WEBVTT 00:01.660 --> 00:04.850 Prof: Someone asked me at the end of class on Tuesday a 00:04.849 --> 00:07.439 very good question, and the question is: 00:07.436 --> 00:09.516 what exactly is a broadside? 00:09.520 --> 00:12.040 So I was here sort of happily like: 'oh, yes, 00:12.041 --> 00:15.141 they're posting broadsides, don't buy tea,' and I never 00:15.135 --> 00:17.995 really precisely defined what a broadside was. 00:18.000 --> 00:22.360 A broadside is actually a single sheet of paper that 00:22.360 --> 00:27.830 something is printed on one side and it would have been posted in 00:27.833 --> 00:33.223 public or handed out in public in town squares or taverns, 00:33.220 --> 00:36.650 and usually they were advertising things or announcing 00:36.646 --> 00:39.916 things that were of immediate, pressing importance like 00:39.915 --> 00:41.585 immediate news, pressing news, 00:41.594 --> 00:44.284 political events, official proclamations, 00:44.280 --> 00:47.160 great entertainment or whatever. 00:47.160 --> 00:50.030 They were sort of immediate news and they were not really 00:50.033 --> 00:51.883 seen as great permanent documents. 00:51.880 --> 00:53.680 They were seen as something that you posted up, 00:53.680 --> 00:55.530 you handed out, you read it for the day or 00:55.525 --> 00:57.455 whatever and then it would be discarded, 00:57.460 --> 01:00.720 so that was these broadsides that I was talking about. 01:00.719 --> 01:03.759 'The detested tea has arrived at our port' would have been 01:03.764 --> 01:05.424 that kind of an announcement. 01:05.420 --> 01:08.720 It would have been an immediate like: 'the tea's here now, 01:08.715 --> 01:11.545 do something,' kind of an instant announcement. 01:11.549 --> 01:13.029 So that's what a broadside is. 01:13.030 --> 01:13.620 Okay. 01:13.623 --> 01:20.763 So today we are going to make our way to what on the syllabus 01:20.757 --> 01:25.747 I have called the logic of resistance, 01:25.750 --> 01:30.570 and what I mean by that is the mindset that contributed to some 01:30.569 --> 01:35.079 of the broad conclusions that the colonists were drawing as 01:35.077 --> 01:39.657 events were unfolding in the 1770s as we've seen in the last 01:39.663 --> 01:41.143 few lectures. 01:41.140 --> 01:45.170 But to get to the logic of resistance we first have to lay 01:45.171 --> 01:48.851 out another event that contributed to the building of 01:48.849 --> 01:49.909 that logic. 01:49.910 --> 01:52.800 And I mentioned it right at the end of the last lecture-- 01:52.800 --> 01:58.170 and that event is a series of acts that were passed by 01:58.170 --> 02:02.750 Parliament in 1774, and Americans ended up calling 02:02.753 --> 02:06.343 them the Intolerable Acts, which will be an easy way to 02:06.338 --> 02:09.068 remember what they are, the Intolerable Acts. 02:09.068 --> 02:11.948 They also were called the Coercive Acts but intolerable 02:11.950 --> 02:14.560 would have been what Americans--what the colonists 02:14.564 --> 02:16.224 would have considered them. 02:16.218 --> 02:19.738 And I mentioned them right at the end of the last lecture. 02:19.740 --> 02:22.380 As you remember, they were a response to the 02:22.375 --> 02:25.005 destruction of the tea in Boston Harbor, 02:25.008 --> 02:30.238 which sort of dumbfounded Lord North who had assumed that his 02:30.240 --> 02:32.250 Tea Act, passed in 1773, 02:32.250 --> 02:36.170 was going to be seen as maybe a relief by the colonies; 02:36.169 --> 02:38.979 that North had been trying to save the East India Company from 02:38.976 --> 02:41.256 going under; he had reduced duties on East 02:41.256 --> 02:44.186 India tea so that people would be buying that tea, 02:44.190 --> 02:46.290 passed the act, thought this would be seen 02:46.291 --> 02:49.751 potentially as a good thing-- only to find that the colonists 02:49.747 --> 02:53.057 saw it as an attempt of the British government to have a 02:53.062 --> 02:56.862 monopoly over what the colonists had assumed was free trade. 02:56.860 --> 02:59.480 And that's where you get the broadsides that I was just 02:59.483 --> 03:02.193 talking about, telling people not to buy or 03:02.192 --> 03:04.682 sell East India tea and to act now, 03:04.680 --> 03:05.820 defend your liberties. 03:05.818 --> 03:09.578 And then eventually you end up with the destruction of tea in 03:09.576 --> 03:10.576 Boston Harbor. 03:10.580 --> 03:12.910 And as I mentioned in the last lecture, "Boston Tea 03:12.906 --> 03:15.356 Party" is actually later in the nineteenth century. 03:15.360 --> 03:17.190 They didn't call it this at the time. 03:17.188 --> 03:19.478 They probably called it "the destruction of the 03:19.479 --> 03:21.319 tea," but it was not a party [laughs] 03:21.320 --> 03:22.040 at the time. 03:22.038 --> 03:23.678 That was later they decided it was a tea party. 03:23.680 --> 03:27.980 So now clearly, having had that happen, 03:27.979 --> 03:31.349 North felt that something really needed to be done about 03:31.348 --> 03:34.588 the colonies, or obedience to British law and 03:34.586 --> 03:35.866 order, in his mind, 03:35.865 --> 03:37.715 would collapse in the colonies. 03:37.720 --> 03:40.190 As he put it, and I think I quoted this right 03:40.188 --> 03:42.988 at the end of the lecture, that if they didn't risk 03:42.994 --> 03:44.514 something, all is over. 03:44.509 --> 03:46.039 A dramatic statement. 03:46.038 --> 03:50.278 Thus you get the Intolerable Acts, which are passed in the 03:50.280 --> 03:53.960 spring of 1774, and although there were some in 03:53.964 --> 03:56.994 Parliament who protested against them, 03:56.990 --> 04:00.780 still they passed with a great majority. 04:00.780 --> 04:04.320 Those who did protest against them argued that the American 04:04.318 --> 04:07.608 colonists deserved the same rights as any other British 04:07.610 --> 04:10.340 subjects and, as I describe the acts to you, 04:10.342 --> 04:13.552 you will understand why these friends to America were making 04:13.554 --> 04:14.484 this argument. 04:14.479 --> 04:17.529 You'll hear the details and see that their argument certainly 04:17.533 --> 04:18.963 made sense at that moment. 04:18.959 --> 04:23.239 So there were four acts that get lumped together as the 04:23.242 --> 04:24.752 Intolerable Acts. 04:24.750 --> 04:29.160 The first one: the Boston Port Act, 04:29.160 --> 04:33.690 which closed the port of Boston to all shipping until the 04:33.685 --> 04:38.045 colonists paid for the tea that they had destroyed, 04:38.050 --> 04:41.600 and I suppose also hopefully showed some degree of remorse 04:41.603 --> 04:43.853 for having destroyed all that tea. 04:43.850 --> 04:47.140 Now clearly that's a pretty extreme measure, 04:47.142 --> 04:50.592 right?--closing the port of Boston, period. 04:50.589 --> 04:55.699 And North assumed that it would pretty much crush the opposition 04:55.697 --> 04:59.827 in Boston and that other colonies would scramble for 04:59.831 --> 05:05.021 Boston's lost trade and ignore what was happening in Boston. 05:05.019 --> 05:06.909 And we'll see this again and again-- 05:06.910 --> 05:09.230 that there is sort of a fundamental misunderstanding 05:09.233 --> 05:11.833 about when and what ends up seeming like a joint threat to 05:11.831 --> 05:14.471 the colonists so that they act together versus what doesn't 05:14.473 --> 05:16.073 inspire them to act together. 05:16.069 --> 05:18.749 So here we see Lord North assuming that if Boston loses 05:18.745 --> 05:21.615 trade the other colonies will just sort of gobble it up and 05:21.619 --> 05:24.739 the Boston radicals will sort of get silenced and that'll be the 05:24.740 --> 05:27.450 end of this matter, but he misjudges colonial 05:27.447 --> 05:29.377 sentiment, in this case really 05:29.379 --> 05:33.329 underestimating the sense of unity that arises from something 05:33.327 --> 05:36.287 that ends up being seen as a joint threat. 05:36.290 --> 05:39.930 So the British government ends up being rather stunned when the 05:39.930 --> 05:43.400 other colonies not only don't ignore Boston but instead they 05:43.396 --> 05:45.976 actually support it in its time of need. 05:45.980 --> 05:49.440 So other colonies responded to the Boston Port Act and some of 05:49.444 --> 05:51.494 these other acts by sending goods. 05:51.490 --> 05:55.580 So Connecticut sent sheep, Charleston sent rice, 05:55.584 --> 05:57.854 Philadelphia sent flour. 05:57.850 --> 06:01.750 So the other colonies basically stepped up and did something in 06:01.749 --> 06:05.459 Boston's time of need and a lot of colonies made June 1, 06:05.459 --> 06:08.419 which is the day that that act was supposed to take effect, 06:08.420 --> 06:10.670 a day of fasting and prayer. 