Theory 2 Action Podcast
Theory 2 Action Podcast
LM#66--Lovers of Liberty series--Book 1 (Happy Independence Day 2025)
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The drumbeat of liberty that began at Lexington and Concord in 1775 would echo for eight long years before America secured its independence. Yet winning the war proved only the first challenge—creating a functioning nation would require even more patience, wisdom, and compromise.
Most Americans don't realize that nearly four years passed between the Treaty of Paris (1783) and the Constitutional Convention (1787). During this critical period, our young nation struggled under the weak Articles of Confederation, facing economic instability, regional tensions, and even armed rebellion. Different regions—New England with its shipping interests, the agricultural Middle States, and the plantation South—viewed each other with suspicion and competed for economic advantage.
When delegates finally gathered in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787, they faced the monumental task of strengthening the federal government without trampling the liberty they had just fought to secure. For three months and twenty-four days, they debated, compromised, and sometimes argued fiercely behind closed doors and sealed windows. The Great Compromise balanced the interests of large and small states, while the Three-Fifths Compromise attempted to address the contradiction of slavery in a nation founded on liberty—a solution that would contribute to sectional tensions for the next 75 years.
Key Points from the Episode:
• The American Revolutionary War began April 19, 1775, with the Battles of Lexington and Concord
• The Declaration of Independence was adopted July 4, 1776, a full year after fighting began
• Final major battle at Yorktown occurred in October 1781, but peace treaty wasn't signed until 1783
• Articles of Confederation (America's first constitution) proved extremely weak and ineffective
• Regional differences created intense conflicts between states over economic and political priorities
• Shays' Rebellion in 1786-1787 demonstrated the need for stronger central government
• Constitutional Convention lasted three months and twenty-four days during summer 1787
• The Great Compromise balanced representation between large and small states
• Most founders mistakenly believed slavery would naturally dissolve within a generation
• Despite the summer setting, Philadelphia's weather in 1787 was relatively mild
• Four years passed between the end of the Revolutionary War and the signing of the Constitution
Join us this whole next year as we celebrate America's 250th birthday and reflect on the exceptional nature of our national character that emerged through these challenging founding years.
Keep fighting the good fight.
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Those are the drums of liberty, From the first shots fired at Lexington and Concord in 1775 to the final peace agreement in Paris, which came over eight years later. The US had finally won the war, but now we had to create a country. Four years later we were finally getting around to that very question. Let's talk about it on this Liberty Minute.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, David Kaiser.
Speaker 1:Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Liberty Minute. And happy 4th of July, folks, and happy 249th to our country. It's been a long, 249 years, but boy are we not the greatest country in the history of the world. Today is going to be book one in our series, our special series, lovers of Liberty. Five books in five days to celebrate our birthday. Today this is our final book in our Lovers of Liberty series. If you haven't been listening, what's wrong with you? I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But be sure to go back and check out those prior released episodes Books 5, 4, 3, and 2. Will be in the show notes. We believe all of them are worth their weight in gold and nuggets of wisdom. They're going to be an incredible collection Of these five books that we have chosen to make our July 4th Even that much sweeter, but also to help you me to set the foundation for a fantastic and majestic 250th anniversary of our country next year, from 1776 to 2026. It's going to be tremendous to 2026. It's going to be tremendous.
Speaker 1:And so with that, let's kick off book one. Let's roll. Let's begin by talking about some timelines, because many folks don't understand some of the significance, especially the timelines in the first days of our country, and it's especially important because they bring home the difficulty that happens when you create a country or try to. In fact, let's revisit our high school history book for some civics 101. Not sure if they teach that class anymore anymore, but we are going to teach it here. So let's go over some key dates in the american revolutionary war kicks off in april 19th 1775 with the battle of lexington and concord. That's the first military engagement of the revolutionary war, making the start of the armed conflict between the American colonies and Britain. Then we have the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of 1775. It isn't until another year later that we get the Declaration of Independence adopted. The Continental Congress meets in Philadelphia, adopts the Declaration, which is primarily drafted by Thomas Jefferson, and that formally announces the colony's intent to form a new nation. Then we struggle all the way through the rest of 1776. We're going to talk about that a little bit later with some other episodes as we progress later into 2025 and into 2026.
Speaker 1:But the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776 is instrumental. Actually it's pivotal, extremely pivotal. That is General George Washington's surprise victory after crossing the Delaware and he surprised the Hessians in a driving Nor'easter, and then he actually goes on to win at Princeton too. So both of those revitalize the patriot cause. Then we go a whole another year to the battle of brandywine. It's a british victory and it leads to the fall of philadelphia, but it shows growing american resilience. Then we go one month later to the Battle of Saratoga. That's a decisive American victory, convinces France to formally ally with the colonies, shifting the war's momentum. Then we have the Battle of Monmouth one year later Showcases the Continental Army's improved discipline after wintering at Valley Forge. Then the crucial Battle of Yorktown in October of 1781. That's the last major battle of the American Revolution. It's where both American and French forces defeated British General Cornwallis, effectively ending the large-scale fighting in our revolution. It isn't until two years later, in September of 1783, that we actually get the Treaty of Paris signed. That officially ends the Revolutionary War with Britain and Britain recognized American independence. That's all crucial because it's a good and explanatory backdrop to our American Revolution and especially our founding documents.
