Revolution 250 Podcast
Revolution 250 Podcast
Heroes of 1776 with Janie Nitze
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Janie Nitze and Justice Neil Gorsuch have written a book for young readers, Heroes of 1776: The Story of the Declaration of Independence, bringing to life the individuals—famous and overlooked—who shaped one of the most consequential documents in world history.
The book delves into the personalities, debates, and risks that defined the summer of 1776, revealing the Declaration not simply as a statement of ideals, but as a bold act of defiance undertaken by real people facing uncertain futures. From the familiar names like Jefferson and Adams to lesser-known figures like Elizabeth Lewis or Emily Geiger whose contributions have often been overshadowed, this conversation uncovers the rich human tapestry behind America’s “birth certificate.”
This episode invites listeners to reconsider the Declaration as both a political document and a profoundly personal commitment—one that continues to echo through the ongoing story of the American experiment.
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Hello, everyone,
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and welcome to the Revolution two fifty
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podcast.
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I'm Bob Allison.
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I co-chair the Rev two fifty advisory
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group.
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We are a consortium of about seventy five
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organizations in Massachusetts planning
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commemorations of the beginnings of
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American independence.
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And our guest today is Janie Nitze,
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and she is most recently the co-author of
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Heroes of the Story of the Declaration of
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Independence,
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co-written with Associate Justice Neil
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Gorsuch.
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And this is actually your third
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collaboration with Justice Gorsuch,
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and you also clerked for him,
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as well as for Justice Sotomayor.
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And so we're really happy to have you
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with us, Janie.
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Well, I'm so honored to be here.
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I'm just delighted to be speaking with
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you.
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And you've done so much to advance the
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knowledge of U.S.
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history.
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So thank you.
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I'm delighted to be here.
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Well, thank you so much.
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And your book really is capturing the
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story of the Declaration of Independence
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and actually of the beginning of the
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revolution, really for younger readers.
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And it's beautifully illustrated and the
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story itself is really well told.
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So what led you to do this book
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for this particular audience?
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Sure.
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Well,
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as your listeners know more than anyone,
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this year is the two hundred fiftieth
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anniversary of the declaration.
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And Americans will celebrate with
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fireworks and barbecues and picnics,
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as John Adams predicted they would,
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although he thought it would happen on
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July second, not July four.
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Right.
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And, you know, there'll also be, I'm sure,
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speeches and articles about the events
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that led to the Declaration,
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so the Stamp Act and Tea Party and
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blockade of Boston.
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But we wanted to tell with the justice
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some of the human stories behind the
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Declaration,
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a little bit behind the Revolution as
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well.
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So we focused on the Declaration.
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And there are just so many stories of
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courage and sacrifice and stories that
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even I think adults may not know of.
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We tell the story of Cesar Rodney, who
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We're at eighty miles to the night of
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thunderstorms.
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We're cancer eating away at his face to
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break a tie vote in the Second Continental
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Congress.
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And why young children?
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We, you know,
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the justice is passionate about civic
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education.
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I am as well.
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I have three young kids.
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And I do think there's a lack of,
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you know,
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focus out there again on sort of the
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human virtues that brought about our
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nation, courage, sacrifice, sense of duty,
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sense of honor.
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And so we thought we would direct the
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story to young children.
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But hopefully adults will learn something
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as well.
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I certainly did in researching it.
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I learned things in reading it, too.
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I mean,
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just ways of emphasizing certain things.
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What's the thing you think that surprised
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you the most in doing the research for
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what is to us a well-known story,
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but you're really finding pieces of it
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that are surprising?
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I think what probably surprised me the
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most at a high level,
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and then maybe I can tell sort of
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one of the stories that surprised me the
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most,
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but was the
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consistency of the suffering of the
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signers especially.
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So there were fifty-six signers of the
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Declaration.
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First of all, you know,
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few of them had really been born into
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kind of a
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wealth.
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I think a third were wealthy,
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but almost all were the first generation
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to go to college.
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I think I read some statistics somewhere
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that of the ninety nine men that signed
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the Declaration of the Constitution,
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only nine had fathers who had gone to
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college for the first generation.
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There were farmers, merchants,
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businessmen.
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There was a minister among the bunch.
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And
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They were men who by and large could
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have probably been better off staying
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quiet,
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probably been better off or letting things
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go and amassing titles or wealth under
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British rule.
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But instead,
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they took a stand at a time when
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you know,
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the thirteen colonies going against one of
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those powerful empires in the world,
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most powerful navy empire that had an army
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that was professional, well-trained,
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won battles around the globe.
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I mean,
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what they expected out of this was truly
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death by hanging, right, for treason.
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And in the end,
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Five were captured by the British.
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One had a son who died.
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Another had two sons who were captured,
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thrown in dungeons.
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A third had their homes fully destroyed or
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damaged.
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And nearly all were left poor for their
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dedication to the cause.
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So I think the consistency of the
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suffering is really what was remarkable.
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That is really something that comes
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across.
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And then you even have stories of
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families, like Elizabeth Lewis's story.
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She's arrested after this.
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Can you tell us a little bit more
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about her?
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Sure.
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So one of the signers of the Declaration
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was Francis Lewis.
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And shortly after signing the Declaration
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in the fall,
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early fall of seventeen seventy six,
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they actually didn't sign it until some
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time after they agreed to independence.
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The British started to march on his home
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in New York and he wasn't home,
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but his wife, Elizabeth, was.
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And sort of family lore, because
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you know,
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later generations had written books about.
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The family lore has it that she stood
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on her porch as the British were
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approaching and they fired a shot and it
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landed her feet, but she refused to budge.
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And she apparently said, you know,
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said to some, you know, felt that,
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you know,
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another shot is not likely to land in
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the same spot.
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Again, sort of the stoicism, you know,
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the courage of the time.
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And the British captured her and they
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threw her in a dungeon.
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And she was released months later,
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but her health was totally broken after
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that.
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And she died shortly thereafter.
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Francis Lewis himself, you know,
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grief-stricken.
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He died too before the revolution was even
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completed.
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He didn't see the end of the revolution.
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So really it was certainly a family
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affair.
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And we tell towards the end of the
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book that the revolution itself, you know,
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women, children,
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many people contributed to the success of
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the revolution.
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My favorite story, actually,
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one we don't tell in the book,
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and part of the book, I mean,
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our hope is,
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what's the appetite of some young children
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to go out and learn more,
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is a story of a ten-year-old,
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Richard Lord Jones,
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who becomes a fifer in the Continental
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Army,
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and he stays with the Army for three
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years, and then when he's released,
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he's released a hundred and fifty miles
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from home, and he walks home, you know,
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and I have three kids,
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and I try to raise them to be
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independent and good walkers,
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but
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You know,
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telling them these stories is so
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important, right?
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These weren't superheroes.
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This ten-year-old was a superman.
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But to look at what he could achieve,
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I think our hope, too,
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is that young people would be inspired a
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little bit by hearing some of these
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stories.
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It's really true.
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I mean,
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we look at these stories of suffering,
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and sometimes the emphasis is,
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this is really a bad thing,
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but here the story is actually something
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else.
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It's an inspirational things that you can
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do, like Richard Lord Jones,
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and I hope there is a sequel with
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that story.
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Emily Geiger is another story you tell in
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here,
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a young woman who's taking a message on
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horseback, and when she is captured,
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she eats the message.
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She's memorized the message and eats it,
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so she gets on to...
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with the message.
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No, absolutely.
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She's only eighteen years old.
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She volunteers when no one else will.
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She has to ride through enemy territory.
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And, you know,
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this piece isn't in the book,
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but the generals didn't want to let her
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go.
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They were reluctant to let her go.
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And she perseveres.
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She argues her way into taking this deadly
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mission in a way.
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It's really it's really remarkable.
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It really is.
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What inspired them?
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I mean,
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what led to this cohort of people who
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were ready to risk their lives,
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their fortunes, and their sacred honor,
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which you really show in the book,
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are more than just simply words.
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Right, right.
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I think what inspired them was a vision
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of equality and liberty,
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the ideals of the Declaration.
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And what I find remarkable, too,
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is it was more a vision for future
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generations, for posterity than their own.
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I mean,
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they knew full well that what they could
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expect in their lifetimes was loss of
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fortune, loss of farms, loss of fathers,
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brothers.
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children, their own lives.
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There's this one quote that I believe we
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have in the book from John Adams.
00:08:19.925 --> 00:08:21.666
He wrote home to Abigail after the vote
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for independence and he said,
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I am well aware of the toil and
00:08:27.160 --> 00:08:28.781
the blood and the treasure that it will
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take to maintain this declaration.
00:08:31.343 --> 00:08:32.583
But through all the gloom,
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I can see the rays of ravishing light.
00:08:34.905 --> 00:08:36.547
I can see the end is worth more
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than all the .
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And again,
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he was sort of looking forward to the
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future times.
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And so I think they were inspired by
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that.
00:08:44.011 --> 00:08:44.712
Nathan Hale,
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We have in the books for his famous
00:08:47.134 --> 00:08:47.594
line,
00:08:47.673 --> 00:08:51.716
he volunteers as a soldier at age twenty.
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He's caught a year later.
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He's hanged as a spy.
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He's standing on the gallows and nooses
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putting around his neck.
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And legend has it that he says,
00:09:00.019 --> 00:09:01.701
I regret that I have only one life
00:09:01.740 --> 00:09:03.922
to live, to lose for my country.
00:09:04.902 --> 00:09:05.121
Right.
