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Download today. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people, coming to you from where the West begins, in Fort Worth, Texas. Aside from the cherry tree legend, which of course isn't true, most of us don't know much about George Washington. To many, he's just a man peering at us from a dollar bill or a figure carved in marble. What we're about to do is take a look at the flesh and blood man behind the graven image. Narrating this story is veteran actor James O'Connor, who starred as Tommy Bones on TV's Gotham and appears regularly on Law & Order. In this segment, we'll be hearing from Don Higginbotham, author of George Washington, Uniting a Nation.
Let's take a listen. The poet Robert Frost once remarked that George Washington was one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power. Washington could have become king of America if he wanted to. Instead, America's first general became the United States' first two-term civilian president, something a world familiar only with hereditary monarchs had never seen. Napoleon, as he lay dying on the island of St. Helena, condemned for having seized the power of an emperor, complained that his critics wanted me to be another Washington.
Underneath the man who has become namesake to thousands of small towns, high schools, the nation's capital, and the 42nd state, whose image is reproduced endlessly on coins, currency, and stamps, and a huge bust carved into a South Dakota mountain, we find a man seeking to belong, longing for acceptance and respect. Parson Mason Weems, an Episcopal clergyman and sometime bookseller, is the source of some of those pious stories about George Washington, like chopping down his father's cherry tree. The real George Washington is born in a modest farmhouse in Northern Virginia on February 22, 1732, the first child of a middle-aged father and a second wife. In the mid-18th century, Virginia is a province of the British Empire.
Its sparse population of mostly British descent see themselves as Englishmen, subjects of the king, but the British see Virginians as crude colonists, second class in every way. Washington's father Augustine dies when he is 11. George inherits a farmhouse left in trust to his mother Mary, but the bulk of Augustine Washington's estate, including the sizable plantation at Mount Vernon, goes to his older half-brother, Lawrence. Unlike Lawrence, who's educated in England, George's formal education ends when he is 14. Lawrence convinces Mary Washington to send George to him so that he can teach the boy the ways of society.
As George's surrogate father, Lawrence offers guidance and contact with the wealthiest and most prominent family in Virginia, the Fairfax family, which he has married into. The rough young man learns his social graces by quietly watching and imitating those in Lawrence's charmed circle. Acutely aware of his own lack of sophistication, fearful of social missteps, Washington develops lifelong habits of social reserve. He studies books on matters. He reads English magazines and translations of Roman classics so that he would have something to say at dinner parties.
But to become one of the elite, George needs to make money. By 17, he is working as a frontier surveyor in the Appalachian Mountains. At 18, he buys his first piece of land. Washington, like all Virginians, needed land. Land was the most valuable commodity in agrarian society. They needed land to replenish their tobacco fields, which wore out in four-day years. They needed land for speculative purposes, for a rainy day.
It was the one form of inheritance they could pass on that would be of great value to their offspring. The land west of the Appalachian Mountains bears a wilderness of inconceivable magnitude and unimaginable richness. Few Americans have seen it, but the British crown wants it. So does their arch-rivals, the French, and both have to reckon with the Indians who live there. Washington has surveyed it, and in 1754, he comes to fight for it. After all, as a soldier of the British crown, he can rise higher in society than any mere surveyor.
He is now 22, 6 feet 3 inches tall, a major in the Virginia regiment, and after years in the backwoods, as tough as the terrain. A smoldering cold war between England and France, fueled by conflicting land claims on two continents, hits a flashpoint in the Ohio Valley. In Europe, this conflict will be called the Seven Years' War. In North America, it is known as the French and Indian War. Eventually the French will be driven from America, but at such a cost that the British will raise taxes in America to pay for the fighting. This leads to the American Revolution, in which the French aids America.
The French will pay for this with higher taxes, which leads to the French Revolution. Washington is sent out on his first assignment. His job is to lead 139 men to the forks of the Ohio River and build a fort there before the French camp.
His only military preparation consists of fencing lessons and having read two books on the art of war. But the French beat Washington to his goal, and now his Indian scouts tell him that the French are sending a party to ambush him. Washington leads his men on a night march towards the French camp, where he finds 40 men sleeping. At dawn, he strikes. A few minutes later, ten French, including a French ambassador, and four Englishmen are dead.