06:10.670 --> 06:14.620 Now clearly some of this was because people felt sympathy for 06:14.619 --> 06:19.149 what was happening in Boston; they saw and felt for Boston 06:19.148 --> 06:20.568 and its plight. 06:20.569 --> 06:23.959 But equally if not more important, people in other 06:23.956 --> 06:27.056 colonies assumed if it could happen in Boston, 06:27.064 --> 06:29.074 it could happen anywhere. 06:29.069 --> 06:33.759 So in a lot of ways, Boston's cause was their cause. 06:33.759 --> 06:35.589 It wasn't something happening far away. 06:35.589 --> 06:38.479 It was something that there was no reason why they couldn't see 06:38.483 --> 06:41.283 it couldn't happen anywhere else where the British government 06:41.283 --> 06:43.713 happened to be angry at something that happened. 06:43.709 --> 06:47.719 So in essence Lord North's actions did the precise opposite 06:47.718 --> 06:52.028 of what they were meant to do, because they really ultimately 06:52.028 --> 06:55.808 brought the colonies closer together in a shared sense of 06:55.812 --> 06:56.492 crisis. 06:56.490 --> 07:00.700 As George Washington put it in his typical kind of meandering, 07:00.704 --> 07:04.854 indirect way--Washington is not always the best wordsmith. 07:04.850 --> 07:06.830 Washington had very good people writing for him. 07:06.829 --> 07:09.279 He had good speech makers, that Washington, 07:09.278 --> 07:12.058 but he tends to write in kind of a meandering style, 07:12.060 --> 07:15.360 and this will be kind of a typical Washingtonian statement 07:15.363 --> 07:17.743 full of parenthesis and weird clauses, 07:17.740 --> 07:19.460 but his heart's in the right place. 07:19.459 --> 07:19.689 Okay. 07:19.692 --> 07:21.742 So Washington says, "The ministry," 07:21.744 --> 07:24.144 the British ministry, "may rely on it, 07:24.139 --> 07:27.769 the Americans will never be tax'd without their own consent, 07:27.769 --> 07:31.049 that the cause of Boston, the despotick Measures in 07:31.047 --> 07:33.627 respect to it I mean, now is and ever will be 07:33.625 --> 07:35.935 considerd as the cause of America (not that we approve 07:35.942 --> 07:38.482 their conduct in destroying the Tea)," this is all one 07:38.480 --> 07:41.120 sentence [laughs]-- and that "we shall not 07:41.122 --> 07:44.312 suffer ourselves to be sacrificed by piece meals though 07:44.307 --> 07:47.137 god only knows what is to become of us." 07:47.139 --> 07:49.149 It's sort of a Washingtonian sentence but still, 07:49.151 --> 07:50.821 he's making his point really clearly. 07:50.819 --> 07:54.709 So the Boston Port Act, number one of the Intolerable 07:54.706 --> 07:55.226 Acts. 07:55.230 --> 07:58.450 The other three--still pretty largely focused on 07:58.452 --> 08:01.912 Massachusetts-- included a Quartering Act, 08:01.911 --> 08:06.231 and the Quartering Act legalized the quartering of 08:06.232 --> 08:11.872 British troops not only in empty buildings or taverns but also in 08:11.874 --> 08:15.964 private homes; the Administration of Justice 08:15.961 --> 08:20.791 Act, which was an attempt to protect people who were trying 08:20.786 --> 08:24.026 to suppress revolts in the colonies. 08:24.028 --> 08:27.868 So the Administration of Justice Act said that if a fair 08:27.870 --> 08:31.850 trial for a British soldier or official couldn't be had in 08:31.851 --> 08:36.011 Massachusetts, the trial could be transferred 08:36.008 --> 08:39.118 to another colony or to England. 08:39.120 --> 08:42.320 And in Massachusetts, the land of propaganda, 08:42.322 --> 08:45.092 this became known as the Murder Act. 08:45.090 --> 08:46.420 [laughs] Just in case you want to wonder 08:46.421 --> 08:47.651 what people are thinking about it. 08:47.649 --> 08:49.879 And as someone at the time put it, 08:49.879 --> 08:52.399 "Every villain who ravishes our wives or deflowers 08:52.404 --> 08:54.824 our daughters, can evade punishment by being 08:54.818 --> 08:57.898 tried in Britain, where no evidence can pursue 08:57.897 --> 08:58.687 him." 08:58.690 --> 08:58.940 Okay. 08:58.940 --> 09:01.500 We're not really talking so much about ravishing and 09:01.496 --> 09:02.246 deflowering. 09:02.250 --> 09:04.260 We're really talking about [laughs] 09:04.263 --> 09:07.013 taxes and such-- but still, you could understand 09:07.009 --> 09:10.399 the logic why people feel that-- again--some fundamental 09:10.398 --> 09:12.828 liberties are being violated here. 09:12.830 --> 09:16.810 And then finally the last of these acts is the Massachusetts 09:16.806 --> 09:20.536 Government Act, and in a lot of ways that ended 09:20.543 --> 09:24.213 up being the most controversial act of all, 09:24.210 --> 09:27.760 because it basically imposed a new charter on the colony of 09:27.759 --> 09:28.739 Massachusetts. 09:28.740 --> 09:31.200 From now on, the governor, 09:31.201 --> 09:36.251 who was appointed by the King, could appoint his own council 09:36.251 --> 09:39.731 rather than having the council be elected by the colonial 09:39.734 --> 09:43.164 assembly; the council could no longer 09:43.155 --> 09:48.625 veto the governor's decisions; all town meetings besides the 09:48.633 --> 09:53.283 one annual meeting for electing officers now needed to be 09:53.275 --> 09:57.465 approved by the governor, and if the governor wanted he 09:57.465 --> 09:59.615 could simply forbid town meetings; 09:59.620 --> 10:02.970 and any additional meeting besides the one in which 10:02.966 --> 10:06.846 officers were chosen--that meeting needed to post an agenda 10:06.849 --> 10:09.459 in advance and stick to the agenda; 10:09.460 --> 10:12.930 and the governor also now could appoint or remove sheriffs, 10:12.932 --> 10:15.212 judges, attorney generals, marshals. 10:15.210 --> 10:18.220 So basically the governor is a royal official and the governor 10:18.216 --> 10:20.826 is now in Massachusetts being given a lot of power. 10:20.830 --> 10:23.270 So I'll repeat the four Intolerable Acts: 10:23.274 --> 10:25.794 the Boston Port Act, the Quartering Act, 10:25.794 --> 10:27.914 the Administration of Justice Act, 10:27.908 --> 10:31.628 and the Massachusetts Government Act. 10:31.629 --> 10:35.079 So having described those acts, you can see why there would 10:35.082 --> 10:38.662 have been some in Parliament who were sympathetic to what was 10:38.655 --> 10:42.165 going on in the colonies who would have protested that these 10:42.168 --> 10:45.558 acts were depriving colonists of some pretty basic British 10:45.563 --> 10:49.043 constitutional rights, but these protestors were in 10:49.043 --> 10:49.863 the minority. 10:49.860 --> 10:54.830 Now on top of these acts the King sent a new governor to 10:54.831 --> 10:58.591 Massachusetts, Massachusetts General Thomas 10:58.592 --> 11:03.042 Gage, commander of the British forces in North America. 11:03.038 --> 11:03.288 Okay. 11:03.293 --> 11:05.593 So a military commander was sent to be the new 11:05.585 --> 11:08.025 governor--again, a pretty dramatic statement. 11:08.028 --> 11:11.128 So now in addition to all of those acts, 11:11.129 --> 11:14.619 you have the looming threat certainly to the colonies or the 11:14.615 --> 11:18.095 colonists in Massachusetts of a standing army as a source of 11:18.102 --> 11:20.292 tyranny staring them in the face. 11:20.288 --> 11:23.378 So certainly people in Massachusetts at this moment 11:23.375 --> 11:26.765 would have been justified in feeling as though they were 11:26.768 --> 11:28.618 under military occupation. 11:28.620 --> 11:34.440 Now we may look at these pretty drastic measures and assume that 11:34.442 --> 11:39.252 reconciliation is pretty impossible at this point. 11:39.250 --> 11:42.420 And I know a few of you came up to me after class on Tuesday and 11:42.416 --> 11:44.976 actually were already leaning in that direction-- 11:44.980 --> 11:46.510 like, 'when are we getting the independence, 11:46.509 --> 11:49.319 because how in the world can they get out of this?' 11:49.320 --> 11:49.670 Right? 11:49.666 --> 11:51.686 [laughs] 'It's looking pretty bad. 11:51.690 --> 11:53.200 Look at these really extreme measures.' 11:53.200 --> 11:56.920 Certainly it looks as though rebellion is on the horizon. 11:56.918 --> 12:01.838 But independence is not the natural choice. 12:01.840 --> 12:05.080 That's a really, really radical move that is not 12:05.081 --> 12:07.291 at this moment on the horizon. 12:07.288 --> 12:09.508 These are really--And I'm going to talk more about this in this 12:09.513 --> 12:10.593 lecture a little further on. 12:10.590 --> 12:14.610 These are British subjects trying to demand the rights of 12:14.606 --> 12:15.966 British subjects. 12:15.970 --> 12:17.430 That's the logic that's at play here. 12:17.428 --> 12:20.128 They're not thinking independence. 