00:09:05.201 --> 00:09:06.182
Actually, when he enlisted,
00:09:06.202 --> 00:09:07.663
he wrote a letter home to his father
00:09:07.702 --> 00:09:08.224
and he said,
00:09:08.264 --> 00:09:11.544
a sense of duty inspired me to sacrifice
00:09:11.664 --> 00:09:13.125
all that I had for my country.
00:09:14.125 --> 00:09:15.486
So I think there was a real love
00:09:15.567 --> 00:09:17.629
of country patriotism,
00:09:17.729 --> 00:09:19.990
love of the vision of liberty and equality
00:09:20.009 --> 00:09:21.150
that are in the Declaration.
00:09:21.610 --> 00:09:22.211
Right.
00:09:22.292 --> 00:09:24.092
And it's certainly something the book
00:09:24.253 --> 00:09:27.715
hopes to revive or to inspire and get
00:09:28.235 --> 00:09:30.376
young people to understand this is also
00:09:30.397 --> 00:09:31.638
their story and their cause,
00:09:31.697 --> 00:09:32.378
whether they are,
00:09:33.538 --> 00:09:35.360
whether their ancestors were here or
00:09:35.419 --> 00:09:37.461
whether they, like many of us,
00:09:37.520 --> 00:09:38.942
have arrived more recently,
00:09:38.981 --> 00:09:41.024
that this is really, it is,
00:09:41.344 --> 00:09:43.184
they knew this was an inspiring story.
00:09:43.865 --> 00:09:46.506
And one person who doesn't loom large in
00:09:46.527 --> 00:09:47.606
the book is Washington.
00:09:47.647 --> 00:09:49.648
And we see much the same story in
00:09:49.687 --> 00:09:52.068
his writings about a feeling for most of
00:09:52.089 --> 00:09:53.328
the war like they were going to lose.
00:09:53.349 --> 00:09:54.830
And then his only recourse was to go
00:09:54.870 --> 00:09:56.110
west of the mountains and live in a
00:09:56.169 --> 00:09:56.330
hut.
00:09:56.350 --> 00:09:58.530
But again,
00:09:58.551 --> 00:10:01.412
the end is where everyone can sit beneath
00:10:01.451 --> 00:10:03.072
his own vine and fig tree and nothing
00:10:03.092 --> 00:10:03.793
can make him afraid.
00:10:04.548 --> 00:10:05.349
Right.
00:10:05.369 --> 00:10:05.928
No, absolutely.
00:10:05.948 --> 00:10:07.590
I mean, that was exactly, exactly.
00:10:07.909 --> 00:10:09.270
And I love that with Washington.
00:10:09.291 --> 00:10:10.812
I mean, you're absolutely right.
00:10:10.831 --> 00:10:11.773
He, you know,
00:10:11.812 --> 00:10:14.173
he was losing the war for most of
00:10:14.254 --> 00:10:14.394
it.
00:10:14.894 --> 00:10:16.176
And he didn't, you know,
00:10:16.235 --> 00:10:17.636
at the time that he accepted the
00:10:17.677 --> 00:10:20.259
commission to lead the Continental Army,
00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:23.100
he was telling folks that night, he said,
00:10:23.520 --> 00:10:25.062
I know that I've just agreed to the
00:10:25.121 --> 00:10:27.363
ruin of my reputation because no one
00:10:27.403 --> 00:10:28.823
thought that they could win.
00:10:29.325 --> 00:10:31.086
And it wasn't until years into the war
00:10:31.125 --> 00:10:32.746
that really close to the end that the
00:10:32.826 --> 00:10:33.868
tide began to turn.
00:10:34.807 --> 00:10:35.668
You know,
00:10:35.688 --> 00:10:37.208
many say that he did the greatest service
00:10:37.229 --> 00:10:39.210
to the Republic by also relinquishing
00:10:39.250 --> 00:10:40.389
power, you know,
00:10:40.409 --> 00:10:42.610
knowing that he was setting up, you know,
00:10:42.691 --> 00:10:43.751
he was the first president.
00:10:43.792 --> 00:10:46.452
He was setting a precedent going forward
00:10:46.493 --> 00:10:48.073
for the Republic and who relinquished it
00:10:48.094 --> 00:10:48.594
twice,
00:10:48.714 --> 00:10:50.153
once giving up his military commission,
00:10:50.234 --> 00:10:52.434
another time declining to run for a third
00:10:52.475 --> 00:10:53.655
term.
00:10:53.735 --> 00:10:53.875
Yeah.
00:10:54.298 --> 00:10:55.879
It really is a great story.
00:10:56.039 --> 00:10:57.662
And we're talking with Janie Nitze,
00:10:57.701 --> 00:10:58.422
whose new book,
00:10:58.482 --> 00:11:00.365
which she has co-written with Justice Neil
00:11:00.424 --> 00:11:00.904
Gorsuch,
00:11:01.065 --> 00:11:03.988
is The Heroes of Seventeen Seventy- The
00:11:04.028 --> 00:11:06.811
Story of the Declaration of Independence.
00:11:07.412 --> 00:11:08.393
And it really is about a lot of
00:11:08.432 --> 00:11:08.933
people.
00:11:09.033 --> 00:11:11.155
Much of the focus is on the signers
00:11:11.235 --> 00:11:12.376
and their stories.
00:11:13.177 --> 00:11:14.820
Some of them, of course, are well known,
00:11:14.860 --> 00:11:16.701
but then there are others more obscure
00:11:16.740 --> 00:11:18.363
that probably deserve to be better known,
00:11:18.403 --> 00:11:21.284
like Richard Stockton and John Hart,
00:11:21.325 --> 00:11:24.648
who are two signers who really come to
00:11:24.808 --> 00:11:27.630
untimely ends shortly after this act of
00:11:27.671 --> 00:11:28.110
heroism,
00:11:28.130 --> 00:11:30.253
which they knew was actually going to
00:11:30.734 --> 00:11:32.014
might sacrifice their lives.
00:11:32.034 --> 00:11:34.037
Can we talk a little bit about Stockton
00:11:34.236 --> 00:11:34.817
and Hart?
00:11:35.938 --> 00:11:36.198
Sure.
00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:38.760
These are two delegates from New Jersey.
00:11:39.721 --> 00:11:41.802
Stockton, after signing the declaration,
00:11:42.764 --> 00:11:44.884
went north to help the army with their
00:11:44.926 --> 00:11:46.706
supplies, and he wrote a letter home,
00:11:46.746 --> 00:11:48.187
and we excerpt some of it in the
00:11:48.227 --> 00:11:48.508
book.
00:11:48.788 --> 00:11:52.030
He wrote of just the absolute
00:11:53.412 --> 00:11:54.993
almost horror of what he saw.
00:11:55.072 --> 00:11:57.134
These men in the army had,
00:11:57.154 --> 00:11:58.356
some had no shoes,
00:11:58.376 --> 00:11:59.538
they were walking barefoot,
00:12:00.138 --> 00:12:01.559
walking barefoot in winter often,
00:12:02.139 --> 00:12:04.302
ragged clothes, not enough ammunition,
00:12:04.322 --> 00:12:05.263
no stockings.
00:12:05.302 --> 00:12:07.625
And so he actually gave them most of
00:12:07.666 --> 00:12:09.868
his stockings and worked to sort of
00:12:09.927 --> 00:12:10.688
resupply them.
00:12:10.729 --> 00:12:12.770
And then he got word that the British
00:12:12.811 --> 00:12:14.072
were marching on his home.
00:12:14.111 --> 00:12:14.552
And so he
00:12:15.432 --> 00:12:18.754
fled home and managed to remove his wife
00:12:18.774 --> 00:12:20.215
and children to the home of a friend.
00:12:20.274 --> 00:12:22.235
He stayed at another home with a friend.
00:12:23.135 --> 00:12:24.336
Loyalists betrayed him.
00:12:24.836 --> 00:12:26.697
He's dragged from his bed in the middle
00:12:26.736 --> 00:12:29.158
of the night, locked up.
00:12:30.118 --> 00:12:31.599
He is released months later.
00:12:31.658 --> 00:12:32.999
There was some sort of negotiations that
00:12:33.019 --> 00:12:33.558
took place.
00:12:33.578 --> 00:12:34.039
But in the meantime,
00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:35.480
the British burned his home.
00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.000
He had apparently the most prized library
00:12:38.041 --> 00:12:38.900
in all the colonies.
00:12:38.921 --> 00:12:40.162
They burned the library.
00:12:40.201 --> 00:12:41.902
He returns home to essentially nothing.
00:12:41.922 --> 00:12:42.923
He's left a poor man.
00:12:43.863 --> 00:12:45.303
John Hart, similar story.
00:12:45.344 --> 00:12:48.706
He returns home after the signing and his
00:12:48.765 --> 00:12:49.547
wife is dying.
00:12:49.606 --> 00:12:52.087
He stays by her deathbed as he hears
00:12:52.548 --> 00:12:54.529
news that the British are approaching his
00:12:54.570 --> 00:12:54.990
farm.
00:12:55.549 --> 00:12:57.250
He flees the last minute to the woods.
00:12:57.291 --> 00:12:59.131
It's the dead of winter and he hides.
00:12:59.832 --> 00:13:01.614
He actually writes of the ordeal
00:13:01.693 --> 00:13:02.114
afterwards.
00:13:02.134 --> 00:13:02.333
He said,
00:13:02.374 --> 00:13:03.495
I never spent a night in the same
00:13:03.514 --> 00:13:04.154
place twice.
