tv Joseph Ellis The Cause CSPAN December 31, 2021 1:26am-1:57am EST
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write out a history of the american founding and it turns out i was doing it backwards. this book should come first chronologically but i don't think i could have written a 25 years ago. i've learned something since then. so like a new child hope you will do well and you send it out into the world. >> what attracted you as a young man to the american revolutionary war. >> i can afford to go to law
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school. and he set me on the course. and then i worked with him and asked him if i could write my dissertation on thomas jefferson. you have toe live life little bit more. and then i tried to do that for another 25 years. but i guess coming out of the lehman mary so to have some kind of influence. because i have written biographies of three presidents of washington and adams and jefferson. and then to identify as a
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presidential historian i don't think of myself asf a presidential a historian. and then to let me write it the way i am wanting to and then teaching at a liberal arts college allowed me and is aimed at a general audience versus professional historians. host: let's go to the key points in your book and then ten minutes you can have your questions submitted in the chat room and i will read them and we get to the section. what you mean by that cause? why do youro call it the cause? what did the phrase come
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from? >> that's a good question in the early stages for the war for american independence the british call that the american rebellion starting in 1774 and 75 started to talk about the common cause which is the response to the british occupation of massachusetts and boston in the rallying to support them in response to the coercive act and the common cause is just reduced to the cause and it became a convenient label a convenient canopy and those with a political agenda can come together they did not they
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were for but they were knew what theyti were against so it stays in place until the end of the war and is a convenient way. >> so the conventional view is the british wanted to pay for having thels soldiers here and they were notir popular but the point of view is wasn't so much the british wanted. >> so that starting in the 1763 britain cats is huge area
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including canada and then they decide they dominate. and then to reach this level they have to act like one. so as you say oppose taxes why w it isn't a money issue. the actual cost of foreseeing the legislation collecting revenue was greater than the revenue raised so there was 140,000 pounds but they were trying to assume control over the colonies.
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so as p they put it to sound a bit paranoid with an attempt to the plot to enslave them. there was some truth to that. once you surrender control to parliament you can't be sure how far they would go and that seems to confirm the diagnosis by the time you get to 1775 and 76 the americans believe is about to send those to invade them in fact at the british minister would say second class british citizens but not the slaves.
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so that misunderstanding persist in the greatest my greatest blunder in the history of statecraft. american readers might be able to understand and perhaps for the first time. earning over with confidence and then steps into a quagmire. that sounds pretty familiar to me. >> so they didn't really want to be independent so they wanted to have a relationship with the british government and basically each colony would havee its own.
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>> the reason i say it's such blunder the british say okay will even let you have the continental congress. they had said that in 1775 we never would have had a revolution but then it's too late so many towns have been destroyed into many women raped. and they have missed the opportunity. >> you point out in your book today americans think the american colonies not only economically but where the money was for the british. is that a fair understanding? they were more worried about the money to be made from the caribbean colonies than from
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the american colonies. is that a fair description? >> that is true. especially jamaica is more profitable than all 13 colonies put together. and in 1778 the bulk of the military dedicated to prayer protecting their resources so it is another contemporary term do you ever hear of the domino effect if they let the american go than the canadians will go so their fixation on suppressing the rebellion is that they have left that happened with their entire empire may very well collapse.
