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After six long years,

the British are striking directly

at the heart of the Patriot cause

in a bid to finally end the war.

20 hogshead.

Pure Virginia tobacco.

A man could live off that for years.

At the tip of the spear is the man

who nearly took down the Continental Army

with an act of betrayal.

The turncoat Benedict Arnold

is now a British brigadier general

on the front lines of their latest strategy

to crush the rebel spirit

and rouse a loyalist army to fight the Patriots.

Burn it all.

The British think, okay, we're gonna sweep south

and get control here

in a way that we haven't before.

There's a lot of action happening on a lot of fronts

at this point.

Arnold is sent to the Chesapeake

to attack the American forces

in Washington's backyard,

and soon Richmond,

the capital of Virginia, is in flames.

It's a double blow not only to have betrayed

for the cause, but then to lead a successful raid

in the heart of the revolution.

It made Americans furious.

What is it, Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton?

We just received word.

Arnold has been sighted in the south.

Where?

Virginia.

Outside Richmond.

Virginia.

How many men does Arnold command?

It's hard to be certain.

Over a thousand. Less than 1.500?

Send the marquis.

I suppose we could spare a thousand men, but-

Well, if the reports are accurate,

Lafayette will be outnumbered.

Well, our troops are already stretched thin,

and if we truly aim to reclaim New York-

I would prefer, when I return home,

Arnold has not reduced it to ashes.

Hmm.

Still no word from the French.

Rochambeau is waiting to hear from his admirals.

For now, their ships remain anchored off Rhode Island.

Perhaps if they see the urgency in destroying Arnold's forces,

they will finally join this war in earnest.

Our fleet has remained idle far too long.

The French have been allied to America

since early 1778,

and while they have a fleet

and more than 5.000 troops stationed in New England,

they have yet to join the fight.

Washington has been cultivating Rochambeau

to plan for an all-out assault on New York City.

He still believes that's the best way to win the war.

But the French commander

Comte de Rochambeau isn't convinced.

And for now,

Washington must face the British surge

on his own.

Provide the marquis with 1.200 soldiers.

Yes, sir.

With the French support or not,

the marquis will have the traitor's head on a pike.

As long as he is brought before me in the end,

the state of his person bears no concern.

Washington's determination to catch Arnold

isn't just personal,

it's imperative.

By January, 1781,

the revolutionary cause is teetering on the edge.

Like every war, people think

that this is gonna be over pretty quickly.

And they could not have had the resources

or understood what a protracted thing

this was going to be.

The spirit of 1776

that had fueled this revolution in the beginning

was long gone.

The American people were tired of war.

Because the economy has collapsed,

because Congress is ineffective,

because people are losing focus,

even Washington admits

that if this goes much longer, we've lost.

It's not just the country that's wavering,

it's also the troops.

After years without sufficient food or salary,

incidents of mutiny

in the Continental Army are rising.

The troops are beginning to lose their hope.

In particular, they've not been paid.

This is a big problem.

Congress doesn't have the money,

so the soldiers were told,

"We'll pay you at the end of the war."

They've been provided alcohol

and firearms, but that's about it.

It is in vain to think

an army can be kept together much longer

under such a variety of sufferings

as ours has experienced,

and that, unless some immediate

and spirited measures are adopted

to furnish at least three months' pay to the troops,

clothe and feed them better,

the worst that can befall us may be expected.

Three years.

We've been out here three years fighting.

No food,

no shelter.

When was the last time

you had a decent pair of boots on your feet?

Never. -Yeah.

And what about pay? -Yeah.

We expected to risk our lives for free?

No. -No.

Go through hell and not even receive

a decent belly full before nightfall?

No. -Yeah.

They said things would change.

Yeah. -Yeah.

And we listened to them. -Yeah.

Yeah. -Yeah.

Well, I tell you,

nothing will change unless we make it.

Yeah. -Yeah.

So I say we march.

Yeah. -Yeah.

Tell it to them face to face! -Yeah!

And if we need to spill blood...

so be it.

Men: Yeah!

No more without pay.

No more without food! -Yeah!

No bread, no soldiers! -No more soldiers.

No bread, no soldiers.

No bread, no soldiers. No bread, no soldiers.

The New Jersey troops will soon march toward Trenton

to demand what they're owed by force.

Let us go!

Washington is watching the American war effort

wither on the vine.

And this adds to Washington's anxiety.

"How do I present as good a face on this as possible

when actually things are not that good?"

We have earned the respect of the French, and now this.

What will they think?

How will the world see us

when we cannot even manage our own men?

Your orders, sir?

Send as large a detachment as we can spare.

Force the soldiers back into line.

Execute the leader.

You have to understand these young people

lost confidence in their leaders

which is where a mutiny comes from.

No, bread, no soldiers!

But you had to knock it down as fast as you could.

You couldn't let it spread because it's like a virus.

If it's not dealt with immediately,

it will infect the whole organization.

Go on! -Yeah.

Mutiny is tearing apart the army

that George Washington struggled to hold together

through six years of war.

Now, with the revolutionary cause at risk,

he's restoring order among his New Jersey troops

by force.

The object is to compel the mutineers

to unconditional submission.

The mutiny has been broken up.

The men have been disarmed.

They are ordered to reveal their ringleaders.

Go on.

Do it, then.

You will represent to them how dangerous to civil liberty

the precedent is of armed soldiers

dictating terms to their country.

Drop. -Drop.

Move. -Move.

The mutineers,

they're given muskets and a choice.

"Execute your ringleader

or be executed.

Take aim!

They have to raise their muskets

and, at the order,

open fire on their own comrades.

I spoke nothing but the truth.

Fire!

It's good to be a nice guy,

but at the end of the day in those days,

you had to use these tools

to keep an organization together.

And he was up to that task.

Washington's tactic

stemmed the tide of mutiny and saved his army.

But in the South,

the British are more determined than ever

to destroy it.

General Charles Cornwallis,

who has spent much of the past two years

fighting in the Carolinas,

is now moving into Virginia.