00:13:04.315 --> 00:13:04.895
You know, he hides in
00:13:06.556 --> 00:13:08.177
in barns, in the forest.
00:13:08.216 --> 00:13:11.138
He writes once of sharing the bed of
00:13:11.197 --> 00:13:11.878
a dog.
00:13:13.239 --> 00:13:15.078
He who dies before the revolution is over.
00:13:15.139 --> 00:13:15.799
I mean, again,
00:13:16.240 --> 00:13:18.160
the degree of sacrifice for future
00:13:18.181 --> 00:13:19.740
generations is really remarkable.
00:13:20.581 --> 00:13:21.182
It really is.
00:13:21.221 --> 00:13:22.682
We're talking with Janie Nitze,
00:13:22.721 --> 00:13:23.802
whose new book,
00:13:23.863 --> 00:13:25.582
which she has co-written with Justice
00:13:25.682 --> 00:13:26.182
Gorsuch,
00:13:26.302 --> 00:13:29.605
is Heroes of the Story of the Declaration
00:13:29.644 --> 00:13:30.345
of Independence.
00:13:31.004 --> 00:13:33.727
which also has tremendous illustrations.
00:13:33.768 --> 00:13:35.309
Can you tell us anything more about Chris
00:13:35.350 --> 00:13:36.811
Ellison, who is your illustrator,
00:13:36.851 --> 00:13:40.556
and what kind of collaboration it is to
00:13:40.735 --> 00:13:43.779
do an illustrated book where the pictures
00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:46.202
really do as much or more than the
00:13:46.264 --> 00:13:48.086
text to carry it or to captivate?
00:13:48.923 --> 00:13:49.783
I mean,
00:13:49.802 --> 00:13:51.565
we are so lucky to have Chris Ellison.
00:13:51.585 --> 00:13:51.985
I mean,
00:13:52.105 --> 00:13:53.306
his illustrations really make the book.
00:13:53.326 --> 00:13:55.388
They're incredibly captivating and
00:13:55.427 --> 00:13:56.068
compelling.
00:13:56.129 --> 00:13:58.370
And he doesn't work with AI or digital
00:13:58.431 --> 00:13:58.650
media.
00:13:58.671 --> 00:13:59.711
It's all by hand.
00:14:00.793 --> 00:14:01.953
And, you know,
00:14:02.714 --> 00:14:04.095
I don't know how it works with other
00:14:04.134 --> 00:14:04.436
books,
00:14:04.475 --> 00:14:06.717
but he was the type of illustrator who
00:14:06.878 --> 00:14:09.000
he did so much of his own research.
00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:09.279
Mm-hmm.
00:14:09.980 --> 00:14:10.600
And he really,
00:14:10.620 --> 00:14:12.923
the details on every single page,
00:14:13.043 --> 00:14:14.485
the accuracy of it, you know,
00:14:14.926 --> 00:14:17.889
who was standing around Thomas Jefferson's
00:14:17.948 --> 00:14:18.708
deathbed, right?
00:14:19.570 --> 00:14:21.392
We actually know that from historical
00:14:21.432 --> 00:14:21.753
records.
00:14:21.773 --> 00:14:23.333
There's some dispute because people wrote
00:14:23.374 --> 00:14:24.195
different memories,
00:14:24.215 --> 00:14:26.597
but we know largely who was around Thomas
00:14:26.638 --> 00:14:27.538
Jefferson's bed.
00:14:28.139 --> 00:14:30.301
And he captured that accurately.
00:14:31.381 --> 00:14:35.945
And so we had come across him because
00:14:36.085 --> 00:14:39.206
of other books he had done,
00:14:39.707 --> 00:14:41.668
many of them historical fiction books.
00:14:41.749 --> 00:14:43.990
And we just immediately knew that if we
00:14:44.230 --> 00:14:45.932
could possibly be so fortunate to have
00:14:45.971 --> 00:14:46.091
him,
00:14:46.192 --> 00:14:48.594
that that's who we wanted because his
00:14:49.254 --> 00:14:51.014
illustrations really are so captivating.
00:14:51.054 --> 00:14:53.116
I think even young kids who can't yet
00:14:53.197 --> 00:14:54.837
read just to flip through and see some
00:14:54.937 --> 00:14:56.298
of the drawings.
00:14:56.339 --> 00:14:57.399
I mean,
00:14:57.418 --> 00:14:59.421
it really brings to life the stories.
00:15:00.153 --> 00:15:00.894
Really does.
00:15:00.913 --> 00:15:02.134
Does this make you want to do more
00:15:02.174 --> 00:15:02.875
books for children?
00:15:03.955 --> 00:15:04.716
Yes, actually.
00:15:05.875 --> 00:15:06.076
Yes.
00:15:06.115 --> 00:15:06.316
I mean,
00:15:06.336 --> 00:15:07.697
I feel like there are so many stories.
00:15:07.756 --> 00:15:08.756
Once you start digging into it,
00:15:08.996 --> 00:15:09.797
you know better than I.
00:15:09.876 --> 00:15:10.638
Once you start digging in,
00:15:10.658 --> 00:15:12.477
there's so many stories out there.
00:15:13.097 --> 00:15:14.399
Henry Knox and the Cannon.
00:15:15.499 --> 00:15:15.719
Oh, yes.
00:15:15.859 --> 00:15:15.938
Yes.
00:15:15.958 --> 00:15:16.539
Bookseller.
00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:17.360
Just a bookseller.
00:15:17.379 --> 00:15:17.799
He's twenty.
00:15:17.820 --> 00:15:20.681
He has no idea how to any supply.
00:15:20.941 --> 00:15:21.280
Nothing.
00:15:21.301 --> 00:15:22.601
And he goes and he travels.
00:15:22.682 --> 00:15:25.003
I think it was three hundred miles to
00:15:25.062 --> 00:15:28.624
drag his cannons over frozen lakes.
00:15:29.144 --> 00:15:30.725
to arrive in Boston and break the
00:15:30.845 --> 00:15:31.745
blockade.
00:15:31.784 --> 00:15:33.365
I mean, just incredible stories.
00:15:33.405 --> 00:15:34.206
I would love to do some more.
00:15:34.245 --> 00:15:34.446
Absolutely.
00:15:34.785 --> 00:15:35.586
Yeah, that's good.
00:15:35.606 --> 00:15:36.407
That's good.
00:15:36.447 --> 00:15:36.846
Very good.
00:15:38.347 --> 00:15:39.268
I know between us,
00:15:39.288 --> 00:15:40.328
we can probably think of a lot of
00:15:40.389 --> 00:15:41.928
great stories to tell in this.
00:15:41.948 --> 00:15:42.028
Yeah.
00:15:43.889 --> 00:15:44.791
I'm wondering, too,
00:15:44.931 --> 00:15:46.750
about the collaboration.
00:15:46.910 --> 00:15:48.292
You and Justice Gorsuch are both very
00:15:48.312 --> 00:15:49.673
accomplished lawyers,
00:15:50.033 --> 00:15:53.474
and you've written two really good books
00:15:53.614 --> 00:15:57.336
about the court and the nation.
00:15:57.875 --> 00:15:59.738
So I'm wondering what then the step is
00:15:59.778 --> 00:16:02.139
to go from that level to writing for
00:16:03.201 --> 00:16:04.642
a book that's really aimed at a younger
00:16:04.682 --> 00:16:05.202
audience.
00:16:06.163 --> 00:16:06.484
Sure.
00:16:06.943 --> 00:16:08.625
Is it liberating or is it terrifying?
00:16:11.349 --> 00:16:12.730
Probably actually more terrifying than
00:16:12.889 --> 00:16:14.792
you're really stepping out of your comfort
00:16:14.831 --> 00:16:15.032
zone.
00:16:15.052 --> 00:16:16.413
You know, you know how to write briefs,
00:16:16.472 --> 00:16:17.975
you know how to write about the law
00:16:17.995 --> 00:16:18.774
and about the court.
00:16:18.794 --> 00:16:20.937
And it's a whole nother ballgame to write
00:16:20.956 --> 00:16:21.398
for kids.
00:16:21.418 --> 00:16:21.658
But I
00:16:23.945 --> 00:16:25.746
I don't believe in condescending to kids.
00:16:25.787 --> 00:16:27.849
I think kids can actually grasp a huge
00:16:27.869 --> 00:16:28.129
amount.
00:16:28.168 --> 00:16:31.712
I think sometimes we think that kids can't
00:16:31.793 --> 00:16:33.554
understand as much as they can.
00:16:34.596 --> 00:16:35.697
And I think that was part of what
00:16:35.736 --> 00:16:37.879
we discussed back and forth as we chose
00:16:38.860 --> 00:16:40.001
how much to include,
00:16:40.022 --> 00:16:42.543
the degree of difficulty of vocabulary to
00:16:42.583 --> 00:16:43.004
include.
00:16:44.645 --> 00:16:46.647
But this really stemmed from a desire.
00:16:46.667 --> 00:16:47.746
I mean, there were a couple of things.
00:16:47.927 --> 00:16:48.226
Obviously,
00:16:48.307 --> 00:16:50.087
it's the two fiftieth anniversary of that
00:16:50.128 --> 00:16:50.768
operation.
00:16:50.788 --> 00:16:52.947
We want to talk about the private virtues
00:16:52.967 --> 00:16:54.668
that it took to maintain the republic.
00:16:55.389 --> 00:16:57.009
Our first book or his first book was
00:16:57.070 --> 00:16:57.730
named Republic.
