What is the Meaning of America? | Eric Metaxas | Revolution

[00:00:00]Once upon a time there was a revolution.

[00:00:04]The more I researched the story of the revolution, the more I was genuinely astonished at the virtue and the character and the religious conviction of most of the central players because I have heard most of my life, oh they were all deists and the whole thing was based on the French Enlightenment. That is wildly untrue. Why have we heard this over and over and over again? As though the French Enlightenment would give us these kinds of principles that say we're made in God's image and every life is sacred and we're all equal. And you know where do those ideas come from? They don't come from the French Enlightenment. They come from the Bible.

[00:00:39]And everyone at the time knew that. And I think it's important that we acknowledge even if you are not yourself a person of faith that the people behind the revolution mostly were they were so convicted by these ideas they were willing to die for them and of course many of them did die for them.

[00:01:05]Wow.

[00:01:06]Wow. Wow. Wow. Oh my goodness.

[00:01:11]Oh my goodness.

[00:01:12]There's so many friends here and so many former friends. It's kind of sad, isn't it? It's kind of sad, but if you cross me, it's over. I won't talk to you. Um, this is such a blessing. Uh, I I hardly know where to start. Thank you for coming. Let me start by saying God bless America. Um, we ought to um Yeah, there is so much uh that I want to say.

[00:01:37]First of all, to me, this is more than anything a celebratory moment. Uh, some of you have been with me in the process of writing the book. Uh, it took a lot out of me. As you know, I'm on wife number, what is it, three? Uh, it was tough. They just couldn't hang in there.

[00:01:56]It's brutal being married to a a drunk uh who uh who, you know, claims to be a writer and stuff and they couldn't hang in there. But, uh, my current wife, she hung in there and, uh, and she's here tonight. Where is she? There she is.

[00:02:08]Suzanne is is is here. She's, um, and I think I'm pretty sure it's going to last because it's been 30 years. Everybody says the first 30 years is the toughest.

[00:02:18]And they're right. It's been tough. But, uh, you can't you can't joke about that with a crowd like this. Let me tell you, uh, how how happy I am, honestly, that you're all uh here. Um, and uh, I I want to talk to you about the subject of my book, Revolution. But before that, um, a few preliminary comments. First, I hope some of you had a chance to speak to General George Washington uh, tonight. Um, and uh, and it's not, it really is. Um, he he's he's featured all through my book, and I never thought we could get him to show up, but uh, when he saw how much he was in the book, he finally said, "Oh, okay. I'll come." But, uh, it's it's fascinating. Um, tonight is a moment of celebration because in all seriousness, writing this book was a tremendously arduous process. Uh, people often ask me, why do you write a book or how do you write a book? uh and uh it's a fact that you know I'm a I'm a popular writer uh in the sense that I don't spend 40 years researching something uh I uh I I write uh on many different subjects um but whenever I write a book people say to me you know that oh like I like that book here you should write a book about this or you should write about when I wrote my book on Luther I don't know if I had a dollar for everybody who came up to me and said you you got to write a book about Kelvin right no evidently I do not have to write a book about Calvin. Um he's not as much fun as Luther. Um writing a book is a big deal and um so you have to really at least I think you have to count the cost uh because it is a hugely arduous undertaking uh and some of you have uh undertaken arduous things and you don't you don't do these things lightly. So uh so I don't just you know say hey yeah it's a great idea and then le leap uh into it. Um, and usually when people suggest uh things for books, you know, they're just not uh I can't take it seriously. But the reason this book exists um is because uh of a friend of mine who's here, uh Seth Ward, where is he? I saw him here.

[00:04:26]He's right there. Uh the sad looking man. Uh of course, no, Seth is one of my dearest friends. And Seth said to me a little bit over two years ago, he said, "You know, I just read your chapter on George Washington in your book, Seven Men." Um, and it meant so much to him.

[00:04:43]He said that I think you really need to write the whole story, the a story of the revolution. And it was one of those very rare times when somebody makes a suggestion like that that I don't scoff or sneer or strike them. Uh I thought wow that's uh that's interesting. It's an interesting thought. Um it really you know the assignment to write a book on the revolution. First of all you have to ask what does that even mean to write a book on the revolution? What is the revolution exactly? So you have to think that through. Um but in the end um I thought there really isn't a book about the whole revolution. I mean there are some but they're uh either pretty old or uh you know really academic uh and I I I thought there ought to exist a book about the whole revolution. And so when somebody says what happened 250 years ago you can go here this is what happened you know so so here this is what happened and um but I thought yeah there isn't such a thing um but it is a vast subject uh it is almost infinite and so I was foolish enough or ignorant enough uh to think that I could do an an encyclopedic effort I could make an encycl you know I could get everything about the revolution in this book um and then I realized it really is practically infinite uh you could write There's a marvelous I mention in my acknowledgements there is a marvelous thing called the American Revolution podcast that is as encyclopedic as you can get. Uh he he has devoted weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks to every detail of the revolution for years. And so it it just goes on and on and on. But I thought I'd write a book uh where you could at least get started. Um and so I want to talk about that. But it was um very difficult to figure out what do I leave what do I leave out because there is so much and there was so much uh that you could put in and I didn't want it to be 1400 pages or 1,200 pages. So it's only 600 pages. Uh it's only 600 pages but people who have read it uh tell me that it's a good read that it's readable and thank you honey for that. So, uh, but I I do think, um, there there there's a lot in it that I think is, um, funny and crazy. Anytime I find a story that I think, wow, I never heard that or I never heard that or that's really crazy or funny, I put it in the book.

