plan. her music and her movies and tv commercials she may have the tractors i don't know i don't follow social media closely but there's something about her that motivates and inspires and captivates and encourages young girls and young women. all the stories about loneliness and depression and the challenges of being young especially for girls she does sure seem to help. that is a good thing. we gotta get her out of the kansas city chiefs uniform and on the side of the angels. the dallas cowboys. thank you spending your sunday with us. until next week you can find this online at gowdy america or trey gotti podcast, good night from south leaders put their own foot down and say, it's time for us to start governing ourselves. we must act now.

let us declare our independence. when we think about america, post independence is very little chance that it's going to survive. washington was upset because we were calling ourselves the united states. he says, are we united or are we not? this ultimately leads to a call for a convention and talking about having 40 or 50 guys in this room and you're in the hot summer. you're arguing the framers have a new and radical idea, and that is popular sovereignty. as george washington said, never before in history have you seen this sort of people debating about their form of government without violence. he's not going to establish a monarchy. he's going to establish a democratic republic. and it wasn't about him as an individual. it was about the office.

hello, i'm bret baier. welcome to mt. vernon on the banks of the potomac river. this was george washington's home. his business and his most beloved place on earth. but his dedication to his country is best measured by the time he spent away from here. eight years of the revolution, and then again to preside over the constitutional convention. and, of course, another eight years when he served as the infant nation's first president. in my latest tell all book, “to rescue the constitution, george washington and the fragile american experiment”, i tell the story of how washington was the human embodiment of the document that guarantees our liberty. it's a story that will end here at mt. vernon, but it begins on another virginia plantation. not far away.

washington was born in 1732 when the british colonies were still just fledgling outposts. the new world held promise, and many colonists had become wealthy from tobacco farming, including george washington's father, augustine. their home stood on this 280 acre property overlooking the rappahannock river, across from fredericksburg, virginia, but their comfortable life wouldn't last. his father died when he was 11. he went from having a very stable family life, one in which he could expect greatest privileges of a society to soon being cast adrift. washington had no formal education. in those days, well-to-do families sent their children to england for classical education. but once his father died, he was unable to go to england. he had reading, writing, arithmetic, usually from private tutors. but he didn't

receive the same education that his older siblings did. washington got from his childhood a strong sense of the need to be self-reliant. george washington's mother, mary washington, had a very important impact on him. she was quite strong. and i think george washington had that reputation as well. young and full of determination. he knew that if he was going to make anything of his life, it was up to him. he wasn't going inherit some massive estate or a lot of money. and so one thing he could do to earn money and also get opportunities was to become a surveyor. the job was in high demand in the developing colonies because of the unmapped frontier. and washington, it turned out, was really good at math. laurence washington was the older brother and he had become george washington's mentor. lawrence is the one who really helped establish washington as a surveyor. with his adventurous spirit, it was the perfect fit. so george washington, at the age of 17, was made

a surveyor of culpeper county, virginia, and that put him out west in the shenandoah valley, which at the time was the west. while washington never traveled far beyond the colonies, he did go to barbados. lawrence had tuberculosis. and the idea was that if you traveled to places like barbados with its climate, would help with lung diseases. that's where george was infected with smallpox. the disease nearly killed him, but washington survived. and once you survived smallpox, you have an immunity for the rest of your life. his brother lawrence wasn't so lucky, and he left behind this sprawling virginia estate known as mount vernon. after lawrence dies, the estate actually goes to his wife, but she leases it to george washington. the land was a dream to washington who loved agriculture. but his bliss at mount vernon would be cut short

as conflict arose between the british and the french over north american territories. when washington's elder step brothers died, his military commission was transferred over to washington. but he was never really trained. inexperienced yet in command, he led his men on an expedition to tell the french to vacate a british controlled fort. but during a run in with a scouting party, washington's men opened fire, which in turn helped spark the french and indian war. and that was a conflict over who was going to control north america. the french wanted to control the ohio river, which gave them access to the interior, and the british wanted to control it as well. washington served as commander of the virginia militia under the british military. he lost early battles, but nevertheless established himself as a war hero. that put him in the habit of leadership through military success.