00:16:57.769 --> 00:16:58.730
If you can keep it,
00:16:59.409 --> 00:17:01.311
it's up to all of us to to
00:17:01.410 --> 00:17:04.030
learn about our rights and to preserve it
00:17:04.050 --> 00:17:04.832
for our generation,
00:17:04.872 --> 00:17:05.912
for future generations.
00:17:05.991 --> 00:17:08.173
And he was very strong in civic education.
00:17:08.252 --> 00:17:09.292
I do as well.
00:17:09.413 --> 00:17:12.034
So it felt like a fairly natural step
00:17:12.074 --> 00:17:12.294
to
00:17:13.634 --> 00:17:15.034
to turn to writing a kid's book,
00:17:15.074 --> 00:17:16.615
especially this year with the two fiftieth
00:17:16.654 --> 00:17:16.974
coming on.
00:17:17.015 --> 00:17:18.335
And I do hope it's one of many,
00:17:18.375 --> 00:17:18.755
but we'll see.
00:17:18.795 --> 00:17:20.935
I hope so too.
00:17:20.976 --> 00:17:22.855
Did your kids have a chance to read
00:17:22.875 --> 00:17:23.916
it and comment on it?
00:17:24.616 --> 00:17:25.136
Yes, yes.
00:17:25.196 --> 00:17:27.277
And they commented on various drafts and
00:17:27.297 --> 00:17:28.178
they gave us good feedback.
00:17:28.218 --> 00:17:29.758
I mean, mommy,
00:17:29.798 --> 00:17:31.278
this part is boring or mommy,
00:17:31.298 --> 00:17:32.378
I don't understand this part.
00:17:32.419 --> 00:17:36.720
And it's important to listen to kids.
00:17:36.740 --> 00:17:37.799
They know best.
00:17:37.819 --> 00:17:38.579
So they absolutely did.
00:17:39.481 --> 00:17:40.082
That's very true.
00:17:40.182 --> 00:17:41.663
You can sense that when you're reading to
00:17:41.702 --> 00:17:42.982
them or when they're reading a book,
00:17:43.022 --> 00:17:43.843
what's going to.
00:17:44.282 --> 00:17:46.023
And I think attaching getting the human
00:17:46.084 --> 00:17:47.903
side of this really helps as telling the
00:17:47.923 --> 00:17:49.663
stories of people.
00:17:49.743 --> 00:17:50.265
Yeah, no,
00:17:50.345 --> 00:17:51.765
I think that's that's absolutely right.
00:17:51.785 --> 00:17:52.744
And that was a piece of it.
00:17:52.785 --> 00:17:54.224
And I think also hearing from them
00:17:54.726 --> 00:17:56.026
sometimes because we had some adult
00:17:56.046 --> 00:17:56.965
readers, of course, read it, too.
00:17:57.006 --> 00:17:58.145
And sometimes we'd hear from them.
00:17:59.086 --> 00:18:00.446
This seems a little dark.
00:18:00.467 --> 00:18:02.547
You know, some of the John Hart, right?
00:18:03.728 --> 00:18:05.847
Someone's son is throwing in a dungeon.
00:18:05.867 --> 00:18:06.728
He has no food.
00:18:06.768 --> 00:18:08.788
Someone's stuffing, you know, fellow
00:18:10.970 --> 00:18:11.710
through the keyhole.
00:18:12.971 --> 00:18:14.051
It's all very dark.
00:18:15.352 --> 00:18:18.153
And so we question for a moment,
00:18:18.973 --> 00:18:20.134
do we excise some of that?
00:18:20.194 --> 00:18:22.415
And then ultimately,
00:18:22.997 --> 00:18:25.117
I don't know that you do a service
00:18:25.137 --> 00:18:28.279
to kids by excising the darker parts of
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:29.000
life.
00:18:30.401 --> 00:18:30.681
you know,
00:18:31.040 --> 00:18:32.682
the darker parts of this story are mixed
00:18:32.761 --> 00:18:35.023
up fully with the sacrifice and the
00:18:35.044 --> 00:18:36.005
courage piece of the story.
00:18:36.045 --> 00:18:37.164
So you can't even do the justice,
00:18:37.184 --> 00:18:37.525
you know,
00:18:37.545 --> 00:18:39.586
justice to the story without having it in
00:18:39.606 --> 00:18:39.787
there.
00:18:40.146 --> 00:18:41.847
And then when my kids finally read the
00:18:41.867 --> 00:18:42.208
book, I mean,
00:18:42.228 --> 00:18:43.528
those were some of their favorite parts.
00:18:43.909 --> 00:18:45.410
So, yeah,
00:18:45.450 --> 00:18:46.570
it is something they'll remember.
00:18:46.611 --> 00:18:47.872
Right.
00:18:50.133 --> 00:18:50.853
We forget, right?
00:18:50.893 --> 00:18:52.314
Hans Christian Andersen, you know,
00:18:52.334 --> 00:18:53.513
some of those early fairy tales,
00:18:53.534 --> 00:18:55.154
they were dark fairy tales and they've
00:18:55.174 --> 00:18:57.115
been sort of turned over the last hundred
00:18:57.155 --> 00:18:59.215
years and by Disney to have for the
00:18:59.256 --> 00:19:00.717
most part were happy endings,
00:19:00.757 --> 00:19:02.076
but they didn't necessarily have happy
00:19:02.136 --> 00:19:03.178
endings at the time that they were
00:19:03.198 --> 00:19:03.417
written.
00:19:04.633 --> 00:19:05.093
That's true.
00:19:06.013 --> 00:19:08.316
And I think that maybe it's the nature
00:19:08.355 --> 00:19:08.817
of our time,
00:19:08.836 --> 00:19:10.458
that we don't want happy endings at a
00:19:10.518 --> 00:19:11.960
time when we seem to be surrounded by
00:19:12.019 --> 00:19:12.839
doom and gloom.
00:19:12.900 --> 00:19:15.301
But we don't want to prepare kids for
00:19:15.363 --> 00:19:15.823
this world.
00:19:15.863 --> 00:19:16.282
And in fact,
00:19:16.604 --> 00:19:17.625
one of the themes of the book is
00:19:18.005 --> 00:19:19.625
they're making this a better world by
00:19:19.746 --> 00:19:21.248
going through these things.
00:19:21.788 --> 00:19:22.269
Exactly.
00:19:22.368 --> 00:19:22.868
No, exactly.
00:19:22.888 --> 00:19:24.289
We didn't want to shy away from that.
00:19:24.611 --> 00:19:27.212
We thought that was an important piece.
00:19:28.892 --> 00:19:31.554
So you do end with the fiftieth
00:19:31.594 --> 00:19:34.957
anniversary, and both Adams and Jefferson,
00:19:35.237 --> 00:19:36.617
they see this as providential.
00:19:36.798 --> 00:19:37.519
It's a sign.
00:19:38.179 --> 00:19:42.782
And in fact, Jefferson's last words were,
00:19:42.863 --> 00:19:43.784
is it the fourth?
00:19:43.864 --> 00:19:44.664
And you tell that.
00:19:46.057 --> 00:19:49.059
And then getting back to Adams' a week
00:19:49.099 --> 00:19:50.520
or two before when they asked for a
00:19:50.601 --> 00:19:52.061
toast for the town of Quincy
00:19:52.102 --> 00:19:53.603
commemorating, and he says,
00:19:53.823 --> 00:19:54.923
independence forever.
00:19:55.565 --> 00:19:57.665
And then they ask, anything else?
00:19:57.685 --> 00:19:59.146
And he says, not a word.
00:19:59.567 --> 00:20:01.148
It just seems like such a great ending
00:20:01.769 --> 00:20:03.490
that leaving that open,
00:20:04.310 --> 00:20:05.352
as with a republic,
00:20:05.471 --> 00:20:06.532
if you can keep it,
00:20:06.573 --> 00:20:08.934
this is the next step is really up
00:20:08.954 --> 00:20:09.095
to you.
00:20:09.134 --> 00:20:10.375
I'm sorry, I'm telling the story now.
00:20:11.396 --> 00:20:13.878
No, no, you did a perfect job.
00:20:13.999 --> 00:20:14.939
No, that's absolutely right.
00:20:16.840 --> 00:20:21.505
They believed deeply in the need for each
00:20:21.545 --> 00:20:24.366
generation to understand the Republic and
00:20:24.446 --> 00:20:26.308
to be in order to be able to
00:20:26.368 --> 00:20:27.108
perpetuate it.
00:20:27.148 --> 00:20:28.971
So one thing that we didn't put in
00:20:28.990 --> 00:20:29.250
the book,
00:20:29.270 --> 00:20:31.272
but you of course know Thomas Jefferson,
00:20:31.712 --> 00:20:33.694
he designed his own two stone.
00:20:34.414 --> 00:20:37.355
And this supremely accomplished man,
00:20:37.715 --> 00:20:39.557
first Secretary of State,
00:20:41.017 --> 00:20:43.458
second Vice President, third President,
00:20:43.877 --> 00:20:45.318
he didn't list any of those
00:20:45.338 --> 00:20:46.838
accomplishments on his tombstone.
00:20:46.858 --> 00:20:48.259
And what he actually wanted instead,
00:20:48.339 --> 00:20:49.640
one of the three things he wanted,
00:20:49.660 --> 00:20:50.560
of course,
00:20:50.621 --> 00:20:51.840
author of the Declaration of Independence,
00:20:51.861 --> 00:20:54.221
but he also wanted that he was a
00:20:54.422 --> 00:20:56.262
father of the University of Virginia.
