Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.BZ

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ

General Washington secured for the evening?

Yes, sir.

Stay alert.

How're you men doing? - Doing well, sir.

A little cold, sir.

You're cold? Get to the fire now.

- Yes, sir. - Yes, sir.

One!

Two!

It was the 4th of July, 1826,

the 50th anniversary of

the signing of the Declaration of Independence,

the de facto 50th anniversary of the United States of America.

Three!

Four!

Five.

I am so proud of you.

Do you have the letter, dear? - Yes, dear.

Six.

Seven!

Eight, Grandpapa.

Nine!

Ten!

Eleven!

Twelve.

Thirteen.

One for each of the Thirteen Colonies of the Declaration.

50 years ago, Thomas.

50 years.

Even now, after some two centuries of turbulent history,

recollections of that glorious Fourth

can compel the most skeptical scholars

to acknowledge weird, wonderful aspects

in the rise of the Republic

and to reconsider that once very popular idea

that God shows special tenderness

toward the American experiment.

Though he wished he could have been here in person,

my father's beloved friend, Thomas Jefferson,

has instead sent these words to all of us.

You may have read them in the papers.

"I should indeed have met personally

“with the remnant of that host of worthies

who joined with us on that day..."

"...in the bold and doubtful election

“we were to make for our country

“between submission and the sword,

“and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact

“that our fellow citizens,

“after half a century of experience and prosperity,

continue to approve the choice we made."

Nicholas, send this to the Federal City by the Fourth.

The Fourth. - Right away, Grandfather.

To the mayor of Washington. - Yes, sir.

It must arrive before the Fourth.

Yes, sir.

"May it be to the world, what I believe it will be--

“to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all--

“the signal of arousing men to burst the chains

“under which monkish ignorance and superstition

“had persuaded them to bind themselves,

“and to assume the blessings and the security

of self-government..."

"These are grounds of hope for others.

“For ourselves, let the annual return of this day

“forever refresh our recollection of these rights,

and an undiminished devotion to them."

Thomas Jefferson!

At a time when male life expectancy

barely reached 40 years,

John Quincy's father, John Adams,

the “Atlas of Independence”

and the second president of the United States,

had already passed his 90th birthday,

with his faculties and his health remarkably intact.

Do you know what day it is today, John?

It's the Fourth.

The Fourth of July.

It's a great day.

It's a good day.

500 miles to the south on the same day,

Thomas Jefferson stubbornly clung to life at Monticello.

Doctor, sir.

Grandpapa's awake.

Another draft of laudanum?

It will ease your discomfort.

No.

No more.

Thomas Jefferson uttered no further comprehensible words,

but he had unequivocally achieved his ardent desire--

living through more than half

of his cherished nation's sacred day,

finally expiring on Tuesday, the Fourth of July,

at 10 minutes before one o’clock in the afternoon.

John Adams was clinging to the final breaths of his life

as well on that very same day.

He had no way of knowing

that Jefferson had died just before one o’clock.

Toward evening, with a gentle rain falling,

Adams breathed his astonishing last words.

Thomas Jefferson... survives.

His breathing stopped shortly after six o’clock.

With a resounding clap of thunder

at the very moment of the great man's passing,

witnesses insisted that at that same instant,

a sudden burst of light from the declining sun

pushed through the looming clouds

and spilled into the upstairs room like a benediction.

To this day, Adams and Jefferson

remain the only two presidents

to have expired on the same day.

And of all days it was the Fourth of July!

And not just an ordinary Fourth of July.

It was the 50th anniversary of the nation's founding.

Now, the chances against such a pattern recurring

stand at approximately 50 million to 1.

So many of our countrymen, including many of the founders,

they said, "Well, that's got to be the hand of God.

“That can't just be coincidence.

Yeah, that's Providence."

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson are no more.

The public mind had never been so powerfully affected

by any similar event as by the death of John Adams

on the Fourth of July, 1826.

When you look back at the newspapers,

there's just wall-to-wall coverage of eulogies

from all across the nation.

Now, the news reached Boston in the evening of that day.

It acquired a singular interest from the year and the day

on which it took place... - Daniel Webster was

one of the most gifted orators of the time.

He was a congressman.

And there were many eulogies given, published in newspapers,

but Webster's stood out because it was just so eloquent.

Patriotic emotions of the country at large

were touched beyond all example.

The occurrence was justly deemed without a parallel in history.

On our 50th anniversary,

the great day of national jubilee,

in the very hour of public rejoicing,

in the midst of echoing

and re-echoing voices of thanksgiving,

while their own names were on all tongues,

they took their flight together

to the world of spirits.

What a miraculous blessing, that on the day

which had fast linked forever their own fame

with their country's glory...

the heavens should open to receive them both at once.

As their lives themselves were the gifts of Providence,

who is not willing to recognize in their happy termination,

as well as in their long continuance,

proofs that our country and its benefactors

are objects of His care?

It cannot be denied,

but by those who would dispute against the sun,

that with America, and in America,

a new era commences in human affairs.

It seems to me that the founders and their successors,

who perceived a providential role

in the nation that they shaped,

weren't ignorant simpletons with delusions of grandeur.

In fact, all of the most significant

leaders of the United States,

from John Adams to Abraham Lincoln,

George Washington to Woodrow Wilson,

Theodore Roosevelt to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,

have spoken movingly of godly favor on their country.

There is no effort here to discern or describe God's face,

but rather an attempt to recognize

a well-established national pattern

over the course of many generations,

a pattern for which the influence of some higher power

remains the most rational explanation.

And right up to today, we retain

the personal and communal choice of how to respond

to haunting, plentiful signs of God's continued collaboration

in the American miracle.

George Washington is appropriately known

as the father of our country,

a man unanimously chosen to be our country's first president,

and a man with famously unparalleled

leadership qualities.

George Washington was the singular figure

in the American founding--

the single most important person.

All the prominent founders--

Franklin...

Adams...

Jefferson...

Hamilton...

Madison--

all were asked to comment on where they'd place him,

and they all said the same thing:

"Above all of us."

So he was regarded by his peers as primus inter pares--

first among equals.

Young George had a loving relationship

with his older half-brother Lawrence,

someone he greatly admired.

George Washington was somebody who knew a lot about life.

He grew up in a family where he had lost, um...

he lost his father when he was eleven years old.

His favorite older brother, Lawrence, they were very close.

- It's a good time. - You should come visit

more time, brother. - My schedule seems open

these days, so I sure will.

You know, I don't have a lovely bride

pulling me down at the moment.

When we look back at Washington's life,

we see a strange, inexplicable pattern of cheating death

time after time.

This was widely viewed in his own day

as a sign of divine protection.

In the fall of 1751,

Lawrence's doctors advised him to travel to Barbados...

in hopes that the climate there would ease his tuberculosis.

19-year-old George accompanied him

and, while there, had his first encounter with a deadly enemy.

Open your mouth. Let me see your tongue.

Move him into quarantine immediately.

He has the smallpox.

Smallpox was a deadly disease in this era.

He probably should have died,

and the brother ultimately did die from tuberculosis.

The benefit of George Washington

contracting smallpox when he's only 19 years old

is that he was immune to it.

So when he becomes

commander-in-chief of the Continental Army,

he doesn't have to worry about getting sick

from smallpox himself.

George Washington wasn't at the upper echelon of society,

and so he became a surveyor when he was 16 years old

for one of the wealthiest men, Lord Fairfax.

A couple more paces to the right, Mr. Abraham!

Straighten out the chain, Father.

Perfect!

That experience put him into a position

when he's in his early 20s

that the lieutenant governor of Virginia

sends him on a mission

to what's now Western Pennsylvania.

Mr. Washington.

I need you to carry this letter to the French.

- Yes, Governor. - They're trespassing.

George Washington was asked to deliver cease and desist letters

because the French were building forts on English territory.

So this was a border dispute

that he became front and center of.

On their way back, they hired a Native

to guide them through the wilderness.

He's leading us the wrong way.

He's leading us the wrong way.

No. No!

Way.

Keep watch.

Put your gun at the half ready.

Aah!

Washington decided not to kill the guy, so they released him.