General Cornwallis is one of the ablest

British generals.

He's quick-minded. He moves aggressively.

He knows how to handle troops in the field.

Lord Cornwallis decides,

"I'm gonna go to Virginia.

"Virginia is home to Washington,

"home to Jefferson,

"all these Patriot leaders.

"If I can make them suffer,

"maybe I can get the Patriots to come to terms."

As Cornwallis arrives,

Benedict Arnold, who's continued to burn

and loot the state,

is on his way out.

Arnold is a great commander,

and he was considered that way by the British.

However, there are a lot of British officers

who even see him as a traitor,

as a man with no honor.

Ah, General Cornwallis.

Brigadier General Arnold.

I have received reports of your progress here.

And yet I am still being replaced.

I burn their ironworks in Weston,

tobacco fields and warehouses in Richmond.

Destroyed their gun powder, poured out their rum.

Yes, I know. I read the reports.

What we have to worry about now is the French.

We can no longer take our naval advantage for granted.

If we're not careful,

we'll become vulnerable to attack by water.

Well, then the responsibility is mine now.

You need trouble yourself no further.

As I experienced- -If you will excuse me,

Brigadier General,

we have important matters to attend to here,

and I am sure...

you need to prepare for your journey north.

Within a year,

Arnold leaves for England with his wife Peggy,

never again to set foot on American soil.

The first order of business for General Cornwallis

is to set up a base on the Chesapeake

for the Royal Navy and his roughly 8.000 troops.

By July, he chooses Yorktown.

The post is easily accessible to the British fleet

for resupply and reinforcement.

But it's also vulnerable to the French,

who finally see an opening

to mount a decisive strike against the British.

Within weeks, the allies move into action.

Cornwallis doesn't realize

that the French are prepared

to send a fleet to trap him in Virginia.

The French Navy was about to arrive at the Chesapeake.

If Washington and Rochambeau

could get their armies down there as quickly as possible,

the trap could shut around Lord Cornwallis.

When the navies clash in September,

the French score an unexpected victory,

giving the alliance control of the seas around Yorktown.

For once, the French Navy defeats the Royal Navy

and drives them away

from the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.

The French have achieved temporary,

very brief naval superiority.

This is the moment

Washington has been looking for since 1775.

The allied army arrives on the outskirts of Yorktown

within weeks,

cutting off Cornwallis' only remaining escape.

With a combined 19.000 French and Americans soldiers,

it's the most formidable fighting force

Washington will ever command.

To defeat Cornwallis,

Washington and his allies opt for a classic siege.

They create a series of trenches

that creep ever closer to the enemy.

If all goes to plan,

the British defenses should collapse in a matter of days.

Report, Major General Lafayette.

The trench should be completed by morning.

Then we move up the artillery.

Rochambeau and his best men are with Knox now,

reviewing placements and positions.

Good.

My countrymen are finally think for themselves.

You Americans are fast learners.

What other choices do we have?

The present moment offers in prospect

the epoque which will decide American independence

and the glory and superiority of the allies.

The liberties of America

and the honor of the allied arms

are in our hands.

This is the moment

where it all comes together for Washington.

It was almost beyond his ability

to comprehend that finally,

after six years of thinking

it was all about to fall apart,

it was all on the edge of actually happening.

Everyone...

fire!

Fire!

Fire!

Reload.

Direct hit after direct hit.

General George Washington's dreamed of launching

a grand assault on the enemy

since the day the war began.

And now he finally has the fire power.

Thousands of troops and dozens of heavy guns

are being added to his arsenal,

thanks to the French and their commander

Comte de Rochambeau.

Increase our bombardment.

We cannot let the British to rebuild their fortifications.

I doubt they will hold for another day.

And I doubt, Henry,

that they will give up so easily.

Incoming!

48 hours into the bombardment.

Out. All of you.

Entrapped by Washington's forces...

General Cornwallis is pinning all his hopes

on reinforcement.

Sir, I can only repeat that nothing but a successful

naval action can save me.

We have lost about 70 men,

and many of our works have been seriously damaged.

Against so powerful an attack,

we cannot hope to make a very long resistance.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Where do we stand?

Our bombardments have weakened them considerably.

General Cornwallis has withdrawn most of his forces

into the city as it stands.

They're down to two fortifications

with ops here and here.

If we take the Redoubts,

we can run our next trench all the way to the water.

But then the barrels of our cannon,

will breach the threshold of their position.

Known as Redoubts 9 and 10,

the fortifications are the last line of defense

holding off the Americans

from advancing their trench line

to bombard the town at close range.

How many men does number 10 hold?

Perhaps 50,

but heavily armed and well-fortified,

it will certainly not be easy to take.

We will need to overwhelm them.

And catch them by surprise.

As soon as our men are spotted,

they will come under heavy fire.

Send 400 men.

Move out tonight under the cover of darkness.

And who shall lead them?

Alexander.

Hamilton is Washington's essential staff officer,

but he doesn't want to stay a staff officer

because real glory comes if you lead men

in combat to victory.

Washington becomes dependent upon Hamilton's competence,

so he's reluctant to see Hamilton go.

Washington recognizes his own self in Hamilton.

Hamilton wants to command an army.

This is how a man is made.

This is command you've been seeking, is it not?

Yes, sir.

The reward is high.

The risk is equally as great.

I shall not let you down, sir.

Then the command is yours.

With Redoubt No. 10,

I think you see the American talent for improvisation

coming to the fore.

They dispense with the usual protocols

of clearing the way before you storm the ramparts.

Hamilton said, "Let's just go for it."

Charge!

Forward, men! Forward!

Forward!

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton

is leading the charge to break through

the last line of defense around Yorktown.

Aah!

Do not fall back! Forward!

Onward! Onward!

Fall back! Fall back!

The fighting is over in just a matter of minutes.

Yeah!

With the taking of Redoubt No. 10,

Hamilton is a legitimate war hero.

In many ways, it's the making of Hamilton.

By the point those two Redoubts are captured,

the writing is on the wall.