[00:07:14]So, uh, those things are in the book. I thought I would begin um by just reading a couple of paragraphs from the beginning of the book. I'm going to read uh just a little bit from the introduction.

[00:07:36]Once upon a time there was a revolution.

[00:07:41]Abraham Lincoln said that the new nation born of that revolution in 1776 was quote conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

[00:07:53]When we think of a conception conceived in liberty, we think of a clear beginning of a spark exeo. So it's not too much to say that the conception of the country we call the United States of America occurred when the idea of liberty went forth from the eternal mind of God entering history and time. But when exactly was that?

[00:08:15]Many of the men of the revolution having a view of history involving providential dispensation believed that this first happened when the Israelites made a covenant at Sinai and that the fire from this initial spark traveled through the centuries flaring up slightly and briefly here and there in the citystates of ancient Greece and the Roman Republic and then mostly went underground again until after the Reformation it had gathered enough energy to leap across the Atlantic where in a handful of communities the flame was cherished and carefully guarded until being threatened threatened it was seen to burst more generally into view in the events we shall be discussing. Um that's the serious part. It's it gets funnier. Um uh so I when I thought if my assignment is to write a book on the revolution then the question is okay what exactly does that mean? I thought what it meant honestly is we need to tell the story of of our story. We need to tell the stories of our story and it's an epic narrative comprising many many stories.

[00:09:21]Some of you know them. Um but I the reason I wrote the book is I felt that in my lifetime um most Americans have either forgotten this or they're not hearing about it very much. And it is centrally important that we know our story. I keep saying that if uh somebody uh in 1960 just shoved a microphone in anybody's face in in uh main main street America, most Americans knew this stuff. Most Americans knew the figures, uh the names, the stories. But that's kind of gone out of our culture. So I thought I just want to write a book that tells those stories uh or at least the stories that you can't leave out. Um and so that that was really my goal. But then the question is where do you start?

[00:10:09]And some people think well the revolution started Lexington and Conquered in 1775. We were just in Lexington and conquered and Boston recently. We did a Socrates and City retreat. I don't know if you're on the mailing list for Sacon City, but we're doing more and more of these kind of retreats and events. And it was so glorious to be in those places. I can almost hardly uh say how how wonderful it was um to be there. So, I thought maybe I'll start with Lexington and Conquered. But, you know, the more research I did, the more I realized, well, I kind of have have to explain how we got to Lexington and Conquered. It didn't, you know, we didn't start at Lexington and Conquered. Um, and in doing my research, I found that much that happened before Lexington and Concret is the most exciting part of the story. Uh, and it's the part that I didn't know. And I should say again, you know, in case you think I know all this stuff and that I write books about it, on the contrary, I just get an idea. I know enough that I may write a book, but uh, I I begin to do research and I begin to see what it is that I've been missing and then what I have to write um, in the book. So I ultimately determined that uh you know some some of you know the gener if if somebody says when did the revolution start what started the revolution the basic answer is well the French and Indian war. So some again some of you know this but the basic story is that you know the British had allowed the 13 colonies uh to exist to govern themselves. you know, folks had come over here. They were kind of doing their own thing. And so the British policy, they called it salutary neglect.

[00:11:42]They sort of left us us, not that we were there really, but uh they left they left the 13 colonies to kind of do their own thing and they, you know, they were trading with them and everything was going great. Uh but then um some of you know in the 1740s, uh the British decided, you know, the French are making some incursions in the Ohio Valley and we need to push back.

[00:12:04]you know, the French, they want their empire, but they're pushing, and so we're going to push back. And so they sent um a 21-year-old hotthead. Some of you know the story. Uh I always forget his name. Oh, George Washington, that's his name. Yeah. They sent they sent a figure, and forgive me, you were young, so we forgive you. Um but but they sent this 21-year-old, and the bottom line is that triggers what we call the French and Indian War. Uh the British didn't do so well in that war until William Pit gets involved and then they just crush it. Uh and they win soundly and they double their empire. So they hugely they get all of Canada. Voltater kind of sniffed, you know, in France. Oh, what's the big deal? He just dismissed Canada as a few acres of snow. Um he he has a point but uh I don't really like Volaltater that much but he's right about that. But the point is that the French lost big and the British won big and they doubled their empire but they also doubled their debt. And so now they've got this huge empire and they kind of thought well now we've got to you know govern like we've got a big empire and we're going to have to crack down. The colonies have been getting away with all kinds of things you know smuggling and not paying taxes. We need to crack down. It's about time, you know, they've had it easy. So, they decide to crack down. Um, and of course, uh, again, some of you know this story.