The French court brands him an assassin. The French and Indian War has begun. And you're listening to veteran actor James O'Connor and historian Don Higginbotham tell the story of young George Washington. And my goodness, he so desperately wants in to polite and elite society, and he doesn't only survey the land, because that's how he'll get there, land ownership.
He's now prepared to and is about to fight for it. When we come back, more of the story of George Washington, our most important founder, hands down, here on Our American Stories. Here at Our American Stories, we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith, and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that need to be told.
But we can't do it without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love our stories and America like we do, please go to OurAmericanStories.com and click the donate button. Give a little.
Give a lot. Help us keep the great American Stories coming. That's OurAmericanStories.com. Time for a sofa upgrade? Introducing Anibé sofas, where designer style meets budget-friendly prices.
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The folks who show up when you need them and make your life so much better. Well, now you can make those moments even sweeter because share a Coke is back. And this time it's all about celebrating friendships, whether you're hanging out, watching the game or just chopping it up. There's a Coke for everyone from bestie and bro to classic names like David and Sarah.
These special cans and bottles are made for your whole squad. So grab one, crack it open and toast to the people who make life worth celebrating. But don't wait.
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Next time you're making memories, don't miss your chance to share a Coke with all your favorite people. So you want to start a business? You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills.
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Let's pick up where we last left off. Later at the Battle of Fort Duquesne, Washington demonstrates that what he lacks in strategic ability, he more than makes up for in sheer bravery when he has two horses shot from under him. Three years later, again at Fort Duquesne, two groups of Virginia militia men stumble upon one another in the wilderness and mistakenly open fire on each other. Washington rides between opposing lines, knocking away guns on both sides with his sword. Fourteen are killed, twenty-six are wounded.
Washington isn't touched. At twenty-four, he returns a hero to his fellow Virginians. But when he seeks a commission as a full British officer, not just a Virginia colonial officer, he is rudely rejected. We are at war with France.
And you, sir, were the man who fired the shot that started this war. He resigns from the militia in protest. Denied advancement in the British army, he realizes that if he is to make his mark in the world, he must do it as a civilian. What's so touching about his experience of the French and Indian War is that it was the making of him in a way that he did not expect. Instead of being the making of him as an element of the glittering gentleman's world of the British Virginia empire, it was the making of his experience of human vicissitude and the forging of his character. And I suspect the beginnings of those personal feelings which made it possible for him to be a rebel leader where once all he had wanted was to be an imperial guard.
Then, in 1752, after having found the town of Alexandria, Virginia, George's half-brother and father figure, Lawrence, dies of tuberculosis. George becomes the owner of Mount Vernon. He's got lots of land, but little money to work it with. And he is alone. For ten years he has wooed a succession of young women, all of whom reject him, some because he isn't rich enough and some because they are put off by his restrained personality. Then George is introduced to Martha Custis, a 27-year-old widow and mother of two. Martha is five foot tall with a pleasant appearance, is slightly plump, shy, and serious, universally liked and easy to talk to. She is also one of the most wealthy, marriageable women in all of Virginia. Her husband, Daniel Custis, has left her 17,000 acres of tobacco, hundreds of slaves, and several farms. The two only spend 20-some hours together before George proposes marriage.
Here they come! Within the year they are married, having spent only 15 days in one another's company. In marrying Martha Custis, Washington finally enters the world of the Virginia elite. She was extremely supportive of him. She complimented him in many ways. She socialized more easily than Washington did, liked to talk with friends and greet them, whereas Washington was, I think Washington was a little bit shy.
And his size was intimidating, he used to frighten the children, but we're told that Mrs. Washington grabbed him by his lapels and pulled him right down to her face when she wanted to talk to him. Credit extended by British tobacco agents enables Virginia planters to live opulently. But credit also puts them in debt, and constant droughts keep devastating crop production.
As tobacco prices fall, their debts mount. George and Martha face a dilemma. Washington faces economic collapse, but he's equally fearful of what others might think if he's unable to maintain his style of life. If I economize, Washington writes in a letter, such an alteration in the system of my living will create suspicions of a decay in my fortune, and such a thought the world must not harbor.
Image is all important. Washington staffs his residence with fourteen servants and seven slaves. But unlike many of his contemporaries who defend slavery, Washington believes that slavery debases both slave and slaveholder. Washington has the resources to pull himself completely out of debt if he sells all of his slaves. But he says, I refuse to participate in that practice of selling slaves. It's wrong. Jonathan Alton, Washington's long-time plantation hand, attempts to sell off the slaves.
