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The Supreme Court has been busy · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:23
  Welcome to history class, ladies and gentlemen.
• 0:26
  My friends, this is this is history class, the 250th year edition on Fridays.
• 0:34
  This is this is the fun that we have.
• 0:37
  We are currently at the moment this year exploring the signers of the declaration.
• 0:44
  A lot of them we do not know.
• 0:45
  Some of them we do know.
• 0:47
  A lot of them, most of them we don't.
• 0:51
  So we're taking some time to go through it because history is important.
• 0:56
  We we know, we get it.
• 0:57
  We know that history has been under assault for a long time.
• 1:04
  And what we're trying to do here, at least on Fridays and on other days occasionally, but but Fridays, we are dedicating some time to the accurate retelling of history.
• 1:17
  And a lot of it, they're just there's stories that we don't know, or maybe stories we've forgotten.
• 1:22
  So today we are diving into the signers from Pennsylvania.
• 1:30
  Now, before we do, before we do, before we get there, speaking of 250 years, we're celebrating this summer, July 2nd, July 3rd, and July 4th in Nashville, Tennessee.
• 1:42
  The 25010 conference, where we're celebrating 250 years of America and 10 years of America out loud.
• 1:52
  And we would love for you to join us.
• 1:55
  Uh whatever you got to do to get there, you're going to want to make it happen because it is going to be a fantastic time.
• 2:03
  Excellent nationally known speakers, excellent entertainment, excellent food, excellent fun, the fireworks display Saturday night.
• 2:15
  What I hear, Nashville puts on a fireworks display second to none.
• 2:20
  And this year's going to be no different.
• 2:24
  There are tickets that remain.
• 2:26
  Matter of fact, early bird pricing is still going on.
• 2:29
  It's going on until March 1st.
• 2:31
  So if you are listening to this, and it's not March 1st yet.
• 2:35
  I know a lot of a lot of you listen to these shows and podcasts.
• 2:39
  So it might be past March 1st.
• 2:41
  If it is, you've missed the early bird pricing.
• 2:44
  If you haven't gotten your ticket yet, but that's okay.
• 2:46
  You can you can still you can still do this.
• 2:49
  You can still get yourself registered, get yourself to Tennessee to Nashville this summer, but you're going to have to do it quickly because this thing's going to sell out.
• 2:58
  It's going to sell out.
• 2:59
  All right.
• 3:00
  So today we're we're getting into Pennsylvania.
• 3:05
  And Pennsylvania is intriguing because Philadelphia is the host.
• 3:12
  They're the host of this thing.
• 3:14
  And I think a lot of us think that the signers came in ready to go.
• 3:22
  Let's let's get this declaration signed.
• 3:25
  And especially you would thank those from Pennsylvania.
• 3:28
  I mean, Philadelphia, 1776, all of that, the city of brotherly love.
• 3:34
  But it's not that way, especially in Philadelphia.
• 3:38
  The signers here, or let me say it this way.
• 3:42
  The delegates, the delegates are not on board.
• 3:45
  Not yet.
• 3:46
  Now we we we pulled Ben Franklin aside a couple weeks ago.
• 3:50
  We just spent some time with Benjamin Franklin because I wanted to talk about his history.
• 3:55
  There are Franklin is just one of those, one of those individuals who is unique.
• 4:06
  Franklin was intentional about his own development, his own personal development.
• 4:13
  Talk about uh reading a self-help book.
• 4:16
  Go to Franklin's autobiography, read it.
• 4:19
  It's a self-help book waiting to happen.
• 4:21
  I mean, he lays it out there how he how he he dove and poured himself into the virtues to make himself a better person to develop himself, self-help.
• 4:33
  It's a it's a fascinating story.
• 4:37
  And so this is why we wanted to separate him and just give him his own day, kind of treat him uh differently than how we we treat the others because you know, most of the states, we just the individual players here, the individual signers, they all are working together in conjunction with each other.
