683. Washington: Hero of the Revolution (Part 1)

The Rest Is History

This episode explores George Washington's pivotal role in the American Revolution, focusing on the Valley Forge winter of 1777–1778 as a defining moment of resilience and leadership. The hosts examine Washington's disciplined persona, historical myths, and the political context of British taxation that sparked the rebellion.

Key takeaways

• Valley Forge symbolized endurance and transformed Washington into a national icon.
• Washington's self-control and public dignity were essential for uniting a fractured nation.
• His leadership at Valley Forge prevented army collapse and preserved the revolutionary cause.

Transcript preview

This episode is brought to you by Lloyd's business and commercial banking. One of the great things about finance is that it may result in you having to pay tax and this was a constant grumble in Anglo-Saxon England which was the most heavily taxed country in the whole of Christendom and just when the Anglo-Saxons thought it couldn't get any worse they got conquered by King Canute and Canute imposed a tax rate that was affected by a tax rate that was affected. actively 100%. Yeah, well that was one very big change, Tom, but another tax change is upon us. And this is the advent of making tax digital for income tax. And if you're at all concerned about it, this is where Lloyds come in, because they are here to help make that change much simpler for you with a useful HMLC recognised accounting tool that will help you stay in line with all the making tax digital requirements. The only thing about this is that it is free for Lloyd's business account customers. So when it is time to digitize your income tax, you can bank on Lloyds. Search Lloyd's business accounts to find out more. This episode is sponsored by ancestry. The First World War doesn't just survive in monuments and history books. It survives in smaller things, too. Forms, numbers and addresses. Those are the details that can make family history feel less distant, a surname you recognize, a regiment, the detail that brings a family story into focus. More than five million men served in the British Armed Forces during the First World War and for many British families that war is just a few generations away. July marks the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. It is a time not just to look at the scale of that story, but the individual lives behind it. Visit ancestry.co. UK and search First World War military records to discover your family's role in the First World War. And as we continue our journey, we think of those who travelled before us. And we see and here again the echoes of our past. A general falls to his knees in the hard snow of Valley Forge. A lonely president paces the darkened halls and ponders his struggle to preserve the Union. call out encouragement to each other. A settler pushes west and sings a song and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air. It is the American sound. It is, it is, oh, hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent, and fair. That's our heritage. That's our song. We sing it still. We raise our voices to the God, who is the author of this most tender music. And may he continue to hold us close as we fill the world with our sound in unity, and love one people under God dedicated to the dream of freedom. God bless you and God bless America. So that absolute mush was obviously Ronald Reagan. Unmistakable tones there, delivering his second inaugural address on the 21st of January 1985. Dominic Ronald Reagan loved American history, didn't he? He loved the idea of American exceptionalism. He loved the idea of his country as a shining city on a hill. And clearly, there is no better way to kick off our new series, which is marking the 250th anniversary of the colonial tax rebellion, than with that great Hollywood actor turned two times president. Yeah, you're right, Sommer. Reagan absolutely believed in America's special place in the world, didn't he? I don't think any president has ever really topped it. Yeah, has drunk so deeply of the cool aid than Ronald Reagan and so what better way to kick off? I mean I said that was mush. I had to say that to reassure myself that I wasn't buying into the whole thing because obviously we are a patriotic British podcast. We are, yeah. So we have to keep our distance from some of the flag of liberty and all of that stuff. So we are going to be looking at four of the founding fathers and in due course we are going to be looking at Benjamin Franklin and his extraordinary transatlantic career so the sense in which he's British as well as American we're going to be looking at the the the the moral and intellectual contradictions of Thomas Jefferson. Yeah. As in the eponymous musical. Yeah. As in the eponymous musical and we're going to be looking at the the moral and intellectual contradictions of Thomas Jefferson. That's a kind way of In all kinds of ways I think the most extraordinary of the founding fathers but also perhaps the most compromised But today there can be only one candidate can't there for our opening episode and this is the most famous tax default of tax importer Independence fighter of them all right so George Washington the man who gave his name to the capital the city where Reagan gave that speech the man who led the continental army through the war of independence who of course became the first president of the United States and Washington had I mean a really really extraordinary life you know not quite apart from his military career this obviously his time as president so I thought it would be fun to focus on just one particular episode and one episode really stands out and it's the one that Reagan alluded to in that speech so he mentioned the moment when a general falls to his knees and the hard snow of Valley Forge you know tears tears glistening in his eyes. Did that happen? Well, we will be finding out. Yeah, we did a series before about Ronald Reagan in which Reagan tells a series of absolutely tremendous anecdotes about things that never happened. Yeah, he commented on an entire baseball match, didn't he that never happened? Exactly. Exactly. So that sets the tone for what will follow. Anyway, this moment when George Washington does or does not fall to the snow in Valley Forge. Many of our American