00:20:56.962 --> 00:20:59.703
And he believed so critically in civic
00:20:59.784 --> 00:21:02.825
education, and he and many other founders,
00:21:03.365 --> 00:21:05.567
talk constantly of the need to have a
00:21:05.627 --> 00:21:07.872
citizenry who were enlightened about their
00:21:07.912 --> 00:21:08.311
rights,
00:21:08.332 --> 00:21:10.355
about how a republic functions in order to
00:21:10.394 --> 00:21:11.155
perpetuate it.
00:21:11.497 --> 00:21:13.138
And again, going back to the first book,
00:21:13.159 --> 00:21:14.361
a republic if you can keep it.
00:21:20.011 --> 00:21:20.291
And again,
00:21:20.311 --> 00:21:21.992
those are both very forward looking
00:21:22.012 --> 00:21:22.192
things.
00:21:22.212 --> 00:21:22.532
And of course,
00:21:22.553 --> 00:21:24.314
the third thing was he was the author
00:21:24.354 --> 00:21:26.054
of the Virginia Statute for Religious
00:21:26.095 --> 00:21:26.434
Freedom,
00:21:26.454 --> 00:21:28.375
which really sets the American Republic on
00:21:28.394 --> 00:21:30.536
a much different course from any other
00:21:31.136 --> 00:21:31.636
place.
00:21:32.656 --> 00:21:35.498
We're talking with Janie Nitze,
00:21:35.518 --> 00:21:37.798
who is the co-author of Heroes of
00:21:37.858 --> 00:21:39.059
Seventeen Seventy Six,
00:21:39.079 --> 00:21:40.640
the story of the Declaration of
00:21:40.701 --> 00:21:41.280
Independence,
00:21:41.901 --> 00:21:43.821
really written for a younger audience.
00:21:43.862 --> 00:21:44.102
By the way,
00:21:44.122 --> 00:21:45.803
do you have a particular age group in
00:21:45.843 --> 00:21:46.663
mind for this?
00:21:48.727 --> 00:21:51.289
I think probably maybe I would say six
00:21:51.309 --> 00:21:52.791
to fourteen ideal,
00:21:52.852 --> 00:21:53.814
but it can be a range.
00:21:53.834 --> 00:21:55.336
You could have younger kids where the
00:21:55.776 --> 00:21:57.698
parents just point to the illustrations
00:21:57.718 --> 00:21:59.079
and tell a little bit of the story.
00:21:59.140 --> 00:22:01.502
And I think you can have older older
00:22:01.522 --> 00:22:02.625
kids as well learn from it.
00:22:04.420 --> 00:22:05.320
It really seems like that,
00:22:05.340 --> 00:22:07.544
that it really is so beautifully
00:22:07.624 --> 00:22:10.867
illustrated that anyone can find something
00:22:11.008 --> 00:22:11.268
in it.
00:22:11.288 --> 00:22:14.192
And then the text itself is really a
00:22:14.251 --> 00:22:17.434
very well done history of this particular
00:22:18.076 --> 00:22:19.458
event with a lot of surprising things.
00:22:19.478 --> 00:22:19.718
In fact,
00:22:19.778 --> 00:22:21.299
one of my favorite stories is of Mary
00:22:21.339 --> 00:22:22.280
Catherine Goddard,
00:22:22.320 --> 00:22:23.423
the printer who does the
00:22:24.246 --> 00:22:26.028
First printing of it with all of the
00:22:26.068 --> 00:22:27.691
signers' names,
00:22:27.810 --> 00:22:30.755
which is the Dunlap printing just had John
00:22:30.795 --> 00:22:32.116
Hancock and Charles Thompson,
00:22:32.136 --> 00:22:34.019
but now they're all on the record.
00:22:34.640 --> 00:22:35.280
And who is she?
00:22:36.106 --> 00:22:36.788
Right.
00:22:36.827 --> 00:22:36.948
No,
00:22:37.008 --> 00:22:38.808
you're she's one of my favorite stories as
00:22:38.828 --> 00:22:39.409
well from the book.
00:22:40.670 --> 00:22:42.592
So she was she was a woman.
00:22:42.612 --> 00:22:43.471
She was born in Connecticut,
00:22:43.511 --> 00:22:45.192
followed her family,
00:22:45.413 --> 00:22:47.414
particularly her older brother, William,
00:22:47.474 --> 00:22:48.556
to Baltimore.
00:22:49.215 --> 00:22:51.218
William starts just on the eve of the
00:22:51.238 --> 00:22:51.718
revolution.
00:22:51.778 --> 00:22:52.838
I think it was for a seventeen,
00:22:52.878 --> 00:22:53.878
seventy three, seventy four.
00:22:53.898 --> 00:22:55.480
He starts the city's first newspaper.
00:22:56.181 --> 00:22:57.902
But he's something of a wanderlust.
00:22:57.942 --> 00:22:59.002
He eventually leaves.
00:22:59.042 --> 00:23:00.403
He actually goes to travel around the
00:23:00.423 --> 00:23:02.465
Thirteen Colonies to form the Continental
00:23:02.566 --> 00:23:04.787
Post as an alternative to the Royal Post.
00:23:05.508 --> 00:23:08.190
And Mary takes over the newspaper,
00:23:08.250 --> 00:23:11.071
and she turns it into a voice of
00:23:11.211 --> 00:23:12.633
patriot resistance.
00:23:13.452 --> 00:23:17.615
And this is the part that's great because
00:23:17.655 --> 00:23:19.176
it affects what comes later.
00:23:19.196 --> 00:23:20.939
As you know, she always writes,
00:23:20.999 --> 00:23:22.619
printed by M.K.
00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:23.319
Goddard,
00:23:24.585 --> 00:23:26.449
We don't know exactly why, but one,
00:23:26.489 --> 00:23:27.991
you could surmise that she's trying to
00:23:28.031 --> 00:23:29.413
hide her identity perhaps,
00:23:29.433 --> 00:23:30.236
shield her identity,
00:23:30.276 --> 00:23:32.098
maybe shield that she's a woman, right?
00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:32.961
MK Goddard.
00:23:33.828 --> 00:23:35.990
And then in January of seventeen seventy
00:23:36.050 --> 00:23:36.371
six,
00:23:36.411 --> 00:23:39.173
the second Continental Congress ends up in
00:23:39.212 --> 00:23:41.275
Baltimore, having fled Philadelphia,
00:23:41.315 --> 00:23:42.855
the British takeover of Philadelphia.
00:23:43.355 --> 00:23:45.557
And they decide at this moment that the
00:23:45.597 --> 00:23:47.660
signers names had been shielded up until
00:23:47.700 --> 00:23:48.780
then, as you point out,
00:23:48.840 --> 00:23:50.241
and two of them.
00:23:51.001 --> 00:23:52.483
And they decide at this point to print
00:23:52.503 --> 00:23:54.305
the declaration with the names of all the
00:23:54.365 --> 00:23:54.805
signers.
00:23:54.865 --> 00:23:57.326
And they turn to Mary Goddard to do
00:23:57.366 --> 00:23:57.507
so.
00:23:58.428 --> 00:23:58.847
And she,
00:23:58.887 --> 00:24:00.628
for the first time that historians know
00:24:00.729 --> 00:24:02.588
of, wrote on the Declaration,
00:24:02.648 --> 00:24:05.670
printed by Mary Catherine Goddard, which,
00:24:05.690 --> 00:24:07.030
again, you have to speculate why.
00:24:07.070 --> 00:24:08.730
But I like to think that she was
00:24:08.790 --> 00:24:10.571
signaling to the world that she stood on
00:24:10.592 --> 00:24:12.332
the side of freedoms for whatever the cost
00:24:12.352 --> 00:24:12.632
to her,
00:24:12.652 --> 00:24:13.972
because she really was identifying
00:24:14.012 --> 00:24:15.553
herself, much like the signers,
00:24:15.593 --> 00:24:16.073
as a traitor.
00:24:16.633 --> 00:24:18.094
And she could have been named for it.
00:24:19.434 --> 00:24:20.496
And she was actually remarkable.
00:24:20.615 --> 00:24:20.756
Yeah,
00:24:20.796 --> 00:24:22.017
because there was a cottage of the story
00:24:22.057 --> 00:24:24.419
where she ended up being the first
00:24:24.479 --> 00:24:26.740
postmaster of Baltimore and the first
00:24:26.840 --> 00:24:28.583
woman postmaster in all the Thirteen
00:24:28.603 --> 00:24:29.144
Colonies.
00:24:31.124 --> 00:24:34.566
The first postmaster general removes her.
00:24:35.287 --> 00:24:36.887
Some say for political reasons.
00:24:36.928 --> 00:24:38.409
He says it's because she's a woman that
00:24:38.449 --> 00:24:40.930
she can't sort of take on the labor
00:24:41.510 --> 00:24:43.372
of traveling and being postmaster.
00:24:43.392 --> 00:24:45.212
He appeals all the way up to Washington.
00:24:45.752 --> 00:24:47.074
He declines to get involved.
00:24:47.114 --> 00:24:47.894
He does respond,
00:24:47.914 --> 00:24:49.276
but declines to get involved.
00:24:49.316 --> 00:24:50.696
And then she appeals up to the Senate.
00:24:50.757 --> 00:24:53.178
Also, they declined to get involved.
00:24:53.238 --> 00:24:55.240
And she ends up running a bookstore for
00:24:55.259 --> 00:24:55.960
the rest of her life.