• 4:58
  And so we kind of deal with them as a group, and that's how we're gonna do it today.
• 5:02
  We're gonna deal with the the signers from Pennsylvania as a group, but we needed to highlight Benjamin Franklin first, just because of you know things I've already said about him.
• 5:14
  So we're gonna start here.
• 5:16
  We're gonna start with Benjamin Franklin.
• 5:19
  We're gonna start where we finished here in Pennsylvania, and that is with Benjamin Franklin in 1764, and and this is kind of where we ended off uh with him, by the way.
• 5:32
  1764, Franklin is not re-elected to the Pennsylvania State Assembly, but his his party, his particular party is still in control of the assembly.
• 5:44
  It just so happened that that Franklin didn't get the vote to be a member of the of the state assembly, but his party needed his his ingenuity, his party needed his genius, and they asked him if he would go to England for them, and not only for them, but on behalf of the state to represent the state of Pennsylvania as their agent before the king.
• 6:11
  All right, this again, this is 1764.
• 6:14
  We're not even, we haven't hit the stamp act yet, and and the state of Pennsylvania, uh again, we don't have uh I say we, you know, pretending that we're all colonists at this point.
• 6:29
  We don't have representation in parliament, and so having a voice, having somebody who would stand before the king as a voice for the colony was a very important role.
• 6:41
  And they asked Franklin to fill this role if if he would uh act as their agent and present a petition to the king that here's the the direct quote that that this petition to the king to take the people of the province of Pennsylvania under his immediate protection.
• 7:01
  Okay, consider us, consider the things that we need.
• 7:07
  Bring us under your immediate protection.
• 7:09
  We are reaffirming our loyalty to you, oh great sovereign.
• 7:15
  We are reaffirming your majesty over us, and this was the role that Franklin was to play here, and they asked Franklin to play this role again.
• 7:27
  Franklin is is world renowned at this point.
• 7:31
  I say world renowned.
• 7:32
  Uh, I guess I could say it this way, he's European renowned.
• 7:36
  Okay, the Europe knows who Benjamin Franklin is.
• 7:39
  He's already made a name for himself.
• 7:42
  His lightning rod scientific experiment alone uh has brought him worldwide again, European-wide notoriety.
• 7:52
  I mean, that the king over there in France uh wanted his experiments translated into French so he could read them and he can understand them.
• 8:04
  So Franklin, Franklin's the perfect choice here for the colony of Pennsylvania to send somebody on their behalf to stand before the king.
• 8:19
  So while he's there representing Pennsylvania, the the Stamp Act unfolds.
• 8:28
  It just you know becomes a thing.
• 8:31
  And and luckily for Pennsylvania, Franklin is uh he's there, he he stands before Parliament ultimately.
• 8:44
  He he gives this famous speech before the House of Commons.
• 8:50
  This takes place in in February, and and so when when we get into 1766, I mean into it in earnest, the Stamp Act is repealed, and it it's repealed in large part because of Franklin, because he's there, he goes before the House of Commons, he gives this impassioned speech about you know representation and all of that.
• 9:16
  And so he's very successful, and this success really that he's achieved here brings him even more notoriety back in America.
• 9:28
  So now we've got other colonies, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Georgia.
• 9:33
  They're all getting on the phone, and calling Franklin, of course, they're not getting on the phone because well, they don't have a phone.
• 9:41
  And they're you know getting on the proverbial phone, as it were, and they're just saying to Franklin look, can you come and do for us what you're doing for Philadelphia?
• 9:52
  So he becomes the agent for Massachusetts, for New Jersey, for Georgia, and he
• 10:00
  He's over there.
• 10:01
  He's over the pond for about a decade, close to a decade.
• 10:04
  So he goes 17 1764, 65.
• 10:11
  And while he's there, uh, again, working through whatever he's got to work through to to get the the stamp act figured out.
• 10:25
  John Dickinson, another Philadelphia who does become a Philadelphia delegate, uh, Dickinson begins making a name for himself.
