WEBVTT 00:00:01.442 --> 00:00:07.404 - Good afternoon, everyone. Wow, it's really loud today. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Bloomington 00:00:07.404 --> 00:00:13.136 - Rotary Club Celebration of Service Weekly. And I just realized I'd forgot to hit the bell, I think, 00:00:13.136 --> 00:00:18.925 - the last two times to start the meeting. So, you know, you leave the country for five months and you 00:00:18.925 --> 00:00:24.658 - forget what you're supposed to do. It happens. So for those who can, please silence your electronic 00:00:24.658 --> 00:00:30.046 - devices. And with that, let's go to the first. Oh, I have the controller here. I can do this. 00:00:30.658 --> 00:00:38.761 - There we go. Who's heard of Shetland United Kingdom? Anyone? Okay. You've been there? All right. Well, 00:00:38.761 --> 00:00:46.785 - that is our Where in the World is the Rotary Club today. Shetland is a club, it's nearest club is 129 00:00:46.785 --> 00:00:54.730 - kilometers away. And by the way, there is a series called Shetland that's actually quite good that I 00:00:54.730 --> 00:00:58.270 - highly recommend on Acorn TV if you have it. 00:00:58.882 --> 00:01:05.912 - They have, it's a very small island at the very northern point out of Scotland. They have residents 00:01:05.912 --> 00:01:13.223 - of the island, do not travel a lot. And there's not many people on the island. They have about, I think 00:01:13.223 --> 00:01:20.394 - it's 7,000 people. So they have a club membership of, I think it was 17. And what they do is they set 00:01:20.394 --> 00:01:27.705 - up a market every weekend to tell people about Rotary. And that's how they help support local charities 00:01:27.705 --> 00:01:28.830 - at the markets. 00:01:29.026 --> 00:01:35.290 - So again, in the spirit of understanding how different clubs act differently across the world, that's 00:01:35.290 --> 00:01:41.799 - how they act in Shetland. And by the way, if you ever get the chance to visit it, it's pretty cool place. 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:48.063 - Yeah, you were just there, I think. So from a birthdays standpoint, actually before birthdays, we are 00:01:48.063 --> 00:01:54.388 - going to have Michelle Cohen do the reflection. I just want to give a shout out to Michelle. We didn't 00:01:54.388 --> 00:01:55.678 - have anyone sign up. 00:01:55.810 --> 00:02:05.412 - for the reflection. And Michelle said, you know what? I'll do it. So thank you, Michelle. You're welcome. 00:02:05.412 --> 00:02:14.471 - I just wanted to give a shout out to the Rotary Magazine. If you haven't read it yet, the article I 00:02:14.471 --> 00:02:23.711 - am going to share with you highlights someone here in Bloomington. So if you want to check it out for 00:02:23.711 --> 00:02:24.798 - yourselves, 00:02:26.434 --> 00:02:33.163 - The article is called Life Quakes, and it talks about dealing with difficult issues and surrounding 00:02:33.163 --> 00:02:40.229 - yourself with folks that can help you get through rough times. So I was meandering through this, reading 00:02:40.229 --> 00:02:47.160 - through it, and I will just go ahead and share this with you. So this portion is talking about purpose 00:02:47.160 --> 00:02:53.890 - and how that helps people get through difficult times. For many years, community service had been a 00:02:53.890 --> 00:02:55.774 - part of Gabe Glodin's life. 00:02:56.514 --> 00:03:02.759 - He'd been an AmeriCorps member, and he even got his master's degree in nonprofit management. But when 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:09.370 - he married and had kids, his priorities shifted. He didn't feel like he had extra time to give. Parenthood, 00:03:09.370 --> 00:03:15.554 - after all, can feel like its own life quick. Then he went through a divorce. As he and his two young 00:03:15.554 --> 00:03:21.676 - children rebuilt their lives together, Cloden was feeling unmoored, disconnected from the community 00:03:21.676 --> 00:03:26.206 - around him. In therapy, he began to understand that he had an opportunity 00:03:26.370 --> 00:03:33.349 - to shift his focus to activities that were important to him. Around that same time, a colleague asked 00:03:33.349 --> 00:03:40.534 - if he'd be interested in joining a non-traditional rotary club she was starting for families. The Family 00:03:40.534 --> 00:03:47.856 - Service Satellite Club of the Rotary Club of Bloomington Sunrise in Indiana would meet monthly for service 00:03:47.856 --> 00:03:54.014 - projects that kids and parents participate in together. Glodin was energized by the idea. 00:03:54.722 --> 00:04:01.821 - I could engage my children around the value of service, he says. And I also saw this as an opportunity 00:04:01.821 --> 00:04:08.713 - for us to have a social experience outside of the house. Since 2024, Rock, who is 10, and Beatrice, 00:04:08.713 --> 00:04:15.742 - 11, have helped fill book bags with food for kids, sorted items at food pantries, weeded gardens, and 00:04:15.742 --> 00:04:23.186 - served as extras in a movie made by an arts organization. They've also gotten to know the other like-minded 00:04:23.186 --> 00:04:24.702 - families in the club. 00:04:25.314 --> 00:04:31.990 - who are committed to making Bloomington a better place. Gloden says that by participating regularly 00:04:31.990 --> 00:04:38.867 - in something that's bigger than themselves, all three have grown. Service is not just about the action 00:04:38.867 --> 00:04:45.610 - and the outcome you expect to have with the organization you're volunteering for, he says. It's also 00:04:45.610 --> 00:04:52.286 - about the change that takes place in the volunteer. So if you know Gabe, just tell him he's famous. 00:04:52.642 --> 00:05:00.773 - And I also wanted to share because that talks about community service. Diana Hoffman and I are the community 00:05:00.773 --> 00:05:08.232 - service co-chairs, and we're going to have our first meeting after the August 25th regular meeting. 00:05:08.232 --> 00:05:15.542 - So if you're already on the committee, please stay after. If you're not and want to come join us, 00:05:15.542 --> 00:05:18.750 - please do. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. 00:05:19.106 --> 00:05:25.407 - What a great reminder for our children to remind them how important community service is. So thank you 00:05:25.407 --> 00:05:31.586 - for sharing that. Lynn Schwartzberg apparently was the smart one and picked today to read the guest. 00:05:31.586 --> 00:05:37.765 - We have no guests, so Lynn can just enjoy her meal. Was there anyone online, Leslie? Nope, no guests 00:05:37.765 --> 00:05:43.454 - online. Okay. But we have a full house, so I'm very excited about that to see all the faces. 00:05:43.650 --> 00:05:50.644 - that are out there. From a birthday standpoint, we have a pretty light sheet today. We have Lauren Snyder, 00:05:50.644 --> 00:05:57.180 - his birthday's the 9th. And then Megan Neist, for anniversaries, has been with us for 10 years. And 00:05:57.180 --> 00:06:04.369 - then for announcements, we have quite a few announcements. I wanted to quote Winston Churchill, perseverance, 00:06:04.369 --> 00:06:10.905 - it does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. And I share this because I want to 00:06:10.905 --> 00:06:12.670 - acknowledge Mark Peterson, 00:06:12.930 --> 00:06:19.800 - How many of you got the announcement about the credit card capability? Woo, let's hear it. We have been 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:26.670 - talking about getting that capability on our system for three years that I've been here. So Mark, thank 00:06:26.670 --> 00:06:33.276 - you for the perseverance. Thank you for getting it. And looking forward to being able to pay on it. 00:06:33.276 --> 00:06:37.438 - And being able to pay on it through the Ignite app, all right? 00:06:37.634 --> 00:06:43.745 - And then I also wanted to share that August's monthly theme is membership and new club development. 00:06:43.745 --> 00:06:49.978 - And we've already started with last week having an induction. We'll have another induction next week. 00:06:49.978 --> 00:06:56.333 - So as you look around and are talking to neighbors and friends, if there's someone that you think would 00:06:56.333 --> 00:07:02.627 - be a great member, please bring them. Next announcement, fellow Rotarian James Wolf is recovering from 00:07:02.627 --> 00:07:05.438 - a stroke. He has had two nasty falls as well. 00:07:05.538 --> 00:07:12.392 - We will be sending him a card. Obviously here is his phone number or you can look it up and ignite your 00:07:12.392 --> 00:07:18.982 - ignite app. But I'm sure he would appreciate any well wishing and calls. And then lastly, on a more 00:07:18.982 --> 00:07:25.770 - uplifting note, we did get approval for the district grant. It is funded. Good job. Tina Swanson, Kyla 00:07:25.770 --> 00:07:32.361 - Cox Deckard and Sarah Laughlin will be the planning committee to work with the community kitchen on 00:07:32.361 --> 00:07:34.206 - how we spend the six grand. 