[00:13:28]They, um, they discovered that in cracking down on the colonies and and telling the colonies, "Hey, you owe us this money." Uh, the people in the colonies had been governing themselves for a long time. And they had pretty much decided, we we like governing ourselves. We tax ourselves and we're not going to take it lightly when some bully tells us we have a gun and we're threatening you, you better pay, you better pay. They wanted to know why do we owe you this money and is it right that you're taxing us this money? And I think the British were very surprised that the colonists had what they had very little of in Great Britain, which we would call principles.

[00:14:05]Yes. Um, so that's part of the larger story. uh and I want to kind of frame my remarks here by by asking the question the epilogue of the book the title of the epilogue uh is what is the meaning of America and in the course of writing this story which again it's a story of stories and they're beautiful stories and great heroes and some villains um you can't help but notice that the the folks uh who were involved in this uh had a view that has really fallen out of fashion and I think that's not a good thing we need to try to understand why they did what they did. Uh because it really does speak to us. It ought to speak to us where we are uh today. So before I get into that further, a couple of smaller things. Um I want to thank uh our staff uh for helping promote this book. It's been a really tremendous uh effort. I've been doing a lot of media. I will I don't know if I told you I wasn't on the view this morning. Did I mention that? Yes, it's true. It's true. Uh but no, but we've been doing all kinds of stuff and we as of today uh now again every book sold before today was a you know was a pre-sale, right? It was a pre a pre-sale. Um but we have almost sold 20,000 books up until today. Yeah. and um and I um and I and I just so I'm so grateful for the for the effort uh that's been made on all the work we've done and I think uh you know at the end of the day it's not about selling books uh it's about telling a story which is vital that we have to understand which I'll say more about so I just wanted to read the first page of chapter 1 um just to give you a flavor uh and then I want to tell you uh what I think is the meaning of America.

[00:15:54]So this is chapter one titled the opening scene of the revolution.

[00:16:01]It was October 25th, 1760, when the old king, George II, now hard of hearing and blind in one eye, awoke at 6:00 a.m., drank a cup of chocolate and then rose from the royal bed to proceed to the so-called clothes stool where having allowed the chocolate to have its effect he would engage in the quotidian process of elimination.

[00:16:34]The loud fall of his the loud crash of his fall summoned his valet and the monarch was put back into bed soon after which he expired. At which precise moment history lurched forward into a new era when even before he knew of it himself, the young grandson of the newly deceased George II became the new king of England, taking the name George III.

[00:17:01]he would remain on the throne for the next 60 years.

[00:17:05]Uh and in that sentence there's no double ant on tandra in the word throne and you've been a great audience. Thank you. Think good night. So I start at the beginning. King George III takes the throne. He's a very young man. Um the French and Indian War ends and then of course it begins. it being the uh the British saying, "Okay, we've got a we need some money here. We're going to tax you." And then the Americans for the first time in their existence now for you know 140 plus years saying h we don't understand. You don't have the right simply to tax us. We are free British citizens. We believe uh in these ideas that were promoted in the previous century in England uh in your constitution in the glorious revolution.

[00:17:58]You established this, didn't you? That we are free, that our rights come from God. Uh John Lock wrote about that.

[00:18:05]Where of course did John Lock get that idea? He didn't come up with it any more than Thomas Jefferson came up with it.

[00:18:11]These are these are biblical ideas in case you didn't know. They're all ideas that come out of the Bible. But uh the British were theoretically on board with all of this. And so the Americans thought, hey, you you don't have the right just to tell us what to do. Uh we believe in these things. This is going all the way back to Magna Carta that that we've established this kind of stuff. And so it's an interesting thing to me as I was writing the book and and trying to understand this to see this dramatic I call it two cultures separated by a common ocean. Um it was really a very dramatic difference. the culture in the colonies versus the culture in Great Britain. Uh the culture in the colonies, as I mentioned before, they were genuinely principled. They really were innocent enough to say, "We believe in these ideas uh and we take this seriously and we expect you to take it seriously in Parliament." Of course, some of the members of parliament took it seriously. Uh William Pit did, Edmund Burke, uh did uh a number of the members of Parliament, but many in Parliament did not. Uh and so uh thus begins the battle. So the first part of the battle is some of you have heard of the stamp act. Some of you have heard of the stamp act. Truly truly some of you have even used stamps. I'm sure. Um but the stamp act it's it's a funny thing. As I was doing the research, I always thought the Stamp Act, as soon as I hear the phrase, I I I I'm bored and I think of like social studies class in 8th grade. And there's a paragraph on the Stamp Act.