• 10:39
  Uh he is he's adamantly opposed to the Stamp Act.
• 10:44
  He's a member right alongside of John Adams of the Stamp Act Congress.
• 10:50
  These two guys are essentially working side by side to um to get the stamp act repealed.
• 11:00
  So they're here doing what they're doing.
• 11:02
  Franklin is overseas.
• 11:04
  He's doing what he's doing, and the these guys are working together in unison in order to get England to start playing ball to some degree or another.
• 11:20
  So the Stamp Act is repealed, but uh, you know, the king is the king and parliament's parliament, and they still want to raise money to pay for their royal officials over here in the colony, so they institute uh another series of acts that they call the towns and acts.
• 11:40
  And it's here that John Dickinson really makes more of a global name for himself in the same way that Franklin is.
• 11:50
  Dickinson authors letters from a farmer in Pennsylvania to the inhabitants of the British colonies.
• 11:58
  These letters go far and wide ultimately.
• 12:03
  Uh, and it's it's here in these letters that he denounces the establishment of the American Board of Customs Commissioners at Boston to enforce the Townsend Acts.
• 12:14
  So he is he's adamantly opposed to British taxation.
• 12:21
  He's adamantly opposed to the fact that there is zero representation here.
• 12:28
  He wishes he had some, doesn't have any.
• 12:32
  Um, and he brings this attitude into the uh the this time in Philadelphia where all the delegates are coming together in 1774.
• 12:47
  He brings this attitude where he wants he wants reconciliation.
• 12:54
  And the rest of Pennsylvania really follows his lead on this.
• 12:59
  They kind of defer to Dickinson.
• 13:03
  I mean, we're we're we're looking at names like James Wilson, uh, Morton, Humphrey, Willing, Morris, these guys that are all delegates.
• 13:13
  They all, I mean, and there's seven of them.
• 13:16
  We haven't gone over the list yet, have we?
• 13:18
  We should we well let's do it.
• 13:21
  Dickinson, Morris, Willing Humphrey, Morton, Wilson, and Benjamin Franklin.
• 13:29
  These are the seven.
• 13:31
  Franklin is probably the one who wants independence.
• 13:36
  He's probably the one.
• 13:38
  These other guys, you know, not so much.
• 13:42
  They're they're not so much on board.
• 13:44
  The the other the other six take take a second seat, as it were to John Dickinson.
• 13:55
  Dickinson becomes the leader of the pack somewhat.
• 14:00
  And they follow his lead.
• 14:02
  And so again, he's not he is the one who's not ripe for independent.
• 14:08
  He's not ready.
• 14:09
  He's not he's not willing.
• 14:11
  He wants reconciliation.
• 14:14
  He he doesn't mind fighting.
• 14:17
  Uh, he's willing to take up arms.
• 14:20
  He's willing to support the the minute men in Lexington and Concord.
• 14:23
  He's willing to take up arms.
• 14:25
  He's not interested in fighting.
• 14:28
  All right.
• 14:29
  So let's go back to 1764, 65.
• 14:34
  Franklin is overseas.
• 14:36
  Dickinson is here.
• 14:37
  He's kind of leading the charge against the the Stamp Act.
• 14:42
  Right about this time, a man by the name of James Wilson emigrates from Scotland.
• 14:49
  And he uh gets into the practice of law, graduates, ends up working in the law office of John Dickinson.
• 15:01
  And at the and he's there while he's a student.
• 15:04
  He finally gets admitted uh to the bar in 1767, but he's under the tutelage of one John Dickinson.
• 15:13
  Um he becomes a member of the Pennsylvania uh provincial Congress or that meeting in July of 1774, and they elect him as a delegate uh that following August.
• 15:30
  And he's right in line with Dickinson, though.
• 15:35
  The following January 1775, Wilson uh he's a delegate, he introduces a resolution declaring the Boston Port Act unconstitutional.
• 15:49
  Um, and that following May uh 1775, he's a delegate.