00:07:34.338 --> 00:07:40.646 - the 3,000 that we match, and then the 3,000 from the district grant. So great job. We all know that 00:07:40.646 --> 00:07:47.143 - that's very important, and that's a good reminder to buy tickets for the toast. That is how we get the 00:07:47.143 --> 00:07:53.451 - money that we raise for the grants. So everybody, toast tickets are for sale. And let me make sure, 00:07:53.451 --> 00:08:00.137 - oh, a couple other announcements that actually get their own slide. Just a reminder, Polio, we're seeing, 00:08:00.137 --> 00:08:03.102 - you know, I look at these, I get these weekly, 00:08:03.298 --> 00:08:10.798 - Still, the numbers are low, which is great, but obviously with some of the USAID funding that was pulled, 00:08:10.798 --> 00:08:17.873 - it's so critical that we continue to support because Rotary and the Gates Foundation are really the 00:08:17.873 --> 00:08:25.443 - ones that drive the reduction in polio cases that we've seen internationally. And Afghanistan and Pakistan 00:08:25.443 --> 00:08:32.094 - continue to be the ones that seem to be problematic from a polio standpoint. And then lastly, 00:08:32.386 --> 00:08:39.637 - So I saw, I don't know where I got the announcement, but I got it. Oh, it was on Instagram. Posting 00:08:39.637 --> 00:08:46.961 - about Whitney, our own Whitney Cordoba Gruy. So is a SMDP Piotek scholar. She got an award, which is 00:08:46.961 --> 00:08:54.284 - phenomenal. And then today I found out that her family has actually been very adversely in her town, 00:08:54.284 --> 00:08:59.070 - I should say, adversely affected with the earthquake in Columbia. 00:08:59.362 --> 00:09:06.801 - So it's caused serious damage to her hometown. There's been, I believe, about 224 deaths as a result 00:09:06.801 --> 00:09:14.388 - of that earthquake at this point. There's Red Cross taking donations. There's Save the Children taking 00:09:14.388 --> 00:09:21.754 - donations. So any opportunity while we celebrate on one side, let's keep her in your prayers on the 00:09:21.754 --> 00:09:26.910 - other side. All right, and I think that was it for the announcements. 00:09:27.298 --> 00:09:34.752 - Next, we have happy dollars. Do we have any happy people? And Michael will come. Do we have any happy 00:09:34.752 --> 00:09:42.059 - dollars? We've got Sarah. And while he's getting all set up, I will just share. I'll do a $20 happy 00:09:42.059 --> 00:09:49.366 - dollars. We just got back. As you know, I wasn't here last week. We went to internship with our son 00:09:49.366 --> 00:09:50.974 - to see him in Denver. 00:09:51.586 --> 00:09:57.809 - He has decided, now this could change, but he has decided that he believes he's going to get a job offer. 00:09:57.809 --> 00:10:03.797 - I said, well, when it's there, we'll talk. But he loves Denver, and I suspect he's going to be living 00:10:03.797 --> 00:10:09.843 - there. And he's just so happy and doing well. So it was really heartwarming to see that. So I'll share 00:10:09.843 --> 00:10:15.949 - that. And Sarah? I've got 20 bucks for a teacher's warehouse, probably my last 20 bucks, because I just 00:10:15.949 --> 00:10:18.238 - bought a house. It's in Hoosier Acres. 00:10:18.466 --> 00:10:26.172 - And it needs a spot of work, so I met with Lauren Wood this morning. It's probably going to be a year 00:10:26.172 --> 00:10:33.424 - before I move. But anyway, it's very exciting. It's 0.75 acres compared to the nine I have now, 00:10:33.424 --> 00:10:41.054 - and 2,500 square feet compared to the 4,000 I have now. So I think it's going to be, actually, maybe 00:10:41.054 --> 00:10:43.774 - after next year, I will have money. 00:10:48.162 --> 00:10:56.967 - So I have five happy dollars because we had a great beach bash event on Saturday. The weather cooperated 00:10:56.967 --> 00:11:05.604 - and Lake Monroe Water Fund raised the money we needed to. So thanks people who came out and showed up. 00:11:05.604 --> 00:11:14.158 - I have 10 happy dollars because I'm almost through with the set, but I do have my overalls on so I am 00:11:14.158 --> 00:11:16.254 - going back to finish it. 00:11:16.578 --> 00:11:22.048 - You do have on your table a little sweet treat, which is chocolate mousse is always so kind. Besides 00:11:22.048 --> 00:11:27.626 - riding herd over the taste of Bloomington, they'll do this for the various nonprofits. If you go there 00:11:27.626 --> 00:11:33.312 - on the 18th and tell them you are there on behalf of Off Night, they will give 20% of whatever you spend 00:11:33.312 --> 00:11:38.836 - to Off Night for the next show. So we really appreciate you coming out. There's information about the 00:11:38.836 --> 00:11:44.251 - next show. It opens on Sunday, but we're already sold out on Sunday. So if you are getting tickets, 00:11:44.251 --> 00:11:45.822 - get them soon, because we've 00:11:45.922 --> 00:11:57.873 - kind of been known to run out. Awesome. I want to contribute $21 for happy dollars and that 21 is very 00:11:57.873 --> 00:12:10.056 - meaningful. I just returned from the four day second annual. My name made a name is mobile mobile family 00:12:10.056 --> 00:12:15.742 - reunion hosted by my daughter, which was meaning 00:12:15.842 --> 00:12:24.668 - Me too. And we had 21 attending. These are my brothers, sisters, their children, and now the next set 00:12:24.668 --> 00:12:32.542 - of generation. So 21 of us, and we all had our numbers on our back, our different numbers. 00:12:39.426 --> 00:12:50.276 - happy we're leaving for California this evening to go to Monterey car week which is one of my partner's 00:12:50.276 --> 00:13:00.708 - bucket list activities and I can look at cars I'm happy and offering $20 because my daughter Rachel 00:13:00.708 --> 00:13:09.054 - has just moved to Bloomington and there's a lot that's unsettled but she's here 00:13:16.642 --> 00:13:27.316 - And while he's walking over to Ellen, anybody online, Leslie? No, we're pretty stingy and unhappy over 00:13:27.316 --> 00:13:38.301 - here. I was so happy I had a chance to be in Wisconsin for quite a while and see all my wonderful friends 00:13:38.301 --> 00:13:44.830 - there who have been in many things that I had participated in. 00:13:44.962 --> 00:13:54.807 - And I would like to contribute $20 for the safety and the wonderful time I had and the wonderful time 00:13:54.807 --> 00:14:04.653 - they all had. And we attended Rotary right away that time. And so that was wonderful. So thank you so 00:14:04.653 --> 00:14:13.726 - much always for allowing us to have these opportunities in America where we have the freedom. 00:14:14.850 --> 00:14:24.216 - Awesome. All right. Lots of happy people. That's great. One quick announcement. Somebody left a parking 00:14:24.216 --> 00:14:32.771 - ticket. We'll put it up front. So if you're missing your parking ticket, that will be upfront. 00:14:32.771 --> 00:14:42.047 - And with that, I will turn it over to Jeff Richardson to introduce our guest today. So good afternoon, 00:14:42.047 --> 00:14:44.478 - everyone. Glad to be here. 00:14:45.314 --> 00:14:52.632 - I'm delighted to welcome Professor Constantine Dirks to our club today. Let me give you a little background 00:14:52.632 --> 00:14:59.881 - about Constantine. He's an associate professor in the Department of History at IU. I'm a history undergrad 00:14:59.881 --> 00:15:06.657 - major. He arrived in Bloomington and IU in August of 2001. His first book was on letter writing and 00:15:06.657 --> 00:15:13.568 - communications in early America. And actually one of the chapters in the book focuses specifically on 00:15:13.568 --> 00:15:15.262 - the American Revolution. 00:15:15.778 --> 00:15:22.428 - His current research focuses on globalization of the United States between American Revolution and the 00:15:22.428 --> 00:15:29.078 - American Civil War. And there are many Americans venturing not just west across North America, but all 00:15:29.078 --> 00:15:35.728 - over the world during that time period. And you'll learn more about that. Served as consultant for the 00:15:35.728 --> 00:15:42.314 - Declaration of Independence, the motives, the moment, a fantastic exhibition currently on view at the 00:15:42.314 --> 00:15:44.638 - Little Library. And it's there till 00:15:44.770 --> 00:15:51.634 - December and I've been there twice and I learned as much the second visit as I did the first. It's really, 00:15:51.634 --> 00:15:58.177 - really well done. He's teaching a special class on 1776 and the Declaration of Independence this fall 00:15:58.177 --> 00:16:04.656 - semester. I also got to see Constantine firsthand. So this is, I'm not winging it by having him here 00:16:04.656 --> 00:16:10.494 - as a fellow history person, but he gave a compelling arts and sciences hosted presentation 00:16:10.626 --> 00:16:18.403 - related to an exhibit by Jack Wicks, Steve's brother, entitled, Returning to the World, Vietnam Veterans 00:16:18.403 --> 00:16:25.883 - Journeys. And these were reflections from veterans in central Indiana after 50 years. An interesting 00:16:25.883 --> 00:16:33.438 - and entertaining IU mini-university class on the American Revolution that included numerous questions 00:16:33.438 --> 00:16:40.030 - from the students when I was one of those students. No quizzes, no exams, great program. 