Start your day with a morning jolt of Drake's eat old. You've never been a football coach before, so you're not allowed to talk about this. No, I can have burnt mozzarella sticks and say the chef's not working. Then Black and Abdallah. Adam Abdallah. That's what we do. We rank quarterbacks. And Westwood One Sports Night caps it all off. I don't know how they're going to win, but they're going to win. We're open all night here on Westwood One. Westwood One Sports Talk. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. Now, on 105.9 FM and streaming worldwide on the WMAL app, O'Connor and Company. It is the semi-quincentennial of the United States of America, or at least our Declaration of Independence from Mother England. That's right, I said it, semi-quincentennial. I finally got it right, but it has to be written out for me, Bethany Mandel. I just. That is too hard. Thank you. I can't do that. Joining us as he has every couple of weeks now as we celebrate America's 250th is the one and only Dr. Matthew Spalding. He's the vice president for Washington Operations and dean of the Van Ando Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College here in D.C., which, by the way, I got to see. They finally finished. It's been like a two-year renovation and remodeling. It is so beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. The Van Andel Graduate School of Government. And by the way, they offer a part-time MA in government degree for young professionals, if you're interested. Dr. Spalding, great to see you this week. And thanks for joining us today. Great. Good morning to be with you and with Bethany, both of you. And thanks for coming over the other day, Larry. That was great to see our facility and the new library and all the whole setup. So we're very excited about opening it all up again. Yeah. Yeah, Vince Colonnese and I got to be there, and we participated in sort of a Hillsdale tradition, which is a happy hour for Washington and Lincoln's birthday. And I'd love to start there with you, if we could. Let's start with Washington. I mean, what hasn't been said already about this great man and how vital he was 250 years ago? Do you think if we didn't have a man like Washington, we would have even moved toward independence in the way that we did? That's a good question. Of course, it's in many ways an obvious, clear question, which is absolutely not. The other founders clearly recognize there's something different about this fellow. You know, when I actually wrote my dissertation on Washington, I thought, oh, he'd be easier because he didn't write a lot of books and he wasn't – it wouldn't be as hard to study. But, of course, he's more complicated, more difficult. He writes more than any of the other founders by far. Jefferson knew he was better. He was great at what he was doing. Adams was, you know, kind of loved him, but also certain jealousy because he was so powerful and great and good at what he was doing. Hamilton was like a son to him. So he's clearly the key figure in all this, which, going to what you just pointed out, you know, no one does this anymore. We do an event and we toast him on his birthday. The historical fact is that prior to that time in history, it was almost always the case that the general essentially took over. Most countries, all of history, it's all despotism, it's all tyranny, it's Caesar. Think of Napoleon in the more modern era. But Washington didn't do that. He's this great bridge figure between the revolution. He's in the Continental Congress. He goes and becomes the general. He's got military experience. And he takes us through the whole war, through this whole series of events we're kind of recounting. Where does he ultimately leave us? Constitutional convention. We write this great document, the Constitution. He's chosen to be its president, but he deferred to the Constitution. And then what does he do? he's not only resigned his military commission for the sake of the constitution but then as president he resigns his presidency yeah so that the constitution will go on without the greatest it's an amazing story just an amazing story dr tell me do you have any concern about the what i see at a lot of presidential libraries of like the woke creep happening especially i think is it Monticello that has the Yeah Jefferson home sadly is really really politically correct Anyone call it politically correct Yeah and then Madison home is really bad too Yeah. Out in Orange. Montpelier. Montpelier, that's the one I'm thinking of. That's the one that went really, really crazy. Is there anything that we can do as patriotic Americans who want to honor the presidents and not desecrate their legacies when it comes to this sort of woke creep happening at these? There are kind of two levels at what this debate is going on. One is the immediate one, the one you've mentioned. There's this wokeness, this revival of this crazy sentiment. But we've got to think about for a moment what's behind that, which is they oftentimes are motivated by particular issues, and often race more recently, but it's mostly that they've lost any sense of meaning. There's no purpose in history. History is whatever you make it, and so this is what we want to make it today. And the history profession has gone away from all this. I think the most important thing to do, now we should push back against those whenever you have an opportunity because that actually is racist to teach it that way. But the better way is to just teach good history. This is why you see the revival of classical