From their position at the captured Redoubts,

the Americans unleash a punishing

point-blank assault on the British.

Unsure if the reinforcements he's requested

will ever arrive,

Cornwallis has seen enough.

Sir,

I propose an immediate cessation

of hostilities for 24 hours,

and that two officers be appointed from either side

to discuss the terms

of the surrender of the posts of York

and Gloucester,

et cetera, et cetera.

Yorktown is a crucial, crucial moment in the war.

The fact that the Americans win that battle

has huge psychological

as well as military consequences.

On the British side,

they're outraged that they've lost

and that these Americans

appear to have gotten the better of them.

And the Brits never quite understood

what they were getting into,

and they underestimated

the nation that had been created.

It's a mistake many people have made over the years.

When you're defending a piece of land that's yours,

you're prepared to die for it.

On October 19th,

after a three-week-long siege,

the two sides meet on the battlefield

for a formal surrender ceremony.

Cornwallis is too embarrassed,

so he pretends that he's sick

and he sends out a subordinate to surrender the sword.

This is the second British Army to surrender.

The main British Army is still intact

and still at New York City.

But the will to fight in Great Britain is gone.

When word of Yorktown reaches Britain,

Lord North, the prime minister,

says, "Oh, my God, it's over."

While peace terms are being negotiated in Paris,

Washington is not convinced that the war is over.

He moves his headquarters to Newburgh, New York,

within striking distance of British-occupied New York City.

The king will push the war

as long as the nation will find men or money.

Let us prepare for the worst.

There is nothing which will so soon produce peace

as a state of preparation for war.

The British stopped major action in North America,

but from Washington's point of view,

that might not be permanent,

so he has to keep this army trained

so it can respond and defend and fight if he needs to.

But with Congress still failing to pay them

more than a year after the battle at Yorktown,

Washington's troops are growing restless

and angry.

They've been given promises for years.

Some of them have been there seven, eight years long.

And so what happens is you start getting a conspiracy

in the ranks to the officer corps who are saying,

"Well, we're not gonna lay down our arms

"when the peace treaty arrives unless were paid by Congress.

"And if need be, we're gonna march on Congress

and force them to pay us."

What they're plotting is more than a mutiny.

It's a military takeover of the government,

and they want Washington to lead it.

There's a group in the army

that wants to march on Philadelphia

and crown Washington emperor.

George Washington, all of a sudden,

is this incredibly popular superstar

with an Army that is loyal to him.

What if he decided

that he was gonna declare himself in charge,

that he's gonna ask Congress to move along?

If you ask me, this is not a question

of what we must do, the question is

what we must do if Washington refuses to take charge.

Right. -Yeah.

General Horatio Gates is among the officers pushing

for Washington to lead a rebellion against Congress.

Others, like Henry Knox, are urging caution.

How can we be certain?

Washington has made his assurances,

and I have never known him to be a liar.

The worst we can do

is rush into action that cannot be undone.

Keep in mind that pretty much every great revolution

that had been run before to take on tyranny,

the rebellious general soon revealed himself

to be the new king

and then a new kind of tyrant.

This is one of the most important early moments

in the republic where things could've all gone south.

The question before us is a simple one, I think.

Will we continue to allow

the men who risked their lives

in forging a new nation

to be treated a second class?

We face enough real issues than to allow ourselves

to fall into hyperbole.

Is it hyperbole to say we have been ignored,

treated indifferently?

I would list all our grievances,

but every man here is well aware.

You know as well as I,

Washington will not stand talk of rebellion.

What rebellion?

It is the men in this room who led us to victory.

Men: Yes!

Not those in Philadelphia.

There are other ways to ensure our grievances are heard.

Letters, formal requests.

Tell me, General Knox,

how has this helped us in the past?

I for one put my trust in Washington,

and I would counsel everyone here to do the same.

And I would counsel that if Commander Washington

is unwilling to do what is necessary,

then we have no choice

but to take matters into our own hands.

May I have permission to speakto speak?

George Washington has led his army

to victory against Britain.

But now some of his officers are counting on him

to lead a new rebellion against their own government.

Gentlemen...

There have been plenty of revolutions,

and most of them fail,

and they fail because people get frustrated.

They don't know where their paycheck is coming from.

These are relatable concerns that Washington is facing.

As I have never left your side one moment,

as I have ever considered my own military reputation

as inescapably connected with that of the army,

it can scarcely be possible,

in this late stage of the war,

that I am indifferent to its interests.

Let me entreat you on your part

not to take any measures

which, viewed in the calm light of reason,

will lessen the dignity

and sully the glory you have hitherto maintained.

Washington tells his officers,

"No, you can't do this.

"You can't use the military to pressure Congress

to get your back pay." -If you do

what you are thinking of doing,

you will be undermining the very core principles

that we have been fighting for for seven years.

Not only will the American experiment

be killed in its cradle,

but it will reinforce everyone who says

that self-government is not practical or possible.

And now...

regarding of issue of payment.

I have recently received word

from a Virginia congressman.

"Congress have been for some time past...

um, almost..."

Apologies.

I have grown blind as well as gray

in the service of my country.

He pulls out his spectacles from his, uh, breast pocket,

unfolds them.

And there he is, showing this, uh, frailty

in front of his officers for the first time.

"A short time will bring to a conclusion

"our efforts to this business,

which I'm in hopes will terminate the adoption..."

When he shows that "I have aged during this time,

that I have suffered, too",

they understand that he hears them

and he's working on their behalf.

It's Washington playing that moment.

What he does is use who he is

and the symbolism of who he is to dissipate a situation.

And with that, shame kicks in,

a sense of shared sacrifice that galvanized the officers

and reminded them what they were fighting for.

You will, by the dignity of your conduct,

afford occasion for posterity to say,

when speaking of the glorious example

you have exhibited to mankind,

"Had this day been wanting,

"the world has never seen the last stage of perfection

to which human nature is capable of attaining."

When you look at Washington in Newburgh,

it's hard not to remember this impulsive young man

that he was during the French and Indian War.

