Casts. Next on American History tv Richard Belle talks about the declaration of independence. The Smithsonian Associates hosted this event. Dr. Bell presented many outstanding programs for us on topics relating to early American History and the American Revolutionary period in the course of the past several years. He got his degree from the university of cambridge. He is an associate professor of history in college park where he specializes in early American History. The American Society of 18th century studies be stowed thash course design award on the under graduate course. And his book, stolen, it is a true story about five boys kidnapped in the north and smuggled into slavery in the deep south and their daring attempt to escape and bring their captors to justice being published in october. So thank you again for joining us, and help many welcome dr. Rick bell. Thanks to heather and cspan for covering this. Many of you will not be surprised to hear my strange accent which is not a maryland natives accent. I was born and raised in england and i find myself teaching about the American Revolution as part of my job right now which is a blessing and a curse. On occasions like this i like to have a giant british flag that i might drape around the scenery for c span to drink in. I was a naturalized citizen a few years ago. It wonderful to be part of it. Downside of c span being here, unfortunately is i dont get to swear, it also means i dont get to show you any cute videos of my kids or anything from hamilton the musical for copyright reasons. But that still leaves us with a lot. There is a lot of microphones here. Okay. Folks the document on display that we call the declaration of independence. It has only been on display in that massive bombproof building since 1952. Before that it was in the library of congress. E and previous to that it hunkered down. But during the centennial back in 1876 it did briefly return to philadelphia, the city of its birth. There a grandson of one of the original signers read it publicly as part of this countrys 100th birthday celebrations. And reports tell us that the massive crowd of people that day burst into cheers at the sight of it. In the first 50 years it traveled more freakily. When the british burned down washington dc, the document we think of as the declaration of inden independence it was not there, it was hiding. It spent the second half of the American Revolution years earlier rolled up and stuffed in a linen bag and it escorted congress from one temporary capitol city to another. I have shocking news. The document that we have gone to such lengths to preserve is not the actual declaration of independence on or at least its not the first or the last, and it is far from being the only declaration of independence. The one he is looking at is a special commemorative edition to memorialize the independence that the delegates actually declared in a simple vote weeks earlier. It is really a souvenir, a beautiful souvenir made after the fact. It was engrossed on parchment. It was signed by 56 delegates. And at least one who goats against the declaration of independence. This is all Cocktail Party trivia so far, but all of what i said so far is just my preamble. It is not about this parchment. It is all about the next declaration of independence. So i think thinking now of his own draft. And of the final version approved by congress on july 4th, the one disseminated in print across america and across the world. I am also thinking of several more. Some written here, others far away. Some written by elite men like jefferson. But putting all of these into conversation with one another, i hope it will give us fresh perspective on the parchment that peeks out from behind bullet proof glass. We can be reminded that for all of its being, it is the creation, adoption, and desemination of a 1310 word statement that forged the American People in union, justified their rebellion, asserted their independence, and announced this countrys appearance on the world stage. That famous statement, it is now our promise to ourselves. There is much to admire and to discuss. As the founding moment in our history, delairing independ from Great Britain can seem to us like the first date with destiny. But it didnt seem like that at the time. But the decision to do it was a long, long time coming. Open rebellion was treason, remember. And in april 1775 when new england militias took shots at the british army at lexington and concord, the number of americans contemplating unam biggous revolution could have been sounded on one hand. A month after these events in may, the delegates to that congress were under instructions from their colonial legislatures to find a way to patch things up with britain. Thats what they have been september to philadelphia to do. Reconciliation and redress were the order of the day. Few at that point were thinking that congress was using its insurrection against the monarc monarchy. And it was actually king george iii that first declared the cko l colonists for them. The king issues a proclamation saying the colonists were now outside of his protection. That is august 1775. And the British Parliament declared roll on the colonists commerce. Beginning stop and serge raids on american merchant shipping. Another thing that nudged them in that direction was the appearance of a new pamphlet in 1776. It is the work of a outcast englishman that came to philadelphia to start again. And it told readers that it was common sense for the colonists to respond to georges bullying by walking away and starting afresh. It sold like hot cakes and quickly made its way into the pockets, homes, and minds of perhaps millions. And it worked to bind people throughout the clonnys and it gave them all a common enemy, too. Laying the blame of all of the chaos and the trauma of the past ten years at one feet. The feet of king george the iii. In a few ways then this flimsy brochure was the American Peoples declaration. That the redders across the colonies made. And towns, counties, and legislatur legislatures. Issuing their own, miniature deck la declarations of independence claiming their separate nation hood and sum mar imarizing the of events. They were much longer and there was one in your hand that runs from buckingham county. They came back to the threats posed by the fleets and the armies he sent to repress and divide them. He came back again and again to the now escalating rumors and the government recently dispatched a large invading force to the colonies. 