schools and private education. There's a movement to get this better history into public schools. People are writing books. This whole year of pointing back to this history is a great, unique opportunity to remind people. And what I find is that people are tired of that kind of the woke history story because it's not a story. All it is is we're bad. This is bad. That's these people were bad. It's not a story. Tell them the story. They want to hear the story. It's a great story. Going back to Washington, it's not because we put on Mount Rushmore that's great. It's because it's a great story. He did these great things. That's what they want to hear, and they just eat it up. Our guest is Dr. Matthew Spalding, and he has written the book, by the way. It's The Making of the American Mind, the story of our Declaration of Independence. And well, I mean, OK, tell us a story, Dr. Spaulding, because it was 250 years ago right now where we were enduring the siege of Boston. It had gone on, what, I think 10 months altogether, but it was reaching its climax here. Take us back at that time with the siege of Boston and how pivotal it was for the conversation that was beginning there in Philadelphia. Can you say semi-quincentennial? Barely. Barely. I spent it all on that. Thanks. No, but this is a great example of this. We kind of have in our minds perhaps some semblance of the series of events. But recall, Washington is appointed in June of 75, so he's already been appointed general. He arrives to Boston about the time they're having the Battle of Bunker Hill, so he's already up there. and in in late 1775 he realizes he does not have the weaponry to to fight the british the british occupied boston because they took through this tea in the harbor and they've they've disobeyed british laws and so the port's been closed uh that's where the fighting is they're they're surrounding it they're sieging boston after lexian concord washington sends famously sends uh one of This young guy, he's in his 20s, with a crew up to Ticonderoga, 300 miles up, 300 miles back, to retrieve, in the middle of winter, 60 tons of cannons. That's a great story in and of itself. Yeah. I can't believe that's not a movie. Well, it's been made, several books have been written about it. It would be a great movie. Yeah. But he brings these cannons back, and he's going to, Washington's going to put them strategically on what is called the Dorchester Heights, which is a high point overlooking Boston. And, you know, when you go up to Boston nowadays, the territory, the geography of Boston is actually different. It used to be essentially an island with only one entrance to Boston. Once those cannons are on Dorchester Heights, Boston is itching for a battle. Really great strategic move. And he forces the British to leave Boston. They were going to fight him at one point. There's a storm. They're kind of confused. There things going on but they can protect their ships in Boston if they leave Boston So right now about now 250 years ago right those cannons have come back They putting them up on the Dorchester Heights and come a little bit later in the spring next month, the bosses are going to leave Boston, the British, and they're going to go up to Halifax. They're going to regroup, and we know what's coming next. Yeah, that's when they enter New York Harbor next, right? They'll eventually come back to New York. But here's what's interesting. Washington, after Boston, he's forced the British out of Boston. He's got to anticipate what they're going to do. The beauty of history is not knowing what's going to happen. He moved his army to New York thinking that's where they're going to attack next. So he's preparing right now, 25 years ago, we're preparing for what is going to be the hugest battle to come, which unbeknownst to the Americans, the British invasion of New York will be the largest sea amphibious invasion in world history up to World War II. Wow. So the British will realize we've got a war in our hands. We've got to really turn up heat here. Washington knows that we didn't win by getting to go to Boston. We've got a war in our hands. We've got to get ready. So the spring is full of all this preparation for what they know. what Washington and the British know is a coming war while Congress is dithering around, debating, debating, debating, and not doing anything. Hold that thought, because that leads us to what Congress is doing, nothing, while our soldiers are having to actually fight this impossible war. It sort of reflects sort of what Congress is in the midst of right now, sadly, and tonight's historic State of the Union. So we'll continue a little bit more here with Dr. Matthew Spaulding Hillsdale. But first, it's 8-17. So there's General Washington there now remobilizing from after the siege of Boston, getting ready for New York. And he's asking, he sends letters. I mean, the paper trail is clear. He needs Congress at that time, the Continental Congress, to do something, anything to support the troops. What happened, Dr. Spaulding? Well, so Congress doesn't want to do anything. They're divided. They're mostly wanting to reconcile with the British. So they're riven, and they don't act and they won't act until they receive some more information. So in a certain sense, you're right. It's like Congress today. Legislatures don't want to do things unless they have to. It turns out that's a truth over time. But they're the legislature. They're the supreme power. All the colonies represented. Washington has to defer to Congress. We can't get too