And you think the reason that they trust him

is that he has proven himself to be so steady,

that he has proven himself

to deliver the most outrageous win of all time.

So if he can defeat

one of the greatest superpowers in the world,

he can deliver their pay.

Washington and the Newburgh Address

is one of the very few moments in world history

where revolution in favor of liberty ended

without a military coup

and ended with the rule of law.

Six months after Washington puts talk of a coup to rest,

and nearly two years after the final battle at Yorktown,

the Treaty of Paris is finally signed.

The war is over.

Providence is the word he uses a lot

to try to describe to people how we won the war

right after the war.

"If historians ever take to writing about this,

"they will be accused to writing fiction

"because no one will believe

"that, uh, a group of ragtag soldiers like this

could ever possibly defeat the British Army and Navy."

On November 25th, 1783,

seven years after running Washington out of New York,

the Redcoats evacuate the city.

Within hours, hundreds of citizens

are lining the streets to celebrate

Washington's triumphant return to New York.

Soon after, the Continental Army

is peacefully disbanded

and Washington formally resigns his post

as commander-in-chief.

If you had just defeated

the greatest empire in the world,

the idea that you would then say

"Okay, thanks, I'm going to go farm and make whiskey

and grow hemp",

it wasn't done, but he did it.

In England, when King George III hears

that Washington has surrendered power and gone home,

he replies by saying, "Well, if he did that,

"he will be the greatest man in the world."

When George Washington wrote to Martha in 1775,

he said, "I'll be home by Christmas",

he meant the following Christmas.

But it's already into the 1780s.

I am once again a private citizen, Martha.

And it did not take that long at all.

Come, everything is ready.

I feel myself eased of a load of public care.

I hope to spend the remainder of my days

in cultivating the affections of good men

and in the practice of domestic virtues.

He's done his duty.

He doesn't assume that more is to come.

And he doesn't know

that there's gonna be a new constitution.

He doesn't know there's gonna be

anything called the presidency.

In the years

immediately following the Revolution,

the young country is in turmoil.

The 13 states are bound together

under the Articles of Confederation.

But while the pact allows Congress to enact laws,

it has no power to enforce them.

And there's no consensus among the states

about how to run a government.

All the states looked upon themselves

as independent nations.

They owed nothing by way of sovereignty

to any higher authority.

They understood that there had to be

strength in union,

but they never wanted the strength in union

to take their autonomy away.

The country had been ravaged by war,

the economy had been destroyed,

and there was no national currency.

So Congress couldn't raise any money

to pay off its national debt.

The states all turned inward,

and you begin to have a variety

of different kinds of disruptions and arguments

and disagreements throughout the states.

And, really, the fragility of what's being attempted here

becomes very apparent.

And it looked as though the victories

that had been won on the battlefield

were gonna be lost in the halls of politics.

And for somebody like George Washington,

in particular, this is really discouraging

because by this time

he's being called the father of his country

and his country is falling apart

before his very eyes.

How melancholy is the reflection,

that in so short a space

we should've made such large strides

towards fulfilling the prediction

of our transatlantic foe!

Leave them to themselves

and their government will soon dissolve.

Will not the wise and goods strive hard

to avert this evil?

In the spring of 1787,

the Founding Fathers call on delegates

from the 13 states to convene in Philadelphia.

Their mission, build a more effective union.

Benjamin Franklin,

Alexander Hamilton,

now an assemblyman from New York,

and James Madison from Virginia

all agree to attend.

But George Washington is undecided.

This is one of many moments in which people step forward

and say, "You know, it's pretty important

that you'll be there. People trust you."

And so he ends up being at the constitutional convention.

He presides over the constitutional convention,

not because he's eager, necessarily, to shape things,

but because he felt it was important to be there.

In its nearly four months in session

the constitutional convention

reinvents the American government,

writing a new constitution that paves the way

for Washington to be elected its first chief executive.

The Jeffersons, the Madisons, and all the others,

assembled in Independence Hall in 1787.

And they all looked to him because he was a war hero.

They wouldn't be there if it hadn't been for him.

It was understood without anybody having to say anything

that the presidency was gonna be occupied

by George Washington.

It's one of the reasons that, in the Constitution,

the presidency is simply sketched in.

They just looked over at Washington, said,

"Okay, well, he'll figure it out."

Washington, right before he becomes president,

is in the perfect position.

He has done the unthinkable.

He's won the Revolution.

He is a celebrity in his own country

and every country.

The entire world respects him.

He has everything to lose by becoming president.

George Washington spent decades of his life

helping to create a new nation.

Now 57,

he's the only man that people trust to lead it.

His election to the presidency is unanimous.

No president in American history

did not wish to be president more than George Washington.

My movements to the chair of government

will be accompanied with feelings not unlike those

of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution.

He knew, the minute he actually assumed

the responsibilities of office,

no matter how good a job he did,

he was gonna make some enemies.

And that frightened him a lot,

but to then turn around and walk away

from this new entity that he'd worked so hard to create,

at the very moment when arguably he was needed most,

would've been deemed an act of selfishness

which would contradict his code of honor.

I do solemnly swear. -I do solemnly swear.

That I will faithfully execute

the Office of President of the United States.

That I will faithfully execute

the Office of President of the United States.

And will, to the best of my ability...

And will, to the best of my ability...

Preserve, protect, and defend

the Constitution of the United States.

Preserve, protect, and defend

the Constitution of the United States.

Long live George Washington,

President of the United States.

Integrity and firmness is all I can promise.

These, be the voyage long or short,

never shall forsake me,

although I may be deserted by all men.

What the heck is a president? Like, no one knew.

He had to have enough gravitas and dignity

to be seen as a leader of a nation

in a world of monarchies.

But on the other hand, he can't be monarchical

in any way, or kingly, because people are terrified

that the nation's gonna slip right back

into becoming a monarchy.

And many people had a lot of misgivings

about how much power this new centralized government

was going to have.

He could've been king, but that was not him.

He believed in what he was doing.

It's those who really don't believe

in what they are doing,

who are just interested in power.

He wasn't interested in power. He had power.