• 15:56
  Um, he's chosen as the colonel of the militia, uh, also to raise uh an army in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
• 16:06
  But like John Dickinson, he is what they would refer to as a moderate, and he opposes independence uh during the summer of 1775-76.
• 16:21
  The diary of one Richard Smith of New Jersey, by the way, when we we talked about the delegates of New Jersey, Richard Smith was one of the five who was replaced because the good folks in New Jersey wanted independence.
• 16:36
  Smith and the other four New Jersey delegates weren't willing to vote for it.
• 16:39
  So he he's one of these guys who's replaced, replaced with Stockton and Witherspoon and company, who would be willing to actually vote for independence.
• 16:49
  Well, Richard Smith is keeping a diary, and in this diary, he makes note of the fact that James Wilson is indeed anti-independent.
• 17:00
  At one point, uh on February 13th, his diary says Wilson brought in that the drought of an address to our constituents, which was very long, badly written, and full against independency.
• 17:14
  So he's happy that Wilson is full against independency, but he's he is ruining the the day that Wilson delivered that speech, was which in his opinion was badly badly written.
• 17:28
  Uh on March 22nd, according to the same diary by Smith.
• 17:34
  Wilson opposed an amendment to the privateering preamble, in which the king was made the author of the colonists' miseries, and Wilson is upset about this.
• 17:44
  He he doesn't want any document or any declaration stating that the king is responsible for all the miseries happening on this side of the pond, because he, in his opinion, he thought it would alienate the king forever.
• 17:59
  These guys don't want to alienate themselves from the king.
• 18:05
  Um so this is 1775.
• 18:09
  Now again, we've got Benjamin Franklin, who uh comes back from the other side of the pond, and it's right about this time.
• 18:19
  1770, is it 74 or 70?
• 18:23
  It's May of 75.
• 18:25
  Benjamin Franklin arrives in Philadelphia on the 5th of May, 1775.
• 18:32
  The very next day, he's chosen by the Pennsylvania Assembly to be a delegate to that second continental congress.
• 18:40
  And so they meet in Philadelphia four days later.
• 18:43
  Of course, Franklin shows up and he um he's one of seven.
• 18:49
  Franklin, again, I'll go through the list.
• 18:52
  Franklin, Dickinson, Morris, Wheeling, Humphrey, Morton, and Wilson, James Wilson.
• 19:02
  Uh, as I said, Franklin is probably the only one who's willing to vote for independence.
• 19:07
  The other six are not.
• 19:09
  They're not on board.
• 19:10
  And up to this point, they have strict orders from the Quaker-led colony of Philadelphia that they don't want anything to do with independence.
• 19:20
  Those are the orders.
• 19:21
  Stay away from it.
• 19:23
  We want to stay under the protection of the king.
• 19:27
  All right.
• 19:27
  This is their opinion.
• 19:29
  Okay, let's pause here for a second when we when we come out of the break.
• 19:35
  We're going to uh dive into the into the the specifics of of how this worked out, of how this, how this played out in Philadelphia with these Pennsylvania delegates.
• 19:47
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• 23:30
  My friends, welcome back to history class.
• 23:32
  It's honored to have you here with us.
• 23:35
  Honor to have you on board.
• 23:54
  As a lad, you know, we know that this Congress is happening here in Philadelphia.
• 24:04
  It is right downtown, Independence Hall, or Carpenter's Hall, as it was called.
• 24:10
  And we always just think that Pennsylvania, I mean, these guys were behind it.
• 24:15
  I mean, they're hosting the Congress.
• 24:18
  Certainly, they're behind independence.
• 24:22
  Certainly, certainly they want independence.
• 24:27
  That's not the case out of the seven signers.
• 24:32
  Uh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say the seven signers because we haven't signed yet.
• 24:37
  Out of the seven delegates that are here at this moment, Dickinson Morris, Willing Humphrey, Morton Franklin, and Wilson, Benjamin Franklin is really probably the only one who is in support of independence.