00:16:40.162 --> 00:16:46.994 - and remember that for a second because I'm gonna come back to the questions part. I wanna add too that 00:16:46.994 --> 00:16:53.759 - I learned this morning, I knew that Constantine had a couple kids, but there are some highlights from 00:16:53.759 --> 00:17:00.590 - the summer. One of them is in marching band already starting, plays the flute and is very excited. But 00:17:00.590 --> 00:17:07.422 - the other, this is really important to me, learned how to drive a stick shift because I've been often, 00:17:08.066 --> 00:17:13.920 - solicited to drive the sick shift, because no one else knows how to. So that's a major development, 00:17:13.920 --> 00:17:19.774 - especially for kids this age. Finally, this is going to be a relatively short presentation. And the 00:17:19.774 --> 00:17:26.155 - good news is that means we're going to have more time for questions. And what I noticed at Minnie University 00:17:26.155 --> 00:17:32.478 - was one of the most engaging presentations, because a lot of people had a lot of questions. And there's not 00:17:32.578 --> 00:17:41.779 - one question that Constantine couldn't answer. So please start thinking about questions you might have. 00:17:41.779 --> 00:17:50.627 - And with that, I welcome Constantine to the stage. Thank you. OK, I'm a mobile person, so I'm going 00:17:50.627 --> 00:17:59.475 - to try to not move around too much. But thank you so much for the invitation to come speak with you 00:17:59.475 --> 00:18:01.598 - today. Thank you, Jeff. 00:18:02.018 --> 00:18:09.041 - for inviting me originally. I'm really, really glad to talk about the Declaration of 1776 and this 250th 00:18:09.041 --> 00:18:16.265 - anniversary year to as many people as possible. I was very involved in the exhibition at the Lilly Library. 00:18:16.265 --> 00:18:22.954 - I encourage all of you to go there. I'm very, very grateful that people are interested in what I'll 00:18:22.954 --> 00:18:29.642 - call archival research-based history, given that it is under considerable pressure in this historic 00:18:29.642 --> 00:18:31.582 - moment. And I certainly feel 00:18:32.002 --> 00:18:37.809 - that if you really look at history in an honest and complete way, that has an empowering function that 00:18:37.809 --> 00:18:43.617 - empowers you to understand the past better and empowers you to build a better future at the same time. 00:18:43.617 --> 00:18:49.311 - So I'm very, very committed to research. It's what I've been doing all summer. There are so many new 00:18:49.311 --> 00:18:55.006 - books about the Declaration being written right now because of the 250th anniversary. So I'm reading 00:18:55.006 --> 00:18:59.742 - constantly. I'm going to the Monroe County Public Library. It's a great collection. 00:18:59.938 --> 00:19:06.374 - that I hope you enjoy and they have new books every week now about the Declaration in 1776. So there's 00:19:06.374 --> 00:19:12.747 - so much material now being thought about. If you read the Times this morning, the New York Times that 00:19:12.747 --> 00:19:19.057 - is, sorry, there's an article about AI founding fathers that are being produced. So you could listen 00:19:19.057 --> 00:19:25.305 - to interviews with the founding fathers, which is rather crazy and what is put in the mouths of the 00:19:25.305 --> 00:19:26.430 - founding fathers. 00:19:26.786 --> 00:19:32.131 - Uh, but anyway, if you're, it's, uh, it sort of appears everywhere in our culture. Uh, title of my, 00:19:32.131 --> 00:19:37.797 - what I want to do today is about the trying times of the declaration of independence. And if you remember 00:19:37.797 --> 00:19:43.249 - your, uh, Thomas Paine, of course, in December, he writes, uh, the American crisis. He starts writing 00:19:43.249 --> 00:19:48.594 - a serial serial publication, the American crisis. And these are the times that tribe men's souls is 00:19:48.594 --> 00:19:53.886 - one of the famous quotes from that, uh, at the end of a very, very difficult and challenging year. 00:19:54.306 --> 00:20:00.537 - And I'd like to project that to help us better understand what happens at the time of the Declaration 00:20:00.537 --> 00:20:06.890 - of Independence itself in May, June, and July 1776, because there's people involved in that moment from 00:20:06.890 --> 00:20:13.060 - the Continental Congress were confronted with a lot, a lot of challenges. And we sort of have a very 00:20:13.060 --> 00:20:19.597 - sacralized view of the Declaration. It's a wonderful, wonderful document you can see in the Lilly Library. 00:20:19.597 --> 00:20:22.590 - They've done that broadside, the first printing. 00:20:22.786 --> 00:20:28.749 - a very, very rare copy in the world and certainly in this part of the world. And it's a beautiful document, 00:20:28.749 --> 00:20:34.380 - but the document doesn't really contain its own context, which is why the exhibition tries to do that 00:20:34.380 --> 00:20:40.011 - a little bit. And I'm going to hopefully do that a little more intensely today to help you appreciate 00:20:40.011 --> 00:20:45.532 - what kind of commitment was involved and what kind of work was involved in creating the Declaration 00:20:45.532 --> 00:20:51.550 - of Independence. But my first question to you is actually, I'm gonna do something that I often do, which is, 00:20:51.746 --> 00:20:56.987 - What do you remember of the Declaration of Independence? I'm going to pause. I'm going to have time 00:20:56.987 --> 00:21:02.542 - pressures, unfortunately. I know you want to be short. But I'd like you to actually talk among yourselves 00:21:02.542 --> 00:21:07.835 - for a moment. What do you remember from the Declaration of Independence? If you haven't looked at it 00:21:07.835 --> 00:21:13.495 - in a while, what do you remember from it? So this is for you for a moment, one moment. What do you remember 00:21:13.495 --> 00:21:15.486 - from the Declaration of Independence? 00:21:29.154 --> 00:21:58.046 - uh... uh... 00:21:58.210 --> 00:22:24.510 - . . . 00:22:24.802 --> 00:22:37.908 - from the audience. No, not now. Too too much time. Thank you. All right, people. Time is up. Because 00:22:37.908 --> 00:22:51.013 - I have I I'm doing an entire semester. I'm doing a course in 1776 and Declaration of Independence. I 00:22:51.013 --> 00:22:52.830 - get 16 weeks. 00:22:53.218 --> 00:22:58.659 - to do that. I don't have lots of special lectures, but I really have 15 minutes today. So your time 00:22:58.659 --> 00:23:04.427 - is up. But how many people said, who knows, we hold these truths to be self-evident? Does anyone remember 00:23:04.427 --> 00:23:10.031 - that from the Declaration? All right, pretty good. How many people remember all men are created equal? 00:23:10.031 --> 00:23:15.526 - You're a woman, you remember that too? Strangely enough, OK, even though you're not included. Sorry. 00:23:15.526 --> 00:23:21.457 - So these are the classic things in the Declaration of Independence, right? These are the things we remember, 00:23:21.457 --> 00:23:22.654 - et cetera, et cetera. 00:23:22.914 --> 00:23:27.627 - And this is from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence. And at the time, one of my favorite 00:23:27.627 --> 00:23:32.341 - documents in the Lilly Library exhibit is John Lind, who was a writer for the British government. And 00:23:32.341 --> 00:23:37.054 - he was hired to write a response to the Declaration of Independence. And it's one of the great books. 00:23:37.054 --> 00:23:42.091 - It's 20-something pages long. And it's about why the Declaration of Independence is all wrong from beginning 00:23:42.091 --> 00:23:47.174 - to end. But the things that you remember, all men are created equal. We hold these truths to be self-evident. 00:23:47.174 --> 00:23:50.686 - Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are the classic phrases. 00:23:51.298 --> 00:23:58.241 - John Lynn looked at that, and he said, that's all just nonsense. I'm not even going to bother with that 00:23:58.241 --> 00:24:04.917 - nonsense. I'm going to talk about the important part of the Declaration of Independence, and that's 00:24:04.917 --> 00:24:11.594 - the grievances. How many people remember grievance? 14? 10? 21? But that was what he felt. The King 00:24:11.594 --> 00:24:12.862 - is being insulted. 