He's so conscious of that responsibility,

the power of being a president without precedent,

and that he's setting a model that others will follow.

He writes letters to a number of people

and what he wants is, really, basic advice, like,

"How accessible should I be to the American people?

"Should I accept dinner invitations?

"Does a president shake hands with Americans?

What kind of clothing should a national leader wear?"

He thinks again and again as to what he can do

to prove to people that he's not some superhuman king.

Every day, at a certain time in the afternoon,

he takes a walk around the block.

He looks at a steeple with a clock on it,

sets his watch, and goes back to his work.

He's not in a carriage. He's in the muck of the street,

and that's not accidental. He's making a statement-

"I am just like you walking in the street."

To help him shape the presidency,

Washington assembles

some of the brightest minds in the country.

James Madison is a scholarly fellow Virginian

who has been very involved in the process

of creating the Constitution.

Madison is also Washington's speechwriter,

and he has unbelievable sway and trust of the president.

Thomas Jefferson is a Virginian

who wrote the Declaration of Independence,

so he's someone who has a lot of political experience.

Henry Knox had been with Washington since 1775.

He had seen the army suffer.

He had seen what happens when Congress can't pay its bills.

Alexander Hamilton was Washington's aide in the war,

and he was loyal to Washington personally.

They experienced the same challenges during the war,

dealing with Continental Congress,

and that really shaped their politics.

Washington did not have a topflight education,

but he admired people who did.

He wanted the best people that he could get

on his team.

They don't always agree,

but that's not necessarily a concern to him

because he thinks that actually makes for a stronger debate.

Right? "If there are different views, fine,

"have different views,

"and then I will consider the different views

and come to a decision."

You can tell a lot from leaders

who like to empower other people,

who look for people who are good at things they are not,

who know things they don't.

Washington was like that.

In his first 150 days,

Washington, his advisers,

and the Congress worked together

to invent the American government as we know it.

This is a enormously productive time.

Look at what they accomplished in that first year.

They created the executive branch,

the judiciary branch, the first tax laws.

The Bill of Rights

that talked about the way the government

could not infringe upon other people,

the citizens' rights.

They set up the Patent Office.

They strengthened a system of our economy.

There's a proclamation of Thanksgiving.

All these things were signed in one way or another

by George Washington.

It is this audacious experiment.

Washington and the Founding Fathers

basically inspire a nation to strengthen

its civic backbone, and in the process,

it just creates the precedent

that people can self-govern themselves,

and I think we've lost sight

of just how revolutionary that idea is.

In June of 1790,

Congress also chooses a site for a new capital city

on the banks of the Potomac River,

what will one day become Washington, D.C.

The plan is to build it by the end of the decade.

Until then, the government and the president

take up temporary residence in Philadelphia.

Please clear the table.

Ensure that all the plates and silverware

are put away before you leave.

For the Washingtons, whose household is run

by at least a half a dozen enslaved women and men,

living in Pennsylvania is problematic.

Governed by Quakers,

it's one of the first states to commit

to ending slavery within its borders.

The Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 stated

that if you were a non-resident and you came to Pennsylvania,

you could bring your slaves with you,

but you could only stay for a period of six months.

If an enslaved person was in Pennsylvania

for more than six months,

they could be granted their freedom.

Hello, dearest.

Christopher.

Bring the president some tea and see that he is comfortable.

Washington, like many other slave-holding presidents,

is not willing to go without his slaves,

but he's also not willing to follow the rules,

and so he finds a kind of loophole.

In case it shall be found

that any of my slaves shall attempt their freedom

at the expiration of six months,

it is my wish and desire that you would send them home,

for although I do not think

they would be benefitted by the change,

the idea of freedom might be too great a temptation

for them to resist.

Basically, they were to create

a slave rotation plan.

Every six months,

the Washingtons would rotate their slaves

out of Pennsylvania back to Virginia.

And if that was too problematic or cumbersome,

a quick trip across the river to Trenton, New Jersey,

would basically stop the clock on freedom.

It behooves me to prevent the emancipation of them.

Otherwise, I shall not only lose the use of them,

but may have them to pay for.

I wish to have it accomplished under pretext

that may deceive both them and the public.

You want him to take a leadership position

on the slavery issue, and you're gonna be disappointed

as you read his correspondence.

He doesn't think the way you want him to.

He sees the slaves as his property

that he can't afford to lose.

Washington fears that abolishing slavery

would divide the union into two.

The focus at that time was establishing the new nation.

So Washington was pushing the decision

about what to do with the institution of slavery

to people that came after him.

America's reckoning over slavery

is still decades in the future,

but Washington's about to face

a more immediate threat to the nation-

A call to arms against his own government.

More than two years into Washington's first term,

the people are rising up

over a new tax on whiskey,

one the president signed into law.

He's approaching. -Come on.

No more taxes! No more taxes!

And now the tax collector is a target.

No more taxes!

No more taxes! -Grab him!

No more taxes! -Come on!

No more taxes. No more taxes.

No more taxes! No more taxes!

No more taxes! No more taxes!

No more taxes! No more taxes!

Paying back the debt is a price of revolution.

You will not find me in disagreement,

yet not everyone is drawing the same conclusion.

If they continue to doubt that we are one country,

we will fail.

The tax is the work

of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton,

who's also pushing for a national bank,

another unpopular idea.

So when the nation launches, it's deeply in debt.

There's no national financial superstructure of any kind.

Hamilton realizes that there needs to be a way

to raise money to pay for aspects of governance.

He also wants to establish a standard

that he can create this kind of tax

and that people will abide by it and pay it.

Washington believed a strong and coherent federal government

was the best bulwark against disunion and chaos.

No more taxes! No more taxes!

No more taxes! No more taxes!

No more taxes! No more taxes!

Take it off. -No more taxes!

Take it off! -No more taxes!

Come on!

The whiskey tax ends up being very controversial

because it hits very hard in the West

where whiskey is almost a form of currency.

We're not talking about big whiskey producers.

We're talking about grain farmers.