12:20.129 --> 12:23.649 They're thinking that they need to find a way to get the British 12:23.647 --> 12:27.217 imperial system to work in a way that they see as being right. 12:27.220 --> 12:29.860 They're not trying to break away. 12:29.860 --> 12:32.370 They're hoping that there's a way to fix things, 12:32.370 --> 12:35.150 and that they will get what they feel they deserve as 12:35.148 --> 12:36.268 British subjects. 12:36.269 --> 12:43.009 So in 1774, it was in the hope of maybe figuring out some way 12:43.011 --> 12:46.691 to settle things, some way to compromise, 12:46.692 --> 12:49.872 some way to come to some sort of a solution that the 12:49.870 --> 12:53.610 Massachusetts legislature sent a circular letter to the other 12:53.607 --> 12:57.157 colonies suggesting that it might be smart to have a joint 12:57.159 --> 13:01.019 congress from all the colonies to discuss their problems and to 13:01.023 --> 13:04.453 figure out a course of action that made sense. 13:04.450 --> 13:08.630 So what came to be known as the First Continental Congress, 13:08.626 --> 13:12.726 right?--the congress of the continent--met in Philadelphia 13:12.732 --> 13:15.112 at the end of August in 1774. 13:15.110 --> 13:19.320 Most of the delegates to that Congress already had some 13:19.315 --> 13:23.205 political experience in their separate colonies. 13:23.210 --> 13:27.590 None of them were absolute uncompromising radicals who 13:27.591 --> 13:30.321 wanted to rip everything apart. 13:30.320 --> 13:33.870 It was not a sort of dire radical body, 13:33.870 --> 13:37.000 and I'll be talking a little bit more about the First 13:36.999 --> 13:40.429 Continental Congress in a lecture to come but for now, 13:40.428 --> 13:45.408 I'll just state--I guess--four significant things about the 13:45.408 --> 13:47.638 meeting of the Congress. 13:47.639 --> 13:48.049 Okay. 13:48.046 --> 13:51.696 First, and it's actually kind of practical, 13:51.700 --> 13:54.680 the meeting of the First Continental Congress forced the 13:54.683 --> 13:57.673 colonists to make their beliefs clear to themselves-- 13:57.668 --> 14:01.038 as people from a variety of different colonies-- 14:01.038 --> 14:04.758 and to Great Britain, and to explain the motives 14:04.759 --> 14:09.269 behind their actions as they debated and drafted petitions 14:09.269 --> 14:11.959 and resolves and declarations. 14:11.960 --> 14:15.920 The delegates were clarifying and defining their thoughts, 14:15.918 --> 14:19.098 and they were doing it in a room full of delegates from 14:19.100 --> 14:22.280 other colonies that people didn't necessarily know that 14:22.278 --> 14:22.808 well. 14:22.808 --> 14:25.128 So it was actually just in and of itself by collecting all 14:25.129 --> 14:27.489 these people together in a room and forcing them to sort of 14:27.490 --> 14:30.470 think things through, talk things through and come up 14:30.466 --> 14:34.166 with some kind of a resolution they were actually hashing out 14:34.174 --> 14:38.014 their problems on a broad level in a way that they had not done 14:38.008 --> 14:38.748 before. 14:38.750 --> 14:43.500 Second, a Continental Congress forced people from very separate 14:43.500 --> 14:46.020 colonies-- in a way, really sort of 14:46.020 --> 14:49.360 separate nation-states-- to meet one another and stay 14:49.355 --> 14:52.265 with one another for an extended period of time. 14:52.269 --> 14:54.829 And for a lot of the people that were there, 14:54.832 --> 14:57.992 this was really their first extended period spent with 14:57.991 --> 14:59.961 people from faraway colonies. 14:59.960 --> 15:04.520 So not only did this contribute to a sense of colonial unity, 15:04.519 --> 15:07.049 but it actually on a really practical level, 15:07.048 --> 15:10.668 it gave people a chance to see how other colonies ran their 15:10.673 --> 15:12.113 colonial governments. 15:12.110 --> 15:15.310 And John Adams actually--He writes a great diary at the 15:15.306 --> 15:17.156 time, and in his diary he writes 15:17.158 --> 15:20.238 about how when he's in this congress he spent a lot of time 15:20.236 --> 15:22.356 grilling people from other colonies, 15:22.360 --> 15:24.820 asking questions about their charters, 15:24.820 --> 15:27.030 their laws, the logic behind them. 15:27.028 --> 15:30.418 He really wanted to understand how other colonies worked. 15:30.418 --> 15:32.878 And it's interesting because in his letters-- 15:32.879 --> 15:35.619 I think also in his diary but in his letters for sure-- 15:35.620 --> 15:39.900 Adams refers to himself and his position in the Continental 15:39.899 --> 15:42.479 Congress as "our embassy," 15:42.481 --> 15:43.221 right? 15:43.220 --> 15:44.720 And by "our embassy," what he means is, 15:44.720 --> 15:47.880 he sees himself as a kind of diplomat representing 15:47.883 --> 15:50.853 Massachusetts in a sort of-- today you might 15:50.851 --> 15:54.341 say--international body, but he sees the Continental 15:54.340 --> 15:57.930 Congress as a sort of grouping of representatives of other 15:57.928 --> 16:00.698 provinces or other countries or nations, 16:00.700 --> 16:04.630 and he's a delegate from our embassy of Massachusetts. 16:04.629 --> 16:07.489 So in a way we put a lot of baggage into the word 16:07.491 --> 16:09.521 "congress" as though, 16:09.519 --> 16:12.529 'oh, it's a bunch of Americans joined in a congress,' but it's 16:12.530 --> 16:14.950 not a Congress in our modern sense of the word. 16:14.950 --> 16:19.130 It really is in their mind a sort of delegation of people 16:19.125 --> 16:22.105 representing different nation-states, 16:22.110 --> 16:24.920 which is why it was so interesting for them to collect 16:24.924 --> 16:27.054 together and get to exchange thoughts. 16:27.048 --> 16:30.698 And then third, to John Adams and some others, 16:30.700 --> 16:34.810 the fact that now this Congress existed seemed to be, 16:34.808 --> 16:37.328 or at least to hold the potential for being, 16:37.330 --> 16:40.940 some kind of a training ground for American statesmen. 16:40.940 --> 16:45.510 And Adams put it at the time, said that the Congress was 16:45.510 --> 16:47.530 quote, "to be a School of 16:47.533 --> 16:51.373 Political Prophets I suppose-- a Nursery of American Statesmen. 16:51.370 --> 16:53.830 May it thrive, and prosper and flourish and 16:53.831 --> 16:56.531 from this Fountain may there issue Streams, 16:56.529 --> 16:58.679 which shall gladden all the Cities and Towns in North 16:58.683 --> 16:59.723 America, forever." 16:59.720 --> 17:01.670 John Adams always has a way of saying the big, 17:01.668 --> 17:03.918 broad quotable thing, which is why I keep coming back 17:03.923 --> 17:04.403 to him. 17:04.400 --> 17:04.640 Hello. 17:04.644 --> 17:06.484 I will provide you the historian with the big, 17:06.481 --> 17:08.811 broad, wonderful quote about the Continental Congress. 17:08.809 --> 17:10.159 Thank you, John Adams. 17:10.160 --> 17:11.880 "I am for making... 17:11.880 --> 17:14.480 the congress annual, and for Sending an entire new 17:14.482 --> 17:17.792 set of delegates every Year, that all the principal Genius's 17:17.786 --> 17:19.866 may go to the University in Rotation-- 17:19.868 --> 17:22.488 that We may have Politicians in Plenty... 17:22.490 --> 17:25.530 Our Policy must be to improve every opportunity and Means for 17:25.532 --> 17:28.382 forming our People, and preparing Leaders for them 17:28.375 --> 17:30.615 in the grand March of Politicks." 17:30.618 --> 17:33.408 So he's drawing a lot of big hopes for the future from the 17:33.409 --> 17:35.629 meeting of this Congress, but certainly he's 17:35.630 --> 17:38.180 thinking--the fact that it exists and that these people 17:38.181 --> 17:41.021 will be meeting and talking in this way on this level will be 17:41.016 --> 17:44.036 in and of itself a sort of educational colonial experience. 17:44.038 --> 17:48.088 And then finally a fourth significant aspect of the 17:48.092 --> 17:52.712 meeting of this Congress was that at least to some back in 17:52.711 --> 17:57.331 England the Continental Congress symbolized a move towards 17:57.333 --> 17:58.633 rebellion. 17:58.630 --> 18:01.670 And indeed more about this to come, 18:01.670 --> 18:04.930 but in February of 1775, Lord North passed a resolution 18:04.931 --> 18:08.491 in Parliament declaring that Massachusetts was in a state of 18:08.493 --> 18:09.343 rebellion. 18:09.338 --> 18:12.878 And part of the reason why it's Massachusetts that he's focusing 18:12.877 --> 18:15.347 on is because really still in Parliament, 18:15.348 --> 18:17.968 they are assuming that Massachusetts is the ringleader 18:17.971 --> 18:20.161 of all the trouble; the real reason for the 18:20.163 --> 18:23.113 Congress is Massachusetts; Massachusetts is the problem; 18:23.108 --> 18:26.528 Massachusetts is moving towards rebellion; 18:26.528 --> 18:29.378 and to some people back in England looking on, 18:29.377 --> 18:32.287 this Continental Congress looks treasonable. 