundered, men fell in heaps.

00:37:45.860 American troops from Maryland and Delaware fought desperately, repeatedly charging with bayonets to hold the line,

00:37:52.180 buying any time for retreats.

00:37:54.520 But it was ultimately futile.

00:37:57.060 The Americans suffered 300 killed and over 1,000 captured, many bayoneted in surrender.

00:38:03.140 One British general wrote smugly, 0.63

00:38:05.260 If a good bleeding can bring those Bible-faced Yankees to their senses,

00:38:11.420 the fever of independency should soon abate. 1.00

00:38:15.360 Washington was forced to retreat to the fortified lines of Brooklyn Heights.

00:38:20.380 The defeat was crushing.

00:38:22.540 Morale plummeted among the 9,000 or so remaining troops,

00:38:25.880 and the British were poised for a final blow.

00:38:29.040 If they had pursued the Americans right away,

00:38:31.900 the war and America's quest for independence 0.66

00:38:33.980 probably would have ended that day.

00:38:36.680 But General Howe delayed.

00:38:39.240 Perhaps he remembered the slaughter he had endured at Bunker Hill.

00:38:43.300 Whatever the reason, Washington could not stay put,

00:38:46.220 so he made a bold decision.

00:38:47.520 They would evacuate the entire army across the East River to Manhattan.

00:38:52.080 9,000 men, their horses, cannons, supplies, right under the enemy's nose.

00:38:58.700 On August 29th, the Americans once again pulled off a secret overnight mission.

00:39:04.680 Under strict orders of silence, regiments marched to the Brooklyn ferry dock.

00:39:10.320 Skilled fishermen manned flatboats and sloops rowing back and forth across the East River in total darkness.

00:39:16.760 The oars were muffled with rags.

00:39:19.700 Commands were passed along in whispers.

00:39:22.080 The soldiers closest to enemy lines had to maintain campfires and make noise throughout

00:39:27.760 the long night to keep up the appearance of an entrenched army. All night long, Washington's

00:39:33.420 troops were ferried to Manhattan. But as dawn grayed the sky, hundreds of troops still had

00:39:39.320 not made it across. Exposure meant certain death or capture. Then, a miracle. A thick fog blanketed

00:39:47.920 both the river and the troops remaining on the Brooklyn side.

00:39:52.020 The British couldn't see them as they made their escape.

00:39:55.020 Major Benjamin Talmadge recalled,

00:39:57.460 As the dawn of the next day approached,

00:39:59.560 those of us who remained in the trenches

00:40:01.460 became very anxious for our own safety.

00:40:04.340 And when the dawn appeared,

00:40:05.940 there were several regiments still on duty.

00:40:09.180 At this time, a very dense fog began to rise,

00:40:13.320 and it seemed to settle in a peculiar manner

00:40:15.680 over both encampments.

00:40:17.920 i recollect this peculiar providential occurrence perfectly well and so very

00:40:24.960 dense was the atmosphere that i could scarcely discern a man at six yards distance

00:40:32.320 in one night and part of a foggy morning 9 000 american troops slipped across the river

00:40:38.800 out from under the british guns without a single loss of life washington's escape was incredible

00:40:45.600 But it was a desperate move to buy time.

00:40:49.500 They simply couldn't compete with the overwhelming British force, and so the setbacks piled on.

00:40:55.580 In November, Hessian forces stormed Fort Washington on Manhattan's north end.

00:41:00.160 The Americans again defended valiantly, but were quickly overwhelmed.

00:41:04.100 Over 2,800 surrendered, nearly a third of Washington's army in New York.

00:41:08.680 The only patriotic bright spot in the humiliating defeat was the effort of Molly Corbin.

00:41:14.740 the Pennsylvania woman who had followed her husband to war working as a cook and a nurse

00:41:19.240 when he was killed banning a cannon at the fort. Molly grabbed the rammer, swabbing and loading 0.99

00:41:24.920 under fire. Grapeshot almost tore her arm off, but she kept firing until captured. She was 0.65

00:41:31.700 eventually paroled by the British and returned home disabled. She became the first woman to

00:41:36.860 earn a military pension from Congress. It was a spark of inspiration amidst the gloom.

00:41:43.040 Across the Hudson, British General Cornwallis eyed Fort Lee as their next target.

00:41:49.020 Washington, scarred by the previous loss, ordered immediate evacuation.