But now he and Mr. Gist would have to

find a different route back home,

because the Native would likely return with more warriors

to capture or kill them.

On the journey back to Virginia,

they needed to cross the dangerous

and icy waters of the Allegheny River.

- Another log, Mr. Gist. - Lay it down with the others.

Yep.

Make sure you get them tight.

Push through the rocks.

Come on, Mr. Gist. Straight ahead.

Gist, watch the ice! Mr. Gist, watch the--

- George! Come on! Hold on! - Mr. Gist!

Mr. Gist!

Unable to make it to either shore,

they spent a frigid night on a small island

in the middle of the river.

Are you... getting warmer?

My clothes are completely frozen.

We can't make a fire.

They'll find us.

I can... hold till morning.

Till morning.

The only way they get across the next day--

I don't know how they didn't die overnight--

was that the water froze so they were able

to walk across the water.

And then somehow, after all of that,

he eventually makes it back to Virginia.

When his higher-ups in the military found out about it,

they said, "What?...That's miraculous.

That doesn't make any sense."

Washington wrote these and other adventures

down in his personal journal.

When Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie

heard the tales, he insisted

that this first-person account be published

for the purpose of rousing public support

for the military missions against the French.

This publication brought Washington his first taste

of renown beyond his immediate circle of friends.

His rise in fame led to his invitation

for a second expedition in what became known in America

as the French and Indian War.

In the case of the British,

they're going to initially send out an ambush party,

strangely led by 22-year-old George Washington.

And that's going to be the embryo of what will develop

in the next several hundred years

into the great thing we know as the United States.

George Washington grew up in his widowed mother's home

under her tutelage.

He knew the Bible very, very well.

They attended church,

but I think he also came to believe, you know,

what he was taught when he was growing up.

George's mother, Mary Ball Washington,

pleaded with her son not to go to war.

I came to persuade you to avoid these dangers.

I do not see the moral imperative in this conflict.

Nor do I see an immediate threat.

Please.

Stay here.

Work this land.

Grow the estate.

I believe that...

God has set you aside for great things.

Mother, the same God to whom you commended me

when I set out upon a more perilous errand

defended me from all harm.

I trust He will do so now.

Do not you?

With His blessing...

...you can be a useful man in war or in peace.

Without it, you can expect nothing.

You will be in my prayers.

Yes, Mother.

Covered in a mother's prayers,

George set out once again on behalf of his king in 1755

under British General Edward Braddock.

General Braddock is a decent general.

He obviously knows some tactics and techniques,

and he comes in with the fire of determination to win.

He makes an unforgivable mistake militarily.

He gets himself caught into a position where he is surrounded.

At the Battle of Monongahela,

Braddock and the king's men were thoroughly routed.

Mounted officers were shot first.

The general's been shot!

Braddock is shot.

From then on, the British forces deteriorate.

Get the surgeon!

Where's Dr. Craik?

Of the 70 mounted officers who rode into battle that day,

only one emerged unscathed. - Turn about, Virginians!

We know from the Native American descriptions

of the battle that they were aiming at him,

they were telling one another, "Get that big guy on the horse,"

and they missed every single time.

So he was an obvious target, but he miraculously survived.

There were four bullets through his clothes.

He lost two horses, shot out from under him.

He had his hat shot off, and men died all around him.

And yet he escaped completely unscathed.

A survivor of that battle said,

"I expected every moment to see him-- Washington-- fall.

“Nothing but the superintending care of Providence

could have saved him."

His name was on a killed-in-action list,

and he immediately wrote his mother and brother letters

to explain to them what had happened on the battlefield.

He said, "I take the opportunity of assuring you

“that I appear in the land of the living

“by the miraculous care of Providence,

which protected me beyond all human expectation."

Either God's on his side or he's the luckiest man alive.

Even the French-allied Natives noticed.

And years later, at a council fire in the woods,

they shared with Washington what they had experienced.

In 1770,

George Washington took a group to look at lands

that he had, that he owned.

A couple more paces to the right, William.

Perfect.

And it just so happened that one of the chiefs

who had been part of the battle that killed Edward Braddock

had heard about George Washington being in the region,

and he asked to see him.

The majority of the land that we've been viewing now--

Ah, thank you, William. - Thank you.

I'm very sorry to say that, uh,

I was hoping that the people would have a...

Please, sit.

When he came to George Washington,

he didn't want to eat or drink anything.

He was very serious.

He had something he really wanted to say.

I am chief of many tribes.

It was on that day when the white man's blood

mixed with the streams of our forests...

that is when I heard of this great white warrior.

You were at Monongahela?

I was there.

I told my warriors, "Let your aim be certain, and he dies."

Our rifles were leveled.

Rifles which, but for you, knew not how to miss.

‘Twas all in vain.

Power mightier far than we

shielded you from harm.

You cannot die in battle.

There is something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy.

Listen.

The Great Spirit protects that man and his destinies.

He will become the chief of nations,

and the people yet unborn

will hail him

as the founder of a mighty empire.

This is five years before the first shots

of the American Revolution rang out,

and you can see how that prophecy came true.

It's an amazing story, apocryphal, if you will,

true, that he was clearly a protected figure.

Washington felt that way, too.

It’s the only explanation he could think of as to

why he was still alive,

and throughout his life

there's one instance after another

of that kind of thing happening.

The root cause of the American Revolution

was that the Americans were denied representation

in the English Parliament.

Between 1761 and 1775,

Parliament passed nearly 30 laws

that restricted the American economy, governance,

and social structure.

At the outset, Americans simply wanted

to be treated equally as British citizens

under the unwritten British constitution.

But the continuing unjust treatment of the Americans

soon came to a head around the city of Boston.

Many Americans, regardless of their color

or their origins, longed for freedom.

Peter Salem was a slave living in Framingham, Massachusetts.

He was sold in 1774,

and then his new master gives him a musket.

Slaves were not allowed legally to carry muskets,

but his new owner encouraged him to be part of the Minutemen,

to be ready at a minute's notice.

I loved marching in rhythm, being a soldier.

Soon I slept with my musket.

And that minute's notice came in April of 1775

with the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

The signal came at midnight.

I grabbed my musket, put on my shoes...

and ran 12 miles to Concord,

where I first encountered the British in battle.

It was on my own accord as a free man...

that I enlisted in Colonel John Nixon's regiment.

We arrived to fight the British at Breed's Hill, June 1775,

in what they now call...

the Battle of Bunker Hill.

About 2,000 British soldiers

landed on Charleston Peninsula June 17th.

Because there was so little gunpowder,

we were told not to fire at them

until we see the white of their eyes.

As the British reached our redoubt,

one of their officers yelled out,

"The day is ours!"

Then I fired with the volley

and struck this officer.

I learned after the battle

that the man's name was Major Pitcairn,

the British officer responsible

for firing the first shots in the war

in the Battle of Lexington.

There's like 128 or 138, whatever it is,

African Americans actually fighting alongside regulars--

not just in separate units-- in the Army.

The next time that's gonna happen is 1951,

in the Korean War.

We lost that battle because the British took the hill,

but they lost more men.

And then when the men realized that it was Peter Salem...

General.

...he was a folk hero at that point.

This is Peter Salem,

the man responsible for bringing down Pitcairn at Bunker Hill.

After that,

General Washington convinced Congress

that Black soldiers could fight in the Army.

George Washington realized,

"We need to have every man that we can in this army,

regardless of their skin color,"

and he defied the southern politicians

in South Carolina and Georgia,

and he allowed Black men to serve in the army.

Another notable Black American in the Revolution

was Washington's valet, William Lee.

The general, he had them boys on the run.

I do believe he called it a fox hunt.

George Washington

had a close relationship with his valet, William Lee.

When he was a young boy, a young man,

he was referred to as Billy.

And then when he became of age,

George Washington insisted on calling him William.

And so there was a warm relationship.

Billy walks out the door with him in 1775,

just after Lexington and Concord.

And when they do that,

when Washington knows he's liable to lose everything,

Billy's with him then,

and Billy's with him throughout every battle,

and every war.

In Washington's will,

he declared that Lee was to be freed

and given a pension for life.

There's this group of people, historians,

who basically say the American Revolution

was a war to protect slavery.