00:24:56.079 --> 00:24:57.040
She's a remarkable woman.
00:24:57.688 --> 00:24:59.088
She is, she is.
00:24:59.108 --> 00:25:00.990
The Massachusetts Archives has her
00:25:01.070 --> 00:25:02.951
printing on display and it's actually also
00:25:03.011 --> 00:25:05.374
signed by John Hancock as a true copy.
00:25:05.394 --> 00:25:07.435
Oh, that's incredible.
00:25:07.496 --> 00:25:09.577
And I love it because it's a declaration
00:25:09.637 --> 00:25:11.839
that does have a woman's name on it,
00:25:12.380 --> 00:25:14.301
which is unusual.
00:25:14.402 --> 00:25:16.423
All these great stories about these people
00:25:16.563 --> 00:25:18.265
really should make us think about this
00:25:18.285 --> 00:25:20.467
whole episode period in a different way
00:25:20.507 --> 00:25:22.508
because these are very much human stories
00:25:22.567 --> 00:25:24.529
and with motivations often we can
00:25:24.609 --> 00:25:25.230
understand.
00:25:26.387 --> 00:25:28.615
I hope the motivation of civic virtue and
00:25:28.776 --> 00:25:30.682
aspiring for a better life for the next
00:25:30.722 --> 00:25:32.808
generation will also be one that we can
00:25:32.950 --> 00:25:33.471
understand.
00:25:34.525 --> 00:25:35.184
No, absolutely.
00:25:35.204 --> 00:25:36.286
I mean, as you know,
00:25:36.326 --> 00:25:39.207
the founders thought that private virtue
00:25:39.907 --> 00:25:41.709
was essential to the survival of the
00:25:41.749 --> 00:25:42.308
republic.
00:25:42.868 --> 00:25:43.930
And so one of my favorite quotes,
00:25:43.950 --> 00:25:44.789
Ben Franklin said,
00:25:45.250 --> 00:25:47.632
only a virtuous people can be free.
00:25:48.112 --> 00:25:50.593
As nations become more corrupt and
00:25:50.653 --> 00:25:52.534
vicious, they have more need of a master.
00:25:52.854 --> 00:25:53.835
And I just love that quote.
00:25:53.875 --> 00:25:55.615
But there are others where John Adams
00:25:55.655 --> 00:25:56.915
writing to a young friend who said,
00:25:57.317 --> 00:25:59.857
virtue alone can be the foundations of a
00:25:59.917 --> 00:26:00.377
republic.
00:26:00.397 --> 00:26:02.019
George Washington says much the same in
00:26:02.038 --> 00:26:03.059
his farewell address.
00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:03.220
And
00:26:04.059 --> 00:26:05.641
They took it seriously enough that they
00:26:05.681 --> 00:26:08.502
put it in the Declaration because we have
00:26:08.522 --> 00:26:09.702
a right, well,
00:26:09.782 --> 00:26:11.683
our rights include a right to life,
00:26:11.743 --> 00:26:13.525
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
00:26:13.545 --> 00:26:14.846
which, of course,
00:26:15.165 --> 00:26:17.406
they did not mean the right to pursuit
00:26:17.446 --> 00:26:18.667
of sort of feeling good.
00:26:18.688 --> 00:26:20.169
They meant being good.
00:26:20.608 --> 00:26:20.808
Right.
00:26:20.848 --> 00:26:21.088
Right.
00:26:21.209 --> 00:26:22.869
Pursue a virtuous life.
00:26:22.930 --> 00:26:24.931
And so literally our country was found in
00:26:24.951 --> 00:26:26.932
the notion of creating the conditions for
00:26:26.991 --> 00:26:29.212
citizenry to be able to pursue a virtuous
00:26:29.292 --> 00:26:29.614
life.
00:26:29.653 --> 00:26:31.114
And so, of course,
00:26:31.153 --> 00:26:32.775
we learn about the virtues and of course,
00:26:32.795 --> 00:26:34.135
have models of them.
00:26:34.276 --> 00:26:34.455
Yeah.
00:26:35.477 --> 00:26:35.957
And then again,
00:26:36.237 --> 00:26:37.458
you think twenty years later,
00:26:37.498 --> 00:26:39.598
the French also are trying to institute
00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:40.278
virtue.
00:26:40.318 --> 00:26:42.000
But that takes a much different turn in
00:26:42.039 --> 00:26:43.039
the French Revolution,
00:26:43.161 --> 00:26:44.101
the American Revolution.
00:26:45.365 --> 00:26:47.086
I guess would be even a much darker
00:26:47.125 --> 00:26:47.906
children's book.
00:26:49.107 --> 00:26:52.530
Much darker, much darker, much darker.
00:26:52.570 --> 00:26:54.232
The designers were not, in fact,
00:26:54.932 --> 00:26:56.615
hanged as they thought they would be.
00:26:56.654 --> 00:26:58.276
But, you know,
00:26:58.316 --> 00:26:59.917
the French did not end up so well.
00:27:00.837 --> 00:27:01.278
That's true.
00:27:01.298 --> 00:27:01.999
That's very true.
00:27:02.759 --> 00:27:05.823
Do you have other female heroines of the
00:27:05.843 --> 00:27:07.924
revolution that come to mind as you're
00:27:08.525 --> 00:27:09.266
doing this project?
00:27:11.260 --> 00:27:11.681
Oh, well,
00:27:11.740 --> 00:27:13.541
we write of another Phyllis Wheatley.
00:27:13.582 --> 00:27:16.723
We have her in the book as well.
00:27:16.784 --> 00:27:19.565
So she was actually an enslaved woman.
00:27:19.984 --> 00:27:23.406
And she wrote beautiful poetry,
00:27:23.487 --> 00:27:25.028
so beautiful that at the time,
00:27:25.067 --> 00:27:26.248
because of her status,
00:27:26.808 --> 00:27:29.049
people did not believe that she wrote it.
00:27:29.089 --> 00:27:30.609
And she actually had to go before a
00:27:30.710 --> 00:27:31.391
commission
00:27:32.090 --> 00:27:33.951
to prove that she was the author of
00:27:33.991 --> 00:27:35.973
this poetry.
00:27:36.013 --> 00:27:38.474
And she ended up publishing a book of
00:27:38.515 --> 00:27:38.875
poetry.
00:27:38.915 --> 00:27:42.018
John Hancock actually apparently paid to
00:27:42.057 --> 00:27:42.738
have it published.
00:27:42.758 --> 00:27:44.318
So he helped her publish it.
00:27:44.378 --> 00:27:46.780
And she wrote many sort of patriotic
00:27:46.820 --> 00:27:47.260
writings,
00:27:47.300 --> 00:27:48.821
including some devoted to George
00:27:48.862 --> 00:27:49.383
Washington.
00:27:49.423 --> 00:27:51.804
So hers is a wonderful story.
00:27:51.844 --> 00:27:52.744
And then, of course,
00:27:52.785 --> 00:27:54.806
women that we didn't have a chance to
00:27:54.846 --> 00:27:56.686
include in the book, but Abigail Adams.
00:27:58.167 --> 00:27:59.489
was a remarkable woman.
00:27:59.669 --> 00:28:00.009
She wrote,
00:28:00.028 --> 00:28:01.329
I think it was her who said,
00:28:01.349 --> 00:28:01.529
you know,
00:28:01.549 --> 00:28:03.471
don't forget the ladies to her husband.
00:28:03.550 --> 00:28:05.211
Yeah, he wrote to her husband, yeah.
00:28:06.133 --> 00:28:07.292
He thought she was kidding, too,
00:28:07.333 --> 00:28:07.993
when she wrote that.
00:28:11.736 --> 00:28:12.635
And then there are others.
00:28:12.695 --> 00:28:12.935
I mean,
00:28:13.036 --> 00:28:14.317
there's a little blurb about James
00:28:14.376 --> 00:28:15.238
Armistead Lafayette.
00:28:15.258 --> 00:28:15.617
And of course,
00:28:15.657 --> 00:28:17.239
Lafayette's story is a great one.
00:28:17.278 --> 00:28:19.700
Happens a little bit after, in,
00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:21.461
but then the book does go up to
00:28:21.500 --> 00:28:22.701
Yorktown and beyond.
00:28:23.682 --> 00:28:26.964
That's a fascinating story about James
00:28:27.065 --> 00:28:27.964
Armistead Lafayette.
00:28:28.445 --> 00:28:30.626
No, it's an it's an incredible story.
00:28:30.686 --> 00:28:34.709
And so he was a enslaved enslaved man.
00:28:34.828 --> 00:28:38.111
He became a spy for George Washington,
00:28:38.151 --> 00:28:41.071
but actually a double agent and in part.
00:28:42.729 --> 00:28:46.071
the belief was that because he was
00:28:46.172 --> 00:28:50.016
enslaved, he could better be a spy.
00:28:50.056 --> 00:28:51.958
He wouldn't be as suspected of being a
00:28:52.018 --> 00:28:54.980
spy and he provided critical information
00:28:55.059 --> 00:28:56.181
to George Washington.
00:28:56.201 --> 00:28:58.743
He actually provided them information that
00:28:59.023 --> 00:29:00.605
the British were sending troops to
00:29:00.704 --> 00:29:02.386
Yorktown because previously they thought
00:29:02.446 --> 00:29:04.048
that the major battle would happen in New
00:29:04.067 --> 00:29:04.269
York.