listeners will immediately recognize this. not one in a hundred of our British listeners will ever have heard of this moment so we should explain just a bit of context. This moment of Valley Forge happens in the winter of 1777, 1778 and things are actually looking bleak for the American cause. So they have been fighting their tax rebellion for almost two years but it's not going well. Their capital Philadelphia, their provisional capital has been occupied by British troops. They have been looking to the French. to come in and bail them out, but so far the French have not yet officially entered the war and it looks quite possible they might not enter at all. Although Dominic, Benjamin Franklin is on the scene to help out, so we'll be doing that in our next episode. That's right. And George Washington and his continental army are holed up in a place called Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, they've hold up there for the winter, they are desperately short of food and supplies and clothing, they're at the mercy of the weather, they are ravaged by disease and they are hoping for a miracle. So this is one of the mythic moments in American sort of patriotic history. It is the episode that turns Washington into a national father figure. And before we get into the story of Valley Forge itself, we should pull back a bit and look at who Washington is and what on earth is going on with this story. So as a recent biography of Washington were loads of prizes, great acclaim, by Ron Chernau, and Chernau calls Washington the most elusive, the most elusive figure in America. history more revered than truly loved an impossibly stiff and inflexible figure composed of too much marble to be quite human one of the things that Chenow does is to show that actually he was human he was a flesh and blood character behind the kind of marble facade and Tom I think you've got a tremendous anecdote haven't knew that will illustrate this I do have an amusing anecdote so it happens at the constitutional convention in 1787 and the guy who writes the preamble to the Constitution is a guy called Governor Morris. He sets the template for mad American names, right, from the very beginning. Suspiciously French, and he's the guy who goes on to, he's kind of involved in establishing the grid system in New York in Manhattan. Yeah. But he's a massive japster, so he's the funster of the constitutional convention, and he is approached by Alexander Hamilton, as in the musical. And Hamilton says that if Morris will go up to Washington, and slap him on the shoulder and say, my dear general, how happy I am to see you look so well, then Hamilton will buy him a dinner. And Morris does this, but the icy quality of Washington's stare as he greets this slap on the shoulder was so terrifying that he would not do it again for a thousand dinners. Wow, and surely ruined the dinner, the memory of that would have ruined the dinner. It must have been a chilly occasion, I imagine. Yeah, he felt, he just let him. down. He was ashamed of himself, surely. Well, he had to go off and design grid systems to work it out of his system. That's quite a good anecdote, isn't it? It's a brilliant anecdote. That's the best one of the best And then it's actually having I've ever heard. Thank you. That's tremendous. Certainly the best I've heard about George Washington. So, Washington was born in 1732. He's born into a kind of gentry family in the colony of Virginia. That's the oldest of all of So the Washington's originally I believe from Tring in Hertfordshire John Washington Washington's great Grandfather had started off in Tring and he had moved to Virginia He establishes a tobacco plantation with African slave labor in the late 1650s So this is a theme that will run through this series There's a lot of slave labor in this series Anyway George grows up in 1730s and 1740s his great ambitions to be an English country gentleman and he is He does stand out. He means an outstanding man because he's so big. So he's six feet tall, which of course in the 1740s is very tall. He's very powerful, huge shoulders. Everyone talks about his massive hands. So he has to have gloves made specially. He's a great horseman and he likes riding, he likes drinking tea and he likes reading the novels of Henry Fielding, which is nice. I just wondering about the cherry tree. He's, he's, he's the other famous story that's told about him chopped down a cherry tree and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, he's I did I can't tell a lie. This story is itself a lie. It was invented. It was invented by a man called of course inevitably an American writer called Parsons Weems. Oh yes. And Parsons Weems will be reappearing in this story. Oh brilliant. Pass and Williams just basically goes around making stuff up. Today he'd have a history podcast about the Costa Rica Civil War. Right anyway. So George Washington, he's this massive bloke with his huge hands. But he's got a very weak voice, he's got a very thin sort of breath, he describes something a breathy voice because he had pluracy. So he speaks, he speaks like Marilyn Monroe. Happy birthday, Mr President. Exactly, to himself as he looks in the mirror. And can we just on the topic of accents? Yeah. Does he have a West country accent? Undoubtedly. How did they talk about it in Virginia? Happy birthday, happy birthday, Mr President. If you can basically imagine a dorset a dorset yau sit yokeilililililililililililoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucoucou with Kenny Everett's hands in the 1983 general election rally. That's a niche reference. Didn't expect we get that in. Okay, so the thing is, you said that Gubano Morris was great funster. George Washington is a total fun, he's a massive fun sponge. He, it's often said of him, people would say they never saw him laugh. One of his officers said of him, you would seldom see a frown or smile on his countenance, his air was serious and reflecting. And part of the reason he's not keen on smiling is that he's got these terrible dental issues. So from early age his teeth are decaying, as early as 1760, so long before he's involved in the tax business. One of his friends said of him, his mouth is large and generally firmly closed, but which from time to time discloses some defective teeth. Is that because of all the sugar from the