These people are anti-American people.

The war was not a war to protect slavery.

It was a war fought on principles opposed to slavery.

Notable Blacks fought early in the American Revolution

and throughout the American Revolution.

Eyewitness accounts of newspapers across the continent

had reported that Blacks had participated in

the Battles of Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill.

Most American studies programs at

some of the best universities and colleges

are anti-American studies programs.

Obviously, I'm on the other side of that.

By the end of 1776,

free Blacks and soon-to-be-freed Blacks

constituted roughly 1/10th of the Continental Army.

John Adams was a key member of the First Continental Congress.

He would become the second president of the United States

and later die on its 50th anniversary.

His wife, Abigail, was his closest advisor

and shared her ideas with him in a stream of letters

while he was away at Congress.

John and Abigail exchanged over 1,100 letters

over their lifetime,

including their personal insights on politics,

family, and life.

Their correspondence shows

that her revolutionary ideas shaped John's own thoughts,

including her belief that all people,

regardless of color or gender,

should share equal rights in the new American democracy.

Abigail Adams really had this understanding

that freedom was for everyone.

It's good to be face to face again.

It is so good to be home, Abigail.

Here she was, a mother with young children.

She's having to worry about soldiers in her backyard

traipsing through.

But she really stood out in her ability

to think through the issues of the day

and to give counsel and advice to her husband, John Adams.

She was just such a brilliant, brave woman.

I think of all the founders,

and I consider Abigail Adams to be one of them.

George Washington and his Continental Army

experienced so many episodes of danger and disaster

during the eight years of the Revolutionary War

that it's difficult to select a single, darkest moment.

But as contemporaries on both sides of the conflict suggested,

the Continental Army benefited from a series

of unusual natural phenomena,

and a pattern of illogical but consistent good luck.

That, in the painful and eventful year of 1776,

rescued the troops from all but certain catastrophe.

The hastily assembled New England militias were

able to drive the redcoats back into the city of Boston.

Stalemate ensued for months,

with disorganized colonial volunteers

sleeping around their campfires on the outskirts of the town,

and the British forces trapped inside the city.

On the morning of March 2, 1776,

Washington saw an opportunity to deploy some new artillery

that had been seized from the British

in a daring raid on Fort Ticonderoga.

To me, the interesting story about Dorchester Heights

is how he gets the cannon.

Henry Knox, with a bunch of others and some cattle,

dragged these huge weapons across the snow

from upstate New York.

Tell Knox to place his cannon there.

I will want two redoubts in the center,

with smaller defenses made of fascines and gabions

to either flank.

Within two weeks time, we shall give quite a surprise

to the British.

There will be a full moon, sir.

I-I'm afraid that we'll be seen.

If I shall be able to rise superior to these,

I shall most religiously believe...

the finger of Providence is in it

to blind the eyes of our enemies.

Washington's trust seemed to be answered

when a thick fog moved in to completely shroud

the Continental Forces.

They moved 20 cannons and 2,000 men into positions

throughout the night,

right over the heads of the unsuspecting British.

It's to Washington's credit

that he recognizes the tactical advantage this provides

and that this will end this what apparently is an endless game

of just staring at each other across the abyss

in the Boston siege.

The next morning, His Majesty's troops awoke

and looked up in horror to see formidable,

newly constructed rebel fortifications

glaring down at them.

Washington!

Out of my way!

It didn't take long for the British commander,

General William Howe, to assess his options:

either drive the rebels off that hill

or desert Boston.

Gentlemen, we attack tonight.

You take the hill. - Yes, Lord Howe.

- You hold the flank. - Right, general.

He quickly decided to choose the course of honor.

He would attack.

He decided to send his 9,000 troops out

in an overwhelming nighttime surprise assault.

But as evening approached...

the weather changed dramatically...

and, in the eyes of many, miraculously.

Blizzard.

General, are you alright?

- No, I'm not alright! - Are you cut?

How can we move in this?!

Don't answer me. We can't!

The ferocious storm of early March prevented the British

from attacking Washington's artillery on the hills

of Dorchester Heights, above Boston.

The delay afforded the Americans time

to fortify their position even more.

The next morning,

General Howe was hesitant

after the embarrassment of Bunker Hill

to once again march up a hill to an enemy

who was firmly dug in and occupying high ground.

Take this to General Washington.

At once.

So, under the white flag of truce,

Howe sent an offer to Washington.

Mr. Washington?

General Washington.

A message from General Howe.

Thank you. You'll kindly await my reply.

If the colonials allowed His Majesty's forces to depart

from the city without firing on them

or impeding their departure,

they would leave Boston without burning the town to the ground.

This surprising good fortune was not lost on Abigail Adams,

John Adams' wife.

The more I think of it,

the more amazed I am that they should leave such safe harbor,

such entrenchments,

and that we should be in peaceable possession

of a town which we expected would cost us a river of blood.

The British have no tactical alternative but to retreat.

Howe recognizes that.

Otherwise his troops just sit under a siege bombardment

until they're decimated.

The ships leave.

Abigail says it looked like a forest moving.

George Washington could not concoct a storm

to prevent the British from getting over

and doing a landing of their men and going up the hill.

But when he saw something like that happen,

he credited Providence.

Washington is another figure from our founding generation

who skeptics say was not really a believer

or was at most a deist, or at best a deist.

The record doesn't support that.

Washington called upon God.

He attributed developments, including in battles,

to Divine Intervention, to Divine Providence.

He was certainly a man

who believed in the importance of God

and in God's role in human affairs

and in the importance of us trying to do God's will.

In March 1776,

copies of the London newspapers reached America

with word of King George's address to Parliament,

revealing that he would not force Parliament

to retract the odious laws that had led to open warfare.

American minds turned to other solutions for liberty--

independence and the formation of a self-governing nation.

John Adams was heading to Philadelphia.

It is almost...

as if I am not needed here.

You are needed here and elsewhere, John.

It's been a labor of love

the children and I have taken to well enough, I suppose.

My dear Portia...

I endeavor to remain in your good graces.

John, I think you know that to remain in my good graces

you would remember the ladies.

As it will become necessary for you to write a new code of laws,

please...

be more generous and favorable to us

than your ancestors.

Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of husbands.

Remember that all men would be tyrants if they could.

- I shall do my best. - I know that you will.

All the great pagan empires were characterized

by abject cruelty and tyranny.

And you had this pattern in human history

where the king would subjugate his subjects.

And if people were abused by a king,

by a ruler, they really had no recourse.

And so you get this idea emerging in the Christian West

in the late medieval period,

even the king is under the law of God,

and therefore the king is accountable to God

and to a higher moral law,

which they call the natural law, for his actions

and how he treats his subjects.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America.

...and equal station to which the Laws of Nature

and of Nature's God entitle them.

...for one people to dissolve the political bands

which have connected them with another,

and to assume among them the powers of the earth,

a separate and equal station

to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them.

Who is that man?

Colonel Neilsen, I believe.

From the British point of view,

the Declaration of Independence in July 1776

was a very unwelcome and very alarming development

for one very clear reason,

which was that it meant from that point forward,

America could start to get support

from the continental powers, and particularly France, of course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident,

that all men are created equal...

that they are endowed by their Creator

with certain unalienable rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty,

and the pursuit of Happiness.

They believed that liberty was a gift from God.

So there is an implicit understanding there,

an affirmation, that human beings are made

in the Imago Dei, in the image of God,

and God intends for us to be free.

Jefferson writes, "We hold these truths to be self-evident,

“that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator

with certain inalienable Rights."

Notice he doesn't say

that rights are granted by government.

The job of government is to protect those rights.

It's not to grant them.

The rights are granted by God at birth.

That to secure these rights,

Governments are implemented among men,

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

that whenever any form of government

should become destructive of these ends,

it is the right of the People to alter or to abolish it,

and to institute new government...

I would say that the American experiment represents an attempt

to implement the core values of the Enlightenment

in a real society.

It's an attempt to find out whether these values

that are so elevated and so attractive

are compatible with political reality.

"We, therefore,

“the Representatives of the United States of America,

“in General Congress, Assembled,

“appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world

for the rectitude of our intention, do..."