[00:19:41]But when you do the research uh and you actually read about it, it is absolutely fascinating because you realize it's got nothing to do with the tax. We always hear about, you know, no taxation without representation. We hear that stuff like it was about the money.

[00:19:55]You've heard the cliche, it's not about the money. It's not about the money.

[00:19:59]This was about principles. They would have been happy. I think nobody's ever happy to pay money, but they would have been happy enough to pay the money. they would they would have but the principle was that Great Britain is suddenly doing this thing um that struck them as strange as fishy. I think we have to be clear that the the uh the 13 colonies Boston in particular Massachusetts in particular I should say um they really had developed their own culture. Let's not forget that they had separated a long time before and they didn't separate because they thought oh it's nicer weather over there in Massachusetts. uh the reason they left because they were being horribly persecuted for their religious beliefs.

[00:20:40]And so you have all of these folks coming over from England risking life and limb to get away from serious religious persecution. So what this tells you is the people who came to the colonies took their faith extremely seriously.

[00:20:56]That is the culture of the colonies.

[00:20:59]Now, not not every single person and not every single colony, but by and large, the people in the colonies took their faith extremely seriously uh and knew the Bible. It was just part of the culture here. Britain had drifted away.

[00:21:13]Anybody who's read my book on William Wilberforce uh knows that George and England, the the English elites at this time were extremely decadent, dramatically different uh from the Americans um uh and not only not serious about their faith, but sneering at those who were serious about their faith, generally speaking. So, dramatically different cultures. Um and there were people uh in the colonies and I mention you know most of them but uh whether it's Patrick Henry or uh Samuel Adams who they they they kind of smelled this kind of tyranny early on even before the stamp tax and those kind they kind of smelled that the that England wants to pull us back. They don't like us having these uh liberties.

[00:22:03]And the stamp tax, the stamp act, it wasn't just an ownorous tax, but it was a tax on paper, which meant that every single paper, every newspaper, every almanac, every official document, whatever it is, is taxed. And many in the uh in the colonies, particularly in Boston, they kind of thought this is also an attempt to crush uh freedom of speech and the freedom of the press.

[00:22:28]every newspaper will be dramatically more expensive. Uh and so what does what is this but an attempt to squash our free speech? So they really felt uh that something's not right with the whole thing. Now, you know, other people uh had more uh legalistic objections, but I think there was just a sense in the colonies that they're trying to get us um in a sense uh they're they're they're overreaching. They want to curtail our liberties generally. So that's how it all starts. Um the Stamp Act, again, one of my favorite parts of the story is the Stamp Act gets people, especially in Boston, but through all the colonies, so upset that there are riots. And so it's kind of interesting to think that there are all these essays that are written, there are these petitions to the king, and there are riots, and there's political violence. And it's very interesting to think that that plays rather a serious role. Um it was so serious well actually there's one other thing which I find interesting was that the the the Americans understood that they had great economic power and they believed so strongly in uh what they were doing in not paying uh the stamp tax that they um that they basically decided we are not going to use British goods. we're going to punish the British economically by not buying British luxury goods and whatever. And it was very um it was a big sacrifice. And I say this just because I think we've gotten very very soft, right? You know, we kind of think, well, I don't want to give up that, you know, uh we we don't want to give much up. They gave up a lot. Uh when when they decided we're not going to drink tea to make a point, that was a big deal for them. Um they uh you know they didn't have uh Ovaltine in those days so they didn't have much.

[00:24:24]Somebody's applauding Ovaltine. That's uh Thank you.

[00:24:28]Thank you. Obviously a a fan of Young Frankenstein, whoever you are. Thank you. Um but it is it's kind of interesting when they said that we're not going to buy luxury goods. We're going to wear homespun clothing. We're going to make our own clothing. It was a very kind of puritanical thing where they basically said we really believe in this and if we have to suffer and if we have to dispense with uh you know British luxuries we will do that and I just find that I find that very interesting and they were so successful in this they they made the British really suffer so that the British uh merchants and so on and so forth were petitioning Congress please don't uh uh you know don't go please repeal the stamp act because we are suffering here in in London. So finally they repeal the Stamp Act. And it's just interesting to me that Boston in particular, but all the colonies celebrate like they're going out of their minds, like it's VE Day, like they've won the war. And this is 1766.

[00:25:28]I think most of you know that the war doesn't really begin till 1775. But they thought because we got Parliament to to repeal the stamp tax, we won. Uh and and one of the one of my favorite things about that is Paul Rivere. Now Paul Rivere, he's famous for his midnight ride. He ought to be a hundred times more famous and everything else that he did is more significant than the midnight ride. So when somebody tells you Cibil Luington and Danry rode twice as far as Paul Rivere, it just riding the horse is the least important thing he did. He was a giant uh in in in in the in the Sons of Liberty before the war. And he did so many things that you know uh I I list a few of them but one of the things he did uh he would engrave things and whatever to celebrate the repeal of the stamp act he creates an obelisk. I don't know how tall it was.