• 24:51
  As I said just before the last break, May, what did I say?
• 24:55
  May 4th.
• 24:57
  May 4th or 5th.
• 24:58
  I don't remember the exact date.
• 25:00
  Franklin shows up in Philadelphia, comes back from the pond.
• 25:04
  The very next day he's elected to the second continental congress.
• 25:10
  And he and Wilson are in this Congress together, along with Dickinson, Morris, Willing Humphrey, and Morton.
• 25:17
  And Franklin has an influence on James Wilson.
• 25:24
  It takes him a minute, though, because right up until, you know, as we said, you know, we're looking at the diary of Richard Smith from New Jersey.
• 25:35
  And Smith makes note of Wilson's uh very long and tediously uh badly written, as he called it, badly written speech.
• 25:47
  But even though it was long and badly written, it was full on against independency.
• 25:54
  So even into March of 1776, it's taken James Wilson a minute to get on board.
• 26:03
  But Franklin is a you know, he's the old guy, he's the famous old guy.
• 26:11
  Dickinson also is famous.
• 26:13
  You've got these two famous individuals that are making up the bookends of the Pennsylvania delegates, and James Wilson is spending some time with Benjamin Franklin.
• 26:27
  Benjamin Franklin has this persuasive way about him.
• 26:31
  He's not.
• 26:32
  So remember, Franklin has has been on this self-improvement road for years.
• 26:40
  Franklin has been developing within himself 13 particular virtues.
• 26:47
  And Franklin isn't going to ram an idea down anybody's throat.
• 26:51
  Franklin's going to come about it from the back door.
• 26:54
  Franklin's going to be, um, what's the word I'm looking for?
• 26:58
  He it's not that he's going to be surreptitious about it or that he's going to be deceitful about it, but he's going to be.
• 27:23
  Again, not hammering it, not pounding the fist.
• 27:26
  You must think this way.
• 27:27
  He's just putting out these particular ideas.
• 27:32
  He's presenting these ideas, and Wilson comes on board.
• 27:36
  John Morton comes on on board.
• 27:40
  So as it turns out, here we are, July 1st, and the committee of the whole Pennsylvania, the majority of so the Lee's motion is on the table, and then everybody's going to vote on Lee's motion that we indeed should be free in independent states.
• 27:59
  But Pennsylvania, on the whole, out of the seven, they vote against Lee's motion here on July 1st.
• 28:08
  And it's it's said of Wilson that he uh has spoken for the very first time in favor of independence because it was Wilson and Franklin and John Morton who voted yes July 1st.
• 28:25
  They they cast a yes vote.
• 28:30
  Uh and and for the very first time.
• 28:34
  Uh the Pennsylvania, but but they're going against the Pennsylvania uh provincial assembly because on June 24th, just prior to this vote of July 1st.
• 28:50
  The conference of uh the Pennsylvania State Assembly Committee concurred to a vote.
• 28:59
  And they finally agree that declaring the United Colonies free and independent states was the route to take.
• 29:05
  Up to this point, they had been saying no.
• 29:07
  They had been following the lead of John Dickinson.
• 29:10
  And again, Dickinson, uh, he's willing to fight.
• 29:13
  He's willing to support the troops, he's willing to take up arms, but he wants to take up arms only to the extent that that we drive England back to the negotiating table.
• 29:25
  And Franklin is of the opinion that England isn't going to come to the negotiating table.
• 29:31
  Franklin's been a decade over there.
• 29:33
  He knows these people, he knows the king, he knows Parliament, he understands what makes them tick.
• 29:40
  And he also gets it, they're not coming back to the table.
• 29:44
  The only option for the colonists here is to fight to be independent.
• 29:51
  So Pennsylvania, though, uh the state assembly has instructed their.
• 30:00
  Delegates vote no on independence until June 24th.
• 30:05
  Something happened on June 24th.
• 30:07
  What in the world happened on June 24th?