00:24:13.026 --> 00:24:18.340 - by the Declaration of Independence, and it's the grievances that are the part that need refutation because 00:24:18.340 --> 00:24:23.555 - they were all false accusations against the king. And if you look at the document, the Dunlap Broadside, 00:24:23.555 --> 00:24:28.721 - it's the grievances that occupy the most space. And that's what occupied the most attention at the time 00:24:28.721 --> 00:24:33.886 - in newspapers, with the British government, et cetera, et cetera. That's a part that was reprinted most 00:24:33.886 --> 00:24:38.853 - often. The preamble, the words that we have become sacred for us, right, all men are created equal, 00:24:38.853 --> 00:24:41.982 - life, liberty, and the fruits of Haptas, et cetera, et cetera, 00:24:42.530 --> 00:24:47.784 - Those words became much more important in the 19th century when you had abolitionists fighting slavery, 00:24:47.784 --> 00:24:52.886 - when you had women's rights activists fighting against the exclusion of women, et cetera, et cetera. 00:24:52.886 --> 00:24:58.190 - And those were the words that were plucked out and given meaning after in the 1830s and 1840s and beyond 00:24:58.190 --> 00:25:03.343 - and into the 20th century and Martin Luther King, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But in 1776, those 00:25:03.343 --> 00:25:08.445 - words were the least important and they were the least often reprinted in newspapers at the time. It 00:25:08.445 --> 00:25:10.718 - was the grievances that commanded attention. 00:25:11.746 --> 00:25:17.662 - And so I want to think about the Declaration in a more complicated way and really bring you back into 00:25:17.662 --> 00:25:23.461 - the atmosphere of how the Declaration was written by this collection of upstanding men, the 56 men, 00:25:23.461 --> 00:25:29.435 - the quote-unquote signers. Some of those men who were there on July 4th didn't sign the document. Some 00:25:29.435 --> 00:25:35.756 - of the people signed the document who weren't there on July 4th, of course, so the signers is mystification, 00:25:35.756 --> 00:25:39.294 - a little bit of the process of how the document was created. 00:25:39.394 --> 00:25:46.880 - but I'd like to steep us into May and June and July for a little bit, just so you can appreciate sort 00:25:46.880 --> 00:25:54.806 - of not this document and the words that it has, including the grievances, but how the document was produced 00:25:54.806 --> 00:26:02.659 - and put into the future and the future that was unexpected for people at time, which again is the preamble 00:26:02.659 --> 00:26:07.870 - has carried so much meaning since then. So I'm gonna refer, I'm gonna, 00:26:08.130 --> 00:26:13.873 - Run out of time, I can tell already. So the declaration has 1,337 words in it. I'm going to actually 00:26:13.873 --> 00:26:19.730 - spend much more time in something else, which is a lot, lot more words. And that's the journals of the 00:26:19.730 --> 00:26:25.643 - Congress. And I want to look at this from the inside of the Congress, the inside of the people who were 00:26:25.643 --> 00:26:31.727 - there, who considered the document, wrote the document, et cetera, et cetera, and dealt with the document, 00:26:31.727 --> 00:26:37.470 - and look at it from their vantage point looking out. And there, we have a lot. There are 26 volumes. 00:26:37.570 --> 00:26:43.114 - were more of the journals of the Congress. There are several for 1776. There are a lot of words, and 00:26:43.114 --> 00:26:48.604 - there are a lot of things that happened in that time period. So I want to emphasize five of them so 00:26:48.604 --> 00:26:54.258 - you can see the pressures that were on people in this moment, all the things that were bombarding them 00:26:54.258 --> 00:26:59.857 - from the outside to deal with all the issues that they had to deal with, which included, for a couple 00:26:59.857 --> 00:27:05.730 - of days, the Declaration of Independence. There was so much that happened before and so much that happened 00:27:05.730 --> 00:27:06.334 - afterward. 00:27:06.850 --> 00:27:12.881 - So one of the things that happened, number one, is just state building. And I don't mean state building 00:27:12.881 --> 00:27:18.970 - in a more general way, of building a government. And one of the first things that was an intense project 00:27:18.970 --> 00:27:25.001 - in May of 1776 was to build, there was 13 colonies. They weren't states. If you look at the Declaration 00:27:25.001 --> 00:27:30.453 - of Independence, it says the United States of America, there were only four states, actually, 00:27:30.453 --> 00:27:35.614 - on July 4, 1776. Eight of them were, the rest were still colonies. They were not states. 00:27:36.098 --> 00:27:41.775 - because they were being asked in May 10th and May 15th, they were being asked to save these colonial 00:27:41.775 --> 00:27:47.564 - governments where most of the royal governors had been vanished from the scene, shall we say, but they 00:27:47.564 --> 00:27:53.522 - had no governance. They were all illegally meeting, et cetera, et cetera. So how do you create legitimacy 00:27:53.522 --> 00:27:59.143 - for these colonial governments that had no legitimacy at all? And they were all encouraged to write 00:27:59.143 --> 00:28:01.054 - constitutions. And this became an 00:28:01.762 --> 00:28:06.594 - This is what Thomas Jefferson wanted to be doing. Instead of writing the Declaration of Independence, 00:28:06.594 --> 00:28:11.664 - he wanted to go back to Virginia and write the Virginia State Constitution, because that was the important 00:28:11.664 --> 00:28:15.975 - thing to do in his mind. And this is what each of the colonies did in this time period, is 00:28:15.975 --> 00:28:20.712 - write constitutions and to try to create legitimacy for who they were. Because you are a legitimate 00:28:20.712 --> 00:28:25.829 - organization, you probably have a constitution and bylaws, right? Et cetera, et cetera. That's an important 00:28:25.829 --> 00:28:30.661 - part to create your legitimacy. These people did not have legitimacy. The Continental Congress had no 00:28:30.661 --> 00:28:31.230 - legitimacy. 00:28:31.874 --> 00:28:36.505 - They were all meeting, as far as the British government was concerned, illegally. And so this was one 00:28:36.505 --> 00:28:41.182 - enormously enormous project at the time. And these constitutions, we have a constitution that's lasted 00:28:41.182 --> 00:28:46.040 - for a long time. The constitutions that were written, if you look at their history, and I won't go through 00:28:46.040 --> 00:28:50.626 - this, did not last. They wrote a constitution that was all experimental. They made so many mistakes. 00:28:50.626 --> 00:28:55.212 - And they revised them within a few years. They all realized how they didn't work out very well. They 00:28:55.212 --> 00:28:57.982 - needed revision and revision. And if you look at, obviously, 00:28:58.114 --> 00:29:03.681 - the history of the Indiana State Constitution in the 19th century, revision after revision after revision. 00:29:03.681 --> 00:29:09.144 - So there's a lot of instability and a lot of experimentation, a lot of uncertainty, a lot of not knowing 00:29:09.144 --> 00:29:14.555 - what they were doing. And that's in all of this process. And this is true if you look at the resolution 00:29:14.555 --> 00:29:19.966 - for the Declaration of Independence, it happens at the same time as some other really important things. 00:29:19.966 --> 00:29:25.168 - One is to have articles of the confederation. What is the relationship going to be between Virginia 00:29:25.168 --> 00:29:28.030 - and South Carolina and Pennsylvania? They had no idea. 00:29:28.642 --> 00:29:33.580 - Congress was meeting, they had no idea. So they needed to produce an Artists of Confederation, which 00:29:33.580 --> 00:29:38.664 - later on will turn into a constitution to join things. But at that point, it was completely fragmented. 00:29:38.664 --> 00:29:43.601 - And again, they had no idea what they were doing. They were asked at the same time also to develop a 00:29:43.601 --> 00:29:48.588 - model treaty to have some kind of relationship with other parts of the world, especially parts of the 00:29:48.588 --> 00:29:53.525 - world they were asking for money and munitions from. And they had no idea, again, how to do that. So 00:29:53.525 --> 00:29:55.774 - this was one of the tasks of this time period 00:29:56.290 --> 00:30:02.653 - And just to appreciate, I don't know how many committees do you have? Do you have committees? Anyone 00:30:02.653 --> 00:30:09.204 - serving on a committee? So these people were serving on multiple committees. In Congress in 1776, there 00:30:09.204 --> 00:30:15.504 - are 233 committees. 233. And some people served on many of those committees, like Thomas Jefferson. 