The founders themselves believe

that every human being has rights, basic rights,

simply in virtue of their humanity.

Now where did they get that idea?

Not hard to guess.

It's not just from Plato and Aristotle and Cicero

and the great Roman and Greek thinkers.

It's also from Genesis 1--

that human beings,

though fashioned from the mere dust of the earth--

material stuff--

are nevertheless made in the very image and likeness of God.

That's where our basic dignity comes from.

That's where our rights are anchored,

and they wrote those principles into our founding documents,

into the Declaration and into the Constitution.

“...and that all political connection between them

“and the State of Great Britain,

“is and ought to be totally dissolved;

“and that as Free and Independent States,

“they have full Power to Levy War,

“conclude Peace, contract Alliances,

“establish Commerce,

“and to do all other Acts and Things

which Independent States may of right do."

“And in support of this Declaration,

“with a firm reliance on the protection

“of divine Providence,

“we mutually pledge to each other

“our Lives, our Fortunes

and our sacred Honor.”

Three cheers for independency!

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

The fate of unborn millions now depends, under God,

upon the conduct and courage of this army.

England is a country that has the greatest navy in the world,

the greatest military might in the world.

We had farmers...

15-, 16-year-old kids who had,

you know, the musket that they had kept up in the barn

basically that they were going fighting with.

So it's brave. It really is.

The American revolutionaries in 1774 and 1775

were really doing something very dangerous.

I mean, there is no doubt that they were,

from a British point of view, committing treason.

Technically, if they had been captured,

they could have been put on trial and hanged in London.

And Ben Franklin understood that from the get-go.

He famously says, "If we do not hang together,

“we individuals, we states, we will hang--

assuredly hang separately,”--

that is, by the neck until we're dead.

“They will divide and conquer us."

What if the Revolutionary War had ended as soon as it began?

What if George Washington had been captured or killed,

the Continental Army destroyed

and disbanded all before the summer of 1776

had even come to an end?

It would be more than seven years

before the Revolution was won and America was free.

But if not for several timely rescues from an unseen ally,

America may never have even been born.

In late August of 1776,

the Battle of Long Island

was a one-sided

and decisive British victory.

I think it's the single most important moment in the war,

um, in the sense that...

Washington has decided to defend

New York, which is an archipelago,

which means it's indefensible if you don't control the seas.

In the Battle of Long Island,

he's merely outflanked

and he's up against the end of Long Island now

with a British force beneath him of 30,000 troops.

He's trapped.

The troops are preparing themselves to charge

and lose their lives.

Many of the British officers,

particularly the most senior officers,

displayed a really bloodthirsty attitude towards the colonists.

They were apt to make statements about the need

for a bloodletting on the colonial side,

the wholesale hanging and slaughter

of the leaders of the Revolution,

and that would put an end to the problem

of unrest and disobedience within the empire.

Our powder and our cartridges are soaked.

And so are theirs.

Then this weather is most... providential.

At least it's discouraged Howe from coming at us again.

At least.

As it is, we couldn't take another blow.

Casualty report?

Is it as bad as we feared?

Yes, sir.

Stirling and Sullivan both captured.

Says here more than...

...300 dead.

As best we can tell.

We are here.

Howe, here.

Their ships cannot sail up to us

as long as this wind continues from the northeast.

That will not last.

And once it shifts...

we're trapped.

What are your orders, sir?

Send word to General Heath.

Tell him to gather every boat that he can muster.

And then Colonel Glover, send word

that we will have need of his fishermen and his sailors.

Tonight we will cross the river...

quiet as a mouse.

Surely they will see us, sir.

General Mifflin will create the illusion

that we are continuing entrenchments

and keeping fires burning through the night.

We may just be able to steal some time.

Washington actually had to retreat.

They were outmanned, outgunned, overwhelmed,

and so the only time was an orderly retreat.

A strategic retreat is the most difficult maneuver

of an infantry unit,

because you have to hold ground while you evacuate,

and the last ones to leave are the ones with the toughest--

they might never get out.

The nearby presence of four fearsome enemy warships,

with their formidable complement of cannon,

made escape across the water unlikely, if not unthinkable.

But a fog forms at this time.

It was not weather for it. It was not a day for it.

There's no reason this fog should have rolled in,

and yet, just when it was needed, fog rolled in.

Witnesses say you couldn't see more

than three feet in front of you.

So the British don't know the evacuation is occurring.

It'll be dawn soon.

- How many more? - Hundreds.

The British Navy doesn't do anything.

If they had three ships out there,

they could have sunk every one of those vessels.

They would have never made it across.

Many of the soldiers who experienced this fog

wrote letters back to their local newspapers

in Boston and Virginia and said, "Providence favored us.

“The night was remarkably still, the water as smooth as glass,

“yet all our boats got over.

“The enemy did not discover that we had evacuated our lines

until we were all got over."

And so this was seen as providential

because the fog was not in Manhattan.

It was just at Long Island.

You'll never believe it, sir.

Thick as soup over here, but in Manhattan,

where we drop 'em, it's clear as crystal.

No fog at all.

Time to go, general.

This is the great escape of the war.

He should have never made it.

They should have gotten him.

If you are providentially inclined,

you've got to believe

that some forces are acting on American behalf.

And the British actually say that afterwards.

I mean, how can all these things have happened at the same time?

Were those just all coincidences?

Well, maybe they were.

Logically, it's possible that maybe, coincidentally,

we had coincidence after coincidence after coincidence,

all favoring Washington

and favoring the American side

and leading to this miraculous--

what would otherwise seem-- miraculous victory

of the American revolutionaries, this ragtag bunch,

over the greatest military power on Earth.

But Washington didn't believe they were mere coincidences.

Washington saw a supervening Providence,

the hand of a supervening Providence

in these so-called coincidences.

He saw miracles

where a skeptic or a cynic might see coincidences.

There's a keen sense in the British Army

this was the chance to end it.

This was the chance to get the whole army.

And they were right.

And once that missed, it would never come again.

- Enemy! - Form company!

Trio, boys! Trio!

March forward!

Fire! Reload!

If you look at the American Revolution,

I mean, it's longer than the American Civil War.

So this became this really long battle

of attrition and perseverance

that was kind of a matter of wills.

The secret weapon for America was George Washington,

the admiration that his troops had for him,

for his character.

Gentlemen...

we received intelligence

about the activities of our enemies across the water.

It's their intention to wait

until the river hardens sufficiently with ice,

then to come across and destroy us.

But I intend that they should not have such an opportunity.

Tonight, we shall take every boat that we have collected

and Glover's ferryman, as well as those from Philadelphia

and also from New Jersey, we shall cross,

and we shall attack Trenton before sunrise tomorrow.

The password and watchword are "victory or death."

Victory or death.

Aye.

Sir, the boats are ready.

Excellent. Officers, see to your men.

A storm's coming.

It is. - Yep.

I can feel it in my bones.

Washington's stature as the embodiment of the Revolution

was unquestioned.

There's nobody in American history

who has occupied that kind of position of recognition.

The British believed they were on the verge

of destroying the American rebels.

But Washington's bold decision to attack Trenton

was aided by a providential Christmas snow storm

that blinded their approach,

allowing the Continental Army complete victory

over the Hessian garrison.

This turn of events shocked the British

and brought great hope to the colonies

that God's providence was aiding in their fight for independence.

Who are ye?

My name's John Fitzgerald,

aide-de-camp to General Washington.

- Aye! - Aye.

About a week ago,

Washington took us across the Delaware River.

It's full of ice. It's uncrossable, really.

But our new position allowed us to catch

the Hessians at Trenton totally unaware.

Christmas it was.

It was a great victory.

- Casualties? - At Trenton?

Yeah.

Well, not many, if any, on our side.

Plenty on their side, though.

We stocked up on food and supplies as well.

And then what?

Well, we were expecting a swift counterattack from Howe,

so we dug in on the south side of this little creek.

It was good ground, but we were hemmed in.

We couldn't stay.

But the night grew very cold and the roads firmed up.

Washington saw the chance.

We moved again, real quiet like,

in the middle of the night.

We snuck right past Howe's army and made it up here.

