Washington Assumes Command II June 14, 2019PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Military History, Revolutionary War Lead: Though he had a certain magisterial demeanor, George Washington knew he was the servant of civilian rule. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: From the beginning, the American Republic vested ultimate power in the hands of people in the person of their elected representatives. Though the nation admired military leaders and has often elected them to power, republican sentiment has always distrusted the man on horseback and insisted that in peace and in war power rests with civilians. In many ways this attitude, if not originating with George Washington, was certainly re-enforced by his respectful approach to his civilian masters and his willingness to give up power, twice in fact. Download [69.25 KB]
Washington Assumes Command I June 13, 2019PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Military History, Revolutionary War Lead: When he returned home in 1783, he was the most famous man in the world. It all started eight years before. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: In June 1775, the Continental Congress, itself willing to start a war but not yet to declare American independence, appointed George Washington of Virginia its military commander and sent him off to Boston to confront 10,000 British troops occupying the port. In the course of nine months he would meet the men with whom he would prosecute America’s longest-declared war, he would experiment with those strategic martial impulses that for good and for ill sustained his Army and the country through to the end, and would begin the process of maturation that would shape him into the nation’s most consequential founder. Download [70.51 KB]
James Caldwell: The Soldier’s Parson January 20, 2019PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Religious History, Revolutionary War Lead: When his troops ran out of wadding for their weapons, James Caldwell found a musical substitute. Intro.: "A Moment in Time" with Dan Roberts Content: At the time of the Revolution much leadership on the side of independence came from clergymen. In the middle colonies many Presbyterian pastors were in the vanguard of the Patriot cause. One of them was James Caldwell. Virginia born and Princeton educated Pastor Caldwell was chaplain of the 3rd N.J. Regiment. His enthusiasm for the Patriot cause earned him the love of his troops, but much resentment as well. Both his home and church at Elizabethtown, N.J. were burned by Tories raiding parties. Read more →
Patrick Henry and the Parson’s Cause January 2, 2019PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Politics, Revolutionary War Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: Having secured the support of the English Privy Council in striking down a Virginia statute that sought to relieve debtors facing ruin because of a spike in tobacco prices caused by drought, several Anglican clergymen set Virginian teeth on edge by suing to have their salaries paid at the full market rate, drought and inflation be damned. Their efforts were turned aside in two cases, but that of the most Rev. Mr. James Maury of Louisa County received favorable judgment from the court who then referred the case to a jury for a determination of the damages. Download [67.13 KB]
Patrick Henry and the Parson’s Cause I January 1, 2019PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Politics, Revolutionary War Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: Patrick Henry was a new man, often referred to in the early years of his storied career as a “young man,” this in contrast to the older leaders of the Commonwealth that hailed from the first families of Virginia. When his rich, powerful rhetorical abilities carried him to fame during the Stamp Act Crisis in 1765, he was already famous, a brilliant speaker, but many of his elders considered him pretty much an upstart lawyer from Louisa County out in the Virginia heartland. His reputation and fame came from many court proceedings but largely as a result of a famous court case known as the Parson’s Cause. Download [69.00 KB]
American Revolution: The Incompetence of King George III III October 31, 2018PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, British History, Revolutionary War Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: When he was a child, the parents of King George III doted on George’s brother, Edward. This experience created a shy, insecure prince with a rather inflexible personality who had little respect for the opinions of others when they disagreed with his own. His tutor and guide after the age of 17 was John Stuart, Earl of Bute, advisor to George’s mother. Bute suffered the same personal rigidity and reinforced the future king’s already deficient understanding of how people operate, too often getting personal strength confused with intransigence or stubbornness. Download [71.09 KB]
American Revolution: The Incompetence of King George III II October 30, 2018PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, British History, Revolutionary War Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: In August 1765, at the height of the Stamp Act crisis, the citizens of Boston waked to a revolting, but all-too-familiar spectacle. Hanging in effigy was Andrew Oliver, appointed by the Crown to collect the hated Stamp Tax. Hanging beside his effigial corpse was a boot out of which was crawling a representation of the devil. This boot was a play on the name of and represented John Stuart, Scottish Earl of Bute, seen as an evil enemy of colonial rights and liberties, in large measure because of what the patriots considered his perverse influence over the young King George. Download [7.38 KB]
American Revolution: The Incompetence of King George III I October 29, 2018PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, British History, Revolutionary War Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution.Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: He was the first monarch of his kin to be born in England – Norfolk House, London in 1738 – and the first Hanoverian monarch to speak English. The prince who would become King George III was raised in obscurity by parents who clearly doted on his brother Edward. When he managed to get a word in edge-wise during family conversations he was too often admonished, “Do hold your tongue, George: don’t talk like a fool.” Therefore, the young man who would grow up to command and lose an empire developed into a quiet, shy, modest introvert who loved the British Constitution but only too slowly grew effectively to learn his role as a sovereign in a time of growing crisis. Download [69.25 KB]