00:29:04.288 --> 00:29:05.589
George Washington throughout the entire
00:29:05.609 --> 00:29:07.030
war kept thinking the major battles would
00:29:07.050 --> 00:29:07.731
happen in New York.
00:29:08.172 --> 00:29:09.932
And he wanted a major battle.
00:29:09.991 --> 00:29:10.932
He wanted it in New York.
00:29:11.873 --> 00:29:12.932
And he was in fact, you know,
00:29:12.952 --> 00:29:15.094
his troops were preparing for a battle in
00:29:15.114 --> 00:29:15.554
New York.
00:29:15.594 --> 00:29:16.874
And because of this information,
00:29:16.973 --> 00:29:18.615
they actually rerouted and were able to
00:29:18.654 --> 00:29:20.535
trap Cornwallis in the Battle of Yorktown.
00:29:20.555 --> 00:29:23.096
But again, this human story, I mean,
00:29:23.316 --> 00:29:24.895
would we have won the Battle of Yorktown
00:29:24.915 --> 00:29:26.817
without James Armistead Lafayette?
00:29:26.856 --> 00:29:27.676
It's unclear.
00:29:28.297 --> 00:29:30.817
And then, you know, his name, you know,
00:29:31.057 --> 00:29:33.238
he took on the name of Lafayette,
00:29:33.577 --> 00:29:34.538
the French general,
00:29:36.718 --> 00:29:39.681
after the war and General Lafayette came
00:29:39.721 --> 00:29:41.383
and visited America,
00:29:41.423 --> 00:29:43.285
I think some twenty or thirty years after
00:29:43.305 --> 00:29:44.125
the war ended.
00:29:44.185 --> 00:29:45.727
And, you know,
00:29:45.747 --> 00:29:46.909
he was marching through town.
00:29:46.949 --> 00:29:49.230
He spotted James Armistead in the crowd
00:29:49.290 --> 00:29:52.253
and they embraced in this, you know,
00:29:52.294 --> 00:29:54.076
fitting moment for the end of the
00:29:54.476 --> 00:29:55.076
revolution.
00:29:55.096 --> 00:29:56.719
So just incredible story as well.
00:29:58.362 --> 00:29:59.423
Washington, again,
00:29:59.462 --> 00:30:00.824
giving you an idea for the next book,
00:30:00.864 --> 00:30:03.826
Washington always knew the importance of
00:30:04.945 --> 00:30:05.906
intelligence.
00:30:06.346 --> 00:30:06.948
Yesterday,
00:30:07.087 --> 00:30:09.148
they dedicated a statue to Sarah Bradley
00:30:09.189 --> 00:30:11.750
Fulton, a woman in the town of Medford.
00:30:11.790 --> 00:30:14.853
And she apparently also carried messages
00:30:15.413 --> 00:30:17.534
sewn into the lining of her dress.
00:30:18.035 --> 00:30:20.435
And when Washington came in, in,
00:30:20.496 --> 00:30:21.017
as president,
00:30:21.037 --> 00:30:22.237
he made a point of visiting her.
00:30:22.657 --> 00:30:24.199
And he does a similar thing on Long
00:30:24.338 --> 00:30:24.699
Island,
00:30:24.739 --> 00:30:26.380
recognizing the people involved in a
00:30:26.420 --> 00:30:27.461
secret spy ring.
00:30:28.080 --> 00:30:29.602
This could be another good book.
00:30:29.642 --> 00:30:33.865
And of course,
00:30:34.705 --> 00:30:36.948
kids love stories of espionage as well.
00:30:37.749 --> 00:30:40.691
At least mine did.
00:30:40.730 --> 00:30:42.392
We're talking with Janie Nitze,
00:30:42.432 --> 00:30:44.854
who is the co-author of Heroes of
00:30:44.913 --> 00:30:46.035
Seventeen Seventy Six,
00:30:46.075 --> 00:30:47.977
the story of the Declaration of
00:30:48.076 --> 00:30:48.777
Independence,
00:30:49.278 --> 00:30:51.380
really written for young readers,
00:30:51.420 --> 00:30:53.381
beautifully, beautifully illustrated.
00:30:55.063 --> 00:30:55.343
Apparently,
00:30:56.044 --> 00:30:57.984
and we know there's a lot more here.
00:30:59.586 --> 00:31:00.767
It's a terrific book.
00:31:01.086 --> 00:31:03.107
And has there been much response to it
00:31:03.127 --> 00:31:05.150
so far?
00:31:05.269 --> 00:31:05.730
Oh, yeah, no,
00:31:05.930 --> 00:31:07.951
we've had great responses so far.
00:31:07.971 --> 00:31:09.492
I mean, people who, you know,
00:31:09.532 --> 00:31:12.275
reach out and say that this is the
00:31:12.654 --> 00:31:12.875
early,
00:31:12.894 --> 00:31:14.296
it hasn't actually been released yet,
00:31:14.316 --> 00:31:15.257
it's coming out in May,
00:31:15.797 --> 00:31:17.357
but they say that they're looking for a
00:31:17.397 --> 00:31:21.520
book to give or read to their children
00:31:22.040 --> 00:31:23.342
on the revolution and
00:31:23.971 --> 00:31:25.255
who can look at least at the cover
00:31:25.315 --> 00:31:26.960
and see some of the beautiful stories of
00:31:27.019 --> 00:31:27.119
it.
00:31:27.140 --> 00:31:28.684
So it hasn't yet been released,
00:31:28.704 --> 00:31:30.631
but hopefully
00:31:31.736 --> 00:31:34.897
You know, all the feedback will continue.
00:31:35.917 --> 00:31:36.818
Having read the proofs,
00:31:36.898 --> 00:31:38.880
I can recommend it to anyone who's looking
00:31:38.920 --> 00:31:40.800
for a good book to read to young
00:31:40.820 --> 00:31:43.281
people about the book or about the
00:31:43.762 --> 00:31:44.403
revolution.
00:31:44.603 --> 00:31:48.065
And it's really difficult, I think,
00:31:48.105 --> 00:31:50.665
to to convey ideas in a book for
00:31:50.705 --> 00:31:51.027
kids.
00:31:51.067 --> 00:31:52.646
But you do a good job of conveying.
00:31:52.907 --> 00:31:54.307
We've talked about the idea of civic
00:31:54.347 --> 00:31:54.888
virtue.
00:31:55.588 --> 00:31:57.269
What about the idea of independence?
00:31:57.289 --> 00:31:57.410
I mean,
00:31:57.450 --> 00:31:59.171
how do you go about framing that as
00:31:59.211 --> 00:32:00.731
something that kids will understand?
00:32:00.811 --> 00:32:02.692
I suppose it is something that they can,
00:32:02.732 --> 00:32:04.153
but without, as you said,
00:32:04.212 --> 00:32:05.753
condescending or dumbing it down.
00:32:05.794 --> 00:32:07.194
You really do a good job, I think,
00:32:07.214 --> 00:32:09.736
of getting at these ideas.
00:32:10.817 --> 00:32:11.537
No, I appreciate that.
00:32:11.936 --> 00:32:14.417
I mean, in part with the ideas,
00:32:14.458 --> 00:32:16.098
we try to convey at the time,
00:32:16.138 --> 00:32:17.220
of course, independence.
00:32:18.641 --> 00:32:23.262
was inextricable at the time of the
00:32:23.442 --> 00:32:25.583
founding from these ideas of liberty,
00:32:25.824 --> 00:32:30.244
which wasn't necessarily the case or could
00:32:30.285 --> 00:32:31.326
have gone differently.
00:32:31.806 --> 00:32:34.146
But for America really was this idea of
00:32:34.207 --> 00:32:36.146
liberty and equality eventually in the
00:32:36.166 --> 00:32:37.107
Declaration of Attendance.
00:32:37.127 --> 00:32:38.367
So we really try to focus.
00:32:38.387 --> 00:32:40.108
And this is a piece where I
00:32:41.348 --> 00:32:42.671
hope that, you know,
00:32:42.711 --> 00:32:44.353
because we couldn't get into in detail,
00:32:44.393 --> 00:32:46.997
but I hope kids want to learn more
00:32:47.176 --> 00:32:47.958
after reading this.
00:32:47.998 --> 00:32:50.441
We try to convey three big ideas of
00:32:50.461 --> 00:32:51.442
the Declaration, right?
00:32:51.522 --> 00:32:52.785
All men are created equal and we all
00:32:52.805 --> 00:32:53.506
have certain rights,
00:32:53.665 --> 00:32:56.048
including the right to self-rule and talk
00:32:56.068 --> 00:32:56.730
about how
00:32:57.830 --> 00:33:00.092
revolutionary and just radical they were
00:33:00.132 --> 00:33:00.811
at the time.
00:33:00.872 --> 00:33:01.092
I mean,
00:33:01.112 --> 00:33:03.532
when when the declaration eventually made
00:33:03.593 --> 00:33:04.553
its way to Britain,
00:33:05.512 --> 00:33:07.933
it was met with a degree of either
00:33:08.473 --> 00:33:11.575
scorn or mockery or people ignored it.
00:33:12.035 --> 00:33:14.496
Some magazines wrote of the Americans
00:33:14.536 --> 00:33:16.576
talking of an inalienable right to talk
00:33:16.696 --> 00:33:17.336
nonsense.
00:33:17.356 --> 00:33:19.616
I mean, they were a radical idea.