They pay their rent in produce, in grain, and whiskey.

From the standpoint of lot of people in America,

this is exactly what the British government had done.

And, my gosh, we're gonna have to fight against this

the way we fought against the British

when they were levying taxes.

Come on!

Ha ha ha ha!

People started saying,

"We've traded George III of Britain

"for George I of America,

and we don't like this."

Tell Mr. Hamilton he can keep his taxes.

The powers of the Presidency give you the right.

Yes, but we must take care

not to lay claim to more than we are due.

A true leader must make the right decisions,

not the ones that will make everyone happy.

Happiness is not my aim.

What we must achieve is unity.

But dissent over Hamilton's financial plans

is also causing a rift in Washington's inner circle.

Two of his closest advisers,

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison,

are quietly recruiting allies

to oppose Hamilton's influence.

Washington had the best team that he could get,

and they eventually began

to drift apart and into a rivalry.

They were all revolutionaries together

but they all didn't have the same idea

about what the revolution was supposed to be about.

Now,

we would never speak ill of Washington.

He's a good man, the only man for the Presidency.

But that a pugnacious upstart has corrupted his ear.

I'm sure you have seen it for yourself.

No one carries more sway now than Hamilton.

And, uh, we need not look far for the consequences.

The whiskey tax.

It is a great disservice to the people.

But at the end of the day,

it is a merely a symptom

of the far more troubling disease.

Jefferson believes that Washington

always sides with Hamilton.

And for the most part he does because they share

a strong belief in central government.

Jefferson is trying to flesh out the idea

of creating a separate political party.

They don't see it as being anti-Washington.

They feel like they're fighting

to preserve the integrity of the revolution.

If we do not find a permanent way

to check Hamilton's influence, he will destroy

everything we have worked so hard to build.

Jefferson and Madison

don't assume that they're creating

an organized opposition to the government.

What they assume is that they're trying

to save the government from people who are warping it.

On the eve of the second presidential election,

Washington remains wildly popular with the public.

So Madison and Jefferson

mount a campaign to change that.

One of the things that drove the emergency parties was

to write newspapers that aimed at a particular audience.

People tended to read newspapers

that supported their own positions.

There was a gazette in the United States

that was seen as very

pro-Washington's administration,

a mouthpiece for Hamilton's views.

It's biased.

And so at an early point, Jefferson and Madison think,

"We need another newspaper

"that has a different point of view",

and they create the "National Gazette."

The newspaper is a betrayal in more ways than one.

Jefferson's put the publisher

on the State Department payroll.

Washington's own government is unwittingly funding

the attacks against his policies.

This is obviously, like, 80 different kinds of shady.

And his surrogate sons are the people

spearheading these efforts underneath his nose.

He felt betrayed.

He was a man in psychic pain.

And he didn't want to run for reelection.

He knew another four years could very well kill him.

You see me again entering

upon the arduous duties of an important office.

And perhaps in no instance of my life

have I ever been more sensible

of the sacrifice than in the present.

For at my age, the love of retirement

grows every day more and more powerful.

Fetch me the box.

Yes, sir.

As Washington's about to embark

on his second term in office,

he's feeling the effects of his 61 years.

In particular,

a problem that's plagued him for decades.

George Washington suffered

from a horrible dental disease.

By the time he becomes President of the United States,

he has maybe one tooth left in his mouth.

He now relies on a contraption

made from wires, screws, and hippopotamus ivory.

The replacement teeth are not made of wood.

They're real teeth,

including some of his own

that had fallen out.

We know that he wanted them

to look as natural as possible.

Farm animals, cows were used.

And we also know that those dentures

were made from the teeth of enslaved people.

Washington actually paid money

to have teeth removed,

healthy teeth removed from enslaved people

to be then be placed in his mouth.

We know this because

it's written in his account books.

He would often pay them

a couple of shillings for a tooth.

This wasn't particular to him.

People of means would advertise

for teeth in the newspaper.

And one of Washington's dentists said this.

The dentures are terribly painful to wear.

That sort of grimace on his face on the dollar bill,

angry Washington, I mean, a lot of that-

has to do with his teeth.

Well, that is done, then.

Now, let us hurry. Time is wasting.

Because of his dentures, he avoids public speaking.

But on this day, he'll have no choice.

Despite the rise in partisan attacks

and dissension in his own cabinet,

Washington's been unanimously reelected

and is preparing to take the oath of office

for a second time.

The presidency was taking a lot out of him,

but Washington can't leave just yet.

If he does, everybody tells him

the nation could very well descend into civil war.

He didn't want to be President.

He did it because there was no one else.

He did it for the good of his country.

Fellow citizens,

I am again called upon

by the voice of my country.

Washington's second inaugural address

is the shortest ever in American history-

just 135 words.

I shall endeavor to express

the high sense I entertain

of this distinguished honor

and of the confidence

which has been reposed in me

by the people of United America.

In his first term,

Washington built a nation.

Now, in his second, he must keep it together.

But his trusted advisers,

especially Hamilton and Jefferson,

are increasingly at odds

over issues at home and abroad.

Britain and France are once again at war.

Washington wants nothing to do with the conflict.

He was concerned about

keeping a fragile nation together

and worried that outside influences

might come in and stir things up

and make it more difficult to remain unified.

He understood

that if the United States became a toy

in this fight between Britain and France,

if the United States took sides,

then it would give the other side every incentive

to try to destroy the United States.

Newspapers are debating both sides.

People are wearing French flags,

and they're gathering outside the President's house.

And within his Cabinet,

he has Hamilton arguing for neutrality.

But Jefferson and Madison said,

"France bailed us out. They're our friends.

"They are the reason we won the war.

"We've got to back them in this."

Washington says, "Actually, our deal was with a king

who no longer has a head."

Washington took upon himself

to declare neutrality for the United States.

Washington and Hamilton, they said,

"We need to be neutral." Because of that,

they're castigated as pro-English.

And this is one of the key things

in American history,

a fundamental dividing line

that helps sparks partisan politics

as we know it.

Have you seen the papers? Hmm?

