>> each week american history v's real american brings you films that helps give context to ndependent affairs issues. 40 years later, the half-hour film is still shown 12 times a day. wallach featureseli s benjamin franklin.

[bell ringing] announcer: across seasons and centuries, we come to be near the birth somehow. the wind of words that moved here once still blows, independence, and summer raises whisper-faint, echoing words of ancient arguments won and lost, and the old, cracked bell echoes liberty. [bell ringing] announcer: a gathering of haunted houses, people with ghosts and voices of ghosts, where the fathers of our country still speak. some of the great ones wish to return from beyond the grave to see how it all turned out. there is power in a wish with 200 years behind it. dr. benjamin franklin. he snatched lightning from the heavens and the scepter from tyrants. >> did i make a wish? well, so i did. i had an ardent desire to observe the state of america in century or two.

i wish to be immersed in a cask of wine with a few friends until i would be called to life by the solar warmth of my dear country. now, it seems i must relive those first days, now two centuries past. hmm, we must begin in 1774. i'm 68. how excellent it is to be young again. announcer: and john adams, who was our second president, the voice of an ancient wish. >> a wish? oh, yes. i wished me, my wife and friends, ancestors and posterity. i believe i can even overcome ll of my objections to meeting alex hamilton again. if i could perceive a symptom of sincere penitence in him. announcer: and abigail adams, who wished to be with her husband when she could not leave

their massachusetts farm. >> 200 years is not too long a journey to join my dear partner. i dare not express to you how ardently i longed for you. i have some very miserly wishes. i must protest your spending one hour here till at least i've had ou 12. announcer: and washington, the father of our country. if we ask him to come back, there is no doubt what his reply would be. >> no, i am conscious of the high honor done me in this call, so i feel great distress from consciousness that my abilities may not be equal to their trust. however, if you desire, i will enter again on my momentous duties, but if some unlucky event should happen, i beg that it be remembered by every person in this room that i this day declare i have never felt myself equal to the task.

announcer: and thomas jefferson, author of "the declaration of independence." >> general washington? >> mr. adams. mrs. adams? dr. franklin. >> why, it is tom paine, the spokesman of the revolution, mr. common sense himself. what say you, tom? in the cause of america, may we disturb your peace? >> the sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age. posterity will be affected, even to the end of time. i am your servant, mr. jefferson. >> tom, the generation that begins a revolution can rarely complete it. for all of our devotion to the public good, our inexperience, our ignorance, our bigotry hardly qualify us to think and provide for the future. after all, the earth belongs to he living.

>> ah, liberty, liberty. are you substance or merely shadow? announcer: come, dr. rush. our liberty has won. the revolution is over. >> not so. not so, sir. there is nothing more common than to confuse the american revolution with the war for independence. the war for independence is over, but this is far from being the case with the american revolution. on the contrary, nothing but the first act of the great drama has been played. announcer: ah, dr. rush, you must excuse us. we came here late by two centuries. having just met some of your colleagues, we are eager to understand how this great drama began. >> oh, well, if you would see the beginning of this first act again, we can arrive. for this purpose, it must be august 29, 1774. announcer: the colonies were in turmoil. delegates came from all of the

colonies to attend the first ontinental congress. they came from the north to protest the king's troops occupying boston, from the south to protest the king's governor seizing their right to self-government, and they all protested the king's taxes, but they were also thinking of something more, something they dared not even speak about. >> there is a powerful faction in the secret tories of the town. i urge caution upon you, sir. you must not openly propose bold measures. and it would be most unwise at this time to mention the word independence." >> the continental congress of 1774 be now in session. the chair recognizes mr. samuel adams of massachusetts. >> the streets of boston are strewn with military

executions the character of the colony is annihilated. therefore, we -- announcer: the delegates are meeting. they protest. they are petitioning the king for redress of grievances. they demand, respectfully, their rights as loyal british subjects, but they are thinking of the word they dare not whisper, and in their hearts, these sons of the old world have ecome something new. >> the distinctions etween virginians, pennsylvanians, new yorkers, and new englanders are no more. i am not a virginian but an merican. singing]