18:32.288 --> 18:36.328 So you can see how things are evolving here. 18:36.328 --> 18:39.768 You can see how mutual misunderstandings are growing. 18:39.769 --> 18:42.999 Colonists and the British administration are grappling 18:43.003 --> 18:46.853 with the real meaning of British sovereignty in the colonies. 18:46.848 --> 18:50.778 The British government isn't really clear on some of the 18:50.781 --> 18:54.001 logic of colonial thinking on such matters. 18:54.000 --> 18:56.900 Colonists see an ongoing attempt to violate their 18:56.897 --> 19:00.397 fundamental rights as British subjects as they have come to 19:00.401 --> 19:03.771 understand them, which brings us to the perfect 19:03.772 --> 19:08.122 segue into a discussion of the logic of colonial resistance, 19:08.118 --> 19:13.488 the logic driving the colonial mindset during the passage of 19:13.488 --> 19:14.578 the 1770s. 19:14.578 --> 19:16.778 And what I'm going to do now--I'm going to introduce this 19:16.778 --> 19:18.938 subject by doing something that's a little bit illogical 19:18.940 --> 19:20.590 but I just can't resist it basically, 19:20.588 --> 19:22.598 so you are going to be subject to it. 19:22.598 --> 19:25.728 There actually is a logic to it, but to talk about the logic 19:25.731 --> 19:29.151 of resistance in the Revolution, I'm going to use a story that 19:29.154 --> 19:31.804 actually dates to a period significantly after the 19:31.799 --> 19:33.859 Revolution, which kind of doesn't make 19:33.856 --> 19:36.776 sense but it does because the story actually really wraps up a 19:36.784 --> 19:37.844 lot of stuff in it. 19:37.838 --> 19:41.788 And this story relates to a conversation that took place in 19:41.789 --> 19:44.309 1791, so it's after the Revolution. 19:44.308 --> 19:49.228 The United States has only been in existence for a few years 19:49.234 --> 19:51.744 when this story takes place. 19:51.740 --> 19:55.310 And Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, 19:55.308 --> 19:58.448 who is almost newly arrived as Secretary of State, 19:58.450 --> 20:01.180 not there for that long, decides he's going to have a 20:01.182 --> 20:04.442 little dinner party to discuss a political question that's come 20:04.439 --> 20:06.779 up, and he invites Vice President 20:06.779 --> 20:10.089 John Adams and he invites Secretary of the Treasury 20:10.092 --> 20:11.552 Alexander Hamilton. 20:11.548 --> 20:14.568 The reason why we know this story is because Jefferson told 20:14.571 --> 20:15.511 it a lot, right? 20:15.509 --> 20:18.119 Because as we'll see, Jefferson draws great, 20:18.118 --> 20:20.998 deep significance to this little dinner conversation and 20:20.999 --> 20:23.669 he repeated it over and over again in letters and in 20:23.669 --> 20:24.349 journals. 20:24.348 --> 20:26.738 It's like the story that reveals the meaning of 20:26.737 --> 20:28.447 everything--but you'll see why. 20:28.450 --> 20:30.910 It won't sound too dramatic now that I've set it up that way, 20:30.914 --> 20:32.564 but to Jefferson it was earth-shaking. 20:32.558 --> 20:35.218 So a little dinner party, Adams, Jefferson, 20:35.220 --> 20:38.070 Hamilton--and Jefferson, who tells the story, 20:38.068 --> 20:40.778 says that after they're done with their meal, 20:40.779 --> 20:43.299 quote, "our questions agreed and dismissed, 20:43.298 --> 20:46.128 conversation began on other matters.... 20:46.130 --> 20:49.680 The room, being hung around with a collection of the 20:49.681 --> 20:53.101 portraits of remarkable men-- among them were those of Bacon, 20:53.103 --> 20:54.573 Newton, and Locke--Hamilton asked me 20:54.567 --> 20:55.387 who they were." 20:55.390 --> 20:58.350 So this is Jefferson's home and in his home are these portraits, 20:58.348 --> 21:00.898 Bacon, Newton, and Locke, and Hamilton, 21:00.900 --> 21:02.590 sitting there as a dinner guest, looks up, 21:02.588 --> 21:05.288 sees the portrait and says, 'Who are they?' Okay. 21:05.288 --> 21:07.598 Jefferson says, "I told him they were my 21:07.596 --> 21:10.266 trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever 21:10.270 --> 21:12.900 produced"-- this is Professor Jefferson in 21:12.904 --> 21:14.954 full gear-- "naming them." 21:14.950 --> 21:18.050 Lord Francis Bacon, the philosopher of science, 21:18.048 --> 21:20.698 Sir Isaac Newton, the scientist who defined the 21:20.695 --> 21:23.205 laws of gravity, John Locke, the philosopher 21:23.205 --> 21:26.265 of--I suppose you could say, the philosopher of liberty, 21:26.271 --> 21:28.541 and as Jefferson recalled hearing this, 21:28.538 --> 21:31.158 quote, Hamilton "paused for some time. 21:31.160 --> 21:35.690 'The greatest man,' said he, 'that ever lived was Julius 21:35.694 --> 21:37.514 Caesar.'" Okay. 21:37.509 --> 21:40.309 Now for reasons that will become clear in this lecture, 21:40.308 --> 21:44.968 this shocked Jefferson, shocked Jefferson, 21:44.970 --> 21:46.980 so that he told the story again and again and again, 21:46.980 --> 21:49.050 remembered it for decades. 21:49.048 --> 21:51.028 In the 1820s, he's still like, 21:51.027 --> 21:54.867 'I remember that story, the dinner with Hamilton 30 21:54.867 --> 21:57.777 years ago [laughs] in which he said, 21:57.779 --> 21:59.829 'The greatest man who ever lived was Julius Caesar.' 21:59.829 --> 22:02.019 He repeated it. 22:02.019 --> 22:05.899 To him it was a sign of the amazing dangerous implications 22:05.903 --> 22:09.453 of Hamilton's policies, but I want to pull this story 22:09.448 --> 22:10.128 apart. 22:10.130 --> 22:12.830 I want to look at this a little bit as a way not really of 22:12.834 --> 22:14.594 getting at Jefferson and Hamilton, 22:14.588 --> 22:17.358 but to get at something of the intellectual mindset of 22:17.361 --> 22:20.441 Americans during this period and some of this has to do with 22:20.444 --> 22:23.394 Enlightenment thinking, and some of this has to do with 22:23.394 --> 22:27.084 constitutional thinking, but you'll see why both men 22:27.080 --> 22:28.980 said what they said. 22:28.980 --> 22:31.230 Now to start with, I'm not saying that every 22:31.230 --> 22:34.210 single colonist is sitting around at this point discussing 22:34.213 --> 22:35.683 Bacon, Newton and Locke. 22:35.680 --> 22:36.910 Okay. That's not what I mean. 22:36.910 --> 22:39.940 This is very much a Jeffersonian parlor with these 22:39.939 --> 22:44.139 portraits up on the wall, but those three men--Bacon, 22:44.136 --> 22:46.166 Newton, Locke--and others, 22:46.166 --> 22:49.656 did contribute to an intellectual atmosphere that the 22:49.656 --> 22:53.816 American colonists tapped into that shaped their thoughts about 22:53.817 --> 22:55.587 rights, about resistance, 22:55.592 --> 22:57.612 and then eventually about revolution. 22:57.608 --> 23:02.028 So let's start by looking at Jefferson's trinity of great 23:02.026 --> 23:02.496 men. 23:02.500 --> 23:05.050 Who were they? 23:05.048 --> 23:05.428 Okay. 23:05.432 --> 23:08.882 Sir Francis Bacon, man of science who believed 23:08.876 --> 23:13.156 that truth discovered by reason through observation could 23:13.163 --> 23:17.763 promote human happiness as well as truth communicated through 23:17.757 --> 23:20.127 God's direct revelation. 23:20.130 --> 23:24.070 So basically Bacon's work suggested that it was in 23:24.066 --> 23:28.556 humankind's power to discover truth by reason and that by 23:28.564 --> 23:31.844 doing that, humankind could better itself. 23:31.839 --> 23:34.249 Okay. So that's Bacon. 23:34.250 --> 23:37.210 Isaac Newton, a second man of science who 23:37.214 --> 23:40.334 studied gravity and the laws of motion, 23:40.328 --> 23:45.388 and Newton's work demonstrated that it was possible through 23:45.385 --> 23:50.785 reason and study to discover the laws of nature and of nature's 23:50.791 --> 23:51.491 God. 23:51.490 --> 23:55.140 So Newton's work suggested that the world is governed by laws 23:55.143 --> 23:57.643 that you could discover and understand; 23:57.640 --> 24:00.440 that there's a cause and effect, and that through reason 24:00.442 --> 24:03.502 and study you can figure out the cause and effect of nature's 24:03.500 --> 24:03.960 laws. 24:03.960 --> 24:07.800 So then on to the third man, John Locke, 24:07.798 --> 24:12.478 whose Second Treatise on Government from 1683 24:12.480 --> 24:17.990 suggested that you could apply nature's laws to the political 24:17.986 --> 24:22.106 world as well, and determine and understand 24:22.108 --> 24:24.658 natural and political rights. 