This is a baseless charge,

and it must be publicly address as such.

The government cannot be expected

to respond every time

an essay is published that offends you.

The President is not the head of a party.

He is the head of a nation.

A nation that ideologically

only seems to run in one direction.

If you disagree with President's policies,

perhaps you should find more persuasive arguments!

Or perhaps I- -Enough!

If I may.

I fear this is an argument

that extends far beyond this room.

They call it the funeral dirge of George Washington.

A king?

So I wish to be a king, do I?

A tyrant?

Is that what I am now?

I did not want this.

I never asked for any of this.

My God! I should rather be in my grave

than be made emperor of this world,

and they charge me with wanting to be a king?

Go on, then.

Woodrow Wilson once said that,

for some people,

words were more powerful than bullets

and caused more pain.

So Washington, frankly,

compared to most other people who've been President,

escaped most of the words,

but the one he didn't escape hurt him.

You know, in the 18th century

when they worry about their "fame",

they weren't worried about celebrity.

They were worried about their reputation.

American politics, American media

during the 1790s

were as nasty as they've ever been ever since.

The really critical editors would deliver three copies

of their paper every day to the President's house,

even after he cancelled their subscriptions,

just to piss him off.

But from Washington's perspective,

freedom of the press came with

what the American victory in the Revolutionary War

was all about.

He was not one

who was gonna abridge freedom of the press.

He wasn't gonna be the one who's gonna say,

"Okay, we're gonna make this illegal."

But with protests against the government's taxes

growing more violent,

Washington's revolutionary ideals

are about to face the ultimate test.

For three years,

the people of Pennsylvania have refused to pay

Alexander Hamilton's whiskey tax.

Now, when federal marshals arrived

to enforce the law,

a mob of 7.000 armed rebels

respond by marching on Pittsburgh

to run them out of town.

A lot of the people who resented and opposed this

have been soldiers in the revolution.

They knew how to take up arms.

It's not just a matter that there are people

in Western Pennsylvania

who don't want to pay a whiskey tax.

The power of the government

and the authority of the government is being tested.

There weren't very many laws,

federal laws, that touched individual lives.

Most laws that people encountered

were state laws.

But this was one of those rare ones,

and so does the federal government

have the authority to enforce these laws?

Can it in effect defend itself?

So Hamilton encourages

that there should be armed forces

sent to western Pennsylvania

to quash this rebellion

and really show that the government

can enforce its mandates.

Many persons have been hardy enough

to perpetrate acts which amount to treason,

being overt acts of levying war against the United States.

Washington issues a proclamation

ordering the rebels to disperse

or face the consequences.

It is in my judgment

necessary to call forth the militia

to cause the laws to be duly executed.

The essential interest of the union demand it.

By October 1794,

nearly 12.000 militia men from four states

are assembled on Washington's orders

to end the uprising.

Washington, now 62,

and Hamilton are back in uniform

to personally command the operation.

Think about that. He's President

and leading an army potentially against other Americans.

That's a quirky moment, right?

We haven't, since then, had a President

in uniform leading an army in that way.

Rules matter. Law matters.

You're bound together by a notion of law.

That was very important to him.

But Washington wants to show

that the federal government is willing to use force.

He doesn't want to use force.

He wants to provide a way for the rebels

to sort of back out.

Alarmed by the number of troops

mustering against them,

the rebels send their spokesman

to meet face to face with the President.

I believe the army camped outside this door

cannot be misunderstood.

But in case there is any confusion,

let me make this clear.

Rebellion...

will not be tolerated

by myself or this nation.

Now, I understand

and sympathize with your position.

These people are your family,

your friends, neighbors.

Your concerns are valid.

I believe, together,

we can work towards a solution that benefits us all...

after you offer your complete and unequivocal submission.

You may go now.

What now?

I will return to Philadelphia.

You remain in command here.

March the militia west

and end this uprising for good.

It would be my pleasure.

I do not want anyone killed.

If necessary, make arrests.

Arrests? -This...

is a matter for the courts.

And we are not executioners.

Of course, sir.

It doesn't come to the kind of blows

that it might have come to. And in large part,

this was precisely

because Washington understood the moment.

He's not really treating them as enemies.

He didn't- He doesn't chase them down.

He doesn't try to destroy them.

He simply disperses them.

If Washington wasn't Washington,

I'm almost certain that some-

that the republic would have fallen apart

in the 1790s, in its early years,

as almost all republics do.

Washington's foresight

was to understand the power of a national government.

You have an allegiance to an idea

that's put forth under the federal constitution

which makes the country.

Washington's whole point was that they had

a special responsibility to validate the idea

of self-government.

That it was our responsibility collectively.

It's one of the reasons Washington adopted the mantle

of presidency against his personal wishes.

It's why he stayed on for a second term

when he really wanted to go back to the farm.

After nearly eight years in office,

and with the country's partisan divide deepening,

George Washington declines to stand for a third term.

Many people who started with him in the Cabinet

are now in opposition.

He's seen his friends disappear and finds himself alone.

He wants to go home and get away from the vipers in politics.

When he eventually retires, Thomas Paine writes,

"We're pleased to see you go",

and asked the question

"whether you have simply lost all your integrity

or whether you ever had any."

This is George Washington.

Think about that. That's what they're saying.

But outside the political elite,

among the public,

Washington is revered

as the father of his country,

the man who delivered the nation its freedom.

He could have served for three terms, four terms,

five terms. As long as he was alive,

he would have been President of the United States

because of his reputation

as a man who could be trusted,

as a man who put country ahead of himself.

People at the time understood

that the main threat to a republic

was a demagogue who would seek power for himself,

and Washington wasn't that person.

Washington himself believed there cannot be a monarch.

There cannot be a person who lives on

and just dies in office.

It's hard to overstate how that

and the peaceful transfer of power is revolutionary,

almost as revolutionary as the war itself.

For nearly 150 years after that,

every subsequent President, even in the absence

of a constitutional amendment to that effect,

had to step down, because they all faced

the challenging question

"So you think you're better than Washington?"