00:30:15.504 --> 00:30:20.670 - And this is the project. These are the kinds of things they were confronted with. 00:30:21.058 --> 00:30:26.940 - And so the Declaration of Independence happens in two days, but afterward is when the draft of the Articles 00:30:26.940 --> 00:30:32.223 - of Confederation come and those debates happen. Afterward is the debates about the Model Treaty, 00:30:32.223 --> 00:30:37.888 - for instance. And so the work continues and fundamental, fundamental work. And I'm just going to select 00:30:37.888 --> 00:30:43.498 - those couple of things for that moment. And so we have the two days in which the Declaration was done, 00:30:43.498 --> 00:30:44.478 - and all you know, 00:30:44.610 --> 00:30:49.797 - Like in July 1st, it was a vote of nine to two to two, and it took a couple of more days to have it 00:30:49.797 --> 00:30:55.399 - be 12-0-0 or 12-0-1. New York did not say yes to the Constitution, I mean, the Declaration of Independence, 00:30:55.399 --> 00:31:00.586 - Central I-4th. They had to wait a few more days, but they didn't have permission to do so. But even 00:31:00.586 --> 00:31:05.772 - at the last minute, there was always a lot of work to be done. And I hope some of you have seen the 00:31:05.772 --> 00:31:11.063 - wonderful musical 1776. Anyone seen it? Right, which is just a delightful, campy version of all this. 00:31:11.063 --> 00:31:13.086 - But at least you can appreciate, like, 00:31:13.410 --> 00:31:19.012 - sort of the intensity of the moment and the humanness of the people. These were all flawed people. And 00:31:19.012 --> 00:31:24.451 - this is one of the famous things that John Adams says later on, 1811, he writes to a younger nephew 00:31:24.451 --> 00:31:30.162 - and he says, we didn't really know what we were doing back then. We were imperfect people. We were human 00:31:30.162 --> 00:31:36.254 - beings. And we've been turned into people who are the founders and the fathers of the country. But at the time, 00:31:36.706 --> 00:31:42.862 - We were just trying to figure everything out. And I want to immerse you in that. I'm not going to be 00:31:42.862 --> 00:31:49.017 - able to go too far. But I want to take you to Canada. I really want to immerse you in lots of dates, 00:31:49.017 --> 00:31:55.478 - but I won't be able to do so. But I'll give you a couple examples. In Canada, things went horribly wrong. 00:31:55.478 --> 00:32:01.999 - If you know about they tried to take Quebec from the British government in December 1775. It went horribly 00:32:01.999 --> 00:32:05.534 - wrong. They imagined that the people in Canada would come 00:32:05.634 --> 00:32:11.522 - and embrace them and side against the British government there, and they did not. And so the plans went 00:32:11.522 --> 00:32:17.749 - horribly wrong, and then they had to figure out why did the plans go horribly wrong. So they start appointing 00:32:17.749 --> 00:32:23.807 - committees. The first committee is appointed in February 1776, actually, and it's just to go up to upstate 00:32:23.807 --> 00:32:29.638 - New York and Montreal. They still took possession of Montreal and figure out what went horribly wrong. 00:32:29.638 --> 00:32:33.374 - This is one thing. Ben from Franklin leaves the Continental Guard 00:32:33.858 --> 00:32:38.996 - Congress and goes up there and they try to figure out what does things look like here? They don't even 00:32:38.996 --> 00:32:44.284 - know what things look like. Then a couple days later, they appointed another committee, not the committee 00:32:44.284 --> 00:32:49.422 - that's going to do the work, but the committee that's going to write the instructions to the committee 00:32:49.422 --> 00:32:54.511 - that's going to do the work. That's another committee, et cetera, et cetera. So this process keeps on 00:32:54.511 --> 00:32:58.302 - going, committee after committee after committee, the committees come back. 00:32:58.434 --> 00:33:03.256 - Then there's another committee that forms, because there was supposed to be a prisoner exchange. The 00:33:03.256 --> 00:33:08.365 - prisoner exchange goes horribly wrong. There's another committee that's formed to figure out what happened 00:33:08.365 --> 00:33:13.187 - with the prisoner exchange, and Thomas Jefferson is on that committee. That's in June of 1776, while 00:33:13.187 --> 00:33:17.961 - he's writing the Declaration of Independence, for instance. And this process continues going on and 00:33:17.961 --> 00:33:22.735 - on and on. What went wrong with Canada on these multiple levels? And there are multiple committees. 00:33:22.735 --> 00:33:25.982 - They're meeting in June, et cetera, et cetera, and July, all around 00:33:26.562 --> 00:33:34.329 - the Declaration of Independence and all the busyness of the Congress in this time period. And now I'm 00:33:34.329 --> 00:33:42.172 - hastening, hastening, hastening, because I want to take you to not the north, but to the west. There's 00:33:42.172 --> 00:33:50.016 - a long Declaration of Independence there. And here, just to give you an example, May 25, 1776, a group 00:33:50.016 --> 00:33:55.422 - of emissaries arrived from the Iroquois, six nations, and they want to 00:33:55.714 --> 00:34:01.552 - come into Congress and see what goes on in Congress. And they arrive on the 25th. This is in the middle 00:34:01.552 --> 00:34:07.389 - of the discussions of things. And they are invited to Congress. They attend Congress a couple of times. 00:34:07.389 --> 00:34:13.227 - In the meanwhile, Congress is being asked in the South that Cherokees are very, very displeased by land 00:34:13.227 --> 00:34:18.952 - being taken away from them. And so there's a war between South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and 00:34:18.952 --> 00:34:24.958 - Virginia against the Cherokees. And again, this is presented to the Congress. And the Congress says, well, 00:34:25.506 --> 00:34:30.711 - We're sort of busy over here, but you were allowed to go just do what you have to do to take care of 00:34:30.711 --> 00:34:36.329 - that problem. And so again, this is under discussion. The Cherokees are not there. They're under discussion. 00:34:36.329 --> 00:34:41.586 - The Iroquois are there in Philadelphia meeting with members of Congress for several weeks, et cetera, 00:34:41.586 --> 00:34:46.894 - et cetera. And this is a lot of what's happening. If you look in the journals of Congress, again, this 00:34:46.894 --> 00:34:52.254 - is a lot of what they're working on and thinking about and doing, which is to figure out what they call 00:34:52.254 --> 00:34:53.182 - frontier defense, 00:34:53.602 --> 00:35:01.045 - where the British are trying to lure native nations to side with them, and how do you respond to the 00:35:01.045 --> 00:35:08.562 - situation? So there's a lot of diplomacy that faces that way. So that's facing west. Then, in June of 00:35:08.562 --> 00:35:16.448 - 1776, again, right before the Declaration of Independence, William Howe arrives, and Richard Howe arrives. 00:35:16.448 --> 00:35:22.270 - William is a military general, and his brother is a navy admiral, and they are 00:35:22.498 --> 00:35:28.137 - arriving as peace commissioners. And they are trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the people 00:35:28.137 --> 00:35:33.614 - who are causing trouble in the colonies. And so this process also starts and becomes an intense one. 00:35:33.614 --> 00:35:39.199 - In this time period, in June and July, they're writing letters. They're friends with Benjamin Franklin 00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:44.784 - when Franklin was in London. So they're writing to him. They're writing to George Washington. And they 00:35:44.784 --> 00:35:50.694 - write a letter to George Washington. And they don't address it in a respectful manner. And George Washington 00:35:50.694 --> 00:35:52.158 - refuses to see the letter. 00:35:53.026 --> 00:35:59.112 - He doesn't even accept the letter, but it's addressed to him as a private individual, not as his title 00:35:59.112 --> 00:36:05.376 - as commander of the Contral Army, et cetera, et cetera. So he refuses the letter and there's the Congress 00:36:05.376 --> 00:36:11.344 - actually expresses his thanks to George Washington for upholding the dignity of the rebels, and I'll 00:36:11.344 --> 00:36:17.312 - call them rebels right now, upholding their dignity by refusing this letter that was simply tried to 00:36:17.312 --> 00:36:19.262 - privatize them. And this is what 00:36:19.778 --> 00:36:24.817 - the peace commissioners do over and over and over. They try to privatize the situation and try to meet 00:36:24.817 --> 00:36:29.758 - with people individually, but they refuse to acknowledge that the condo in Congress exists. Whatever 00:36:29.758 --> 00:36:34.650 - the condo in Congress is, it's an organization, it's an institution, it's somewhere in between. And 00:36:34.650 --> 00:36:39.885 - the peace commissioners don't want to acknowledge that this is something that has solidity. And of course, 00:36:39.885 --> 00:36:44.973 - they want to have solidity. So this goes on back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in this time 00:36:44.973 --> 00:36:49.278 - period. And I won't bury you into that, because I want to take you to some other places 00:36:50.370 --> 00:36:55.977 - And I'm leaving something so, taking you into the Continental Congress and all the things that they 00:36:55.977 --> 00:37:01.640 - were doing in May and June and July 1776. And I'm giving you a couple of examples, just Canada being 00:37:01.640 --> 00:37:07.415 - one of them. And again, there's so much in there about Canada, Canada, Canada, Canada. There's so much 00:37:07.415 --> 00:37:13.302 - about native nations at this time