00:33:19.636 --> 00:33:20.678
So I think that was a piece of
00:33:20.698 --> 00:33:21.597
what we tried to convey,
00:33:21.637 --> 00:33:24.239
because now I think it's very difficult
00:33:24.259 --> 00:33:24.638
when you're
00:33:25.419 --> 00:33:26.862
My parents fled from communism,
00:33:26.922 --> 00:33:28.885
so first generation in this country.
00:33:28.905 --> 00:33:30.128
And I think it's very difficult,
00:33:30.148 --> 00:33:31.351
and they always said this to me,
00:33:31.391 --> 00:33:32.913
where you grew up in America,
00:33:32.953 --> 00:33:34.277
you grew up surrounded
00:33:35.511 --> 00:33:37.932
in the air by the ideas of free
00:33:37.972 --> 00:33:39.614
speech and freedom of religion and the
00:33:39.693 --> 00:33:41.954
idea that you couldn't worship whoever you
00:33:42.035 --> 00:33:44.455
wanted to worship is sort of alien to
00:33:44.556 --> 00:33:46.017
me as a child of America,
00:33:46.037 --> 00:33:47.237
but for them it was not.
00:33:48.498 --> 00:33:51.098
And so I think sort of trying a
00:33:51.179 --> 00:33:53.059
little bit in the book to convey just
00:33:53.119 --> 00:33:55.381
how radical these ideas are and the fact,
00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:56.340
again,
00:33:56.381 --> 00:33:57.402
going back to what you and I have
00:33:57.422 --> 00:33:59.702
touched on a few times now,
00:33:59.982 --> 00:34:01.103
and on top of it,
00:34:01.163 --> 00:34:02.884
it's up to all of us to preserve
00:34:02.923 --> 00:34:04.125
it for future generations,
00:34:05.421 --> 00:34:05.942
You know,
00:34:05.981 --> 00:34:08.204
for however radical they were in seventeen
00:34:08.224 --> 00:34:08.905
seventy six,
00:34:09.164 --> 00:34:10.927
it doesn't mean that they're not fragile
00:34:11.166 --> 00:34:11.567
today.
00:34:11.708 --> 00:34:12.387
That's very true.
00:34:13.349 --> 00:34:15.632
Do you think we do have become complacent
00:34:15.652 --> 00:34:17.032
and take these things for granted and
00:34:17.052 --> 00:34:17.313
think, OK,
00:34:17.494 --> 00:34:18.815
if we just change this and this,
00:34:18.855 --> 00:34:20.556
we'll still have everything else?
00:34:24.882 --> 00:34:27.766
I hope not, but I worry perhaps.
00:34:28.646 --> 00:34:29.547
I worry perhaps,
00:34:29.567 --> 00:34:32.751
and I worry when you're doing such a
00:34:32.771 --> 00:34:34.572
good job with civic education,
00:34:34.612 --> 00:34:36.554
but I do worry when you look at
00:34:36.713 --> 00:34:38.115
broader statistics, right?
00:34:38.155 --> 00:34:38.695
I think only...
00:34:39.637 --> 00:34:41.858
um eighteen percent of liberal arts
00:34:41.898 --> 00:34:46.440
colleges require any form of um course in
00:34:46.561 --> 00:34:49.342
u.s history which going back to sir thomas
00:34:49.382 --> 00:34:51.242
jefferson the founding of the university
00:34:51.262 --> 00:34:52.884
of virginia i mean that the university was
00:34:53.003 --> 00:34:56.746
founded you know four years of civic
00:34:56.865 --> 00:34:59.666
education and so only eighteen days and
00:34:59.706 --> 00:35:01.568
then you know some of the statistics were
00:35:02.048 --> 00:35:03.969
eighth graders you know i think it was
00:35:04.150 --> 00:35:06.030
twenty two percent are proficient in
00:35:06.130 --> 00:35:06.610
civics
00:35:08.291 --> 00:35:08.753
I know.
00:35:08.853 --> 00:35:10.034
In American history.
00:35:10.074 --> 00:35:11.355
And, you know, you look at that.
00:35:11.594 --> 00:35:12.996
I think you can't help but maybe be
00:35:13.016 --> 00:35:14.657
a little bit pessimistic when you look at
00:35:15.179 --> 00:35:16.320
statistics like that.
00:35:17.481 --> 00:35:19.963
But but you're in Massachusetts,
00:35:20.023 --> 00:35:21.465
third grade, fifth grade, eighth grade,
00:35:21.485 --> 00:35:21.864
tenth grade.
00:35:21.885 --> 00:35:23.507
That's all the history kids get.
00:35:23.606 --> 00:35:24.967
And it's not American history.
00:35:24.987 --> 00:35:26.469
That's any kind of history.
00:35:26.570 --> 00:35:27.489
Think about that.
00:35:27.710 --> 00:35:29.492
We're not we're just doing a terrible job
00:35:29.532 --> 00:35:30.112
of teaching it.
00:35:30.771 --> 00:35:30.971
Right.
00:35:31.590 --> 00:35:31.791
Right.
00:35:31.831 --> 00:35:32.211
No, no, no.
00:35:32.251 --> 00:35:32.672
Absolutely.
00:35:32.751 --> 00:35:33.172
Absolutely.
00:35:33.512 --> 00:35:34.172
And then, you know,
00:35:34.192 --> 00:35:35.693
I read I read the other day a
00:35:35.753 --> 00:35:37.994
third of Americans can identify the
00:35:38.034 --> 00:35:39.775
declaration as a source of the phrase,
00:35:39.795 --> 00:35:40.914
you know, we are all created equal.
00:35:42.356 --> 00:35:44.655
I think those are real danger signs.
00:35:44.876 --> 00:35:46.217
Yeah.
00:35:46.436 --> 00:35:47.858
And but but I do think we're at
00:35:47.898 --> 00:35:48.557
a moment, you know,
00:35:48.577 --> 00:35:51.338
there is a bipartisan recognition across
00:35:51.358 --> 00:35:53.860
the aisle that this is an issue.
00:35:53.900 --> 00:35:54.980
And so I think we might we might,
00:35:55.221 --> 00:35:56.041
you know,
00:35:56.061 --> 00:35:58.041
be at a low point trending up, hopefully.
00:35:59.300 --> 00:35:59.721
Hopefully.
00:35:59.780 --> 00:36:00.840
I mean, your book, we hope,
00:36:00.880 --> 00:36:02.222
will also be part of that,
00:36:02.322 --> 00:36:05.322
sparking that kind of interest in it,
00:36:05.523 --> 00:36:07.402
as opposed to by young people.
00:36:07.463 --> 00:36:10.483
So we could go on all day, Janie,
00:36:10.503 --> 00:36:12.143
but I know you have things to do.
00:36:13.144 --> 00:36:14.864
And we've been talking with Janie Nitze,
00:36:14.925 --> 00:36:17.085
who is the co-author with Justice Neil
00:36:17.126 --> 00:36:19.326
Gorsuch of Heroes of Seventeen Seventy
00:36:19.385 --> 00:36:19.726
Six,
00:36:19.766 --> 00:36:21.527
the story of the Declaration of
00:36:21.567 --> 00:36:22.146
Independence,
00:36:22.186 --> 00:36:22.387
really
00:36:22.947 --> 00:36:25.929
terrific book for young readers and with
00:36:25.989 --> 00:36:29.452
tremendous illustrations and a great story
00:36:29.492 --> 00:36:30.134
well told.
00:36:30.173 --> 00:36:31.534
So thank you so much for joining us.
00:36:32.224 --> 00:36:33.585
Oh, thank you so much, Isaiah.
00:36:33.606 --> 00:36:35.248
It's just been a real honor and delight
00:36:35.568 --> 00:36:35.967
to be here.
00:36:35.987 --> 00:36:37.690
And I think it's just wonderful what your
00:36:37.710 --> 00:36:38.771
organization is doing.
00:36:38.831 --> 00:36:40.371
Well, thank you so much.
00:36:40.431 --> 00:36:40.831
Thank you.
00:36:40.871 --> 00:36:42.153
Well, thank you for being part of this.
00:36:42.213 --> 00:36:43.934
And I want to thank Jonathan Lane,
00:36:43.974 --> 00:36:45.737
our producer, the man behind the curtain.
00:36:46.356 --> 00:36:48.278
And I also every week thank folks in
00:36:48.318 --> 00:36:50.159
different places who are regularly tuning
00:36:50.239 --> 00:36:50.340
in.
00:36:50.380 --> 00:36:51.681
And if you're in one of these places
00:36:51.742 --> 00:36:53.722
and want some Revolution Two-Fifty swag,
00:36:53.742 --> 00:36:56.025
send Jonathan an email at jlane at
00:36:56.065 --> 00:36:57.547
revolution two five oh dot org.
00:36:58.126 --> 00:36:58.706
And this week,
00:36:58.788 --> 00:37:00.288
I want to thank listeners in Edison,
00:37:00.327 --> 00:37:03.230
New Jersey and in Geneva, New York,
00:37:03.630 --> 00:37:05.972
Burbank and San Diego in California,
00:37:06.351 --> 00:37:08.653
in Denver, Dallas, here in Boston,
00:37:09.454 --> 00:37:10.454
in Boston, actually,
00:37:10.494 --> 00:37:12.335
in Newton and Pittsfield in Massachusetts
00:37:12.715 --> 00:37:15.077
and in Barcelona and in all places between
00:37:15.117 --> 00:37:15.577
and beyond.
00:37:15.617 --> 00:37:16.458
Thanks for joining us.
00:37:16.579 --> 00:37:18.320
Now we'll be piped out on the road
00:37:18.360 --> 00:37:18.760
to Boston.