far out of his fees. But keep in mind, he's taken his army into New York. New York is a loyalist colony, by the way, where there's a governor appointed by the king and a mayor appointed by the king. So he's actively already declared independence, if you will. Congress is divided. And so two crucial things have happened here, actually three. One is in January of 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published a pamphlet called Common Sense, which we've all heard of. Those anonymous bloggers will get you every time. An influencer. He was an influencer. And he calls for independence. So it's out there. Full-throated call for independence. And then a number of other colonies. We've already talked about Massachusetts, the governor of Erich dissolved the legislature. But the same thing happened in Virginia, South Carolina. And I think there was one other college. So the royal governors are closing down legislatures and they're asking Congress for permission. What do we do? And then the third piece of crucial piece of information, which Washington gets from a spy in Europe, is he actually gets actual copies of the negotiations and the final documents between the King of England and Hessian states in Germany to hire Hessians to go fight the Americans. And he sends that to Congress. Hey, what do you think of that? So he's building the pressure on them to actually act. But they're going to dither around. They're going to dither around all spring. they don't know that the timing is right. What do we do now? We don't have an ally. We need an ally, which eventually is going to look towards France. We want to make the states and colonies in the states We ready constitutionally Shouldn we have a constitution first But of course all that timing goes out the window as events start taking over moving us into the spring towards the declaration And oh by the way in May of 76 Washington leaves his post in New York and he goes to Philadelphia. And you know what? It's pretty clear, even though this is all secret records, that he told them, look, guys, you gotta declare independence we're going to war richard henry lee just a few weeks after washington leaves introduces a motion for independence so for families like ours who love all of this who love all the history who who live in this amazing area who can avail of everything that is available here what would you recommend as far as our to-do list during this How do you say it? Semi-quincentennial. Semi-quincentennial. This is why we call it America 250. Yes, there we go. America 250. Much easier. What's on my to-do list? Especially for younger children, young adults, the most important thing is to essentially learn biography. Early on, you don't learn the details of the chronology, this, then, this, then, this, then. You don't read the documents and the pamphlets. Early on, it's biography. You want to learn about them. So here in this area, going to Mount Vernon, going to Monticello, despite all the messiness of it in terms of what is being brought there, to see the place is extremely important. The other thing, of course, we have a very good opportunity here. The National Archives has been completely redone over the last year or so. It's just been reopened. It's got a big display there. It's interactive. You can see the Declaration of Independence. You can see the Constitution. So those kinds of things are extremely important. And if you have the wherewithal, you don't have to go very far to see some very interesting places. I mean, Newburgh, where Washington had his camp in New York, is not that far. Newburgh, New York. There are other battlefields you can go out to. A trip to Boston. And Boston is still wonderfully laid out. You can see the Old North Church. You can see where the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought. You can go down and see the Virginia legislature. You can go down in Williamsburg. That's wonderfully laid out. I think that history, the best way to get into a mind is to capture the imagination. and history, dynamic history, history of great actions and events is what does it when you're young. And then once you get them, once you get them hooked on history, which I think young people naturally like to see these heroic stories, get lists of all the great books to read for an age-appropriate time. Once you get them into that, then they'll see and they'll want to learn more about the history and the particulars and they'll start coming together. And the next thing you know? They're getting their undergrad at Hillsdale and then the graduate program at the Van Handel Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale College right here in D.C. And they'll get the hang with Dr. Spalding. We've got to leave it there. Sadly, Dr. Matthew Spalding, we could talk for hours, as you know, as we have. But this morning, we'll call it a day. Thank you, sir. Great. Great to be. Thanks, Ruth. I could, honestly, all year long, we're having these conversations about America's 250, and it's just the best. 824. Mike Trott. You ready? Let's do it. Hosted by former Navy SEAL Mike Ridland. It's unfiltered. You know, when you go to the sound of the gun, bam, you're gone. It's weird. I mean, I've had so many near-death experiences. It's raw. I love this country. I offered my life to serve this nation and protect its people. The question, you know, what's the meaning of life? And to me, it just boils down to one single word, which is purpose. Mike Trott. Follow and listen on your favorite platform. We'll be right back. Thank you.