And no one was willing to answer that in the affirmative.

George Washington's presidency ends on the afternoon

of March 4th, 1797, when his successor

John Adams is sworn in.

In that retirement, which is his voluntary choice,

that he long lived to enjoy the delicious recollection

of his services.

In his inaugural address,

John Adams, never Washington's biggest fan,

sends him off with a soaring tribute.

His name may be still a rampart

and the knowledge that he leaves a bulwark

against all open and secret enemies

of his country's peace.

Stop here.

I thought it would be nice

to walk the rest of the way.

That sounds lovely.

Washington was so excited to go home.

He was so excited to be on his plantation.

He was going to complete the renovations to his house.

Finally, he was gonna be able to do the experiments

he wanted to do in the garden.

Lovely, isn't it?

Beautiful.

Washington has held many titles in his long life,

General, Commander, and President.

Now, in one history-making moment,

he becomes simply citizen.

After two decades of public service,

George Washington's long-awaited return

to private life is being cut short.

He ends up getting two and a half years of retirement

in Mount Vernon.

He deserves more than that, and he wanted more than that.

That is it.

I am sending for the doctor.

Washington catches what is a throat disease.

Now he would be cured with antibiotics

in a matter of hours.

Stay with me, old man.

Martha.

Washington believes in bloodletting.

It's considered modern medicine at the time.

It's literally cutting someone and bleeding them.

What we would consider nowadays a release of toxins.

He's bled over and over again at his own request.

More.

I mean, it's prolonged torture,

and he's not improving.

My breath cannot last long.

And eventually he says,

"Stop. I'm just going."

Wait... three days...

to put my body

in the vault.

He says, "Wait three days to bury me."

He wants them to be sure that he's actually dead.

It's such an interesting concern and worry.

It maybe speaks to his need for control.

George Washington's epic life ends

sometime between 10:00 and 11:00

on the night of December 14th, 1799.

He was 67 years old.

When he died, it was really clear

that an age of American history had ended.

Given Washington's symbolic as well as political importance

in the founding of the nation,

his death had an enormous impact.

There was a huge response.

Enormous funeral processions and ceremonies

held throughout the nation.

People understood

that this was the passing of a moment.

When Washington is buried, it's at home.

He wants to be at Mount Vernon,

as he always did.

There are many in attendance,

with one notable exception-

Martha Washington.

She stays in the house.

Whatever existed between the two of them,

their relationship,

her sadness over his death,

we don't know...

because she didn't want us to.

At some point after her husband's death,

Martha Washington destroys nearly all of the letters

they'd written to each other

over their 40 years of marriage.

There's not very many letters that exist between them.

One of them in particular,

we know is the "My Dearest" letter.

It was discovered in a writing desk

that had been owned by Martha Washington,

kind of behind one of the drawers

by one of Martha's descendants in the 1840s.

My dearest,

as I am within a few minutes of leaving this city,

I could not think of departing from it

without dropping you a line.

I retain an unalterable affection for you,

which neither time or distance can change.

With the utmost truth and sincerity,

your entire, George Washington.

Martha lives out the rest of her days

quite quietly.

She passes from old age

quite peacefully at home

and is interned next to Washington.

In Washington's last will and testament,

he stipulates that the enslaved people

will be granted their freedom when Martha dies,

except for William Lee, who he gives-

grants his freedom right away.

Lee, who served by Washington's side in the war,

suffered injuries in two separate accidents

before Washington's presidency,

making him physically unable to continue

serving as Washington's valet.

He spends the rest of his life at Mount Vernon.

Lee was given the option of immediate emancipation

and an annuity of $30 a year.

He was to be taken care of.

So it's a moment where we see Washington's thoughts,

his changing feelings and sentiments

about slavery revealed.

Now, you can say he doesn't free him

in his own life, but he's the only member

of the Virginia dynasty to do this.

Jefferson doesn't do it.

Madison doesn't do it. Monroe doesn't do it.

Patrick Henry doesn't do it.

And we have to recognize it as significant

as the first President of the United States,

as a founder,

that his decision

to emancipate his slaves meant something.

And it also signaled

that slavery eventually

would come to an end.

He knew even at the time that his mark on history

would be a large footprint.

And I think he was thinking ahead

in ways that we don't necessarily think about today.

George Washington had a remarkable sense

that he was performing

not only to lead people in his own time

but for all time.

15 miles north of Washington's final resting place

sits the capital city that now bears his name.

It's the beating heart

of George Washington's real legacy-

the government he fought to create

and then pass to future generations

along with some advice on how to keep it alive.

Friends and fellow citizens,

the unity of government

which constitutes you one people

is also a main pillar of your real independence.

Washington's farewell address

is a political last will and testament.

This is the sum total of his hard-won wisdom

explicitly written for you.

Let me warn you against the baneful effects

of the spirit of party.

And if you keep these principles in mind,

you'll be fine. If you don't,

there can be real trouble ahead.

It opens the door

to foreign influence and corruption.

He laid out the warnings

about how we have to protect this system we have created.

Cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men

will be unable to subvert the power of the people.

He understood that this was still

a very fragile experiment,

and he had no idea this is gonna last 200 years.

Citizens by birth or choice,

the name of American which belongs to you

must always exalt the just pride of patriotism.

Ever since George Washington, people looking at us

and have been betting against America.

So far, they've all lost money.

I shall carry it with me to my grave

that the free Constitution,

which is the work of your hands,

may be sacredly maintained.

There are very few Washington-like figures

in American history-

people who- they weren't perfect,

but you had a sense that, when the crisis came,

when the winds were howling,

when the wolf was at the door,

you would want them in charge.

Washington did a good job

in making our union more perfect.

And I think America has no idea

how indebted to him they are.

Washington is the embodiment

of America's self-evident truth.

He is the foundingest father of them all.

Adams is his best read.

Jefferson is the most intellectually sophisticated.

Benjamin Franklin is, in some ways, the wisest.

Washington's the greatest.

No question about it.

Primus inter pares-

first among equals.

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