Speaker 1:You have to understand that by March of 1781, the Articles of Confederation are ratified. That's the first US Constitution. But it's very weak. It creates a very weak central government and it isn't until all the way post the American Revolution, by four years, that the second Constitutional Convention begins, and that is in May of 1787. That's where delegates convene in Philadelphia to address the article's shortcomings and to draft a new Constitution. Then it is only three months later that the Constitution is signed. The convention completes the Constitution, establishes a much stronger federal government. The states buy in, establishes a much stronger federal government, the states buy in. And then a year later, roughly, the Constitution is ratified. New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify it, making the Constitution effective and official. And then some four years later, three years later rather, the Bill of Rights is ratified. The first 10 amendments that comes later, addressing the individual liberties, are added to the Constitution.
Speaker 1:And all this is critical because from the time of the end of the war, the end of the American Revolution, to the Constitutional Convention is three years, eight months and 22 days. Convention is three years, eight months and 22 days. This period is marked by economic instability, by a rebellion Shays' Rebellion, 1786 to 1787, which provides the stimulus of getting folks back to writing a constitution because they can see the Articles of Confederation is not working and they want a stronger government. So that three years, eight months, 22 days is very, very crucial. And even a longer time is, you know, first the war is roughly six years, but the last shots are fired at Yorktown in October of 1781. That Treaty of Paris isn't signed until almost two years later, in September of 1783. That's agonizing. And then that's not all of it. A timeline to create a government is just brutal. We just shared the end of the war to the Constitution getting signed. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:First we talked about the end of the war to the Constitutional Convention. That's three years, eight months, 22 days. Think about this. The end of the war to getting the Constitution signed. Four years, 14 days, september 3rd 1783 to September 1787. And then, most importantly, is the three months and the 24 days of the Constitutional Convention itself. It takes place from May 25th 1787 to September 17th 1787. And all this is extremely, extremely important time period.
Speaker 1:So with that backdrop, with our Civics 101 out of the way, we understand how long it was agonizingly long. When you read about this in history or you learn unless you have a very good history teacher that really puts you in the place of these young colonies you have no idea that you fight a war and you write a constitution. Everyone thinks it like happens in three weeks. Yeah, we won the war. That took a little bit longer than we thought. Then we wrote the constitution. No big deal, wrap that up in no easy peasy. No, no, it is was. It was agonizingly long, a lot of frustration, a lot of economic instability. You know maryland and virginia are fighting over the potomac uh water rights to the river for like three years, just causing all kind of havoc. That's just one issue. There's thousands that you can read about. So with all that backdrop, let's go to our first pull quote.
Speaker 1:What was so terribly wrong with the Articles of Confederation? By 1787, they had been in effect for only six years, during which time the Americans beat the British and turned their energies to peacetime pursuits. Did the rash acts of Massachusetts hotheads have to condemn the Articles, especially in view of that state's reputation for ill temper? Ill temper. Jefferson, 3,000 miles away in Paris, viewed the Shays Rising, or what we call it the Shays Rebellion, with a bemused shrug, observing that it was only an American rebellion for the last 11 years. Quote God forbid, we should be 20 years without such a rebellion, he wrote. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. But Washington's alarmed response was far more typical, as expressed in his question to Madison. Typical as expressed in his question to Madison.
Speaker 1:What stronger evidence can be given of the want of energy in our government than these disorders? After the chaise rising, the government's weakness was visible to every American. It was weak because that was what the 13 states wanted. And that excellent quote comes to us from an excellent book, the Summer of 1787, by David Stewart, the men who invented the Constitution. And invent they did.
Speaker 1:The Articles of Confederation was the first attempt, albeit weak, to create a national government. But it was really a confederation in the truest sense, a loose knitting together of the states. The Articles were weak, very weak, with no taxing power and no central authority, which created all kinds of economic and political chaos. The first key of the convention was to thread the needle. The convention had to be stronger than the Articles of Confederation, but they could not be too strong because the rebels, the Americans, had just fought and won a war against the world's best army and navy at the time. So balancing both of those competing energies was paramount. Let's go back to the book to hear about these very competing energies, about these very competing energies With their own histories and traditions.
Speaker 1:The states mistrusted each other. New Englanders and Southerners found each other's speech foreign. During the war with Britain, troops from the rest of the country tended to draw together in a common unfriendliness towards. The New Englanders resented their leveling democracy and moral narrowness. The economic interest of the regions diverged widely. New England depended on shipping and fishing. The Middle States, new Jersey, new York, delaware and Pennsylvania grew grain and had infant industries. In the South, slave-based agriculture needed export markets for tobacco from Maryland and Virginia and rice and indigo from South Carolina. Each state tailored its tax system to its own economy, tax system to its own economy. Southern states favored free trade, while the eastern states used import duties to protect industry. Political divisions followed regional lines. A southerner wrote resentfully in January 1787 that the Yankees opposed a North Carolinian as president of the Confederation Congress, stressing quote the great extent of territory to be under one free government. One convention delegate found that in the various regions the quote manners and modes of thinking of the inhabitants differ nearly as much as in different nations of Europe. Indeed, some Americans proposed to dissolve the Confederation. Southern newspapers openly discussed dividing the country into four nations Eastern, middle, southern and Trans-Allegheny. Congressional delegates from Massachusetts and Pennsylvania expected the nation would be divided, be divided.