And now we've got them flanked.

And where are we again? - Princeton.

Aye. We had another fight yesterday.

More than a skirmish, she was, line to line, and I...

I can't believe what I saw.

What?

Make ready! Present!

He just road out right in front of both lines.

- Who? - The general!

General Washington.

He's so exposed. Both lines fired.

I had to cover my face with my hat.

I couldn't bear to see him fall.

And after the volley, I could hear the sounds of death

of many a men crying out in pain.

And then the smoke cleared a little,

and there he was, untouched.

And he rose up in his stirrups, and he shouted,

"It's a fine fox chase, my boys!"

And he led the chase!

And the Brits ran!

There are multiple occasions during Washington's life

when most everybody else would have somehow gotten killed.

When he purposely stepped in front of British fire,

he does that to show the troops

that he's willing to run the same risks

that he's asking them to run.

Does this change the war?

Well, I cannot say for sure to that.

But Trenton and now this?

Our enemy is not invincible.

They can be beaten.

Godspeed. - Aye.

At the Battle of Brandywine Creek in September of 1777,

Washington was caught in the sights of one

of the finest marksmen in the British Army,

Patrick Ferguson.

Dismount at once and raise your hands!

Run, sir!

Mr. Ferguson had him within sight,

and he thought about shooting him and then decided,

no, he wanted to capture him.

George Washington got away.

And this happened over and over again,

and it was impossible to really explain it by any human sense.

It was at Valley Forge

that Washington and his Continental Army

experienced their greatest time of testing.

They were dark days. People were impoverished.

Families were separated, men were dying.

And some of the losses aren't even battlefield losses.

Horrendous death and suffering at Valley Forge.

They don't have blankets. They don't have shoes.

They don't have shirts. They don't have enough food.

There's a farmer down the road who has some horses.

See if you can procure them at a reasonable cost.

We are in dire need. - Yes, sir.

We're off to infirmary.

Very well.

What are your orders, sir?

We'll cut the timber from these hills

and build cabins here on the valley.

What perseverance. What stoicism.

He chose to basically stay in the field,

keep at it day after day, even though he's losing.

Yes, sir.

As I grew up,

Washington was the most unknown of the Founding Fathers.

We didn't really know or understand him,

and he was not an eloquent writer.

So what he wrote was not memorable,

but what he said and did was.

He was a man of destiny,

and he was thought of in those kinds of terms

by everybody,

everybody including King George.

His respect for Washington was enormous,

and he knew it before the end of the war.

As a military leader,

Washington is the only great general in American history

that lost more battles than he won,

who was outmaneuvered by the British

on almost every occasion,

outflanked.

Now, part of the problem is he's commanding a force of amateurs,

and the British are commanding a force of professionals.

So it's hard to be completely fair about that.

During the Revolutionary War,

there was a smallpox epidemic going on in America.

He's immune to smallpox because he got a lower version of it.

Once you've had it, you're immune.

But in some sense, Washington seems

to be immune to everything.

Edison. We're taking good care of you, Edison.

God's peace.

Martha came to almost every winter encampment,

which is hard to do.

And in that environment,

Martha does organize some women to tend to the soldiers,

to say prayers with the dying troops.

- How old are you, lad? - 13.

We've brought you tea with honey to help with your cough.

- Thank you, ma'am. - Will you help him?

You shall be drumming again in no time.

Thank you.

Madam.

I'm afraid for Edison.

Doesn't have long.

Sir.

Can you make sure my wife gets this...

...and the money in my shoe?

Of course, of course.

It's a kind of testing time.

It's a time when the officer corps of the army

talks about us as the few, "we're the few," because, remember,

they're not being supported by the state governments

or by the Congress.

- Evening, sir. - Good evening, colonel.

How are you, lads?

- Very good, sir. - Doing well, sir.

- Have you been fed? - We have. Yes, sir.

- Stay alert. - Thank you. Thank you, sir.

They're not getting paid.

They're not going to get a pension.

And it's a really, really difficult environment.

Evening, colonel.

What's in the pot tonight?

Well, sir.

No meat, just potatoes.

Give it a good stir.

Keep the fire going. - Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

But that hope for liberty was the light that led them,

that, under God, he would lead them to a time

of peace and prosperity

that would be a fulfillment of those natural rights.

Whether or not the legendary prayer at Valley Forge

actually took place, as the famous painting depicts,

that remains the subject of historical debate,

but what is clear is that George Washington

was indisputably a man of prayer,

a fact confirmed by his own writings.

O Lord,

that the God of armies may incline the hearts

of my American brethren

to support and bestow sufficient abilities on me...

to bring the present contest to a speedy

and happy conclusion...

is the first wish and most fervent prayer of my soul.

When I was grown, I heard that phrase,

those words three times

before I claimed it--

that all mankind are equal,

free, and independent of each other.

The first time was a cold January day in 1773,

when nearly a dozen men came to Mr. Ashley's house.

That's the first time I remember Mr. Sedgwick, the lawyer.

They talked about grievances and corruption from the king

and not being accountable to the people.

It was very serious.

Gentlemen of Sheffield,

we meet tonight to come to agreement on a set of resolves.

We have done so, and this is what we have decided.

Mankind, in a state of nature, are equal,

free, and independent of each other,

and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment

of their lives,

their liberty, and their property.

Can on this we agree?

- Aye. - I agree.

For the next years, those words encouraged my soul.

- This slavery to England is... - I heard those words again

when Mr. Ashley talked about the Declaration of Independence,

that those rights come from a Creator,

and that among them are life, liberty...

- We are all created equal. - ...and happiness.

By then I had a baby of my own and my husband went off to war,

to the Revolution.

He never came back.

He paid the ultimate price.

I paid a smaller price, too.

One day in 1780, my mistress, Madam Ashley,

had one of her angry fits

and started to strike my daughter,

a weakly girl who had made herself a wheat cake

from the scraps left over from the family batch.

Where'd you get that?

It was just the scraps, Miss Ashley.

It was just scraps. - They were gonna throw it out.

- Miss Ashley! Mama! - She hit me so hard!

Mama, please!

I left my wound uncovered all winter as evidence

of her harsh treatment.

When people asked...

Why, Betty, what ails your arm?

Ask madam.

Poor dear, did you see?

If one minute's freedom had been offered me,

especially in that moment,

and I'd been told that I must die at the end of that minute,

I would have taken it just to stand one minute on God's earth

as a free woman.

-“...are created equal.” - That same year,

I heard the words again,

this time about a newly ratified document,

the new Constitution for Massachusetts.

It was read aloud in a public meeting.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,

“that all men are created equal,

“that they are endowed by their Creator

with certain unalienable Rights.”

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King never tired

of invoking the Declaration of Independence

in his campaign for fundamental civil rights

to overcome the legacy of slavery.

He pleaded with his fellow Americans

to make good on the check

that was written by the American founders

when it came to liberty and justice for all,

when it came to the idea that all men--

black, white, red, yellow, brown-- are created equal.

Finally I decided I would do something about those words.

I paid a visit to Mr. Sedgwick, the lawyer.

Someone is here to see you.

Thank you, children. Tell your mom I'll be in soon.

Yes, father.

You're... Bett from Judge Ashley's house.

- Yes, sir. - Please, sit.

Join me. - Why, you a gentleman...

even to me?

I try to follow the Golden Rule as best I can.

I've heard your situation.

How can I help you? - Mr. Sedgwick,

seven years ago, you came to the house

and you wrote those resolves

that all mankind are equal,

free, and independent of each other.

I heard you say so.

And Mr. Ashley agreed.

Then the Declaration of Independence say the same.

Did you mean what you said?

Those words?

Yes.

Did you mean me?

Am I all mankind?

Yes.

Yes, you are.

All men, all women,

equal.

Mr. Sedgwick, you a legal man.

Can you tell Miss Ashley

that she ain't my mistress no more?

He accepted my case

and added Brom--

one of Mr. Ashley's male slaves-- to it, too.

King himself observed

that there are two kinds of law--

just and unjust.

He said just laws are laws that are in line with...

the natural law

and the law of God.

Unjust laws are laws that are out of line with

the natural law and the law of God.