during a break in fighting, he met a beautiful 26 year old named martha custis. she was a widow and she was a very good catch for george washington because she was extremely wealthy. and george washington was a great catch, of course, because he was a dashing star. the french and indian war. ten months later, they married and lived at mount vernon, which washington had now inherited. he raised her children at mount vernon. he was their ward and took care of them. the french and indian war came to an end in 1763 after the french surrendered, leaving all of their north american territory in the hands of king george. the british had defeated the french, but now they had to make sense of this new empire in which they controlled all of north america. so they started passing all of these new policies and laws taxes on colonists for the first time.

the steep new taxes like the stamp act and the sugar act, helped pay off the crown's war debt. but they enraged the colonists who had no say because they didn't have a vote in parliament. the colonists consider themselves to be british subjects who had the same rights as those in great britain, but those in great britain started treating colonists as if they were separate and unequal. the crown also raised money by chartering companies that would have a monopoly on all trade with the colonies. the law, sir has changed. tensions were rising and rising and rising. and then the british colonies in america had enough fire! everything

culminated in the boston massacre. british soldiers fired at the protesters and killed five. but the colonists had hit a breaking point. george washington and other leaders put their own foot down and say, it's time for us to start governing ourselves. they decided to fight back so they could choose their own destiny. as the colonists clash with the british at lexington and concord and april 1775, colonial leaders met to prepare the country to move forward on its own. outside of british rule, george washington showed up at continental congress in his military uniform, even though independence hadn't been declared. it was clear that there needed to be a military. we must act now. let us declare our independence. everybody was looking around for a leader and there was george washington

congress appoints him the head of the army. the fate and the future of this nation rested on his shoulders. the continental army struggled through the early years of the war, and without any major victories, they had lost spirit. general washington knew something bold needed to happen. we cannot hold this position. what he decides is that there needs to be quick action to assert american authority and get a victory that might sustain morale through the conflict. and so that's his decision to cross the delaware. the daring move changed the tide of the war. victories at trenton and princeton convinced the continental army that the british could be beat. americans realized we can still win victories. the cause is not lost, but the hard times would be far from over. as washington and his troops spent the cold, harsh winter of 1777 encamped at valley forge.

despite a shortage of supplies and an outbreak of smallpox, valley forge also brought opportunity. valley forge is this transformational moment because they had the time to start training. meanwhile, an optimistic continental congress adopted the articles of confederation, laying out how the nation's new government would work. now, the only thing that stood in the way of freedom was british surrender. the decisive showdown came in yorktown, virginia, in 1781. he waited for the right chance to make the attack that ultimately would end the war. in a capitulation that would shock the world. the british surrendered to the continental army on september 28, 1781.

george washington took a ragtag group of patriots, turned them into a formidable army, and then led them to victory against the greatest military in the world. then he did the unthinkable. he gave up power and returned home here to his beloved mount vernon. but his country would soon be calling him away again. that's next. only by sorting through two centuries of fact and fiction can we remember the man who helped shape the nation. we became the mindset of the british was we're going to roll right through these guys. we're going to show what we're really made of. americans don't retreat. they were determined to fight the odds. imagine somebody, your high school band, throwing weapons on them, just marching them down there to go get into a fight.

you got to focus on the threat in front of you or you're going to be down there and blood and guts for your boys. their sacrifice was extraordinary. war is hell. kelsey grammer. historic battles for america, streaming now on fox nation. sign up at fox nation dot com. just between us, you know what's better than mopping? anything! ugh. well, i switched to swiffer wetjet, and it's awesome. it's an all-in-one, that absorbs dirt and grime deep inside. and it helps prevent streaks and haze. wetjet is so worth it. love it, or your money back. autoquote explorer from progressive shows you rates from other companies, even if they're lower than ours. because honesty is the best policy. i ate the apple pie you left cooling on the windowsill. that's my bad. who are you?