24:24.660 --> 24:27.570 And I'm going to offer here a really woefully brief summary of 24:27.565 --> 24:30.415 Locke's thoughts that'll just be enough to give us a sense of 24:30.423 --> 24:32.713 what it is that Jefferson's getting at here. 24:32.710 --> 24:38.120 Basically, Locke believed that people were born free, 24:38.118 --> 24:42.538 unhampered by government and with certain natural rights-- 24:42.538 --> 24:45.618 life, liberty, and property--and that to 24:45.616 --> 24:49.956 protect these rights people decided to voluntarily leave 24:49.957 --> 24:54.137 this state of nature to form a civil government, 24:54.140 --> 24:57.300 contracting some of their natural rights to this 24:57.295 --> 24:59.305 government when they did so. 24:59.308 --> 25:04.018 So civil society was created to protect humankind's three 25:04.018 --> 25:07.548 natural rights--life, liberty, property. 25:07.548 --> 25:10.758 So you could refer to this as social contract theory, 25:10.758 --> 25:12.978 a logical enough summing up of it. 25:12.980 --> 25:16.230 If you think about it, if a civil government is a kind 25:16.233 --> 25:20.013 of voluntary contract, this suggests that people have 25:20.005 --> 25:24.095 a right to pull out of that contract if their rights are 25:24.104 --> 25:27.344 being violated, and obviously that will have an 25:27.335 --> 25:29.145 important logic down the road. 25:29.150 --> 25:31.500 Now if you take all of that together-- 25:31.500 --> 25:34.090 Bacon, Newton, Locke, and the logic of their 25:34.086 --> 25:36.976 thoughts-- you can see the empowering 25:36.980 --> 25:39.570 aspect of Jefferson's trinity. 25:39.568 --> 25:39.948 Right? 25:39.950 --> 25:43.880 All of those men in one way or another are preaching ideas that 25:43.875 --> 25:45.645 are empowering humankind. 25:45.650 --> 25:49.620 They're suggesting that there are laws of the universe that 25:49.622 --> 25:53.392 could be determined by people and applied to nature, 25:53.390 --> 25:56.130 to government, to science, to society in the 25:56.128 --> 25:57.848 hope of bettering things. 25:57.848 --> 26:02.068 They suggested that civil government is a contract created 26:02.067 --> 26:05.987 by and maintained by people, not some kind of a divine 26:05.988 --> 26:06.948 creation. 26:06.950 --> 26:11.280 And if you step back and consider the implications of 26:11.278 --> 26:15.908 these really broad ideas, you can see that they share an 26:15.910 --> 26:19.970 underlying conviction that humankind could solve God's 26:19.974 --> 26:22.894 riddles by dissolving-- dissolving? 26:22.890 --> 26:27.610 dissolving his laws, chaos--discovering and applying 26:27.611 --> 26:29.371 his natural laws. 26:29.368 --> 26:33.728 And in a sense this is the idea that's the spirit of the 26:33.730 --> 26:36.600 Enlightenment-- that the world is governed by 26:36.601 --> 26:38.491 natural laws that can be detected, 26:38.490 --> 26:41.070 they can be studied, they can be applied, 26:41.068 --> 26:45.478 and in a sense the practice of deism stems from this idea. 26:45.480 --> 26:49.150 There were some Founder types who were basically deists at 26:49.150 --> 26:51.480 heart, believing that God was a sort 26:51.483 --> 26:55.233 of divine clockmaker who made a world of logic and natural laws 26:55.233 --> 26:58.503 and then stepped back and allowed it to operate without 26:58.500 --> 27:01.180 intervening, and this kind of God was 27:01.181 --> 27:04.961 omniscient and all powerful but it was natural forces that 27:04.961 --> 27:06.821 governed daily existence. 27:06.818 --> 27:10.838 And things that were governed by understandable and 27:10.837 --> 27:15.017 predictable natural laws could be detected, analyzed, 27:15.017 --> 27:17.667 critiqued and applied by man. 27:17.670 --> 27:21.300 So in this sense you really can see how some of the spirit of 27:21.301 --> 27:24.511 the Enlightenment would have been a kind of empowering 27:24.510 --> 27:25.420 philosophy. 27:25.420 --> 27:28.680 So Jefferson's trinity of portraits reveals a lot about 27:28.679 --> 27:31.819 this kind of general Enlightenment spirit and some of 27:31.817 --> 27:36.627 its intellectual implications, but what about the other half 27:36.634 --> 27:37.944 of the story? 27:37.940 --> 27:40.450 What about Hamilton's comment about Julius Caesar and 27:40.446 --> 27:42.996 Jefferson's I'm-going-to-be- shocked-for-three-decades 27:43.002 --> 27:43.632 response? 27:43.630 --> 27:48.300 Well, this aspect of the story reveals another related aspect 27:48.299 --> 27:50.869 of the Enlightenment mentality. 27:50.868 --> 27:55.158 It shows how immediate and relevant the ancient world-- 27:55.160 --> 27:59.230 and actually history generally--was to Enlightenment 27:59.230 --> 28:00.730 thinkers, and I suppose, 28:00.727 --> 28:02.337 just in the eighteenth century generally. 28:02.338 --> 28:05.968 An idea that's--again--related to this idea that humankind can 28:05.967 --> 28:08.997 detect patterns and then apply them for all time. 28:09.000 --> 28:10.730 Because basically, if you think about it, 28:10.730 --> 28:13.530 if you believe in ongoing natural patterns, 28:13.528 --> 28:17.208 you're also going to believe that the study of history, 28:17.210 --> 28:20.970 all of history, is one way to determine laws 28:20.969 --> 28:26.039 and patterns of human nature that apply across all time. 28:26.038 --> 28:28.398 So basically to people at this period, 28:28.400 --> 28:32.520 all of history was like a big grab bag of lessons about 28:32.521 --> 28:36.111 humankind and civil society: ancient Greece, 28:36.108 --> 28:38.018 ancient Rome, modern nations, 28:38.018 --> 28:39.788 modern peoples and more. 28:39.788 --> 28:42.208 If you study them, if you look at rules and 28:42.208 --> 28:44.798 patterns, you could find things to apply 28:44.797 --> 28:48.587 to modern times that ideally would allow you to better things 28:48.593 --> 28:51.443 for the present by learning from the past. 28:51.440 --> 28:53.680 And in a way the ultimate example of this--I think I've 28:53.683 --> 28:55.143 mentioned it once before in here; 28:55.140 --> 28:58.710 I'm not sure--is James Madison preparing for the Constitutional 28:58.705 --> 29:01.745 Convention and he's very much--he's right in line with 29:01.753 --> 29:03.253 this kind of thinking. 29:03.250 --> 29:06.440 He basically says, 'I'm going to study republics 29:06.435 --> 29:08.195 across all time,' right? 29:08.200 --> 29:10.590 All of human time--I will study republican government-- 29:10.588 --> 29:12.678 and thinking, if he could figure out the 29:12.678 --> 29:14.448 rules, if he could figure out what 29:14.448 --> 29:17.258 works and what doesn't work and see the patterns and get the 29:17.261 --> 29:18.951 rules, he can then apply that 29:18.950 --> 29:22.360 knowledge to the creation of a new republic that hopefully then 29:22.363 --> 29:24.843 would benefit from that kind of knowledge. 29:24.838 --> 29:27.398 I love the fact that Madison sets out to do that, 29:27.400 --> 29:29.000 writes it all down on paper. 29:29.000 --> 29:32.830 So you can see how in this sense--If you're thinking along 29:32.830 --> 29:35.710 these lines, you can see how ancient history 29:35.705 --> 29:39.015 could be really immediate to this sort of whole founding 29:39.017 --> 29:41.877 generation, because it had real lessons for 29:41.884 --> 29:42.714 the present. 29:42.710 --> 29:46.340 And actually one of the most influential books in educating 29:46.339 --> 29:49.719 young gentlemen at the time was Plutarch's Lives. 29:49.720 --> 29:52.040 Has anyone here read Plutarch? 29:52.038 --> 29:53.808 There must be some--Oh, there's a couple of Plutarch 29:53.807 --> 29:54.477 readers in here. 29:54.480 --> 29:55.930 That's admirable. 29:55.930 --> 29:58.810 Plutarch's Lives is basically a collection of brief 29:58.813 --> 30:01.143 biographies of great statesmen and leaders, 30:01.140 --> 30:02.800 ancient Greece, ancient Rome, 30:02.795 --> 30:05.865 and it was aimed at teaching rules of leadership, 30:05.868 --> 30:08.628 teaching young men how to model themselves into great leaders, 30:08.630 --> 30:11.460 or certainly that's how it was used in the eighteenth century. 30:11.460 --> 30:13.760 Any young man would have read Plutarch's Lives and 30:13.763 --> 30:16.053 would have learned-- the greatest thing I can do is 30:16.048 --> 30:18.118 to be a great statesman and found a nation, 30:18.118 --> 30:21.268 and here are great examples for me to follow. 30:21.269 --> 30:24.739 So given this kind of a logic, there's a good reason why 30:24.742 --> 30:28.402 Hamilton's comment about Caesar might have been shocking to 30:28.404 --> 30:29.294 Jefferson. 30:29.288 --> 30:31.768 It's not just a little interesting intellectual sort of 30:31.769 --> 30:33.519 "ha" on the part of Hamilton: 30:33.516 --> 30:35.046 'oh, I think the greatest man that 30:35.050 --> 30:37.670 ever lived was Julius Caesar, pass the cherries.' 