period. There's so much about the peace commissioners. But I'm leaving 00:37:13.302 --> 00:37:19.077 - something major out. Any of you watch Ken Burns' documentary? What major thing am I leaving out that's 00:37:19.077 --> 00:37:20.254 - happening right now? 00:37:20.514 --> 00:37:28.525 - in May and June and July 1776. Anyone remember from Ken Burns? The British are coming. The British have 00:37:28.525 --> 00:37:36.459 - assembled a vast, vast navy. They know this is coming. It is spotted at the end of June. The fact that 00:37:36.459 --> 00:37:44.239 - this massive, massive fleet is coming, the fleet has become so large, it's in three stages, but it's 00:37:44.239 --> 00:37:49.246 - so large that it's large, the number of soldiers that are coming 00:37:49.410 --> 00:37:55.496 - are larger than the population of New York City or the larger than the population of the largest city 00:37:55.496 --> 00:38:01.641 - in this part of the world, which is Philadelphia. It's 400 something ships, it's 30 something thousand 00:38:01.641 --> 00:38:07.608 - troops that are arriving and they are panicking. And so if you look at what they're thinking about, 00:38:07.608 --> 00:38:13.693 - they're thinking about that the British are about to come with the most remarkable military operation 00:38:13.693 --> 00:38:18.526 - that the world has ever seen on a scale. Just the descriptions of just the ships 00:38:18.786 --> 00:38:24.883 - standing outside Staten Island and the loading of the troops that go into Staten Island, which happens 00:38:24.883 --> 00:38:31.098 - July 2nd, is rather extraordinary. And they know all this is happening. They get reports on all of this. 00:38:31.098 --> 00:38:37.194 - Their ships are sighted. And they are trying to prepare all of the military operations in time for it. 00:38:37.194 --> 00:38:43.113 - And so much of their time is spent on this as well. And of course, these are the times that Tri-Man 00:38:43.113 --> 00:38:44.830 - souls are going to continue. 00:38:45.314 --> 00:38:52.053 - because these are the military disasters that are about to happen as the British take New York City 00:38:52.053 --> 00:38:58.994 - and move into New Jersey and the Congress by December has to flee Philadelphia and go to Baltimore for 00:38:58.994 --> 00:39:05.868 - safety. So this is what Thomas Paine is writing about. But this all starts, I just want to appreciate 00:39:05.868 --> 00:39:13.214 - the Declaration of Independence is only one task out of many, many tasks and many, many pressures that these 00:39:13.858 --> 00:39:19.375 - men in that room were trying to figure out what to do. And they struggled to figure that out, because 00:39:19.375 --> 00:39:25.001 - they were, again, under so much pressure from so many different angles. And it's that part, if you look 00:39:25.001 --> 00:39:30.464 - at the declaration in Dunlap Roadside, it's a beautiful, beautiful document, but it doesn't help you 00:39:30.464 --> 00:39:35.927 - appreciate the context and the atmosphere and the pressure in which it was created. And the only way 00:39:35.927 --> 00:39:40.958 - to do that is if you look at other documents, like the Journal of Congress, and you can feel 00:39:41.378 --> 00:39:47.874 - how those words appeared in this sacred, sacred document, which I've gone to see like eight times already. 00:39:47.874 --> 00:39:53.945 - And it's just an amazing privilege to look at it and to look at the grievances and the preamble and 00:39:53.945 --> 00:40:00.016 - all the words that have a real life to them. But the document doesn't make them come alive in terms 00:40:00.016 --> 00:40:06.086 - of the human beings who tried to figure out what to do in this moment. And it's that that I want us 00:40:06.086 --> 00:40:07.422 - to appreciate because 00:40:07.586 --> 00:40:13.158 - At least from my perspective, we are living in an extraordinary crisis where I personally look at the 00:40:13.158 --> 00:40:19.004 - news every day and I'm bombarded and bombarded and bombarded and bombarded with crisis and crisis, crisis. 00:40:19.004 --> 00:40:24.795 - And so the question I can ask myself is how am I handling the crisis in which I live? And I can hopefully 00:40:24.795 --> 00:40:30.750 - learn something by looking at these men and look at how they tried to handle the crisis in which they lived. 00:40:31.170 --> 00:40:36.570 - That crisis was severe. And again, it came from so many different angles that are not articulated in 00:40:36.570 --> 00:40:42.023 - the declaration itself. You don't see them in the declaration. You only see them when you look at all 00:40:42.023 --> 00:40:47.583 - the other things they had to do. And the work was building and building and building. So in 1775, there 00:40:47.583 --> 00:40:53.036 - were 56 committees in the Congress. In 1776, there were 233 committees in the Congress, for instance, 00:40:53.036 --> 00:40:55.870 - just to do the work and to try to figure things out. 00:40:57.058 --> 00:41:02.863 - And if you look at the state constitutions, mistakes were made there, and they had to revise them constantly. 00:41:02.863 --> 00:41:08.192 - The Declaration of Independence is not revised, but it's not the clearest document. We look at those 00:41:08.192 --> 00:41:13.891 - words, and we hope they've been given all kinds of meaning that Thomas Jefferson never intended, including, 00:41:13.891 --> 00:41:19.221 - sorry, I'm going to point to you, women being created equal. He did not intend that. But those words 00:41:19.221 --> 00:41:23.390 - have had a life to them that are really, really important in American history. 00:41:23.554 --> 00:41:30.696 - is one thing, but it's the, how do you respond? How do you meet a moment? How do you grapple with all 00:41:30.696 --> 00:41:37.768 - the different pressures and crises that you're living through in May and June, July in 1776? I think 00:41:37.768 --> 00:41:44.840 - that is something else that also carries forward into more of American history and certainly into my 00:41:44.840 --> 00:41:51.422 - life right now, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So now I just want to capture that atmosphere 00:41:51.874 --> 00:42:00.633 - And now I'll answer any questions you may have, and I'll do my best. And I hope I'm on time. Sorry. 00:42:00.633 --> 00:42:10.006 - Yeah. Oh, we have a microphone. So one of the questions I have is, what was the influence of the Caribbean 00:42:10.006 --> 00:42:16.926 - countries? Because that was a major profit source for England, and growing up, 00:42:17.506 --> 00:42:23.453 - with American history, that never was something that really entered my mind until recently. And how 00:42:23.453 --> 00:42:29.637 - much did that help us in our victory, if you will, because they also were very, they, England, was also 00:42:29.637 --> 00:42:35.881 - very concerned about the Caribbean. Okay, now you've answered your own question. You did that very well. 00:42:35.881 --> 00:42:42.304 - So there are some wonderful books now about the global American Revolution and how it appeared in different 00:42:42.304 --> 00:42:46.942 - places and different times. Some of you have traveled, been to St. Eustatius, 00:42:48.290 --> 00:42:54.226 - That was where the guns came from, where the Dutch sent the guns to St. Eustatius, and the rebels sent 00:42:54.226 --> 00:43:00.451 - their ships down there to collect the guns and bring them back. For instance, Caribbean was very important. 00:43:00.451 --> 00:43:06.272 - It becomes very important in the scale of the war, obviously, because the British are protecting the 00:43:06.272 --> 00:43:12.381 - places there from slave rebellion and from French incursion. And they put a lot of the Navy there instead 00:43:12.381 --> 00:43:14.686 - of along the coast, and the French Navy 00:43:14.882 --> 00:43:20.551 - comes and beats the British Navy to Yorktown. And that's obviously where it was a decisive battle toward 00:43:20.551 --> 00:43:26.166 - the end of the war. Again, if you take this globally, when the French enter the war in 1778, it becomes 00:43:26.166 --> 00:43:31.780 - a global war. So the last battles of the American Revolution, or the War of American Independence, were 00:43:31.780 --> 00:43:37.287 - not fought anywhere near North America. They were actually fought in India, where the British and the 00:43:37.287 --> 00:43:42.686 - French fought in India. Those were the last battles. So that's why the Caribbean becomes important. 00:43:42.818 --> 00:43:49.097 - If you look at, Spain enters the war as well, and then Spain do a massive military campaign from Alabama 00:43:49.097 --> 00:43:55.256 - to Florida, and it also diverts British resources. And the British start fighting a global war against 00:43:55.256 --> 00:44:01.237 - multiple adversaries. It becomes very, very overwhelming for them, and they fail. I mean, the other 00:44:01.237 --> 00:44:07.336 - thing that's really interesting, by the way, if you look at British versions of what the British were 00:44:07.336 --> 00:44:11.582 - dealing with at this time, they were just overwhelmed and incompetent. 