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welcome back. the british were defeated and the former colonies united under the articles of confederation. but it soon became clear the new nation would not take root. under that arrangement, amid the uncertainty, america needed a steady hand. and america once again turned to george washington. washington was ecstatic to be home in virginia and expected to stay there. so he gives his commission back to congress in december of 1783 in annapolis, maryland. usually, revolutionary generals don't give up power. usually they stay on. and usually they end up destroying the very liberty that they were trying to establish. washington believed this power was never his to keep.

it was given to him by the people. and now that the war was over, he wanted to give it back. in some ways, i think this is the moment where washington is maybe the most happy in his life because the war is now ended and he believes he can return to mt. vernon, which is where his heart is. but at the same time, he's challenged because there's so much uncertainty in the nation. there's uncertainty about its future. its economy seems to be in shambles. when we think about america, post-independence, there's very little chance that it's going to survive. it is divided into 13 different sovereign states that are basically doing their own thing. most of them are completely broke. the states are out of control, passing all kinds of laws, inflating their currencies, really making it impossible to create a stable political order. a lot of debt has fallen on individuals. you had riots. you had insurrection. in massachusetts. a group of farmers caused an armed revolt

known as shays rebellion. the big thing is they're trying to shut down the courts because they don't want to be foreclosed, which is really about massachusetts trying to tax to pay for its war. the u.s. government was basically in default. they weren't able to pay any of their debts from the war itself. so the country was a joke. and to make things worse, the states couldn't see eye to eye. gold and silver only, no paper money. but you have a lot of things going on between states arguing, you know, who owns what land or gets to use what river. washington was upset because we were calling ourselves the united states. he says. are we united or are we not? just as it was getting started. our nation was dangerously divided and on the brink of collapse. the articles of confederation is the government which unites these different colonies. it won the war. so it had some impact. but after the war is over, there's no common cause anymore.

and the articles doesn't allow taxation. no one knew better than washington if the articles had failed because it was the articles fault that he couldn't pay his soldiers. the congress couldn't act except by unanimous decision of all the states meant that individual states could refuse to pay their share. washington is one of those people that feels that a lot of our problems can be solved as a nation. and he sort of develops that feeling in the revolution that that we need to keep these states together for our future. we know as early as 1780, he was writing to his friends privately to say we need a stronger national government. most people think of the states as their main government, not a union. so to embody republican union is something unique in human history, and washington embodies it because of his reputation that he only wants to go public with those opinions when he knows the nation may be ready to make that move. but statesmen

like james madison from virginia and henry knox from massachusetts believed time was of the essence and that washington's leadership was essential. guys like madison, you know, that are working on him to say, hey, you know, we're going to need you to carry us through. we need your name, your prestige. this is the kind of role that george washington played. he was the guy. if you had something happening, you had to bring him there. otherwise people wouldn't take it seriously. he's not sure. but eventually he realizes, yes, it's now or never. washington sees this as if this country fails if the union falls apart. what would the war be for? eight years of war and suffering would be worthless. and so he became very much involved in an effort to reform the articles of confederation. this ultimately leads to a call for a convention. it wasn't obvious that he was going to attend because it was obvious that the convention was going to work and he didn't like to lend his name to stuff that failed. washington said he would not go

if it was just going to be a reformation. it had to be kind of a root and branch new government. a hesitant washington began the 150 mile trek from here in mount vernon to philadelphia. despite his reservations, he knew our fragile union desperately needed a new government so it wouldn't fall apart. that's next. my name is john david carpten dr. kimberly stegmaier dr. edith perez i'm a medical oncologist and i focus on cancer prevention people are always asking me why why do i do this work? two words come to mind for me. one is responsibility, the other is purpose. there was a child that you know i took care of and adored and she said to me dr. kim, you know, will you remember me forever? sorry, it's been a hard year. every day i think of the faces of patients when i see their

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senators and the speaker of the house. tuesday's visit will mark zelensky's third trip to washington since russia's invasion of ukraine began. battles continue to break out across gaza as israel ramps up its attacks on hamas. that includes in the southern city of khan younis, where residents have been urged to evacuate. this as the us continues to mount pressure on israel to do

more to protect gazans and to provide humanitarian aid. the un describing the conditions in gaza as apocalypse like. i'm marianne rafferty. now back to marianne rafferty. now back to rescue the constitution. a welcome back. retired general washington put his civic duty welcome back above his desire to be here at mt. washington put his vernon and headed to philadelphia. the war created independence for americans. his new task was creating a government that would secure their liberty. washington arrived here at what's now known as independence hall in may of 1787. back then, it was the pennsylvania state house in downtown philadelphia. george washington is one of the few people that is trusted across all the different states and simply showing up at philadelphia was the most important thing he did. i think he was confident that something was going to change. i don't think he knew what that was going to be,

but he certainly knew that whatever it was going to be, it was going to be better than the articles that were governing the country at the time. the main goal of the constitutional convention is to achieve a government strong enough to have security and economic prosperity that allows for decisions based on reason rather than passion. and who better to preside over this convention than the great figure who embodies the triumph of reason over passion? george washington. the convention could now get under way. however, the delegates who like washington, wondered if the convention would even work were slow to arrive. the first day, the only people that showed up were virginia and pennsylvania. but the other states sort of slowly drift in, and so this is a problem because the articles of confederation rules in place are that anything change wise, big picture stuff you have to have all 13 states agree.