00:41:53.420 Troops fled at dawn, abandoning tents, guns, and supplies.

00:41:57.500 Cornwallis arrived to an empty fort.

00:42:00.200 His men looted what remained.

00:42:02.860 The Continental Army was now a shadow of what it was when it first arrived in New York,

00:42:07.700 and Washington's army retreated into New Jersey's countryside, pursued relentlessly, rebels fleeing

00:42:14.240 like hunted game. Thomas Paine could not stand idly by with the Revolutionary War raging.

00:42:21.500 He volunteered as an aide-de-camp to Major General Nathaniel Green and witnessed the army's despair

00:42:27.940 firsthand. Around the campfire, he wrote The Crisis with its now famous opening lines.

00:42:34.620 These are the times that try men's souls.

00:42:38.280 The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country.

00:42:44.980 But he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

00:42:50.380 It was no poetic exaggeration.

00:42:54.880 British troops and the German Hessian mercenaries rampaged through New Jersey, plundering houses and farms.

00:43:01.040 General Green described the horrors in a letter to his wife.

00:43:04.620 The loyalists lead the relentless foreigners to the houses of their neighbors and strip poor women and children of everything they have to eat or wear. 0.75

00:43:12.220 And after plundering them in this sort, the brutes often ravish the mothers and daughters and compel the fathers and sons to behold their brutality. 0.96

00:43:19.760 In case there's any doubt, in the 1700s, ravish meant rape.

00:43:25.620 December 1776, it brought another harsh winter and deeper despair.

00:43:30.580 Washington had expected the British would try to take Philadelphia next.

00:43:34.620 congress fled to a safer location in baltimore the only respite was that in mid-december british

00:43:40.460 general howe decided to suspend military operations until the spring finally maybe

00:43:45.740 some breathing room for washington and his men the continental army teetered as it stumbled into

00:43:51.580 pennsylvania once again enlistments were ending supplies non-existence brutal cold claiming

00:43:57.340 fingers and toes one american general observed his troops quote so destitute of shoes that the

00:44:03.900 The blood left on the frozen ground in many places marked the route they had taken.

00:44:10.100 Washington now had maybe 6,000 troops fit for duty.

00:44:13.600 It really looked like it was over.

00:44:15.540 It looked like the Americans had lost.

00:44:18.780 General Howe could afford to wait until spring to finish them off because it seemed inevitable.

00:44:24.460 But Washington insisted it wasn't over yet.

00:44:28.300 As General Greene put it,

00:44:29.840 His Excellency, George Washington, never appeared to so much advantage as in the hours of distress.

00:44:37.640 It was almost Christmas.

00:44:40.140 Washington knew there were Hessian troops garrisoned in Trenton, New Jersey.

00:44:44.900 And that is when he conceived a plan, audacious in its risk.

00:44:50.200 In his army's tattered state, it was madness, or maybe genius, that just might work.

00:45:00.200 Coming up on The American Story, The Beginnings.

00:45:06.300 It's after 8 a.m. when Washington's troops finally swarm into Trenton.

00:45:11.960 There's no turning back now.

00:45:13.380 The Hessian troops stumble from their barracks into heavy musket and cannon fire.

00:45:18.760 In the frenzied charge, an 18-year-old Virginian takes a musket ball through the shoulder that

00:45:24.580 severs an artery.

00:45:26.080 He collapses.

00:45:27.080 He's bleeding out in the snow.

00:45:29.980 A civilian doctor named John Riker, as in Riker's Island, rushes into the fray.

00:45:37.260 Riker's not in the army.

00:45:38.620 He'd just shown up to offer his assistance when he heard the battle erupt.

00:45:44.160 Spotting the fallen officer, he tears open the man's uniform and clamps the artery

00:45:48.640 with his bare fingers.

00:45:50.400 It works.

00:45:51.780 Dr. Riker saves the young lieutenant's life.

00:45:55.720 A young man named James Monroe,

00:45:59.020 who is going to go on to serve

00:46:01.060 as the nation's fifth president.

00:46:10.340 Just a reminder,

00:46:11.920 I'd love you to rate and subscribe to the podcast

00:46:14.620 and pass this on to a friend

00:46:16.120 so it can be discovered by other people.

00:46:18.640 We'll be right back.

The Glenn Beck Program - May 16, 2026

Tyranny and Treason： The Dawn of Independence ｜ The American Story ｜ Ep 6

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