[00:26:19]It has to be at least as tall as this room made with uh canvas wax canvas and wood. And it was illuminated from the inside with 280 candle lamps. So you can imagine how big it is. And on the outside was inscribed all this stuff, but it was to celebrate the repeal of the Stamp Act. It was just this huge obelisk. And he created in in the book uh there is a he created an illustration of it so we can see what was on the obelisk, but we don't know how big it was because the night uh that they unveiled it, somebody wasn't paying attention and it burned down. Uh but it kind of it's it kind of makes sense because they were going to after they displayed it on the common they were going to move this vast celebratory obelisk uh to near the liberty tree. Um but it would have been uh a monument to premature celebration because basically immediately after this the British are kind of circling back like all right yeah so what we we uh we repealed the Stamp Act okay but we still reserve the right to tax you. In other words, they refused to admit that they don't have the right to tax. So, they repealed it, but they passed something called the Declaratory Act, which says, "But we still have the right to tax you anytime we want." Um, the Americans were so happy at the repeal of the Stamp Act that they didn't read that. And so, sure enough, the uh the British circle back and they impose the Townshend Act and on and on and it goes back and forth and back and forth. It reminds me of Pharaoh uh and the Israelites where you, you know, you feel like if you were Pharaoh's friend, you'd say, "Hey, Pharaoh, listen. Uh you're going to lose these folks. I would just tone it down after three plagues. That should really, you should get the message. I'm just letting you know. I just have an instinct. It's not going to go well for you. Uh you know, you like your firstborn son. You probably don't want anything bad to happen to him. Don't don't play your plan with fire here. Let it go." Okay? Uh but Pharaoh does not let it go. uh when I wrote my book uh about Martin Luther, very similar uh dynamic with the Vatican. Now, most of you know here I'm a pro- Catholic, non-atholic, so I'm just telling the story, but it's kind of funny because you want to tell Pope Leo, the other Pope Leo, uh the non-communist Pope Leo from the 15 the um the good Pope Leo who was only corrupt. Uh, you want to tell Pope Leo, listen, Pope Leo, like uh, you know, Luther and company are are they're kind of like whistleblowers. They see some problems and they're trying to help. They don't want to have schism.

[00:28:55]They're not, you know, whatever. So, so just like, you know, take this information on board. maybe you can uh you can improve things somehow, you know, and and and and Pope Leo kind of like the Pharaoh just does everything to inflame the situation so that when there is the the schism or whatever, you think like that didn't have to happen. Why did that why didn't they, you know, incorporate some of those changes or or whatever. Um that's exactly what you see with King George um and Parliament. They seem to do everything wrong. They never needed to lose the colonies. It's kind of crazy actually um because there were many members of parliament who agreed with what what the colonists were saying. They're saying they're exactly right. They have rights as British citizens in our constitution and you know this is not right. But somehow and it's just a funny thing to me. It's an observation the way history moves. How strange it is sometimes to see people do the wrong thing when they really could have done the right thing when they had the opportunity to do the right thing. So, it it's a it's an odd uh thing to see the Parliament uh and uh King George III from 3,000 mi away.

[00:30:05]Again, I say two cultures separated by common ocean. There there's they're out of touch and they maybe don't believe that the colonists are going to go through with this. They kind of think, well, the colonists are just like us.

[00:30:16]So, we're going to tell them what to do and they're going to shut up and they're going to do it. You know what? But again, they forgot the colonists have this thing, this cookie thing called principles where they're not going to back down. they they would be willing to suffer for their principles. And I think the British over and over again and into the war didn't really appreciate that.

[00:30:32]So uh eventually um you know they don't like the tone that the the colonists are taking. So they send troops. Another huge mistake. So you send troops. So you're ratcheting up the tension. That leads to the Boston Massacre. Some of you know the story of the Boston Massacre. I tell it I actually think I tell it better in this book than any other place. like I read everything on it and there's no clear accounting of it or not clear enough and I thought it's very important we understand what actually happened and what actually happened was um that the Boston mobs if anybody was to blame it's the Boston mobs not the not the British soldiers so even if you side against the British soldiers they weren't really to blame and if there's a signal moment that kind of tells you everything about the whole revolution that John Adams the young lawyer John Adams decides to take the case even Even though he is pro- uh America, pro- colonist, he takes the case to represent the British soldiers because he's a man of integrity.

[00:31:31]And this is to me when I say what is the meaning of America or when I ask the question what's the meaning of America?