There is, in other words, according to King,

a law above the merely human positive law,

a law that no human being makes,

a law that's ultimately made by God.

We claimed that the new Constitution of Massachusetts

effectively abolished slavery in the Commonwealth.

Judge John Ashley, did you in 1773,

invite the distinguished citizens of Berkshire County

to your home to draft

and sign the document now known as the Sheffield Resolves?

We did.

And did you then and do you now support the Declaration,

that all men are created free and equal

and independent of each other in the eyes of God and the law?

We did.

Does the Massachusetts Constitution,

signed in June last year,

declare all men free and equal?

It does.

Your Honor, no further questions.

Miss Bett...

...how was your arm injured?

You'll have to ask Madam Ashley.

Did she strike you with a hot shovel?

Objection. A slave cannot testify

against a free defendant.

Your Honor, this objection is founded

on common law practices in British courts.

On July 2nd of 1776,

our 13 sovereign states declared their independence

from Great Britain based on the principle

that all men are created equal.

Last year here in Massachusetts,

our citizens ratified a constitution,

a written constitution, that declares all men free and equal.

British slave law no longer applies in Massachusetts

and cannot bar our citizens from testifying in court.

Overruled.

Miss Bett, I have to ask you again.

Last October, how was your arm injured?

Madam Hannah Ashley...

struck me with a hot shovel

straight from the fire.

We're deeply fallen, sinful creatures,

and yet made in the very image and likeness of God--

that is possessing dignity and therefore rights.

Your Honor, the plaintiffs rest.

Members of the jury,

Brom and Bett ask that you find them to be free men.

Why do we have natural rights?

Why do we have human rights?

Why are there things that it's wrong to do to any human being?

Because human beings are not like amoeba,

or like ants or even like dogs or pigs.

They have the Godlike qualities of reason and freedom.

They have agency.

They're made in the image and likeness of God.

And that doesn't mean that God has five fingers

on each of two hands and hair on His head and a nose.

It means that, like God,

we have the powers of reason and freedom.

We can envisage states of affairs that don't exist,

but it would be good to bring into existence.

And then we can act freely

and on reason to bring those states of affairs into being.

The jury took little time to render its decision.

Have you reached a verdict?

We, the jury,

find that slavery is incompatible

with the state constitution

and award the plaintiffs damages

of 30 shillings each, plus costs.

- I now find-- - Your Honor...

Bett would like to have it entered into the record

that her new name shall be Elizabeth Freeman.

So ordered.

The jury found in our favor

that we are not and were not the legal property of Mr. Ashley.

Mr. Ashley offered for me to live in his house

and work for wages, but I declined.

Instead, Mr. Sedgwick hired me as his governess

for his children.

They call me “Mumbet”.

Now the news has come of another court case.

Judge Cushing has said

that perpetual servitude can no longer be tolerated

in our government, and that liberty cannot be taken.

He said that slavery was effectively abolished

in Massachusetts!

In October of 1781,

it was the Battle of Yorktown

that broke the British resolve to continue the war.

The French and the Americans

pummeled General Cornwallis' army for 11 days...

...while those troops were huddled

behind earthen fortifications.

But it would be another 18 months

before Washington learned... - Sir.

...that negotiators in Paris

had reached a tentative agreement on a peace treaty.

Gentlemen, uh, I see no reason

why we should await signatures

to stop the flow of blood at this time.

We should propose a general cessation

of hostilities immediately. - The British agreed.

Washington's ceasefire went into effect

on April 19, 1783,

exactly eight years after the “shot heard

round the world” was fired on Lexington Green.

The American Revolution shouldn't have won.

It shouldn't have defeated the British.

The founders and those that were involved in it were so amazed.

And the whole world was frankly amazed by it,

that a lot of them looked at it

as this had to be a kind of providential event.

Washington himself

often marveled at the supernatural safeguards

that seemed to sustain his endeavors,

but he always associated signs of heavenly favor

with the cause.

But others have different explanations

for these unlikely events.

I'm a person very much of the material world

and of history and facts.

I can give an explanation that has nothing

to do with Providence and so on.

I can say that George Washington was a genius as a general.

He was a genius because he knew when not to fight.

He knew when to retreat.

“Miracle” does apply in many of the battles,

for example, and the way things turn,

but at the base,

the underlying advantages the American populace

and the American context provide

were enormous advantages

that were quite palpable and not divine.

So it depends on your angle of vision.

The founders themselves,

in their very Declaration of Independence from Britain,

stated that "we place our reliance in the protection

of divine providence."

But the American Revolution not only succeeded,

it made possible a Constitution,

and the Constitution succeeded in maintaining

republican government.

Now, why?

There is something special, something utterly unique

about the American Revolution.

It succeeded in establishing a wholly unprecedented

self-governing federal republic that has endured

and prospered under the same remarkable blueprint,

with periodic adjustments, for more than 200 years.

The founders understood that the greatest dangers to liberty

came from central power, centralized power.

So in order to avoid the dangers of excessive power

in the central government, the original plan,

that is the Articles of Confederation,

gave the central government almost no power.

The Articles of Confederation,

which were used between the end of the war

and the Constitutional Convention, had no power to tax.

They had no power to demand anything of any other state,

of any other colony.

They knew they had to put some teeth into the articles,

and they all agreed

that that was what they were trying to accomplish.

Trust you had a pleasant journey here...

Virginians arrive pretty early

before many other delegations arrive.

They begin to meet together, but kind of informally.

And Ben Franklin is the host, and he's a gracious host.

- Dr. Franklin? - Yes, sir.

On behalf of our entire delegation

who have traveled quite far from the Commonwealth of Virginia,

we thank you for graciously opening your home.

- And your Madeira wine! - Hear, hear!

You're welcome, gentlemen. Welcome to Philadelphia.

And enjoy the wine. - It's our pleasure to be here.

- Thank you. - I'm sure you're tired.

And I hope this-- this makes the trip

even that much more pleasant for you.

- Thank you. - Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Now, if I might offer a topic for discussion tonight,

I'd like for you to take a look at these 15 resolves

as outlined by Mr. James Madison in a bold new envisioning

of what our federal government might look like

as we move forward.

Now, we all agree that our Articles of Confederation

have proven wholly incapable of moving our nation forward

on the world stage... - Hear, hear.

...or any stage, for that matter.

Mr. Madison has given thought to a much more forward-thinking,

I'd say better-thinking form for our government.

Don't you agree? Now take a look at this.

Read it carefully. See what you think.

If our union is to hold together,

something must be done.

How long this time?

Oh, madam.

No more than duty demands,

and not a minute longer.

Make it worth it.

Make it worth the lives and the blood

for the children

and our grandchildren's grandchildren.

Make it strong.

Yes.

Washington comes from Virginia,

and now everyone knows this is serious.

He comes out of retirement.

And if he's willing to come out of retirement,

every other state sends their best people

'cause George Washington's going to be there,

and Ben Franklin is going to be there.

The windows to the Pennsylvania State House

were shuttered and curtained,

and the delegates pledged to total secrecy

when they gathered late in May of 1787.

Edmund Randolph, the governor of Virginia,

presented Madison's Virginia Plan,

and for the next 40 days,

the 15 elements of the Virginia Plan

provided the blueprint for their daily deliberations.

There's a controversy that develops.

On the one hand, there are the small states.

On the other hand, there are the big states

with larger populations.

In Madison's Constitution,

he has two legislative bodies, not just one,

each body based on population.

Now, the small states are concerned because they think

that if representation is solely assigned by population,

that they won't be adequately represented.

So they don't want to go along with the Constitution,

and tempers start to get frayed.

It looks as if the convention may unravel

without actually forming a union.

Mr. Luther Martin, Maryland.

I dare Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts

to form your own confederation.

And the rest of us, we'll form a-- a rival association

on a more worthy basis!

The big states naturally favored

proportional representation,

but the small states, of course, disagreed.

Their sovereignty as states was being threatened,

and they pledged to walk out if their voices weren't heard--

voices like that of William Paterson of New Jersey.

Mr. Paterson, New Jersey,

We are met here as the deputies

of 13 independent sovereign states.

Can we annihilate the sovereignties of our states

who have sent us here for other purposes?