00:44:11.714 --> 00:44:18.023 - I mean, as tyrants, they were not the best tyrants in the world. They were so divided in the government. 00:44:18.023 --> 00:44:24.091 - They were divided among military personnel. They were divided in strategy. They were divided in what 00:44:24.091 --> 00:44:30.099 - they were doing. They were also overwhelmed. They were responding to so many things at once. And it 00:44:30.099 --> 00:44:36.468 - became untenable for them of any of the war. So that was quick. Yes. Yes. Thank you very much for joining 00:44:36.468 --> 00:44:41.214 - us this afternoon. No one can say that you're not passionate about this topic. 00:44:41.314 --> 00:44:48.704 - Yeah, no, that's, yeah. Well, so you mentioned the Iroquois Confederacy, a nation. To what extent might 00:44:48.704 --> 00:44:56.236 - there have been some influence on their laws on the framing or the shaping of the US Constitution? Right, 00:44:56.236 --> 00:45:03.910 - so that's carrying the circumstance a little further. There's so much debate about that very, very question 00:45:03.910 --> 00:45:09.310 - about the terms of that influence. And there are people who have sought to, 00:45:09.730 --> 00:45:15.498 - look at the records and the archives and try to make an argument for more influence. And there are people 00:45:15.498 --> 00:45:21.047 - who've done it and said there's less influence. And so that's an unsettled question. I can't, I can't 00:45:21.047 --> 00:45:26.597 - settle that question myself. And it's, I'm so immersed right now in 1776 and the declaration, I'm not 00:45:26.597 --> 00:45:32.310 - immersed. Ask me again in 11 years when I'll do the, you know, the 25th anniversary of the constitution, 00:45:32.310 --> 00:45:38.078 - I'll be immersed in the constitution the same way. But right now that debate, I think is still unfolding. 00:45:38.498 --> 00:45:44.681 - about how much influence there was about political theory and organizing decision-making, for instance, 00:45:44.681 --> 00:45:50.863 - are the terms in which this is discussed, for instance, because there are certainly politicians in this 00:45:50.863 --> 00:45:57.224 - part of the world who are very involved in negotiation with native peoples and watchful of their political 00:45:57.224 --> 00:46:03.467 - systems and their social organization, et cetera, often with racist contempt, but not always with racist 00:46:03.467 --> 00:46:06.974 - contempt, and certainly experience in terms of negotiating 00:46:07.682 --> 00:46:14.319 - And so this is a question that I don't think has been settled yet. I'm interested in some of the signers 00:46:14.319 --> 00:46:20.829 - of the declaration, especially John Witherspoon, who, like myself, was a Presbyterian minister and the 00:46:20.829 --> 00:46:27.655 - only clergyman to sign the declaration. And his name is memorialized in Princeton, New Jersey, and recently 00:46:27.655 --> 00:46:34.292 - on a street in Louisville, Kentucky. Can you tell us about Witherspoon and some of the other interesting 00:46:34.292 --> 00:46:36.062 - signers of the declaration? 00:46:39.938 --> 00:46:46.121 - I can say something about Witherspoon. Witherspoon was really, so there's intellectual lineages about 00:46:46.121 --> 00:46:52.244 - circulation of ideas and about political theories. And one thing about the British side as well, the 00:46:52.244 --> 00:46:58.306 - equation is that British public and the British government was also very, very divided at this time 00:46:58.306 --> 00:47:04.610 - period. So there's John Wilkes, for instance, who was opposing the King and opposing the administration 00:47:04.610 --> 00:47:09.278 - in Britain. And lots of people were in the opposition within Britain itself. 00:47:09.378 --> 00:47:15.095 - There's discussion about how do you organize in the Enlightenment in France and in Britain and in this 00:47:15.095 --> 00:47:20.867 - part of the world, how do you organize government and its relationship to a public? What does that look 00:47:20.867 --> 00:47:26.529 - like? What is the most effective way to do that? And the British, of course, thought they'd found the 00:47:26.529 --> 00:47:32.301 - secret. The French did it in this distorted way. They have a monarch that's too strong and makes really 00:47:32.301 --> 00:47:34.910 - bad decisions and accumulates a lot of wealth. 00:47:35.042 --> 00:47:40.504 - In Britain, they found a much more balanced way and they thought this was the most free organization 00:47:40.504 --> 00:47:46.344 - of a government to balance the Lords and the Commons and the monarchy and to have a constitutional monarchy 00:47:46.344 --> 00:47:52.077 - where parliament has a lot of leverage. And so John Witherspoon was really, really important for bringing 00:47:52.077 --> 00:47:57.647 - some of that discussion to this part of the world and bringing it to Princeton University where people 00:47:57.647 --> 00:48:03.325 - like James Madison studied, et cetera, et cetera. So there's lineages of intellectual influence in terms 00:48:03.325 --> 00:48:04.190 - of figuring out 00:48:04.482 --> 00:48:10.874 - these high-minded questions of governance. This also happens at the street level, because one thing 00:48:10.874 --> 00:48:17.649 - that happens in 1774 is that they organize local committees. We know about the Stamp Act and the protests 00:48:17.649 --> 00:48:24.296 - against the Stamp Act. There were very few of those that didn't last very long. But in 1774, they said, 00:48:24.296 --> 00:48:30.943 - we're not just going to have people protesting in the major cities and not being organized. We're going 00:48:30.943 --> 00:48:31.902 - to try to have 00:48:32.354 --> 00:48:37.988 - local committees in every single town, every single county, everywhere in the rebellious colonies. And 00:48:37.988 --> 00:48:43.567 - that is another kind of political education that happens not from the top down in terms of ideas, but 00:48:43.567 --> 00:48:49.037 - in terms of practices where you have people who've never been involved in politics, have never been 00:48:49.037 --> 00:48:54.617 - part of figuring out a relationship. Suddenly our community are thrust in circumstances where they're 00:48:54.617 --> 00:48:59.102 - making major decisions about who's right and who's wrong in the community and how 00:48:59.458 --> 00:49:05.259 - justice is going to be issued, et cetera, et cetera. So there is the John the Witherspoon level is really 00:49:05.259 --> 00:49:10.732 - important here. And I think the local committee level and on the ground and all the people who have 00:49:10.732 --> 00:49:16.532 - never been mobilized before are really important here. There are so many other signers. I'll just mention 00:49:16.532 --> 00:49:22.115 - one signer, which is also from New Jersey. Richard Stockton is actually captured by the British later 00:49:22.115 --> 00:49:27.806 - on. And he says, I signed the declaration, but I don't agree with it at all. And he was under pressure. 00:49:28.258 --> 00:49:33.328 - devoted in all kinds of ways. And this is what happened when the British army marched through places 00:49:33.328 --> 00:49:38.348 - and the rebel army marched through places. They would ask people to sign oaths of allegiance to the 00:49:38.348 --> 00:49:43.418 - condo of Congress or the king. And we have some of those oaths of allegiance now. And you're a bill. 00:49:43.418 --> 00:49:48.839 - And so I have an oath of allegiance that you signed saying, I love the king. King George III is my favorite 00:49:48.839 --> 00:49:53.859 - human being ever. Because the British army was saying, would you sign this document? And then three 00:49:53.859 --> 00:49:56.670 - weeks later, the rebel army came through and they said, 00:49:57.026 --> 00:50:02.967 - Bill, would you sign this document? Would you say the Congress is the most lovely group of people that 00:50:02.967 --> 00:50:08.793 - ever lived? And Bill signed that document too. So he signed both. Sorry, Bill. I'm not sure what you 00:50:08.793 --> 00:50:14.619 - did. But this is, again, what Richard Stockton was under the most pressure to recant. He was the one 00:50:14.619 --> 00:50:20.388 - signer who recanted his signing of the Declaration of Independence. So I find him very interesting. 00:50:20.388 --> 00:50:25.406 - But the pressure in which that happened was not pleasant. And Bill can attest to that. 00:50:25.794 --> 00:50:34.135 - So what do you think of people who argue, for example, who use the Declaration of Independence and the 00:50:34.135 --> 00:50:42.477 - sequestration of troops to argue about the National Guard being posted to cities in the United States? 