[00:31:36]Wherever you look, you see that the leaders on the American side genuinely believed in that thing called integrity in doing the right thing. And it comes uh unavoidably out of their Christian faith. They had this crazy idea that if we do the right thing, God will honor us. That if we are fair and treat our enemies the way we would want to be treated. They actually believe this. And this needs to be underscored that as I say when I set out to write the book, I didn't know this. And so in all my research, I was kind of astonished that most of them were the real deal. they really were willing uh to to do the right thing and they believe they genuinely believed that that's the only way to win and that God will honor us if we we do the right thing. So so John Adams uh takes on the case of the Boston uh the soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre. It's an extraordinary thing.

[00:32:36]you know, after that kind of bloodletting, figurative and literal, things kind of calm down until the the Boston Tea Party, which is its own story, 1773, and that kind of tears it for Parliament and for the king. Um the um there's a photograph. Would you believe that in this book is an actual photograph of someone who was participating in the Boston Tea Party? Would you believe that?

[00:33:04]How many of you would believe that?

[00:33:07]Some of you wouldn't believe that. You'd you'd be wrong because there is uh he was uh I think it was around his 20th birthday and uh as he was in his 80s he lived into the world of um of photography. So there's a photograph in this book and there's no extra charge for that by the way. It comes with the book. Um but it just amazes me to think that somebody who participated in the Boston Tea Party, but the Boston Tea Party of course tears it. England uh they they are deep greatly offended by this. Um and this of course leads to uh ultimately to Lexington and conquered.

[00:33:43]But you have many voices even on the British side including uh the great uh divine John Wesley really warning and saying I don't think it's very wise we we really probably shouldn't go to war. We shouldn't we shouldn't do this. But as I said they do anyway. Um the story of Lexington and Conquered uh most of you know it now.

[00:34:08]One of my favorite I I think maybe the best poem uh in American history is Paul River's Ride by Henry Wadssworth Longfellow. Uh if you disagree with me, you'll be wrong. So I just want to be real clear. It's such a beautiful poem.

[00:34:21]But the reason he wrote that poem about Paul River's ride and Lexington and Conquered was because Longfellow in 1860, sensing what we were about to embark on in 1860 in this nation, he was a great abolitionist. He knew that we need to be called back to the spirit of 76 or 75.

[00:34:41]We need to be uh reminded of what it was that gave us the strength uh to resist what is wrong or evil at that time. We need to be reminded. So he wrote this great poem uh and I didn't write a poem and I can't compete with Longfellow uh literarily speaking but I think that he had a sense and I have a sense that you have to be reminded of where you started the moment of conception. What what where did we get this idea of liberty?

[00:35:12]uh if we want to keep our liberties we have to understand what is liberty um and what did the men of the revolution who many of whom died for this what did they think about liberty and how seriously did they take it so that's something that that's one of the reasons that I wrote the book I think we we have to go back and revisit this and I think in our 250th year uh it's a good time to do that um as I said when when I told people I'm writing the book everybody asked many people asked me, what's your angle?

[00:35:42]Like, what's your angle on this? And I kept saying over and over, I I have no angle. I just think that we need to tell the story and that there hasn't been a book that really tells the whole story in a in a good way, in a readable way because every American should know this.

[00:35:54]This is it's vital that we know this story. Um, and so I kept saying that's all I'm trying to do. But in the course of doing the research, as I may have mentioned, uh, some things came to my attention that I hadn't seen before. uh I mentioned this disparity between the cultures of England especially the elites in England uh and those uh behind the revolution in this country and I thought this is really something I've not heard I haven't heard this in school uh you're certainly not going to hear it in the culture but it is kind of funny because certain narratives are pushed forward uh and I think maybe that's part of the reason Sington City exists to begin with is that sometimes you get the sense these narratives are being pushed forward and you think you know I think there's other sides to the story. Maybe we should hear from other voices. Um, and the more I I researched uh the story of the revolution, the more I was gen genuinely astonished uh at the virtue and the character and the religious conviction of most of the central players. I mean, it really stunned me because I have heard most of my life and I'm sure most of you heard, oh, they were all deists and the whole thing was based on the French enlightenment.

[00:37:06]That is wildly untrue. It's preposterous. It's simply untrue. Uh and I I try not to make the book about that.

[00:37:14]Uh the book is just the story. But I thought, why have we heard this over and over and over again? As though the French Enlightenment would give us these kinds of principles that say, you know, we're made in God's image and every life is sacred and we're all uh equal. And you know, where do those ideas come from? They don't come from the French Enlightenment. They come from the Bible.

[00:37:33]uh and everyone at the time knew that and I think it's important that we acknowledge even if you are not yourself a person of faith that the people behind the revolution mostly were almost all of them were and they believed this so strongly they were so convicted by these ideas they were willing to die for them and of course many of them did die for them so it's very important uh that we know that and I thought uh the more I I did the research, the more I was astonished to see actually how true that was. And it brings us to the war itself.