30:37.670 --> 30:40.600 It's not--He didn't see this as a sort of random idle throwaway 30:40.602 --> 30:41.692 intellectual comment. 30:41.690 --> 30:44.910 It was a declaration about present day policies to 30:44.905 --> 30:47.295 Jefferson, and it wasn't a declaration 30:47.300 --> 30:50.040 that made Jefferson happy because think about the 30:50.040 --> 30:53.690 historical lesson that Jefferson logically pulled from Hamilton's 30:53.694 --> 30:55.584 comment about Julius Caesar. 30:55.579 --> 30:57.179 Who was Julius Caesar? 30:57.180 --> 31:01.260 In short, he was the man who destroyed the Roman republic. 31:01.259 --> 31:01.549 Okay. 31:01.547 --> 31:04.647 He's the guy who marched his army against the republic, 31:04.647 --> 31:07.287 who seized power, who made himself emperor. 31:07.288 --> 31:11.248 So there we are in 1791 and Alexander Hamilton in the middle 31:11.248 --> 31:15.208 of this experiment to create a new republic--no one knows if 31:15.205 --> 31:17.895 it's going to work; it might collapse at any 31:17.898 --> 31:19.718 second--and Alexander Hamilton says, 31:19.720 --> 31:22.430 'The greatest man who ever lived is Julius Caesar,' the man 31:22.432 --> 31:24.072 who destroyed the Roman republic. 31:24.068 --> 31:24.478 Okay. 31:24.480 --> 31:28.090 This is why Jefferson was like [laughs]: 'oh, 31:28.088 --> 31:28.908 my God. 31:28.910 --> 31:30.030 What does this mean?' 31:30.029 --> 31:30.959 What does this mean? 31:30.960 --> 31:32.350 This is the truth to Hamilton. 31:32.348 --> 31:32.618 Right? 31:32.622 --> 31:35.392 This is a bad moment as far as relations between Jefferson and 31:35.388 --> 31:37.838 Hamilton are concerned, the Jefferson dinner party. 31:37.839 --> 31:39.849 Hamilton never lived it down. 31:39.848 --> 31:43.348 So to Jefferson this is--to him this was like he--the scales 31:43.348 --> 31:45.008 were lifted from his eyes. 31:45.009 --> 31:45.279 Right? 31:45.282 --> 31:47.062 Hamilton wants to be a kind of Caesar. 31:47.059 --> 31:48.319 He's dangerously ambitious. 31:48.318 --> 31:50.458 He wants to destroy the republic. 31:50.460 --> 31:53.060 Maybe he wants to make it back into a monarchy and then put 31:53.064 --> 31:55.224 himself into some kind of a position of power. 31:55.220 --> 31:58.730 He could just see the pathway laid, all with that one little 31:58.731 --> 32:01.531 comment that Hamilton tossed out at a dinner. 32:01.528 --> 32:03.878 You had to be careful how you talked [laughs] 32:03.877 --> 32:06.117 in an age where history meant that much. 32:06.118 --> 32:08.558 Now let's stop for a moment also to think: 32:08.561 --> 32:10.231 why did Hamilton say that? 32:10.230 --> 32:11.800 Why did he say that? 32:11.798 --> 32:15.848 It's unlikely that what he meant to say was, 32:15.845 --> 32:16.405 'Hi. 32:16.410 --> 32:17.940 I'm going to be the next Julius Caesar. 32:17.940 --> 32:19.750 [laughs] I'm out to destroy the 32:19.747 --> 32:20.407 republic. 32:20.410 --> 32:21.580 Nice to meet you.' 32:21.578 --> 32:21.878 Okay. 32:21.876 --> 32:25.436 He probably wasn't intending to signal some big threat to the 32:25.442 --> 32:26.692 American republic. 32:26.690 --> 32:30.660 I think that there are probably two explanations for it. 32:30.660 --> 32:33.640 No one actually ever absolutely knows why he said this and that 32:33.644 --> 32:35.864 says more about Hamilton than anything else. 32:35.858 --> 32:37.768 He's a wonderfully self-destructive individual, 32:37.765 --> 32:39.785 Alexander Hamilton, but in this case I think there 32:39.794 --> 32:41.704 are two possible reasons why he said this. 32:41.700 --> 32:44.990 One is he actually just liked to say things to upset Thomas 32:44.989 --> 32:45.669 Jefferson. 32:45.670 --> 32:48.120 [laughter] He really did and this was a 32:48.116 --> 32:49.366 good one, [laughs] 32:49.368 --> 32:51.948 better than he thought, but he liked to push 32:51.950 --> 32:54.520 Jefferson's buttons, get Jefferson all sort of 32:54.519 --> 32:56.619 sputtering and mad, and it worked. 32:56.618 --> 32:58.948 Aaron Burr did the same thing to Alexander Hamilton. 32:58.950 --> 33:01.680 He would say sort of shocking, outrageous things and then 33:01.681 --> 33:04.271 watch Hamilton sputter, and then Hamilton would repeat 33:04.267 --> 33:06.167 them for years and years and years. 33:06.170 --> 33:08.400 'Do you know what he said at the dinner party?' 33:08.400 --> 33:11.390 Dinner parties were tricky places to maneuver in the early 33:11.392 --> 33:11.972 republic. 33:11.970 --> 33:15.780 So part of it might have been just Hamilton being deliberately 33:15.776 --> 33:17.976 irritating, or equally possible, 33:17.983 --> 33:21.653 it's possible that Hamilton was referring to Caesar as a 33:21.654 --> 33:24.384 statesman, a leader, a founder of a nation. 33:24.380 --> 33:27.520 Hamilton would have admired military ability, 33:27.519 --> 33:30.699 so he would have actually seriously admired that in Caesar 33:30.699 --> 33:32.439 too, but he really could have been 33:32.442 --> 33:34.542 more thinking of Caesar as great statesman, 33:34.538 --> 33:37.998 great leader, depicted in Plutarch as 33:38.003 --> 33:38.813 a model. 33:38.808 --> 33:41.228 And certainly in the mind of an educated gentleman like 33:41.230 --> 33:43.290 Hamilton, being the founder of a nation, 33:43.290 --> 33:45.270 being someone who's shaping a nation, 33:45.269 --> 33:46.829 would have been seen as an admirable thing, 33:46.828 --> 33:48.358 so he could have been thinking along those lines. 33:48.358 --> 33:51.038 It's interesting when you look through all of Hamilton's 33:51.044 --> 33:52.774 writings-- he doesn't really speak in 33:52.770 --> 33:55.940 praise of Caesar anywhere else, which might lead you to theory 33:55.941 --> 33:56.631 number one. 33:56.630 --> 33:58.380 [laughter] 'Okay, T.J., 33:58.384 --> 34:01.024 see how you deal with this one. 34:01.019 --> 34:03.789 [laughs] I'm all for Julius Caesar. 34:03.788 --> 34:06.298 [laughs] What are you going to do?' 34:06.298 --> 34:06.488 No. 34:06.490 --> 34:09.410 It's hard to know, but at any rate it's unclear 34:09.414 --> 34:12.314 what Hamilton's logic is, but you can certainly 34:12.309 --> 34:14.409 understand Jefferson's shocked response, 34:14.409 --> 34:16.949 and either way, both the comment and the 34:16.947 --> 34:21.107 response reveal the power of the classical heritage on this early 34:21.112 --> 34:22.352 American world. 34:22.349 --> 34:26.559 Both men are applying the past to the present in some way. 34:26.559 --> 34:29.859 And one of the lessons that Caesar certainly suggested to 34:29.860 --> 34:33.280 Thomas Jefferson as suggested by his response is a powerful 34:33.277 --> 34:37.047 lesson that a lot of people were focused on in the early years of 34:37.048 --> 34:40.878 the American republic and in this colonial period as well, 34:40.880 --> 34:42.840 and that is the fragility of liberties-- 34:42.840 --> 34:47.060 and in the republic also obviously how fragile republics 34:47.059 --> 34:47.519 are. 34:47.518 --> 34:51.228 So the ancient world held really valuable lessons but so 34:51.226 --> 34:54.796 did the semi-recent past as well, particularly for the 34:54.798 --> 34:56.348 American colonists. 34:56.349 --> 34:59.719 There was another period of time that seemed to hold special 34:59.724 --> 35:02.244 lessons for them, the period of the Glorious 35:02.237 --> 35:05.217 Revolution in Britain, which would have been a period 35:05.215 --> 35:08.585 when opposition to the King's Court and ministers was on the 35:08.588 --> 35:11.958 rise in Britain along with a growing tradition of praise for 35:11.960 --> 35:14.990 English liberties and the glories of representation in 35:14.989 --> 35:16.019 Parliament. 35:16.018 --> 35:19.358 So political rhetoric from the era of the Glorious Revolution 35:19.362 --> 35:22.312 would have focused on attacking corruption and corrupt 35:22.313 --> 35:24.793 influence, as when a monarch would try to 35:24.788 --> 35:27.948 bribe legislators or ministers with high office or pensions 35:27.954 --> 35:31.464 granted from the Crown, thereby subverting the balanced 35:31.461 --> 35:33.811 British constitution, which is supposed to be 35:33.807 --> 35:36.697 balanced between Crown, Lords and Commons. 35:36.699 --> 35:40.239 That would have had some real bearing on this revolutionary 35:40.235 --> 35:43.765 period as well But whether talking about history ancient or 35:43.769 --> 35:47.069 history relatively modern, history did teach some 35:47.072 --> 35:50.862 overriding lessons that British subjects would have taken as 35:50.862 --> 35:54.912 their own throughout this period and that at this moment in time 35:54.907 --> 35:58.567 would seem really relevant in the American colonies. 