00:50:42.477 --> 00:50:50.818 - So I would just say that it's really interesting. There's a really lovely new book by Robert Parkinson 00:50:50.818 --> 00:50:54.462 - about the grievances, and he takes John Lind 00:50:54.658 --> 00:51:00.244 - I didn't know this, but I liked the John Lin before I read this book. But he looks at all the grievances 00:51:00.244 --> 00:51:05.671 - and he breaks them down one by one. What were the grievances actually about? Because some of them are 00:51:05.671 --> 00:51:11.097 - pretty confused. They're not very clear what they're referring to, what's happening out there. We can 00:51:11.097 --> 00:51:16.524 - think of, oh, this refers to the Stamp Act maybe. But Jefferson is invoking all of these other things 00:51:16.524 --> 00:51:21.950 - that people didn't really know what he was talking about. And so there are grievances that are there. 00:51:22.370 --> 00:51:28.382 - And for a long time, again, they were not part of American public discourse until very recently. And 00:51:28.382 --> 00:51:34.453 - now there's become a lot of interest in a number of the grievances, and they feel like the grievances 00:51:34.453 --> 00:51:40.643 - have become more alive. And it's not just the preamble that's very much alive, it's the grievances that 00:51:40.643 --> 00:51:46.596 - are very much alive. So that's, I won't talk about specific grievances, but I'll, there's much more 00:51:46.596 --> 00:51:48.798 - discussion about the grievances now. 00:51:49.538 --> 00:51:57.292 - So fighting a war is real expensive. So can you talk about raising revenue and the role that individual 00:51:57.292 --> 00:52:04.898 - states played and the role that the Continental Congress played? Because when I read accounts of 1776 00:52:04.898 --> 00:52:12.652 - and the subsequent years, it seemed like the troops were always short of supplies and ammunition. Yeah, 00:52:12.652 --> 00:52:15.038 - so how are we going to do this? 00:52:15.586 --> 00:52:21.029 - So this is one of the debates, actually, that happens in this moment, in the summer, which is they want 00:52:21.029 --> 00:52:26.210 - to form a more durable army, because people are enlisting, right? The first enlistments were very, 00:52:26.210 --> 00:52:31.601 - very short. It was just like the British are taking over Boston. They're doing very unpleasant things. 00:52:31.601 --> 00:52:36.834 - Let's just mobilize. And it doesn't last very long. And people start dissipating. George Washington 00:52:36.834 --> 00:52:42.068 - is very, very upset when he becomes the general of the Continental Army. And he says, what the heck 00:52:42.068 --> 00:52:44.318 - is going on here? Because these people are 00:52:44.546 --> 00:52:50.132 - or don't know what the heck they're doing, and they're just leaving. And so by the time there's whatever, 00:52:50.132 --> 00:52:55.402 - 18,000 of them outside Boston, by the time they get to New York to defend New York, there's so few. 00:52:55.402 --> 00:53:00.672 - And by the time Thomas Paine is writing, there are like 3,000. So how do you solve the problem? And 00:53:00.672 --> 00:53:06.205 - this becomes one of the debates. So do you say, we have to figure out Pennsylvania has this many people, 00:53:06.205 --> 00:53:11.001 - and therefore they should supply this many soldiers? Or, and how do we figure out how many 00:53:11.001 --> 00:53:12.318 - people Pennsylvania has? 00:53:12.866 --> 00:53:18.181 - There's no census at this moment, right? They don't even know what's called biopolitics. What are the 00:53:18.181 --> 00:53:23.497 - number of people that are available to do these different things? Or do we say that each state should 00:53:23.497 --> 00:53:28.708 - provide equal shares because all the states are equal and we have equal voting for these issues and 00:53:28.708 --> 00:53:34.076 - we should have equal for this? And so this becomes a debate. How do you apportion a responsibility for 00:53:34.076 --> 00:53:39.495 - an effort and how do you get the money? Because they start issuing, this is another thing that happens, 00:53:39.495 --> 00:53:40.798 - they start issuing money 00:53:41.602 --> 00:53:47.172 - And that money loses value very quickly. It's like I was just reading about money in Venezuela. Oh, 00:53:47.172 --> 00:53:52.741 - no, Argentina. Argentina Peso has just crumbled in the last couple of years. It's gone from here to 00:53:52.741 --> 00:53:58.589 - all the way down to here. This is what happens. The continental dollars that are issued. There's another 00:53:58.589 --> 00:54:04.270 - interesting new book now about that the issue was not taxes. It was actually the currency. It was not 00:54:04.270 --> 00:54:10.174 - the Stamp Act in position of taxes earlier. It was currency. How do you pay for something? What is money? 00:54:11.842 --> 00:54:17.693 - What is money? So I don't know how many of you are paid in cryptocurrency. Is that money? This is one 00:54:17.693 --> 00:54:23.716 - of our debates. What is money? And this is what for them was, and this was what the British said, you're 00:54:23.716 --> 00:54:29.453 - creating money in the colonies that is meaningless. So we're not accepting that money. We want real 00:54:29.453 --> 00:54:35.361 - money, which is our money, not your money. And so what is money becomes one of the big debates in this 00:54:35.361 --> 00:54:39.262 - time period. And it remains a crisis in terms of how do you pay for 00:54:39.714 --> 00:54:45.425 - a scale of supplying a military operation on a scale that had never been done before, geographically, 00:54:45.425 --> 00:54:51.136 - numerically, et cetera, et cetera. How do you do that? And those debates happen for years in Congress 00:54:51.136 --> 00:54:56.959 - to try to figure it out. And they're always behind the curve. The need is here, and they're here always 00:54:56.959 --> 00:55:02.951 - throughout the war. And Ken Burns does this very well, I think, in his documentary. They're always behind, 00:55:02.951 --> 00:55:07.038 - behind, behind. Time for just one more quick question, one quick answer. 00:55:08.002 --> 00:55:13.216 - You've mentioned a number of books that you've read or recommend. Do you have a listing of that somewhere? 00:55:13.216 --> 00:55:18.089 - Cause I just don't want to go into a library and choose. Yeah, I know there's a lot of awful things 00:55:18.089 --> 00:55:23.108 - right now, but I can make a list and I can, I can try to submit it to Jeff or, and is that okay? Cause 00:55:23.108 --> 00:55:28.176 - there are some really lovely books there. The Monroe County public library. I don't know what you think 00:55:28.176 --> 00:55:33.098 - of it, but I, it's been a godsend since my kids were really small. I've spent so many times there. I 00:55:33.098 --> 00:55:34.462 - still go there once a week. 00:55:34.946 --> 00:55:41.613 - And they have lots of new books that are really, really fantastic, thoughtful new books. People have 00:55:41.613 --> 00:55:48.412 - done, again, research, archival research, have delved in the archives for months and months and months 00:55:48.412 --> 00:55:54.552 - to do this work. And that's real history. And that's what I'm a little bit passionate about. 00:55:54.552 --> 00:55:56.862 - As you said, thank you. Thank you. 00:55:59.522 --> 00:56:05.866 - Constantine, thank you so much for your talk. And I just realized I should have brought my husband. 00:56:05.866 --> 00:56:12.337 - He would have been pounding you with questions forever. It was so interesting. In honor of your talk, 00:56:12.337 --> 00:56:18.682 - we will be giving a donation of $100 to C Jam for the quarter. And I'd also like to thank today all 00:56:18.682 --> 00:56:25.533 - of our volunteers who helped out. Peggy Frisbee for greeting, Lynn Schwartzberg for the pseudo introduction 00:56:25.533 --> 00:56:29.086 - of guests. Jeff Richardson for introducing our speaker. 00:56:29.474 --> 00:56:35.782 - Leslie Kutsenko for the Zoom host, Michelle Cohen for stepping up for reflection, Judy Schroeder for 00:56:35.782 --> 00:56:42.028 - doing the reporting, Michael Shermas as always for the mic and camera operator. We have to get some 00:56:42.028 --> 00:56:48.273 - other people here to help you. And Michelle doing double duty, also being photographer for us, Jill 00:56:48.273 --> 00:56:51.646 - as our executive assistant, and then Tyler as always. 00:56:51.746 --> 00:56:57.767 - for our audio equipment. And I'm never gonna complain about the 12 to 14 committees that we have after 00:56:57.767 --> 00:57:03.788 - hearing 233, I'll just say. Our next meeting will be in the state room east on August 18th. Denso Ross 00:57:03.788 --> 00:57:09.225 - will be our special guest discussing leading with innovation through healthcare uncertainty. 00:57:09.225 --> 00:57:15.246 - Please join us, that probably is one of the crisis that keeps you awake every day. And by the way, one 00:57:15.246 --> 00:57:19.806 - other thing I thought about today is Canada is another state, what a thought. 00:57:20.450 --> 00:57:28.236 - Just saying. And with that, Tyler, if you could put up the four-way test, and for those who are able, 00:57:28.236 --> 00:57:35.869 - please stand. Of the things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all 00:57:35.869 --> 00:57:43.655 - concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all 00:57:43.655 --> 00:57:46.174 - concerned? And fifth, is it fun?