Speaker 1:This book highlights, and really does a good job, walking you through in narrative fashion, the intense debates, the compromises among the delegates, all with conflicting interest. All Americans should know about the Great Compromise, the big state small state compromise, and why is it called great? We should all know, as Americans, about the Three-Fifths Compromise, the big state small state compromise, and why is it called great. We should all know, as Americans, about the Three-Fifths Compromise, the flawed attempt to deal with slavery and its role in the country and its representation in the states. Most of the founders thought that slavery was on the downswing and would dissolve itself out by the turn of the century. Just some 13 years later, in the next quarter century, that would turn out not to be the case. In fact. Let's pick up the book in the middle of an intense debate on June 11th, barely three weeks in to the session of the Constitutional Congress.
Speaker 1:Throughout the maneuvering of June 11th, a question occurs when were the Virginians? They had boldly led the convention only two weeks before, one after another seizing the spotlight. Only two weeks before, one after another, seizing the spotlight, washington ascending to the presiding chair. Madison seized the pen. Wythe wrote the rules. Randolph took to the floor.
Speaker 1:Mason's trenchant comments were already well regarded, yet during this critical sequence they sat largely silent. Did any expression cross Washington's stony features as Wilson unveiled the three-fifths compromise? Why did Madison, wilson's ally in the fight for popular representation, remain mute at this critical juncture? Had he been consulted on the strategy and blessed it? Was he distracted by his note-taking, closeted in his room over the weekend while the deals were reached? Or did his ambivalence over slavery anchor him to his chair when the deal played out that would help slave interests control the federal government for the next 75 years? Where was Randolph, the nominal head of the delegation who presented the Virginia plan? What of Mason, who despised the slave trade and took pride in speaking his mind to any audience on any occasion?
Speaker 1:Whatever the reasons for the Virginians' reticence, it reflected an emerging reality of the convention. Although Virginians initiated the process of writing a constitution, they would not control it. The project would be remade by many other hands. James Wilson and John Rutledge, along with the Sherman of Connecticut and a Gouverneur Morris, and a half dozen others, would exert powerful influence over the next three months of deliberations, and those deliberations and that debate would go on. Those deliberations and that debate would go on, and by mid-June the heat was coming on strong too. Summer was arriving in Philadelphia and Philadelphia and its statehouse wouldn't be able to open those windows of the statehouse where they were drafting this document, this very, very powerful document. Why couldn't they open the windows? For fear that the proceedings would leak. And here's just another antidote that you get from David O Stewart in his research and his incredible writing.
Speaker 1:Going back to the book, although the delegates themselves were the source of that legend, records suggest that Philadelphia's summer of 1787 was not all that bad, at least no worse than most of America's often humid East Coast summers. The sketchy diary of William Samuel Johnson, a Connecticut delegate, records quote hot, very hot on the 33rd day of 80 days for which he noted the weather. The frequency of that entry does not startle. It was, after all, summertime. Daily weather records maintained by Philadelphians also do not suggest an unusually hot season. A 20th century study concluded that quote. In general terms, philadelphia enjoyed a cool summer in 1787. So perhaps the weather was cool, but the debate inside was intense. Not sure which made the participants all that more hot, maybe.
Speaker 1:Regardless, this book is excellent because it gives us a peek into how our country came into being Its structure, the debates, the form, the shapes, the personalities, the sometimes eccentric personalities, and then sometimes the stoic, if not icy, demeanor of a General Washington at the presiding chair. It's all here, madison's notes included. Some years ago, the great Rush Limbaugh recommended the book the Miracle in Philadelphia, and while I haven't read that book, mainly because it is not offered on Audible, I hope that this book lives up to that one, because I found David O Stewart's the Summer of 1787 quite, quite good and felt like I was there for all three months, whether it was hot or cold, in the Philadelphia Statehouse.
Speaker 1:So in today's Mojo Minute, as today is our national holiday, our national birthday, july 4th, our 249th, let us rejoice in our country's founding. It's a story of a land of hope. Its second founding helps us to live out our ideals, of which these men, way back in 1776 and in 1787, constructed our very government and put it into action, and then put that form into action in 1787. Let's also appreciate the economic structure that they gave us. They gave this country to allow us to be a beacon of hope and liberty, not for only all of us in the country but for the whole wide world.
Speaker 1:And finally, let's appreciate our contemporaries, like the great one Mark Levin, who can write so eloquently about our founding and about the ideals and the principles and carry them over to our contemporary issues today. So happy birthday, america. May you have another 249 years, and we can't wait to celebrate number 250 with you and celebrate, indeed, our great country and the exceptional nature of our national character. God bless America, god bless the United States. May God bless you and all your families, and may God continue to shed his grace on thee.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.