90 state and local have been there. They were written to put pressure on the often cautious delegates of the Second Continental Congress so they might find the courage to embrace the cause of independence. And they soon started to see. Every post and every day rolls in upon us. Independence like a torrent. And it wasnt just john adams. Others were also starting to get this message from their own constituents. And a man of the virginia delegation introduced the first formal, a revolution to declare that these United Colonies ought to be free and independent states. But them and the state of Great Britain and they ought to be finally dissolved. Two days of intense debate but the outcome of that debate may not be the result that youre expecting. Others in favor of independence didnt have the votes to carry the day, at least not yet. So the members did what congress has always done best, they kicked the can down the road. They declared a final vote and they agreed instead to set up a committee to study the issue. Resolved that the first revolution be postponed, and in the meantime, lest any time should be lost, in case the congress does agree, a committee to be apounced to prepare a declaration to the revolution. This is hardly the rousing nation birthing moment that patriots miegtt have been ho have been hoping for. John adams simms socievoted to the next few weeks there. And he agreed to serve on this new committee. A five person team tasked to draft a declaration of independence that congress could quickly roll out in case the revolutionary revolution would later pass. We better get cracking on it. So a committee of five. The other delegates assigned to this committee that was not a plum assignment, there was probably arm twisting involved we were ben Benjamin Franklin. Thomas jefferson, they were all busy with other committee assignments. It made sense for just one of them to take the lead. Drafting the document they have been tasked to prepare. A supporter of independence by this time might seem to us like the obvious choice to be the lead drafts man. But he was also plagued by gout and exhausted. Robert livingstone was on the committee as a token conservative. He had been urging reconciliation, patching things off, not independence, and he there was to make sure things didnt get too crazy and run out of hand. Roger sherman, too, the guy in the middle, was largely window dressing. He was a good man, described as shonest eses eses esest hon. That left john adams, the tall sandy haired planter who had a reputation as a writer, but who had barely said a word. And they argued about which one of them should not do the work. And who the other person should be that is drafting. Were going to do theater live on cspan. Two randomly selected volunteers, chuck and katherine, can you come up, please . Adams later wrote a reconstruction of the conversation. Say hello, Thomas Jefferson. You were right the first time. The conversation between Thomas Jefferson and john adams and if, if i am remembers correctly, the conversation began like this will you write. I will not. You should write it. Why not . You ought to do it. I will not. Why . Reasons enough. What dcan be your reasons. Reason one, youre a virginian and a virginian ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason two, im obnoxious, suspect, and unpopular. You are very much otherwise. Reason three. You can write ten times better than i can. Well if you are decided, i will do as well as i can. Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting. Thank you. That took 30 minutes of rehearsal that is the conversation according to john amends about the bickering, when john adams was asked if that is how it happened he said absolutely not. They met for the next few days to outline what exactly this document should contain but they left it to jefferson to write it up on his own. And he did as he was told. He wrote quickly, he used a portable writing desk that he brought with him from virginia. And he had a first draft done in as few as two days. He lent on no other sources, but jefferson was already deeply versed in enlightened political philosophy and that is evident in the draft that he came up with. It ohs a considering death to many dexs. Including the second treaties of civil government publishes that same year, and his own 1774 pamphlet, a summary view of the rights of the independence of america. And george masons virginia declaration of rights. An early copy he received just days earlier. The powerful opening lines drew dire directly from this wellspring of ideas and language. As you see on screen, jeffersons language, jeffersons language was simple. So let me give you two examples here. Now look for the influence in jeffersons writing but when a long train of abuses and use of patience invinces a design to reduce them and you seep a sort of borrowing of language and ideas there here he is borrowing from george mason. He wrote that all men are created equally free and independent and they have certain inherent natural rights. Among which are the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the means of acquiring or possessing property. And they said we hold these truths to be sacred and self evident, and from that equal creation that have rights that are inalienable among the creation of life, liberty, and happiness. Thats all i will say for the moment about the opening paragraphs, and for the fill lot if is that form those two famous seasons, i would recommend these wonderfully learned and sophisticated books if you want to learn more. I want to keep going because ininstei instead i want us to think about the declarations long middle section. The least quotable bit. The photograaragraphs that