Washington responds immediately. I gave you no authority to sell any of our people. Colonel, you instructed me to cut costs because of our drought losses. I've told you before, Mr. Alton, I will not break up families. There will be no sale. By not selling slaves without your permission, we can go bankrupt.
Joshua, unload them. Virginia law, of course, does not recognize slave families or slave marriages, but Washington does. Washington treats them like family, which is why after they're released following his death, the former slaves come back and take care of Mount Vernon and his and Martha's grave. Of all the founding fathers, Washington is the only one to free his slaves.
But Washington is broke. He sees his and his fellow planters' problems as one of dependence on their British agents, the men who sell Virginia's tobacco in Europe and who purchase finished goods on their behalf in London. He was persuaded that they palmed off the shottiest goods on colonials.
All of this simply intensified his sense of anti-colonial discrimination, this time within the context of the imperial commercial system. Although Washington believes he grows the best tobacco in Virginia, he decides to stop growing the labor-intensive, soil-depleting crop and grows grains instead. He is soon selling his produce in Alexandria and buys finished goods from local importers and American manufacturers instead of buying through London agents.
Within a decade, he is out of debt and a firm believer in American economic independence. As the British Parliament levies one burdensome tax after another on the colonies, Washington begins to see advantages in American political independence as well. And when British troops sail into Boston in 1768, Washington sees them as nothing more than tax collectors in red coats. Then Washington joins Patrick Henry as one of the most influential members of the Virginia House of Burgesses. As relations between Britain and the colonies deteriorate, Virginia sends Washington as one of its delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. By the time the Second Continental Congress convenes one year later, fighting breaks out between the Massachusetts Minutemen and the British regulars. The President recognizes Mr. Adams of Massachusetts.
I believe, sirs, that the hour has come. How few of the human race have ever had an opportunity of choosing a system of government for themselves and their children? While I live, let me have a country, a free country. It is no exaggeration to say that between 1774 and 1777, Independence Hall in Philadelphia glows with more intellectual candle power than has ever burned in a single place before or since. Ben Franklin, John Adams, his cousin Sam, John Jay, the men of the Virginia delegation, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Edmund Pendleton, and then there is George Washington. And what a story you're listening to, the story of George Washington. And in the end, we learn that what propels Washington to lead this battle for independence had much to do with how he was treated after the French and Indian War.
All he'd wanted to become was a member of the Imperial Guard. The British didn't see it. This would fuel Washington's streak for independence and also what was happening financially, he thought, as a result of how the British treated American businesses. And in the end, so many of them agrarian.
When we come back, more of the story of George Washington, America's most important founder, here on Our American Stories. Inside and out, so you can say goodbye to stains and hello to worry-free living. Made with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics, they're kid-proof, pet-friendly, and built for everyday life. Plus, changeable fabric covers let you refresh your sofa whenever you want.
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Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Have you ever looked around at your crew and thought, man, these are my people. The ones who turn the smallest moments into memories you'll be talking about for years.
The folks who show up when you need them and make your life so much better. Well, now you can make those moments even sweeter because share a Coke is back. And this time, it's all about celebrating friendships. Whether you're hanging out, watching the game, or just chopping it up, there's a Coke for everyone. From bestie and bro to classic names like David and Sarah, these special cans and bottles are made for your whole squad. So grab one, crack it open, and toast to the people who make life worth celebrating. But don't wait. They won't be around forever. So grab one for everybody, pop the top, and keep the good vibes flowing.
Next time you're making memories, don't miss your chance to share a Coke with all your favorite people. So you want to start a business? You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but listen to me when I say you don't.
You just need GoDaddy Aero. I'm Walton Goggins, an actor. And I like the sound of starting my own business, Walton Goggins' Goggle Glasses.
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NYX, for your leaks, for your life. To symbolize the depth of his commitment to the cause of resistance, Washington arrives in Philadelphia wearing his splendid old blue and buff Virginia military uniform. He wore the uniform because he knew he looked good in it and because he wanted to be commander in chief.
And he knew that if other people could see him in that uniform, they would see him as he saw himself in command. John Adams nominates 43-year-old Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army, which will wage a war for national independence. What is required now is one able man to build and to lead this new Continental Army. And who do you propose of the Massachusetts delegate should lead this force? I have but one gentleman in mind known to all of us. Mr. President, I propose as commander in chief our most honorable and esteemed delegate, the good gentleman from Virginia, Colonel George Washington.