[00:38:08]Now, John Adams um rather famously said that there was a revolution before the revolution. In other words, and I've been talking about that that a lot of these thoughts and things well before 1775 got churned up. And this stuff was there even before uh the French and Indian War, but it really comes to a head in the decade uh in the 1760s. Uh and uh John Adams says there's a revolution before the revolution. And then Benjamin Rush, his friend writing him uh says and there's a revolution after the revolution. So that when the war ends and the treaty is signed in 1783, it continues. Um and so I think that's why it's important for us to understand it because they understood that this this doesn't just continue of its own accord. We have to keep the republic to use the famous words of uh Benjamin Franklin. And so uh so one of the things that I observed as I was writing about the war itself was how um I think I mentioned it in the introduction the Boston Puritans or the descendants of the Boston Puritans. Most of the folks in Boston had this idea but you also see this in Patrick Henry and in George Washington and some of the Virginiaians that they had what we would call a covenantal view of things. In other words, they were so steeped in the Bible that they had a view, an Old Testament view that if we behave well, God will bless us. If we don't behave well, God will not bless us. And so, as they enter the war, they really thought of it as a sacred cause. We're not just doing this because we don't want to pay taxes or we want independence. They really felt it's a sacred cause. We're standing up for these sacred principles and God will be with us, but we also have to honor God in how we fight. Which brings me to the thing that startled me most is that the British fought in a way that was just barbarous, barbaric, uh sadistic sometimes. They're they're uh they really uh threw out whatever um laws you think, not not laws, I should say, but the traditions of 18th century warfare. Um and they were brutal. Uh and the Americans were not, period. Uh and it's an amazing thing to me. Some of that uh you see in the way they um prisoners would often surrender to the British uh and the British would bayonet them to death. Uh I have to tell you I was unaware of this. Why didn't we learn this in school? Like that's amazing, right? That's like the Japanese or the Nazis in World War II. They behave that way and we know that and we condemn it. Um this is amazing. The British behaved this way and I'm not saying once in a blue moon. uh this was kind of part of their their attitude. Uh they you know they dismissed the whole thing by saying well this is not a real war. These are rebels and they deserve to die and you know they had that kind of attitude but but they hire Hessen mercenaries and they hire Native Americans specifically because they knew that the Hesshin mercenaries and the Native Americans would be feared for being barbaric. In other words, it was it was an an intention to terrorize the uh civilians and to get them to say uncle. So, it's really barbaric. Um the way they treated their prisoners is also horrifying. They basically um most of those taken prisoner in the war died. 10,000 died in in the British prisons. It was so awful that 10,000 died and um that's more than died in the actual war.

[00:41:46]So you were basically starved to death or you're put in in in in a feed uh airless environment. It's so awful to read about. But the British really were brutal and barbaric. Uh I think godless would be a good word. Uh and the Americans because they had this covenantal view and I mean George Washington who is sometimes described as a deist preposterously. He's anything but a deist. It's hilarious. Um but but he sternly orders his troops, we will never stoop to what the British are doing. We will not. And he doesn't use the language I would use to say we're going to trust God. But that's basically what he says that that that that we will we we will honor the sacred cause by how we behave. We will treat our enemies uh with dignity. Uh we will we will feed them. um we you know he doesn't explicitly say we'll show them Christian love but in many ways obliquely that's exactly what he says that we're going to teach them a lesson about who we are uh and who they haven't been and so that's extraordinary um the the the British as I said mocked the uh the faith of the uh of the Americans and I guess um it's also worth saying that as as it it is difficult to talk about George Washington when he's staring at you. So please sir. Um but um but it is basically uh interesting to me that George Washington was so upstanding, so publicly upstanding and understood that this was vital to the sacred cause that our officers behave in an upstanding virtuous way. Uh you know attend services on Sunday and more often and don't gamble and drink and swear. He was very strong about that because he really believed that God will honor us if we behave with dignity and in a right way.

[00:43:40]And his counterpart on the other side, who would be General How, at least for the first half of the war, was known openly by everyone to have a mistress.

[00:43:49]And I think uh it's embarrassing to say this with Mrs. Washington sitting in the room, but George was not like that. Um it it really is a kind of a crazy thing that not only did the British kind of sneer at those kind of homespun values, you know, of uh fidelity and marriage, but they were open about it. Uh and uh everybody knew that uh General How had a mistress. So there was this kind of public godlessness or mocking of religion, which again I didn't really understand.