they quickly changed that rule in order to get started. and it was a good thing since one state never even bothered to show up. rhode island didn't attend at all, so they were kind of the outlier, but everyone else eventually made it. the floor is open. washington set the stage for the convention and told the framers it would be an open debate where everyone had an equal voice. the small room they were crammed inside would soon simmer not just from heated discussions, but from the sweltering philadelphia heat. it was a very hot summer. privacy was a big issue. all the windows and shutters were ordered to be closed so that everything that was said at the pennsylvania state house stayed at the state house. we're talking about having 40 or 50 guys in this room and you're in the hot summer and you're wearing a coat. it's hot. you're arguing things. then the windows are closed.

you're trying to keep everything quiet. as debates began, george washington kept silent, listening to every word. but never speaking. he knew above all else, it was his presence that mattered. basically, he exerted his leadership by the sheer force of his neutral presence. an early point of contention was the question of equal representation among large and small states. small states like rhode island feared that the larger, more powerful states like massachusetts might just consume them under the articles of confederation. every state had an equal voice and received one vote. but larger states like virginia, north carolina and pennsylvania weren't happy about it. why should this massive state of virginia at the time, which was the largest, you know, take orders from rhode island, essentially, which was the smallest? the larger states argued that since they had bigger populations and bore the brunt of taxation,

they should get more of a say than the smaller states. virginia wants popular representation because they're really big. so if you have popular representation, like in the house of representatives, they get more representatives than everyone else. the small states led by new jersey, want guaranteed number of representatives; two senators for example, for every state, regardless of how big it is. an ingenious solution satisfied both sides. they ultimately devised the two houses of the legislature. one house would represent the people in districts and one house would represent the states. so in the senate, the states would have an equal voice, as they did in the articles. but this great compromise presented another question related to slavery. should people who are enslaved be considered as part of the population for representation? this is a very strange argument,

but one that the southerners in particular, they're the people who have a large enslaved population really push. when you start talking about creating a national government, that becomes one of those really big questions is how does that fit? because, you know, some states there's as many free people practically as there are enslaved people. so in some of the cases, southern states are saying, well, slaves should count as people in some of the northern argument is well, if you want to count them as people, set them free and let them vote. and it becomes this thing of how do we do this? they struck another bargain. every five slaves would count as three citizens. and what they settle on is what we know is the 3/5 compromise, the results of which give an enormous political power to southern states. washington well understood that the institution of slavery undermined the framers claim to be champions of the cause of liberty.

but their first order of business was to keep the states united and the hope of liberty for all, alive. the next was almost as thorny. all agreed there must be one official presiding over the operations of the new government who was independent from the house and senate. he'd be the head of state and commander in chief too. beyond that enormous job description, however. what exactly would be the powers and duties of the president? the discussions about how to choose a president were quite exciting because it came to the core issue. fear of recreating a monarchy. so then the question is, okay, how long do you put this guy in power? and then how do you choose him? having a george washington sitting in the room that they're all sort of looking at and going, okay, if we're going to have this executive, we're going to model him on that guy right there. it's got to be a strong enough executive to be able

to do things, but it's not going to be a monarch. after four months shuttered inside independence hall, the framers had their constitution. and after sitting through it all in new silence, washington made his voice be heard on the last day. he wants to clarify his opinion on how much representation should be in the legislature. the draft said 40,000 people per congressional district. washington said, well, i think maybe it should be 30. but by saying that, he does two things. first, he's basically saying, i approve of the rest of this document, but he also saying that he wants a more democratic republic. he wants representation to be closer to the people. please join me in affixing your name to our constitution. the remarkable thing, i think this whole story is how quickly it all plays out. they pretty much come to their final agreement, september 17th. they sign it, they send it up to congress,

they send it out to the states, start organizing the voting process, which made it a special moment, a founding moment in which the people ratified this fundamental order of government. at the end of the convention, benjamin franklin has this remarkable phrase. george washington had been sitting in this chair on a dais above all the other people at the convention, and it had a sun on the back. and franklin said, i've been wondering if this is a rising or a setting sun. i have often looked at that behind the president's chair without being able to tell whether it is rising or setting. and he was optimistic that it would be a rising sun based on what they had written. why do i get bad press? the six part story only fox nation, can tell. he didn't go into new york to expand its father's empire. he went in to build his own. what kind of crap is that?