35:58.570 --> 36:02.440 So--there is going to be an amazingly brief summary of some 36:02.443 --> 36:05.223 of these lessons, but you'll see really clear 36:05.219 --> 36:08.259 lessons that history would appear to be teaching generally 36:08.257 --> 36:11.827 and that the colonists would be listening to really attentively. 36:11.829 --> 36:15.279 So history taught basically that arbitrary power is the 36:15.282 --> 36:17.652 ultimate threat to good government. 36:17.650 --> 36:17.910 Okay. 36:17.911 --> 36:20.901 So the 1770s is a moment when that's certainly going to be 36:20.898 --> 36:22.468 something that people hear. 36:22.469 --> 36:26.009 History taught that political liberties were fragile. 36:26.010 --> 36:30.240 History taught that constitutional principles 36:30.242 --> 36:35.732 defended customary contractarian rights against government 36:35.728 --> 36:38.998 assertions of arbitrary power. 36:39.000 --> 36:40.980 So arbitrary power is the ultimate threat to good 36:40.981 --> 36:43.441 government; political liberties are fragile; 36:43.440 --> 36:47.620 and it's constitutional principles that defend against 36:47.621 --> 36:50.701 government asserting arbitrary power. 36:50.699 --> 36:54.089 So yes, Rome had been great, but arbitrary power had sent it 36:54.085 --> 36:55.515 spiraling into tyranny. 36:55.518 --> 36:58.808 The Glorious Revolution had been a moment where ancient 36:58.806 --> 37:02.336 liberties had been restored by restraining the power of the 37:02.338 --> 37:03.068 monarch. 37:03.070 --> 37:06.320 So clearly history taught liberty is fragile, 37:06.320 --> 37:09.190 and power is the natural enemy--arbitrary power-- 37:09.190 --> 37:14.550 and power naturally grows, by nature power grows, 37:14.550 --> 37:18.180 and as it does it encroaches on liberties in a free society. 37:18.179 --> 37:22.799 So power has to be restrained; British liberties must be 37:22.804 --> 37:25.644 defended; and British liberties, 37:25.643 --> 37:31.413 as defined by generations of constitutional precedents. 37:31.409 --> 37:35.469 Now it's important to remember that the British constitution is 37:35.474 --> 37:38.954 not a written document like American state and federal 37:38.949 --> 37:40.129 constitutions. 37:40.130 --> 37:43.300 It's a way of thinking about authority largely based on 37:43.297 --> 37:46.127 precedent, based on existing institutions, 37:46.130 --> 37:50.260 based on laws and customs, and it was a means of limiting 37:50.264 --> 37:52.384 power and defending rights. 37:52.380 --> 37:56.140 So when British colonial policy began to change in the 37:56.143 --> 37:59.623 mid-eighteenth century and precedents seemed to be 37:59.621 --> 38:03.671 abandoned and new precedents perhaps were being set, 38:03.670 --> 38:07.370 when Parliament seemed to be asserting what certainly to some 38:07.365 --> 38:09.765 colonists felt like arbitrary power, 38:09.768 --> 38:13.348 colonists logically began to worry about protecting their 38:13.347 --> 38:17.117 fundamental British liberties against seemingly increasingly 38:17.117 --> 38:19.287 arbitrary parliamentary power. 38:19.289 --> 38:20.579 They felt defensive. 38:20.579 --> 38:25.079 They worried about the seeming inevitability of a rise of 38:25.081 --> 38:26.531 arbitrary power. 38:26.530 --> 38:30.370 Now of course people in Parliament did not see 38:30.369 --> 38:34.039 themselves as exercising arbitrary power. 38:34.039 --> 38:35.389 They saw themselves as behaving constitutionally, 38:35.389 --> 38:37.839 asserting their constitutional power to govern over the 38:37.835 --> 38:40.615 colonies, but as we've seen in this 38:40.617 --> 38:43.367 course so far, there were some fundamental 38:43.371 --> 38:46.071 disagreements on both sides about the precise meaning of 38:46.065 --> 38:48.565 Parliament's constitutional power to govern over the 38:48.565 --> 38:51.005 colonies, about the precise way in which 38:51.005 --> 38:53.445 this imperial system was supposed to work. 38:53.449 --> 38:57.589 So acts like the Stamp Act, which Parliament basically 38:57.585 --> 39:00.545 intended as a way to raise revenue, 39:00.550 --> 39:03.810 or the Tea Act, same idea, could logically seem 39:03.806 --> 39:08.266 to the colonists like a way of establishing a new precedent, 39:08.268 --> 39:12.588 right?--a new precedent that ultimately would be making some 39:12.594 --> 39:16.484 kind of inroad against liberty and property rights. 39:16.480 --> 39:19.280 And particularly, given that the Stamp Act was 39:19.277 --> 39:23.377 not ultimately raising enormous sums of money to the colonists, 39:23.380 --> 39:26.270 that was a real sign that it must be about a precedent. 39:26.268 --> 39:26.558 Right? 39:26.557 --> 39:29.297 It can't really be about raising enormous sums of money. 39:29.300 --> 39:32.690 It must be a trap, a precedent-setting trap, 39:32.690 --> 39:35.770 that if they can get us to accept this precedent then the 39:35.771 --> 39:39.181 government will be able to set future taxes along similar lines 39:39.182 --> 39:41.662 because the precedent will have been set. 39:41.659 --> 39:44.219 If your constitution--If you understand your constitutional 39:44.224 --> 39:47.264 rights as based on precedent, when you see new precedents 39:47.262 --> 39:50.692 potentially being set that's a potentially scary thing, 39:50.690 --> 39:53.580 so you can kind of get a sense of why the colonists are 39:53.576 --> 39:56.566 reacting as they do to a lot of events in this period. 39:56.570 --> 39:59.520 As John Dickinson wrote in--I've mentioned before his 39:59.523 --> 40:02.933 really well-known pamphlet from 1768 called Letters from a 40:02.931 --> 40:05.931 Farmer in Pennsylvania. Dickinson wrote, 40:05.931 --> 40:08.891 "Nothing is wanted at home"-- 40:08.889 --> 40:12.399 and by home he means Britain--"but a precedent, 40:12.400 --> 40:15.910 the force of which shall be established by the tacit 40:15.914 --> 40:18.124 submission of the colonies.... 40:18.119 --> 40:20.879 If the parliament succeeds in this attempt, 40:20.880 --> 40:23.640 other statutes will impose other duties. 40:23.639 --> 40:26.689 And thus the parliament will levy upon us such sums of money 40:26.692 --> 40:29.892 as they chuoose to take, without any other limitation, 40:29.891 --> 40:31.571 than their pleasure." 40:31.570 --> 40:31.860 Right? 40:31.858 --> 40:33.728 He says it's just about the precedent; 40:33.730 --> 40:34.940 it's all about precedent. 40:34.940 --> 40:37.210 That's what we're looking at here. 40:37.210 --> 40:40.000 The fact that small amounts of money are being raised in a 40:40.003 --> 40:42.653 sense is the ultimate proof that what really matters to 40:42.650 --> 40:45.250 Parliament is the precedent that they're setting. 40:45.250 --> 40:48.120 The same holds true for the Vice-Admiralty courts I've 40:48.117 --> 40:50.957 mentioned before, that were being used as venues 40:50.960 --> 40:54.070 for trying certain crimes committed in the colonies. 40:54.070 --> 40:56.730 Vice-Admiralty courts were composed of a single judge, 40:56.730 --> 40:59.000 they had no jury, and they were becoming 40:59.000 --> 41:02.140 responsible for enforcing parliamentary legislation and 41:02.144 --> 41:03.314 new legislation. 41:03.309 --> 41:08.049 Logically, many colonists would have seen this-- 41:08.050 --> 41:11.230 again--really dangerous precedent violating fundamental 41:11.226 --> 41:15.186 British constitutional rights, violating past precedents. 41:15.190 --> 41:19.230 The presence of a standing army in the colonies: 41:19.231 --> 41:21.401 also, same kind of threat, 41:21.400 --> 41:24.720 same kind of fear, something new is happening 41:24.724 --> 41:28.844 here, and certainly history ancient and modern taught about 41:28.838 --> 41:31.248 the dangers of a standing army. 41:31.250 --> 41:35.080 And Samuel Adams summed up prevailing ideas about standing 41:35.077 --> 41:39.507 armies in a newspaper essay that he wrote in 1768 and he wrote, 41:39.510 --> 41:41.630 "It is a very improbable supposition, 41:41.630 --> 41:44.700 that any people can long remain free, 41:44.699 --> 41:48.139 with a strong military power in the very heart of their country: 41:48.144 --> 41:51.154 Unless that military power is under the direction of the 41:51.152 --> 41:53.342 people, and even then it is 41:53.342 --> 41:56.852 dangerous.-- History, both ancient and modern, 41:56.851 --> 42:01.051 affords many instances of the overthrow of states and kingdoms 42:01.052 --> 42:04.692 by the power of soldiers, who were rais'd and maintain'd 42:04.692 --> 42:07.982 at first under the plausible pretense of defending those very 42:07.976 --> 42:10.766 liberties which they afterwards destroyed." 