He is elected unanimously. I am truly sensible of the high honor the Congress has done me. But I tell you now, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with. Washington sees his appointment as one ordained by God. Your Continental Army awaits you at Cambridge, sir. In his letters he refers to the war as the cause, with cause always capitalized, recognizing God's providence in their resistance. John Adams prophetically writes that Washington could become one of the most important characters in the world. Washington accepts the assignment, knowing that if he fails, he would lose everything he struggled so hard to gain. Then Congress approves the Declaration of Independence.
Resolution carries. Asserting America's right to choose their own government, absolving all allegiance to the British crown. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political band which have connected them with another. It may have been Ben Franklin who said, if we don't hang together, we will most certainly hang separately. But it is Washington's neck that will feel the noose first.
There is no turning back. When George Washington got to Cambridge to assume his new command of the Continental Army, all of his fears were probably reinforced. What he found, instead of an inspired band of revolutionaries, was a disorganized, dirty, undisciplined mob.
I'd fraud the lot of them. And he was supposed to command them and make them an army and expel the British from North America and secure independence for the American people. Sir, the British are landing on Long Island. The battle is upon us.
New York, 1776. Washington is outnumbered two to one. He grew during the war as a military commander, but at the beginning, he showed a considerable degree of incompetency. Since the Battle of Long Island, he left the end of his line open.
The British were able to run around it to nearly catch his whole army and destroy it. Washington loses New York, which begins a succession of losses up and down Manhattan Island. A skirmish at Harlem Heights, a defeat at White Plains, a disaster for Washington at Fort Washington, another disaster at Fort Lee. By November, his army has almost evaporated. Men have left, or deserted, to bring in harvests. Thousands have been captured or killed.
Many have fallen ill, and the British are chasing his remnant of 5,000 across the New Jersey Plain. By the end of 1776, the Continental Army was melting away. The jig seemed just about up. Washington was in despair. He started to talk about having to go hide out in the West.
To his brother, Washington writes, I think the game is pretty near up. By December of 1776, the Continental cause was in very serious trouble. Washington's soldiers were about to go home. Their enlistments were expiring. Many columns were beginning to take up the British offer of pardon. They were going over to the enemy.
The revolution was unraveling. And then, suddenly, at the very end of the year, in a bold and daring move, Washington, with his small remaining army, swooped down on Trenton, New Jersey. There are few places in America where history pivots around the character of a single man. Washington's crossing the Delaware River in Trenton, New Jersey, is one of them. When Washington wins here, the tide turns with him. The watchword Washington has chosen for the Trenton attack is victory or death. 2,400 American troops cross the Delaware in the middle of a sleet storm on Christmas night of 1776.
This weather will wet the men's powder. Our muskets won't fire. Then you must use your bayonet, Sergeant.
Trenton must be taken. Many things go wrong, but the genius of Washington's attack lies in the date of its execution. In their barracks, the enemy has been celebrating Christmas with rum and ale. As night comes on, so does drunkenness.
Then sleep. At Trenton, Washington had to try something new. Conventional military tactics had failed him. He remembered the guerrilla tactics of the Indians from the French and Indian War, so he and his men snuck up on the sleeping Hessian soldiers.
Washington slipping across the Delaware, taking advantage of Hessians who had had too much to drink, surprising them in the morning and winning a very small victory. This was not a great thing in military terms, but it was very important to the survival of the Revolution. The legends of barefoot soldiers leaving bloody footprints in the snow are not fiction. The tales of starvation, disease, malnutrition, and exposure at Valley Forge in the winter of 1778 are not exaggerations. One soldier recorded seeing a dead body so covered with lice that it was thought the lice alone had killed the man. Even after makeshift cabins are built and the men are out of the freezing wind and snow, each sentry still has to borrow clothes from his bunkmate before his turn at guard.
As the guard rotates, so does the clothing. But there is one thing not lacking in the American camps. Rum.
It is calculated that rebel troops are consuming a bottle a day per man. When enlistments expire, Washington goes before his troops and offers a bounty to all who step forward and re-enlist. The drums rolled. No one stepped forward. Washington couldn't believe it. He was dismayed. He was shocked. He was desperate. So he marched up and down the line, begging, pleading, cajoling his men to stay, telling them that the future of America rested with them. The drums rolled again. This time, one man stepped out.