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welcome back. after months of debate, the drafting of the us constitution was complete. but would people ratify it? having george washington signature affixed to the document could only help. supporters of the constitution called themselves federalists. their campaign for ratification was led by new york's alexander hamilton. hamilton writes about that. without a strong federal government. it's just going to turn into warfare between the states in which the big states just take over the small states, if not physically, then at least through power and the economy. but there was forceful opposition to the proposed scheme.

the anti-federalists, led by patrick henry of virginia, warned the constitution would impose upon the nation a monarchy in disguise. they felt like the british system was a good one. but as our picture went, they sort of blamed the monarchical overreach on a lot of our problems. and so the fear is we'll end up with something like that. and that's certainly one of the arguments the anti-federalists will make, is that we're going to have some kind of tyranny or aristocracy created by this new government. that's their fear that will take away the people's rights. one of the greatest controversies was what powers is this new federal government going to take away from the people? we just saw what happened with the british parliament, with the crown. it became a tyranny. it took away our rights and our liberties. that's why we declared independence. and so we need a bill of rights to protect our individual liberty. the federalist signaled they were open

to such amendments once the constitution was adopted. many states, when they agreed to ratify, they asked that the first congress would look at some amendments to the constitution. and so in some ways, it was a political maneuver to satisfy the doubters. by december, you're going to start seeing states approving that constitution by the middle of the year of 1788. new hampshire becomes the ninth and officially the constitution is now ratified and can go into effect as the remaining states ratified the constitution. work on the bill of rights was underway. james madison put together what we know now as our bill of rights based on a lot of these complaints that came about the constitution. i mean, he could have come up with like 50 different amendments, but in fact, he narrowed it down ultimately to 12, ten of which were passed. that's the bill of rights. with the new government in place. it was a no brainer.

who should be in charge? one of the things people say about the constitution that made people feel so comfortable with it was the idea that everybody knew who that first president was going to be is going to be george washington. the first election was very different from today's election. each state chose their electors like they do today. in most cases, those electors were just chosen by the state governments. there was no real popular vote. and so it's unlike any election we'd imagine. and so washington becomes the first president and also the only person ever unanimously elected by the electoral college to the presidency. john adams came in second, which made him the vice president. on april 30th, 1789, on the balcony of federal hall in new york city, washington was sworn in as the first president of the united states. i do, solemnly swear... in his inaugural address, he said in part, i was summoned by my country,

whose voice i can never hear, but with veneration and love. it's less than two years from signing their names to having that new congress and inaugurating washington in april of 1789 up on wall street to be our first president. remarkable. george washington said when he became the first president. never before in history had you seen this sort of people debating about their form of government without violence, not leading to a collapse of order, but really open reason leading to this creation of this new form of government. from his inauguration forward, washington was simply known as mr. president. at the time, it was a no frills title as he was determined to keep the country away from nobility. we'll be right back. stop! get on the ground. they■re back. you are going to jail today with all new episodes.

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welcome back. with the united states of america in its infancy. washington felt the immense weight of his new role as president and knew every move he made would set a precedent likely to be followed by his successors. he wrote a great letter to a woman named katherine mccauley graham, in which he said, i walk on untrodden ground. everything i do is subject to two interpretations. everything i do is establishing a precedent. no one can understand the challenge that we've faced from the constitutional convention to setting up this government. once he became president, americans would have done anything for him. he had a unique role, a unique respect, reverence for the greatest man in the world. washington never felt that it was about him. he had a strong sense of role. and i'm representing the people of the united states on the president. he understood there's a lot of different ways

to skin a cat, much by firmness, much by prudence, much by conciliation. but the art of leadership comes from when; when you use firmness and when you conciliate. the constitution says very little about presidential power. washington knew that as head of state. his duties included receiving diplomats and attending ceremonies. but when it came to his powers as chief executive, that hadn't been spelled out for him. he issued the first executive orders. today, there's this big controversy over can the president do stuff by executive order without congressional approval. washington issues the first executive orders and establishing that precedent to bring the presidency closer to the american people. he went on tours talking with citizens across the country. long live george washington. and so here he is in his sixties, tired, suffering from arthritis. but he decided it was what he had to do to establish the foundation of the america was travel through the frontier. over 3000 miles, i believe, on horseback and in carriage.