>> i received the petitions of the king and sent it off, but it was thrown under the table. >> petitions to the king? i dreaded them, like death. after all, they might have been accepted. but now it is 1975. instead of satisfaction, the king has sent us redcoats to quiet us by force. >> i am in perpetual anxiety, mr. adams. lest the mad measure of mixing soldiers among a people whose minds are in such a state of irritation as may be attended with some mischief or an accidental quarrel, a personal insult, an imprudent order or 20 other things may produce a tumult in which such carnage may ensue as to make a breach that can never afterwards be ealed. >> so be it.

announcer: the 19th of april, 1775. and so, it has happened. all across the 13 colonies, committees are ready for this terrible moment. a dispatch from the committee of safety at watertown. to all friends of american liberty, be it known that this morning before break of day, a british brigade marched to lexington, fired without provocation, and killed six men and wounded four others. >> fire. >> the war was not part of the revolution. it was only an effect and consequence of it. announcer: the revolution was in the minds of the people, and this had been affected before a drop of blood was shed at lexington. >> we had built our own government right under the king's nose. as common sense would say, it was not the work of a day or a year, and now may of 1775 is upon us.

the second continental congress is a war congress. >> things have taken a turn since the first congress, eh, cousin? >> we are surrounded by dangers, sir. careful, cousin. >> i am determined to take a step to get our colleagues to agree on some plan. there is a division of south and north. the southerners are ambition of furnishing a southern general. colonel washington is visibly their object. >> i suspect mr. hancock wishes the nomination for himself, possibly for the honor of declining it. he has little more military experience than they do. >> but will colonel washington accept, sir? he protests he does not seek the post. >> he seems virtuous and discrete. no swelling fellow, but sober, teady, and calm. i dare say, he will serve. i take it a man does not arrive at a civil assembly in uniform unless, unless, he wants that bloody job.

> mr. adams. > mr. hancock? >> gentlemen, i propose that congress adopt the army of our countrymen already in place at cambridge. and though this is not the proper time to nominate a general, i have no hesitation to declare that i have but one gentleman in mind for that important command, a gentleman from virginia. a great -- a modest gentleman from virginia who would not wish to hear himself raised but whose great talent and excellent universal character would command the pproval of all of america.

>> and now, tempestuous ocean -- no friendly -- to be found. announcer: that was quite correct. things had taken a turn. now in session with no other authority than popular consent. yet, it is supreme. they have written that all government is based on the consent of the people, but i think the experiment has never before been so directly made. we will from this create a government of law and not of men. >> these trying times. >> we must get on, dear friends. it is already 1776. declare our dependence and be done with it. for hesitating so long at a word? i will offer you a maxim of

state, that people may let a king fault yet still remain a people, that if a king let's is people stripped from him, he is no longer a king. as this is our case, why not proclaim it to the world? >> i think you shine as a states woman. pray, where'd you get your maxims of state? >> from philosophy and reason, just as common sense. and, by the way, in any court of law, which i think it would be necessary to make, i would desire that you remember the ladies. remember all men would be tyrants if they could. if particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or epresentation.

>> we are told our struggles have loosed the bands of government everywhere, that children have grown turbulent, but this is the first intimation that another crime more humorous and powerful than all has grown iscontented. >> i long to hear that you have declared an independent state. it is the seventh of june already. will no one offer a resolution or our independency? >> the chair recognizes mr. richard henry lee, the delicate from virginia. >> i move the following resolution stressing independency. resolved that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states, that they are absolved

from all allegiance to the british crown and that all political connections between them and the state of great britain is and ought to be totally dissolved. >> the committee of the whole has requested in order to allow the consultation that consideration of this resolution be postponed until july 1, and in the meanwhile, if the congress agree thereto, that a declaration be prepared to the ffect of the resolution. >> we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and independent.

so evident, we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal and independent, and from that equal creation, they derive rights inherent and undeniable, among which the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and to secure these, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the overned. and for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

>> a resolution respecting the independency has been favorably reported. july 1. it was agreed to without dissent to the delegates of the olonies. now, states. gentlemen, agreed to without dissent by the delegates of the states in congress assembled on july 2. gentlemen, gentlemen, please, please. generally, please. if we continue to have these displays of emotion, that i shall never be able to get hrough this. on july 1, and that on this day, july 4, the declaration has been read, debated, and amended, and on this day, july 4, unanimously pproved.

it is now therefore ordered the declaration be authenticated, that the committee appointed to prepare the declaration should correct the press, with copies to the assemblies and committees and councils of safety and to the officers of the continent of troops and that it be immediately thereafter proclaimed in each of the united states. in due time -- in due time, but august, i expect, the declaration shall be encroached -- on parchment and duly signed y the members. announcer: 1776, they signed the declaration. i remember the pensive sonnets when we were called to subscribe what was believed by many to be ur own death more.