Two men stepped out. And at the end, everyone who could stayed on. He could lead. He could inspire his men. They admired him.
He looked the picture of a general. He was a responsible, careful tactician. I don't suppose any military genius, but he had the genius to lead. And nothing could be more true. Washington may not have been the greatest military genius, but he had a genius for leadership. And without it, we wouldn't have the country we live in today. A series of mistakes and errors in the beginning, not the greatest strategist, let alone tactician. And then comes the masterstroke in Trenton, getting that much needed victory.
When we come back, more of the story of our founding father, George Washington, here on Our American Stories. Let's be real. Life happens. Kids spill. Pets shed.
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Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Have you ever looked around at your crew and thought, man, these are my people? The ones who turn the smallest moments into memories you'll be talking about for years. The folks who show up when you need them and make your life so much better. Well, now you can make those moments even sweeter, because share a Coke is back. And this time, it's all about celebrating friendships. Whether you're hanging out, watching the game, or just chopping it up, there's a Coke for everyone. From bestie and bro to classic names like David and Sarah, these special cans and bottles are made for your whole squad. So grab one, crack it open, and toast to the people who make life worth celebrating. But don't wait, they won't be around forever. So grab one for everybody, pop the top, and keep the good vibes flowing.
Next time you're making memories, don't miss your chance to share a Coke with all your favorite people. So you want to start a business? You might think you need a team of people and fancy tech skills, but listen to me when I say you don't. You just need GoDaddy Aero. I'm Walton Goggins, an actor, and I like the sound of starting my own business, Walton Goggins' Goggle Glasses.
But I couldn't do this on my own. GoDaddy Aero uses AI to create everything you need to grow a business. It'll make you a unique logo. It'll create a custom website. It'll write social posts for you and even set you up with a social media calendar. How cool is that?
Well, listen to this. For a limited time, you can get Aero All Access for just a dollar a week for 12 weeks. We're talking all the AI power of GoDaddy Aero plus a domain, e-commerce store, payments, professional email, a unified inbox, all for less money than I spend on deep tanning lotion while sunbathing off the Amalfi Coast. You know what that sounds like? A plan.
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Let's pick up where we last left off. Deeply feeling the plight of his men, Washington constantly hounds the Continental Congress for supplies, trying to shame them by appealing to their sense of patriotism. Congress's typical response is to give Washington permission to commandeer what he needs from those living near his station troops. Washington refuses this invitation to rob his fellow citizens at the point of a bayonet, arguing that to do so will alienate the very people in whose name the struggle has been undertaken. A struggle also exists with his generals. Washington has as much trouble with some of them as he does with the British. Men like Charles Lee and Horatio Gates, men who'd been officers in the British Army, thought Washington was a bumpkin, someone who didn't know anything about an army or how to run a war. And they caused George a tremendous amount of trouble. They conspired, they talked behind his back, they spoke to members of Congress, they tried to discredit him. But in the end, he met them with patience and persistence, and their own incompetence ruined. And George survived, and they didn't. Throughout his career, he appears touched by God. On horseback he leads charges into the thick of battle, willfully exposing himself to cannon and musket fire, strolling through a hail of shot.
Yet not once does a bullet or shrapnel ever even graze him. In April 1781, a British warship sails up the Potomac and trains her guns on Washington's cherished home, Mount Vernon. Most of Washington's Virginia now lay under British control. The governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, begs Washington to come home and save his state. Washington declines. When Jefferson called upon Washington to defend his home and his state, he was talking to a Washington who no longer existed.
Washington's allegiance was no longer to the country he had grown up in, English Virginia, but was an allegiance to the future. Washington's record on the battlefield is three wins, nine losses, and one tie, which is no source of pride. If we succeed, we have a chance to end the war here. But the best battle to win is the last one.
Surprise and terror will be your main weapon, sir. And Washington endures long enough to win it, the three-week siege at Yorktown. This is where the Revolutionary War ends on October 19th, 1781. When British General Cornwallis asks for the terms, Washington replies that the same honor should be granted to Cornwallis' surrendering army, as was granted to the American garrison of Charleston. The point is not lost on Cornwallis.
When Charleston fell to the British in 1780, the British refused to grant the Americans the honors of war, treating them as rebels and not as a legitimate army. Washington now demands the same humiliation of Cornwallis. But Cornwallis claims illness and sends a stand-in to the surrender ceremony. Where Cornwallis is in disbow, I am second in command. In an attempt at insult, the British stand-in tries to hand over Cornwallis' sword to a French officer who had fought with the Americans. But the Frenchman refuses, directing him instead to Washington.