the work was exhausting and he considered walking away. george washington tried to quit the presidency after two years, but at the time, everybody basically told him that it's too fragile. it won't survive. we need you to stay on. washington carried on and was unanimously reelected in 1792. his second term turned out to be fraught with possible rebellion and foreign wars. he yearned for mt. vernon, but he knew the country still needed him. but after another four years with washington at the helm, the young nation seemed able to walk on its own. at 61 years old, washington had a decision to make hold on to power, or as he had at the end of the revolutionary war, voluntarily give it up. i think he believed that it was important to set that signal of the peaceful transfer of power.

we were not a monarchy. that it wasn't about him as an individual. it was about office. his decision to relinquish power to vacate the highest office in the land and watch the american people vote again for a new leader is one of the most sublime acts of statesmanship in human history. he's not going to establish a monarchy. he's going to establish a democratic republic. once the president is no longer in power, they will step aside. and those precedents are critical to the character of american democracy. coming up, it was up to the american people to choose their next president. and washington was finally free to retire here to mt. vernon. he was called a hero in the struggle for liberty, but he believed he had to do one more thing to deserve that praise. hi. i use febreze fade defy plug.

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gotcha. take that. whoa! bruh! i'm fine. that smack looked bad. not compared to the smack down i'm giving you. you sure you're, ok? you know you're down 200 points, right?

lucky, she convinced me to get help. i had a concussion that could've been game over. in actual reality, you've only got one life. don't mess with your melon. if you hit it, get it checked.

after eight years with washington at the helm, the fragile american experiment seemed to be a lot less fragile. and washington was finally where he had longed to be for so many years here at mt. vernon. but was his legacy secure? i think his final years at home were happy ones. he was doing what he wanted to do. he was expanding his properties, and he was with his family. he was free to focus on his passion, farming and bringing his estate back to his standards. but he'd long outlived his father and his brother, and he didn't expect that he had much time left. he was right. he went out on his horse, rode across his estates like he did every morning. it was sleeting. it was snowing. it was raining. ended up getting an infection in his throat. it became so bad that he could barely breathe. by the next day, he was clinging to life.

and so what he did was ask himself to be bled. the idea that you have humors in your body that need to be regulated, which only weakened his immune system. ultimately, washington wasn't going to survive. he basically lay in his bed here at mt. vernon, surrounded by people and ultimately passes away. george washington died on december 13th, 1799. his final words are 'tis well■. one of his final acts, though, was to choose the will for his estate. and one of those things that his will did was call for the emancipation of all his slaves. and he very clearly hoped that that would be an impact and an influence on the country as well. more than 200 years after his death, washington's name still invokes pride and passion in the hearts of americans.

i think the legacy of george washington is that he was a model for what america's vision was. and i think one of the most important things to realize about washington is how we may look at him as the commander in chief who won the revolution, as the president, who established the foundations of the government, as so many other republics across the world that have failed because they don't have that precedent of giving up power that washington established and the constitution. one of the most important documents in the cause of human liberty, a document that he helped bring forth, that he protected and defended. and that he truly embodied ensures that. i always feel like that constitution. that process of creating this nation here in this room really set us off on the right path. we're so fortunate that we had this group in this place at that moment. and despite all their differences, they were able to kind of put something together

that it's sort of hard for us to really screw up in the end. washington was the indispensable leader. no else could have done it. no one else had the trust, the confidence, the character to unite the country and establish the new government. george washington was the original uniter of our nation. his steady guidance was the essential glue we needed during our formative years. i would argue that if someone besides washington had been our first president, the grand experiment may not have survived its infancy. our thanks to the folks here at mount vernon and the george washington presidential library. and thank you for watching. i am gillian turner.