>> i shall have a great advantage over you, sir, when we are all hanged. with the weight of my body, i will be dead in a few minutes. with the weight of your body, you will dance in the air for an hour or two a before you are dead. >> so much. the prospects we have before us, elancholy. these are the times that try

men's souls. the sunshine will, in this crisis, shrink from the surface of this country. but those that stand now, man and woman -- >> endless war, sickness, death, tear and despair, and then in october of 1781, the war at last ended. >> and what have we won? the articles of confederation barely hold us together. we have concluded peace with the british, and already, we are at war with each other.

although it is not popular to ay sore. -- so. >> in that case, let's hurry to another year. i just returned from france. 1787, that was the year in which the national government based on the popular will, a constitution written. >> by objection. i object to mr. randolph's plan. i say the confederation does not have the power to discuss the proposal. we would not concur to sending to produce to the convention if they would suppose they would talk about a national onvention.

>> the small states say and liberties will be ndangered. the large states say their money will be in danger. now, when a broad table be laid, and the edges do not fit, artist takes a little from both and makes a good joint. all sides must pass with some of their demands in order that they be joined. >> we, the people of the united states, in order to form a more perfect union to ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution for the united states of america. >> more importance than the right of impeachment should be continued.

is any man above justice? and shall he be above it who can commit the most excessive njustices? >> i have often in the course of a session looked at the sun carved on the president's chair without being able to tell whether it was -- or second, but now, i happen to know it is a rising and not a setting sun. our new constitution is now established and has an appearance that promises permanency, but in this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes. the constitution of policy is permanency is now in the hand of posterity.

that would be you at this point. you can have a republic if you can keep it. it became a certainty for me in 1790. it was a good century. the first five years and the last 10. that 10 years, that was a time of first things i wish i could have seen. >> in former times, power was handed from one head of state to another only by heredity or by the sword. by further treachery, imprisonment, hired assassins,

but peaceably and by popular election? i think there is no precedent or that. if that should happen, as it will in 1797, that would be most remarkable. as i was quite dead by then, i was obliged to watch the ceremonies from above the door in a toga. > have a seat somewhere. good afternoon. i would like to welcome you all in congress all. you are now seated in the billing that was used between 1790 and 1800, and those 10 years, philadelphia was the capital of our country, and congress had to have a building o use. now, keep in mind, the constitution, ratified, though congress moved in less than a year after that happened, and they were busy organizing our country using their brand-new framework of government, they added three new states to the

government, vermont, kentucky, and they also had their roblems. for example, one afternoon, a representative seated here in this room accused another representative of being a coward, and of course, he took great offense, and he took a poker from the fireplace, and mr. griswold, the two of them battled it out on the floor of the house of representatives. of all of the events that took place, probably the most important was the inauguration of john adams as our president. for four years, we must elect a man, but this is really the first time you try to pass power from the hands of one man into those of another. there were some people who felt that george washington would not willingly give up his power, but the inauguration took place without any difficulty hatsoever. that peaceful transfer of power.

>> about to realize his dream and hours. let the ceremonies begin. >> what other form of government an so well deserve this? >> this authority is exercised by citizens, selected at a regular period by their neighbors to make laws for the eneral good. that anything be added, can authority be more respectable when it defense from accidents or remote antiquity than when it springs fresh from the hearts of nlightened people? >> providence, continue his blessing over this nation and government and give it all possible success consistent with the end. mr. jefferson, go on. i am a private citizen once again.

> a gathering with a declaration and constitution always being written. people with ghosts and forces of ghosts, and the old crack bell is liberty. tom paine said we have the power to begin the world a new. you have a republic if you can keep it.

announcer: next on american history tv, author fergus bordewich talks about how a group of extraordinary men forget of the government. he creates passages from the book and looked at the leading men who developed the u.s. congress and the presidency in the early days of the republic from 1789 until 1791. george washington's mount vernon home posted this one hour and 20 minute event. megan: hello. my name is megan dunn. i am the chief of staff here at mount vernon. you are about to have a fantastic event. first, i want to thank them for continuing to provide for the monthly talk, which is very popular throughout the year. i would also like to recognize a very special guest in the audience.