42:10.768 --> 42:13.918 So in the colonies the fear of a standing army was bad enough 42:13.920 --> 42:16.970 at the end of the French and Indian War when the crown sent 42:16.967 --> 42:19.907 troops to protect the colonists against the French, 42:19.909 --> 42:22.819 the Spanish and the Native American populations-- 42:22.820 --> 42:26.190 but a few years later when troops began to arrive in Boston 42:26.190 --> 42:28.690 in response to Stamp Act demonstrations, 42:28.690 --> 42:31.940 it certainly seemed to many colonists as though it might be 42:31.938 --> 42:35.018 the first step in what could be the destruction of their 42:35.018 --> 42:37.078 liberties, their colonial charters, 42:37.077 --> 42:38.547 their constitutional rights. 42:38.550 --> 42:41.550 This seemed to be--again--a scary precedent. 42:41.550 --> 42:44.160 Now in a way it's really tempting to look at this way of 42:44.159 --> 42:46.249 thinking like, these people are worried about 42:46.246 --> 42:47.856 precedents--'What's happening? 42:47.860 --> 42:48.550 What does it mean? 42:48.550 --> 42:51.720 It must be a sign that they're going to do worse'--and think of 42:51.722 --> 42:54.592 these people as being really paranoid and illogical like, 42:54.588 --> 42:55.458 'oh, come on. 42:55.460 --> 42:57.550 [laughs] What if it's just a little 42:57.554 --> 43:00.084 gesture to raise some money, colonists? 43:00.079 --> 43:02.129 Why do you seem so paranoid?' 43:02.130 --> 43:04.760 And there--In the past there actually have been some 43:04.760 --> 43:07.600 historians who suggested that the colonists were to some 43:07.597 --> 43:10.527 degree being paranoid, were seeing threats of tyranny 43:10.527 --> 43:12.987 where there actually wasn't any tyranny at all. 43:12.989 --> 43:16.949 But as I've just described, precedents are a fundamental 43:16.954 --> 43:19.914 part of British constitutional thought. 43:19.909 --> 43:22.349 And Enlightenment theory backed up that idea, 43:22.349 --> 43:25.289 because Enlightenment science promised the capacity to 43:25.289 --> 43:27.839 understand and control nature and society. 43:27.840 --> 43:31.430 You're supposed to be looking for patterns of behavior to 43:31.427 --> 43:33.347 understand what things mean. 43:33.349 --> 43:36.069 So the British government seemed to be setting new 43:36.067 --> 43:39.447 precedents and the colonists were looking for the pattern, 43:39.449 --> 43:42.419 trying to figure out the logic of what was happening. 43:42.420 --> 43:43.770 What was Parliament up to? 43:43.769 --> 43:45.499 What were they thinking? 43:45.500 --> 43:48.310 Why were they seemingly violating fundamental 43:48.307 --> 43:49.837 constitutional rights? 43:49.840 --> 43:53.940 And you can see this logic again in Dickinson's pamphlet, 43:53.940 --> 43:55.460 in his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, 43:55.460 --> 43:58.090 which he argued was premised on his desire, 43:58.090 --> 44:01.210 quote, "to discover the intentions of those who rule 44:01.208 --> 44:02.098 over us." 44:02.099 --> 44:03.799 Why are they doing what they're doing? 44:03.800 --> 44:04.670 There's a pattern. 44:04.670 --> 44:05.310 What is the pattern? 44:05.309 --> 44:07.109 What does it mean? 44:07.110 --> 44:10.490 Colonists ultimately resisted what they saw as the approach of 44:10.489 --> 44:13.109 tyranny, and their resistance stiffened 44:13.112 --> 44:15.462 the British government's resolve, 44:15.460 --> 44:18.600 which in turn provoked more of a reaction in the colonies. 44:18.599 --> 44:21.779 And eventually down the road, the colonists would come to see 44:21.775 --> 44:24.945 their social contract with the British government broken, 44:24.949 --> 44:28.799 a conclusion which would seem to then give them the right of 44:28.795 --> 44:31.915 community resistance, but as I've said before it's 44:31.916 --> 44:35.136 important to recognize that the colonists at this point see 44:35.143 --> 44:37.703 their actions not as revolutionary but just the 44:37.701 --> 44:38.481 opposite. 44:38.480 --> 44:40.930 They're fighting for their British rights. 44:40.929 --> 44:43.579 They're not trying to figure out how to stage a revolution. 44:43.579 --> 44:45.109 I think when we hear the phrase "Continental 44:45.110 --> 44:46.260 Congress," we're like: 'ooh, 44:46.260 --> 44:48.280 one more Continental Congress and we're there, 44:48.280 --> 44:50.520 [laughs] wow, almost at independence,'-- 44:50.518 --> 44:52.948 but that's obviously not the way that they're thinking at the 44:52.945 --> 44:53.225 time. 44:53.230 --> 44:56.200 They see themselves as fighting against arbitrary power in 44:56.195 --> 44:59.985 defense of British liberties, not as rabid revolutionaries, 44:59.985 --> 45:03.855 and thus far in the course, it's Parliament that seems to 45:03.862 --> 45:07.252 be the main source of arbitrary power to the colonists. 45:07.250 --> 45:09.280 So as we're going to see in future lectures, 45:09.280 --> 45:12.330 a logical response to this conclusion would be for the 45:12.329 --> 45:15.839 colonists to next turn to the King to solve their problems. 45:15.840 --> 45:16.130 Okay. 45:16.130 --> 45:19.560 If Parliament is exercising arbitrary power we will now turn 45:19.561 --> 45:22.761 to the King and appeal to him to solve our problems. 45:22.760 --> 45:26.890 You--We will see that logic go into effect very soon in future 45:26.885 --> 45:27.625 lectures. 45:27.630 --> 45:31.070 So more has to happen before the colonists begin to consider 45:31.072 --> 45:33.002 the ultimate act of resistance. 45:33.000 --> 45:36.770 Actual rebellion would seem to them as the last resort, 45:36.768 --> 45:40.048 the last resort of a people unable to protect their lives, 45:40.050 --> 45:44.770 liberties and properties by normal constitutional methods, 45:44.768 --> 45:48.008 and there were some Members of Parliament that could foresee 45:48.010 --> 45:49.220 this looming threat. 45:49.219 --> 45:51.629 In early 1775, Edmund Burke gave one of his 45:51.632 --> 45:53.702 best known speeches in Parliament. 45:53.699 --> 45:56.919 It was a three-hour speech and he argued in his speech that 45:56.918 --> 45:59.748 Parliament should try to be conciliatory towards the 45:59.746 --> 46:02.296 colonies or risk pushing them to extremes. 46:02.300 --> 46:05.290 And he laid out in this speech some of the points that actually 46:05.289 --> 46:07.699 have come up just in the course of this lecture. 46:07.699 --> 46:10.389 He said Americans loved their liberties. 46:10.389 --> 46:10.699 Why? 46:10.699 --> 46:15.649 Because they're descendants of liberty-loving English citizens. 46:15.650 --> 46:18.630 To those who argued that giving concessions to the colonists 46:18.630 --> 46:21.460 would encourage them to demand even more concessions, 46:21.460 --> 46:23.010 Burke said, he doubted whether, quote, 46:23.010 --> 46:23.790 "giving... 46:23.791 --> 46:26.611 two millions of my fellow citizens, some share of those 46:26.605 --> 46:29.415 rights, which I have always been taught to value," 46:29.420 --> 46:31.140 would bring down the empire. 46:31.139 --> 46:32.579 And he had a dramatic conclusion. 46:32.579 --> 46:35.399 He said, "Let the colonies always keep the idea of their 46:35.402 --> 46:37.712 civil rights associated with your government;-- 46:37.710 --> 46:40.300 they will cling and grapple to you; 46:40.300 --> 46:43.520 and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from 46:43.518 --> 46:46.518 their allegiance But let it once be understood that your 46:46.518 --> 46:50.328 government may be one thing, and their privilege another; 46:50.329 --> 46:53.489 that these two things may exist without any mutual relation; 46:53.489 --> 46:56.889 the cement is gone; the cohesion is loosened; 46:56.889 --> 47:00.699 and everything hastens to decay and dissolution." 47:00.699 --> 47:02.969 So to the colonists then in a sense-- 47:02.969 --> 47:05.569 you can hear, to Burke as well--rebellion 47:05.568 --> 47:08.878 would be a drastic action only to be exercised by an 47:08.880 --> 47:12.710 overwhelming majority of the community against rulers who so 47:12.713 --> 47:16.743 completely ignored the terms of the original social contract as 47:16.742 --> 47:21.032 to make further allegiance a crime against God and reason. 47:21.030 --> 47:24.550 And it's really only by grasping this mindset and really 47:24.550 --> 47:28.390 taking it seriously that we can begin to understand events to 47:28.389 --> 47:32.229 come that ultimately will lead to what is seen at the time as 47:32.230 --> 47:35.110 that last dire step towards revolution. 47:35.110 --> 47:36.470 I will stop there. 47:36.469 --> 47:38.979 I will see you on Tuesday. 47:38.980 --> 47:44.250 Happy paper-completing and have a good weekend. 47:44.250 --> 47:49.000