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>> in your book you point out the colonial leaders are sending entreaties to king george thinking he is a nice person and that he would handle this appropriately but it turns out he was once in the parliament. is that right quick. >> it is. there is that consensus that it is attempting to impose its will and they develop the argument that george the third doesn't know what parliament is doing. but if only george the third knew what was going on he would stop. but that is a hopeless cause because nobody is more
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committed to witnessing imperial policy on the colonies. and when the war t is over, the first thing you do when you lose the war looking for a scapegoat not so much cornwallis but then the equivalent secretary of defense if you pass on george the third you pass on the whole empire. he doesn't lose his mind but before he becomes mentally depraved it is the greatest imperial power of any british king since the glorious revolution. and he is the real scapegoat. >> was he a military genius to
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win the war? heard her words he just lucky he bumbled the effort to win? >> washington himself as a he is lucky it is like a standing miracle. the way i put it that washington was not that effective losing more battles than he wanted. if you think about it most of those in world history through napoleon and robert e. lee, and at some point he understood a basic strategic
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reality that becomes all-consuming and crucial that he didn't have to win the war the british had to win the war as long as he kept the continental army in power and as long as the colonies stayed united and he was right about that but there is a kind of resilience to him and the ordinary trips in the continental army was were ten or 15 percent that were african-americans. the other ones deserve the real credit it is seven.five year marathon and war that it's more barbaric than we imagined we think of it
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differently more americans died in the american revolution per capita than any man the civil war. so the countryside is really barbaric but the final battle the most important battle is that yorktown where washington gets the cornwallis surrender vet the french were indispensable why are they so interested in helping the americans what do they really just take the british more than they liked us? >> it was payback time for having lost the french and indian war and it turns out by
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the way the press spent so much money helping us on —- the french spent so much money they go bankrupt and that's what they have to call the states general starting the revolution. but without the french in the war and especially the last battle of the war at yorktown, we could not have won the war at that moment i don't think we would have lost it but it is mostly a french operation and the french are masters and there is only one american military and its led by the rhode island regiment on almost entirely of african-american soldiers made it is the leading combat unit
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in the continental army. it is a punch operation. and when the expeditionary forces arrive in france in 1817 to help the french one of the staff officers for w general pershing said general lafayette, we have arrived. >> so the battle of yorktown occurs 1781 in cornwallis is too embarrassed to show his face at the time of surrender so he doesn't but the british surrender why did it take two years what was going on during that time? >> it does take two more years and then those that people are continuing to dive. is one of the major figures of
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american government later on. but the americans have to decide whether to sign a separate treaty with great britain because the french are being dragged down by the obligations to spain. because it has dragged out the continental army and as i thank you know from the book is almost insurrection by the army asking washington to leavee them. many things when the war ends he will lose any leverage in
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washington appears be for them is one of the most important speeches of his life. and i tell you that you must not do this. and later washington refuses to become a dictator and if he does that he'll be the greatest man in the world. is not what caesar did or cromwell did or napoleon did. that they are the revolution.
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path to become a revolution. historian what sparked interest in history? >> i came to history through biography. and i love biography because there is a central this topic. and what about the people that were here before us? so perhaps that is a way but i did major in history i majored in philosophy. and then i cannot pay for law school but that that could
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raise the intellectual questions. and with that intellectual historian whatever that, meant. it is a strange path. >> what role did the three african-americans play in the revolution? >> . >> the greatest number three african-americans. and then the continental army. and those who escape to the british army.
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not to serve the combat units. but that was the last time you generally denigrated american military force through the korean war. and as washington's manservant has been with into the whole war. but then there is a man named harry washington who escapes from mount vernon and then is evacuated at the end of the war going to nova scotia then back to sierra leone eventually. and with the commander-in-chief. and eventually wants to be in
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and then the american army just disintegrated. with that peaceful d'negotiation. with the british commonwealth. and then remain in the empire to be economically connected. >> so what are you currently reading? >> what am i working on now? when you finish a book you are happen as the publisher wants you to go all over the place. why did the founders failed to
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end slavery? and those in political terms from that all-important history. and their reasons they haven't thought about before. what my reading now? and reading about the red sox in the glory years. that turns out to be a production on —- a prediction. >> what was adam's most important contribution my was he chosen to be the first vice president? >> and in the 17 sixties and
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the war. they want to get on with their ordinary lives. and then to make a commitment if you don't make a commitment to the cause you won't be killedac to then cast out of the congregation. because they can win every battle. then to be punished. and in that countryside makes it impossible for the british to win the war. and to take a clear position.
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>> what is the main message of the book you would like someone to take away and 30 seconds? >> we were fortunate to have a group of people from the beginning that regarded the public interest. and with those ordinary soldiers in the continental army. and then wee are incapable of dealing with the native american issue. and the confederation of sovereign states. it's a plural noun not a singular noun.
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