plantations? Yeah, possibly. Is it a Virginia thing? I don't know. really? Yeah. To, do you know his tobacco? Does that damage your teeth? Surely it does. Anyway, he's just got terrible teeth. Again, a theme that will run through this episode. The key to him, says Ron Cherno in his biography, is Washington's intense self-discipline and his sense of control. So Washington is not actually as boring as you would think. He is a man of fierce passions and a hot temper, but he keeps these under sort of rigid, inflexible control. Thomas Jefferson said of him, his temper was naturally and resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy over it. John Adams, he had great self-command, but to preserve so much equanimity as he did, required a great capacity. John Adams also called him a mutton head. He did. Actually, John Adams would have said, he had a great self-command, but to reserve so much equanimity as he did, required a great capacity. Because that's how John Adams spoke, as we discussed in our previous American Revolution series. Anyway, the crucial moment in Washington when he's in his early 20s. Britain and France were fighting for control of North America. This is what we call the seven years war and what Americans call the French and Indian War. Washington became a commander of the Virginia militia and he established reputation as the preeminent colonial officer from North America from the colonies. Everyone said he's very brave, he's a good leader, he's very disciplined, he's great. But at the end of the war he was denied a royal commission by his British superiors. said no you know he's not quite good enough or whatever and he felt a deep sense of resentment he thought basically they looked down on me because I'm a mere colonial and they're from the metropolis I'm the imperial metropole and they've made me grovel to them and I've got nothing out of it and so he definitely has a sort of you know for him this is personal there's a chip on his shoulder the seven years war has been a great triumph for Britain but unfortunately Tom it creates huge problems which is sad the victory in the seven years war leaves Britain with this massive debt 140 million pounds so basically our debt has gone up ten times to win the war and paying interest on the debt that alone takes up half Britain's national budget this sounds quite familiar yeah yeah it does except we're not winning triumphant wars against the French no no anyway the question is how do you pay for this debt now that you've conquered all this territory in north America how are you going to fund troops to look after it's to keep the peace, not least because there are increasing conflicts with native tribes as the settlers push west. In England, the gentry who shoulder the tax burden are already paying more tax than they've ever paid before. So what, 3%? Yeah, exactly half a percent or something. So Parliament decides it will raise revenue from the colonies themselves to pay for their own defence. Yeah, that sounds entirely reasonable. Quite right. And Parliament also, This is the time, basically, the British Empire, Britain's overseas possessions have now swollen to dimensions that we never dreamed of. And the system for dealing with all this is very ramshackle and corrupt, there's all sorts of smuggling and whatnot. Basically, let's use this opportunity to sort this out to streamline and modernize it for the age of the Enlightenment. Sensible policies for happy America, basically. We'll have new courts, we'll have nice new customs duties. On all legal documents in America, there'll be a stamp tax. There'll be a stamp tax. is already in Britain. We'll just basically streamline the whole thing. This sounds great. I mean who could possibly object to that? It is great because basically if you if you just follow this you'll turn into Canada which is brilliant or Australia and everyone loves those countries. However at the time the American colonists don't like this at all and very very simply I mean obviously this is a massive issue that we could spend hours discussing going into all the nuances but very simply the issue is that until the 1760s the North American colonnist the North American colonnies have basically But what's happened now is that obviously Parliament is trying to legislate for them Parliament says look it's time to sort all this out and the more militant colonists don't like it they don't want to be sorted out they don't want to be interfered with and the militants say well we had traditional liberties you know from the 17th century which are English liberties English liberties and you're interfering with them you don't have any right to make laws for us without our consent and the French have been beaten so actually frankly we don't we don't really need you anyway we can probably deal with the natives ourselves. Right, so that's the thing, isn't it? That they don't actually want the British to come in and be woke about the Native Americans, they just want to go out and grab their land. Yes, absolutely right. This is such a great patriotic broadcast. Brilliant. But it's true, isn't it? It is true. I mean that is the state of play. Yeah, and to just point out what the British and the loyalist, the loyalist, doing this. Don't go moaning about that you're not represented in Parliament. Most people in Britain don't vote in elections for Parliament. Most towns in Britain. Lots of them don't have an MP. The way that Parliament works is Parliament has chosen on ancient organic principles that have evolved over time. Parliament as a body represents our entire British global family and Parliament's laws bind not just British subjects in Britain, but British subjects all over the world. So Parliament's does speak for you as it speaks for everybody at home. Now that doesn't cut any ice with the militants or indeed with George Washington. Washington stands very much on the more extreme wing of this issue. He has money problems like a lot of landowners do after the seven years war. The tobacco price had fallen considerably in the 1760s so he's struggling to maintain his gentry lifestyle. He's run at big debts and obviously he hates the thought of paying new taxes. He doesn't want to pay a stamp tax. He doesn't want to pay a stamp tax. He doesn't want to pay a tax. He doesn't want to pay a tax. He doesn't want to pay a tax.