- No. - Nay.

The people of America are sharp-sided

and not to be deceived.

I used to tell my students,

the twin pillars of constitutional thought

are first, the notion of human dignity--

that humans have an intrinsic dignity

from which our rights are derived,

that we are granted dignity in virtue

of having been created by God.

And because that dignity is a God-given gift,

and the rights that flow from it are also God given,

the state cannot take those rights away.

The other key pillar of constitutional thought

is the idea of human depravity,

that humans are capable of great evil

against their fellow men and women.

And so we have dignity,

but we're very much capable of not respecting

the dignity of others.

All in favor, say “aye”.

- Aye. - Aye.

- All opposed. - Nay.

- Nay. - Nay.

The Constitution was important because it made it clear

that there had to be a strong central government,

and the Articles were the opposite.

The delegates from New York, the delegates from other states,

all were told "If you come back

with a strong central government, we'll hang you."

So there was a lot of resistance,

but Madison apparently was one of the most persuasive.

He says "The key issue is this--

“if we give too much power to the government,

“it will result in tyranny

“and the abridgment of all the rights of the citizens.

“But if we don't give government enough power,

“then the intrinsic depravity of the citizenry will run wild

“and we'll have rebellions and lawlessness and so forth.

So we've got to get the balance right."

Madison then reflects on all this,

and the way he attempts to get the balance right

is with the checks and balances,

with the separation of powers.

James Wilson of Pennsylvania spoke for the larger states.

James Wilson of Pennsylvania.

Can we forget to whom we're forming a government?

Are not the citizens of Pennsylvania

equal to those of New Jersey?

Hear, hear.

Will it require 150 of the former

to balance 50 of the latter?

Why should a national government be unpopular?

Shall a citizen of Delaware

be degraded by becoming a citizen of the United States?

Hear, hear.

- Nay. - Nay.

Mr. Gunning Bedford, Delaware.

Will you crush the smaller states?

Oh, they say they will never hurt

or injure the lesser states.

I do not, gentlemen, trust you.

Hear, hear.

Were we the smaller states to form our own confederation,

the fault will be yours.

- No, sir. No, sir. - Nay!

And all the nations of the earth will justify us.

The larger states would not dare dissolve our confederation.

And if they tried,

we would find some foreign ally of more honor and good faith

to take them by the hand and do them justice.

- Nay! - Hear, hear!

Even George Washington was discouraged at this point

in the convention.

He wrote to his friend, Alexander Hamilton,

who had temporarily returned to New York.

I almost despair of seeing a favorable issue

to the proceedings of this convention,

and do therefore repent having had any agency in the business.

So many of the founding fathers owned slaves,

but were against it at the same time.

George Washington said in an April 12, 1786 letter

to Robert Morris, he said of slavery,

"There is not a man living

“who wishes more sincerely than I do

to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it."

As soon as the American Revolution breaks out,

the Declaration of Independence is adopted,

immediately the Northern states start ending slavery,

state by state by state,

and the Southern states do not follow suit.

So the word slave and the word slavery

never appear once in the Constitution,

because otherwise

the Southern delegates are walking out.

The most important thing is you got to get

all the states on board.

If a state is on its own,

it would have the ability to make a treaty

with some foreign power.

And now you're going to have foreign mercenaries

on American soil threatening the other states.

So, South Carolina and Massachusetts

have to both be on board and everyone in between

to create a united, geographically contiguous block.

And in order for that to happen,

oh, you're going to have to accommodate

the South Carolinians on the subject of slavery.

Another day of impasse.

Why not push the vote?

We have eight states for manumission.

We will lose the others. Fracture the country.

Can we now survive without Georgia,

without South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland?

Connecticut has promoted this compromise.

They will vote against us.

Where will they turn next?

Spain? France?

Back to England?

No.

We are, as of yet, too fragile.

But this compromise--

should our government divide souls?

3/5 of a slave for taxes and additional representatives?

Additional representatives

whose constituents are the strained backs of the enslaved.

Yet those representatives will vote

to perpetuate the abomination of slavery.

20 years before we can intervene.

We cannot abolish that abomination without a country.

If we press the issue now,

the slave states will just fracture the federation.

Slavery will continue in a divided America.

But if we accept the compromise, we build one nation.

A single nation, a great nation...

can work towards abolition.

A lot of people

misunderstand what the 3/5 clause is all about.

I was once one of them.

I remember as a student I said, "Oh, this is a horrible clause.

“You're treating slaves as 3/5 of a person,

and everyone should count equally."

No, no.

Because no matter what, slaves are never going to be voting.

That's not the issue.

The 3/5 clause is not about

how much we value slaves as human beings.

It's about how much extra voting power

the white slave-holding regime in slave states

is going to enjoy because of the existence of slavery.

In that debate, the South wanted that number high

and the North wanted that number low.

And if you're anti-slavery, the answer should be zero.

Slavery is the one issue

that everybody knows will destroy the convention

and make any kind of constitution impossible.

Benjamin Franklin attended the proceedings nearly every day,

but he rarely spoke.

But at this critical juncture,

late in the day on June the 28th, he rose.

The delegates quieted down to give their full attention

to their assembly's most venerable figure.

Dr. Franklin of Pennsylvania.

In this situation, at this assembly,

groping, as it were, in the dark to find political truth

and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us,

how has it happened, sir,

that we have not hitherto once humbly applied

to the Father of Light to illuminate our conversation?

In the beginning of this conflict with Great Britain,

when we were sensible of danger,

we had daily prayer in this room for divine protection.

Our prayers, sir, were heard... - Hear, hear.

...and they were graciously answered.

Hear, hear.

All of us who were engaged in the struggle

must have observed frequent instances

of a superintending providence in our favor.

And have we now forgotten that powerful friend?

I have lived a long time, and the longer I live,

the more convincing proofs I see of this truth.

That God governs in the affairs of men.

Hear, hear.

And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice,

is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings,

that except the Lord build the house,

they labor in vain that build it.

I firmly believe this.

And I also believe that without His concurring aid,

we shall succeed in this political battle

no better than the builders of Babel.

I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth

prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven

and its blessings on our deliberations

be held every morning in this room

before we proceed to business.

- Hear, hear. - Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

Benjamin Franklin was among the least actively religious

of the American founders.

That must have just been a [gasps] moment

for everybody in that room to think,

"Wow, Franklin said that. Franklin said that."

Now, skeptics or cynics might say, well, Franklin

there was simply being a good psychologist.

He wasn't really thinking God might help here,

but he was thinking we can move people toward cooperation

and move them from this impasse

if we can get them into a kind of religious spirit.

I don't believe it, though.

In his personal memoir,

which he did not imagine would be read by the general public,

but thought would basically be for his children

and his descendants,

he talked about his own belief in the importance of prayer

and the power of prayer--

that prayer made a difference.

And this shows that he did believe in a God

who really did care about human affairs

and could and did intervene in human affairs.

He believed in Providence.

As a result of the Franklin speech,

the whole atmosphere

in the Constitutional Convention changes.

Attitudes soften.

They form a committee of five to explore a compromise.

The Sherman Compromise,

which had been on the table from the beginning,

is suddenly seen as sweet reason.

We have one house--

one of the two bodies in the legislature

will be apportioned by population,

and the other will be given two senators for each state.

On the decisive Monday morning

on which the state delegations finally faced

the single most contentious issue of the convention,

suddenly, at center stage enters a delegate from Maryland,

a man by the unusual name of Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer.

He believed in representation based on population

and supported a powerful central government.

In this he disagreed respectfully

with his fellow Marylander, the obstreperous Luther Martin.

Jenifer inexplicably got up from his chair,

ambled out of the state house,

and wandered off onto the city streets.

He absented himself from history just long enough

for Luther Martin alone to control Maryland's vote

on equal representation for every state.

Jenifer deliberately threw the result

and ensured the defeat of his own faction

in order to deliver a larger victory for his country.

Small states are happy

because they have equal representation

in the upper house, the Senate.

The large states are happy

because they get proportional representation

in the lower house.

A compromise is struck.

They created a separation of powers,

creating three separate branches of government

that were independent from each other.