[00:44:20]Um, and so if you're looking at the story, you know, and you don't know anything, you just be like, well, those are the good guys and those are the bad guys. I don't know who's going to win, but those are clearly the good guys, you know, like it's just it came over and over and over again. I was personally astonished by it. And so the book's not about that, but it comes out. Um, and it needs to be said when the Declaration of Independence is officially signed, uh, which was August 2nd of 1776, they they officially signed what they call the embossed, uh, version, engrossed version, sorry. Um, the day before Samuel Adams, who's another one of these the great heroes of this story, like there's some folks in here I I just get so excited that I I I'm excited that you're going to uh, get to know them and their stories, and we should know their stories. and Nathan Hail is one and Henry Knox is one. These are tremendously heroic figures. But Samuel Adams, who is called the father of the revolution, who is just such a great man. He gives a speech the day before they sign the engrossed version of the Declaration of Independence to say, "Hey, this is what we're doing." And he's giving a speech. He's a member of Congress and he's giving a speech to Congress. And he says, "We have this day restored the sovereign, capital S." In other words, we have declared independence from George III, from that king. Uh, but we have declared dependence on God. Now, that's so explicitly religious. That's just how they all saw it. And I mean, that's how they all saw it. This is not how Samuel Adams saw it. They all bought into this. Uh, and that became more and more obvious to me as I did the research. I thought, I've never heard this, and you don't need to like it or agree with it, but it's true, and it's history. Um, that they thought, what we're doing is we're returning to the Sinai covenant. We're going back 3,000 years, uh, you know, when the Israelites uh, come out uh, from Egypt, uh, Pharaoh uh, is is the bad guy. He's the the bad king. they escape from that bondage and they have liberty, but their liberty means they're going to look directly to God. Uh, and that if you don't look directly to God, uh, you're just going to get some other king. And in case you don't know, you know, how that goes, if you know the story of the French Revolution, uh, that's exactly what happened. They got rid of the king, but they also got rid of the priests and nuns. So they, you know, pushed God out uh and and basically got a dictator uh named Napoleon who then crowns himself emperor. So it's kind of a sad irony in this, right? That the Americans for the only time in history really said, "We're going to do this thing. We know uh what liberty is. Uh but the only way you achieve it is by looking directly to God and then you can govern yourself." And now you don't legislate that because we have freedom of religion. You can't legislate that in America, nor do we want to. But they understood if we don't do that, it doesn't work. And I write more about that in my book, If You He Can Keep It. But it really is amazing to think that Samuel Adams says this explicitly. We're going back to the Sinai covenant. We're going to be under God and only then can we actually be free and govern ourselves. Otherwise, it will devolve into chaos as it has done in these other events we call revolutions. the French Revolution, the Bolevik Revolution, uh the the the Mauist Revolution, all these revolutions descend uh into chaos because they reject God. And in the American Revolution, they're very explicit about saying that's at the center of it. Uh God is at the center of it. The God of the Bible is at the center of it. And we are very self-consciously going back uh to that.

[00:48:00]Uh and that's the only way we can succeed. But we can't legislate it.

[00:48:03]We're not going to legislate that everybody has to go to church or everybody has to be a Christian or everybody has to be a Jew or what we're not. We're we we believe in religious liberty because we actually believe that's at the heart of the Bible's message is liberty that these things cannot be forced. So I was really astonished by all of that. Um and it struck me that that is the ultimately the meaning of America. If you look at the the men of the revolution, if you ask them, what are you doing? They say this is a this is a providential uh dispensation of God. God is allowing us to covenant with him directly. So when we reject King George and we reject an earthly monarch, uh we are looking directly to God. Uh and then we can be free. Then we can elect people and and everybody can be free to believe what they want. But that's kind of what we're doing. Um, and that's at the center of it. And so I think because all of the founders understood that, when I say all the founders, the least religious founders, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, both understood that when they were asked, uh, to create a seal for the new nation, uh, Benjamin Franklin comes up with an image of Moses, uh, you know, overseeing the parting of the Red Sea and Pharaoh drowning. Uh, and he sees that that's the narrative. Uh Thomas Jefferson similarly comes up with the image of the Israelites in the wilderness in the Sinai wilderness being led by the pillar of cloud and the uh sorry the pillar of fire and the cloud.

[00:49:33]Both of of these figures that we think oh they're enlightenment figures. Well clearly they bought into this narrative.

[00:49:38]Everyone bought this narrative. Everyone understood this narrative. That's what they would have said is the meaning of America. We are free from an earthly king and now we're going to govern ourselves and God has to be involved somehow but we can't force it. And so, uh, it just strikes me as important that at this 250th anniversary, we understand that that's how they all saw it and we owe them a debt to to at least understand how they saw it. And we have been laboring for many decades uh, under this narrative that pushes that out completely. And that to me is called dishonesty. That's not honest. We need to be honest. Uh, and so I didn't set out to do that uh in in writing my book.

[00:50:22]As I say, I just wanted to kind of tell the story. And I've left out all the funny parts today because I'm getting serious here. But there's just some crazy, amazing, funny stories. Um, but we need to acknowledge the reason they did this, the reason they were willing to risk their lives, and the reason so many died was because they actually believed in these ideas. And I think no one more than uh than Abraham Lincoln understood this and wrote about it. And I close my book with uh with a quote from him. He he understood this idea and I think we're obliged now uh in what I see as our third existential crisis of our history. The first being the revolution, the second and the civil war uh to come to terms with um who we were in the beginning uh and whether we can see a way to liberty that uh ignores uh that idea. and I don't think we can. So, I'll stop there. Thank you very much.

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