ever skips over. Im talking about his list of grievances. Theyre hugely important. Without the grievances, there is no motive. So lets take a look. There was more than two dozen grievances in jeffersons draft and 27 end up in the final version by the way. The first roughly 12 assail, the next ten or so describe georges conspiracies with parliament to use legislative powers to inflight even more damage over that same 12 year period. Then come the final group of grievances. He has been wanging this war against his own people over the previous 12 months. Now the tone of this long list of charges grows more and more urgent, beligerant as it goes on and on like he was making a Closing Argument as an attorney in a murder trial. He uses verks like dissolves, effected, but the verks become more e voc tiative. They say he plundered our seas. Burned our towns. Another raises the speck tar of those arriving sold juries dispatched he says to come preet the works of death, desolation, and tyranny. One of those final charges deserves our particular attention. And he is encouraging them to make war against the patriots. In the same charge, he condemns king george for the actions taken and he promised freedom by patriot masters. And in these lines jefferson was channelling many patriots anxieties about the threats posed to their security by run away slaves and by warning, but there is still something distasteful here. How angry it makes jefferson, and there is of course something willful about his refusal to acknowledge that decades of colonial incursions are the true source of tension between patriots and natives. Rather than acknowledge that truth, jeffersons and im about to quote robert maparkins. He says their blood thirsty b barbarians that dont know theyre being duped by a tyrant. That tyrant is not the british people, it is one official monarch that looks like this, king george the iii. Look at the way that most of the crisp brief seasons in the middle section of his draft continue. He has entigcited. He is george. George is rendered here not as a puppet of parliament or as a gaffe prone bungler. He is rendered here as an all powerful villain that enacted an intentional program of harm. This is george as richard the third. He gives readers someone to root against and someone to hate. Given that goal it should not surprise us that his list of grievances is full of hyperbole. He says there are swarms of tax collectors in the clolonys when there was only 50. And that is hardly true. He blames americans slavery and the slave trade on king george. A man that came to the throne 16 years earlier, not 160 years earlier. What im saying is simple and i hope uncontroversial. Dont look to this list of grievances for just the facts. This is not journalism. This is not the lists job. The lists job is to fire up readers and to give them a story in john adams words that shall make their ears to tingle. As a catalog of prosecutable crimes, it is surprisingly vague. A lot of emotion, but not a lot of detail. No places or dates in this list of injuries and use of patience, and he names no other names but the king. As a result if you dont know your revolutionary history inside and out you may not be able to place each of the kings atrocities, but that abstraction is intentional. It is such a way that they can spot general outrage no matter where they are being read and no mat who are is reading them. Following his list of grievances he concludes that despite insisting the extraordinary provocations, the americans have been patient sufferers who have sought peace at every opportunity. At every stage of these oppressions jefferson wrote that our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury it is king georges fault that it has come to this. The clolonists have no other choice. We know he showed his draft to franklin and adams. But he did show it to franklin and amends. They were two members, both mens, adams and franklin led the jefferson draft carefully, but according to jefferson they thought it was genius. They said their alterations were two or three only and merely verbal. He made their changing happily and the committee of five submitted their combined work to congress. This is a portrait by that group of five turning in their home work to the larger congress. It is not the july 4th signing or anything like that that didnt happen, but it is them turning in their home work, and i just want to turn your attention for one hot second. Look at that mans hand on his hip. Once you see it you really cant stop looking at it. He is very proud of his work. And why not . Delegates have three days to read it over. And on july 3rd on july the 1st the debate in Congress Finally began on the original resolution. The resolution was, you recall, that these United Colonies ought to be free and independent states, it had been several weeks since it had been tabled and in the meantime there was lots of arm twisting and lobbying. Several delegates went in Different Directions and they game them permission to vote however they saw fit. Maryland could send along instructions. Most mens minds were made up. And news that a british fleet had just been sited added to the momentum of the independence. I would show you the clip from 1776 now if we had the rights. The delaware delegation, they seemed to vote. John dickenson himself stayed home. But the no votes were massively outnumber outnumbered. And it was how many colonies voted yes or no that matters. He will kweezed it insqueezed t last free shot. Now congress had not yet touched the committee of fives draft of the public declaration. So they took up that task the following morning. They ordered up a batch of printed committees language. All of those printed copies of the committees language must have been destroyed afterwards. None of those printed copies of the committees draft survived today. They added two new appeals to god because they thought the American People might like that but they deleted most of jeffersons conclusion in favor of concluding language from the original resolution. They worked for two days and they made no less than 86 alteratio