These men reflected on human nature very, very deeply.

They knew about the deep faults and deep flaws of human nature,

and so they constructed a new form of republican government

in the Constitution that would survive,

that would endure because it took human nature seriously

and understood human nature well.

So we are adjourned.

By understanding the importance of giving nobody,

no individual, no one institution, unlimited power,

all power would be checked.

And only two days later,

the delegates took a break to celebrate the Fourth of July.

New England's God forever reigns.

Amen.

On this great day, this glorious Fourth,

I cannot suppress the soaring hope

that I feel for the work of the visiting statesmen

who are busy with the great work of binding our states together.

And I'm confident in their success,

and I implore us all to be in prayer

for their collective wisdom and unity.

Methinks I already see the stately fabric of a free

and vigorous government rising from the wisdom

of the Federal Convention.

Let us pray.

The American founders

were an extraordinary group of men

there together in one place,

as if the hand of Providence had made it so.

Every single one of those individuals

was a person of remarkable gifts,

who brought those gifts to bear in the American Revolution

and the establishment of the Constitution.

The Constitution constitutes us as a people.

It's the source of our unity.

We, unlike most other nations in the world,

find our national unity not in common bonds

of blood or soil or throne and altar.

Because we can't find our unity there.

It's in the shared commitment to the principles

of liberty and justice,

enunciated in the Declaration of Independence

and effectuated by the Constitution

of the United States.

They are what unify us.

Later that year, from his diplomatic post

where he represented his country in the court of the French king,

Thomas Jefferson hailed the Philadelphia Convention

as an assembly of demigods,

and in a letter to Adams, Jefferson expressed no doubt

that all its measures will be good and wise.

Finally.

But he had no knowledge of the bruising battles

and the occasional blunders that the demigods endured

and their top-secret proceedings.

He could only marvel at the final result.

As a charter, he said,

“Was unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to men.”

An isolated instance of fortunate coincidence

or eerie congruence may count as an anomaly,

but a long chain of seemingly haphazard

but consistently beneficial occurrences

suggests something else entirely:

a pattern--

or more accurately-- a design.

What if at any point during the Revolution,

any of these amazing intercessions

by Providence hadn't happened?

The fog hadn't rolled in.

We hadn't been able to get the cannons in place

to be able to fight off the British.

At any time, a million things could have gone wrong.

Washington!

And America could have lost the war for independence.

What then?

When you consider the events of the 20th century alone,

I mean, imagine what the world would look like

if you didn't have the United States of America.

Not only was America playing a decisive role

in defeating these countries in wars

or a Cold War or whatever it was in the way they responded,

look at Ellis Island.

Ellis Island provides a place for all the immigrants

in all those countries to flee from those countries,

those oppressors.

So this gives people a safe haven to come to.

This country clearly had a special Providential purpose.

America is something that I--

I hold in my heart,

and I am not sorry about it.

I want everyone to feel that way,

but I think that we reached a point

where there's not one institution in this country

that you can trust.

You can't trust the press, you can't trust the judiciary,

you can't trust education,

you can't trust politics,

you can't trust journalism.

Now, did I just say anything that you would argue with?

I don't think I did.

I think you know that's how far we have fallen, how bad it is.

And if we don't do something that arouses

a feeling of protection and love of country

and the values that we loved,

supposedly in every part, in every family,

if we don't get that back,

this country will not be anything like America.

I think there's a warning for our time

from the great Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

In 1983, he gave a famous speech,

his "Men have forgotten God" speech, about the fall of Russia

to the Bolsheviks in 1917.

He recounts how the old people were weeping in the fields,

and how some of them told him

that these great disasters have befallen Russia

because men have forgotten God.

And I think there is in that story,

and even in the story of our founding,

a warning for us today.

Though the founders were of a variety

of different religious perspectives,

they were very concerned to give honor to God

and to express the God-given rights and liberties

in our founding documents.

And I think the warning is that if we forget God,

if we forget that theistic perspective, if you will,

that there will be a loss of liberty in our country

and we will lose what we have been given.

What we have to be ashamed of in our history are the times

when we have failed to follow our own founding principles,

the proposition that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator

with certain unalienable rights,

and among these are life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness.

When we were involved in injustice and wrongdoing,

it wasn't because of our principles.

It was in violation of our principles.

Our principles are good principles.

I would say Godly principles.

The trouble is, we're prone to wrongdoing, prone to sin,

to use the religious language,

which I think is very appropriate to use.

When we have sinned, we have not done well.

We have not flourished.

We have compromised and betrayed the very almighty God

in whom we have placed our trust and our reliance.

When we have honored our founding principles,

the principles of the Declaration of Independence

and the Constitution, we have flourished.

With that well-earned certainty that,

as Abraham Lincoln said, “He who made the world still governs it,”

Americans of today should regain our bearings.

It must be the task of the citizen,

as well as the statesman, to listen for God's footsteps.

And that perspective should make

the American miracle unmistakable,

impossible to miss that our nation is no accident.

- ♪ Let freedom ring ♪ - ♪ From the shores of Africa ♪

♪ To the doors of America ♪ - ♪ Let freedom ring ♪

♪ From the shores of Africa ♪

♪ To the doors of America ♪ - ♪ Let freedom ring ♪

♪ From the shores of Africa ♪

♪ To the doors of America ♪

♪ Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ We cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ Oh, we cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

♪ Yeah, we cry freedom ♪

♪ Ain't got no halos ♪ - ♪ Ain't got no halos ♪

- ♪ No wings to fly away ♪ - ♪ No wings to fly away ♪

- ♪ I've got to labor ♪ - ♪ I've got to labor ♪

- ♪ For many, many days ♪ - ♪ For many, many days ♪

- ♪ I'm on a journey ♪ - ♪ I'm on a journey ♪

- ♪ I'm looking for a place ♪ - ♪ I'm looking for a place ♪

- ♪ To rest my burdens ♪ - ♪ To rest my burdens ♪

- ♪ Far from this tyranny ♪ - ♪ Far from this tyranny ♪

♪ Whoa ♪

♪ From the shores of Africa ♪

♪ To the doors of America ♪

♪ With voices to heaven ♪

♪ Praying for liberty ♪

♪ We cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ Yeah, we cry freedom ♪ - ♪Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ Yeah, we cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ Oh, we cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ We marched in 'Bama ♪ - Yes, we did.

- ♪ We marched in Tennessee ♪ - Yeah, we marched in Tennessee.

♪ Brown men and white men ♪

♪ Stood for equality ♪ Yes, we did, y'all.

♪ We kept our chin up ♪ - ♪ We kept our chin up ♪

- ♪ We kept our dignity ♪ - ♪ We kept our dignity ♪

♪ And this proclamation ♪

♪ Let everybody sing ♪ - ♪ Let everybody sing ♪

♪ Whoa ♪

♪ From the shores of Africa to the doors of America ♪

♪ With voices to heaven praying for liberty ♪

♪ We cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ Yeah, we cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ Oh, we cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

♪ And we cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

♪ Oh ♪

Freedom ain't free.

It cost somebody something.

♪ Whoa ♪

♪ Freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ Yeah, we cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

- ♪ Oh, yeah, we cry freedom ♪ - ♪ Freedom, freedom ♪

♪ My heart cries freedom ♪

If one minute's freedom had been offered to me,

especially in that moment,

and I'd been told that I must die at the end of that minute,

I would have taken it just to stand one minute on God's earth

as a free woman.

♪ I'm gonna get my shout on ♪

♪ I'm gonna get my, hey ♪

♪ Hey, hey ♪

Mr. President, Congressman Ames from Massachusetts.

Yes, yes. Come in, Fisher.

Let me ask you, Ames,

what would you say if we could purchase all of Louisiana,

all of this, doubling the territory of our nation

and not spend a drop of blood?

Do it. - At what cost, Mr. President?

Well, keep this confidential, of course,

but, uh, $15 million.

- 15 million dollars? - It's incredible, isn't it?

That comes out to less than 3 cents an acre.

Preposterous!

Too much money, of which we have too little,

for land, of which we already have too much.

Gentlemen, we are going to make this purchase.

The American miracle was not concluded.

In fact, it was just beginning.