Washington also refuses. He orders the Englishman to surrender Cornwallis' sword to General Lincoln. General Lincoln will accept the surrender. Who was the humiliated American commander at Charleston.
Sir, my sword. During his campaign against the British, Washington is always outnumbered, typically outgunned, and always short on supplies, weapons, wagons, horses, and boats. Yet he repeatedly slips the British noose, choosing strategic retreat over honorable defeat.
He doggedly wears his enemy down. The British lose the war not so much because the Americans under Washington defeat them on the battlefield, but because General George Washington does not give up or go away. But Washington's most important performance has yet to occur.
Let me set the scene. It's the end of the war. Washington's generals and his high staff officers are disgruntled. They haven't been paid. They don't trust the Congress. They're not so sure that it's such a good idea to give over control of this new nation to this bunch of squabbling politicians. Many among them wanted Washington to assume greater power, in fact, maybe dictatorial power. His officers plan a meeting at their headquarters on the night of March 15, 1783. They know how you feel, sir, so they do not want you there at the secret meeting.
They will debate a move against Congress to demand their back pay, at gunpoint if necessary. Washington knows he has to confront them. He begins writing a speech. He agonizes over every sentence and every word. He was ripped apart inside. He had suffered with these men. He'd watched them die. He'd watched them be wounded for their country. He knew what they had given up. He knew how Congress had mistreated them. And a part of him was attracted by their offer to be a kind of king. And he knew for certain that if he gave in to their offer, if he gave in to the allure of power, not only would he betray his country, but he would also betray the reputation and the honor that had been so hard for him to attain. He rides alone to the meeting.
As he enters the building, the angry officers are stoned. But he sees no smiles, and there is no applause as he stands before them and begs them not to open the floodgates of civil war, which would surely drown the new nation in blood. If you will not lead us, sir, stand aside! Do not stand aside.
And if you try to silence me, you are asking for a nation in which freedom of speech is taken away. He knows he is failing. So he decides to read a copy of a letter from Congress, once again promising payment.
It might work where his eloquence has not. He holds the letter in front of him and begins to read. I have a letter from a member of Congress.
But something is wrong. The officers draw closer. Then, Washington takes out a pair of glasses and puts them on.
No one in the audience has ever seen him in his glasses before. The officers are shocked. Washington looks out at the men and speaks. Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray, but almost blind in service of my country. With this, he brings them to tears. He steps down from the stage and moves slowly towards the door. The conspiracy collapses.
All that is left are the formalities of history. He knew that his glasses would be a symbol of his own weakness and vulnerability. And he hoped, he hoped that this would persuade his men that by betraying their country in this manner, they were also betraying him personally. It's high political acting, but what he did was he staged that performance in order to rescue control of the new government from a disgruntled military and to return it to civilian power where it belongs. And in that moment, we have fused the extraordinary political performance of George Washington, the ambitious would-be leader, and the principles about politics and about civilian rule, which restrained him even in the moment of his highest acting.
Nine months later, Washington surrenders his commission and his army to Congress. The grand irony of his life, which in the beginning was based on acquisition, is that he did not secure the reputation he sought until he gave something up, power. President Abraham Lincoln once said, To add brightness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. The path of George Washington's life is one from frontier to capital. It is one of our greatest American stories.
And of all those who helped create the new nation, none are more deserving of the title, Founding Father. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hengler and a special thanks to our narrator, James O'Connor, a terrific actor, whom you know from his work in Gotham, Law & Order, and so many other parts. And also a special thanks to Don Higginbotham, to Bob Davidoff, and to Christine Meadows of Mount Vernon. And if you ever get a chance and you're in and around the Washington, D.C. area visiting, go to Mount Vernon. It's a terrific place.
You will not regret it. A special thanks also to Rice University, the UCLA Film and TV Archive, and Claremont University for their contributions to this story. And my goodness, Washington didn't just win the war. He also ended a potential coup by his own military with a masterful performance in Newburgh and then in the end surrendered his commission, establishing the idea of civilian control of our military.
The story of our Founding Father, George Washington, here on Our American Stories. Behind every successful business is a vision. Bringing it to life takes more than effort. It takes the right financial foundation and support. That's where Chase for Business comes in.
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