• 30:10
  Well, this is interesting because uh as I said, it was Morton, Franklin, and Wilson who voted yes on July 1st.
• 30:19
  The other four members voted no.
• 30:23
  Dickinson, Morris, Willing, and Humphrey.
• 30:25
  They still vote no on July 1st, even though the 24th, the state assembly said, Yes, we are giving you our blessing.
• 30:32
  Please vote for independence.
• 30:35
  And this is where John Morton comes in.
• 30:38
  His vote of yes alongside of Franklin and James Wilson has an interesting backstory to it.
• 30:45
  Um Morton is he's born in in Chester County, which is in Delaware.
• 30:53
  Or I'm sorry, it's now Delaware County, but this is still Pennsylvania, which by the way, Delaware was is referred to as the lower counties because at this point it's still kind of part of Pennsylvania.
• 31:06
  It's not part of Pennsylvania.
• 31:09
  It's kind of a strange situation.
• 31:11
  Delaware is in the process of kind of becoming their own.
• 31:16
  Um, but John Morton is born in Chester County, which is now Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
• 31:21
  His great-grandfather had sailed from Sweden in 1654 and settled near Philadelphia.
• 31:28
  Morton had served for many years in the General Assembly of Pennsylvania.
• 31:34
  And at this point in time, he's currently the speaker of the House.
• 31:38
  So on the state level, yes, he is a delegate to the to the national congress, but on the state level, John Morton is a very important player.
• 31:46
  He's the speaker of the house.
• 31:47
  He basically leads the state assembly.
• 31:51
  And uh as speaker of that assembly in June, when Pennsylvania's new instructions to the colonies delegates and the Continental Congress were approved, uh, it was John Morton who, as the speaker of the house, signed them.
• 32:09
  Uh, and uh here's how it reads it says, when again, signed by by John Morton, who up to this point, he morton is not on board, but yet Morton and Wilson are being influenced by Benjamin Franklin.
• 32:26
  Franklin is pulling these guys aside, and he's saying, look, I mean, I think he's pulling all of them aside, quite frankly, and and just saying to them, look, uh spent 10 years over there.
• 32:40
  I know what parliament's doing, I know the game they're playing, and and they're they're not gonna come to the table.
• 32:45
  They're gonna they're gonna make you think they want to come to the table, and they're gonna make you think they're they're reading your remonstrances and your your appeals and uh everything that you're putting forth, and they're not, but they're over there laughing at you guys.
• 33:00
  They they're over there laughing, they're getting the biggest chuckle out of this ever.
• 33:06
  So it's Morton and and Wilson that are beginning to listen to to Franklin's words here.
• 33:12
  So when uh June 24th, when the assembly meets, and Wilson again, or I'm sorry, Morton again is the speaker of the house, and he signs these orders.
• 33:20
  Here's what it says.
• 33:22
  When by our instructions of last November, we strictly enjoined you to dissent from and utterly reject any proposition, should such be made, that might cause or lead to a separation from Great Britain.
• 33:37
  He's saying, look, we uh it's true.
• 33:40
  We have been instructing you to dissent from and utterly reject any proposition that's going to separate us from the motherland.
• 33:50
  We are the king's royal subjects here.
• 33:52
  We're you know, he's sovereign and we're under him, and that's the way it's gonna be.
• 33:58
  Uh so yes, he's he's admitting that this is this is what we we did tell you before.
• 34:04
  Um to dissent from and utterly reject any proposition should such be made, that might cause or lead to a separation from Great Britain.
• 34:14
  Our restrictions arose from an earnest desire to serve the good people of Pennsylvania with fidelity.
• 34:22
  Look, we we were doing this in good faith.
• 34:25
  We believed, we earnestly believed our deeply held beliefs were that this was the right thing, that we were serving the people of Pennsylvania with fidelity in and making a move to not go down the road of independency, as they called it.
• 34:45
  I kind of like that term, by the way.
• 34:47
  The road of independence, I don't know, independency.
• 34:50
  We don't we don't say independency anymore.
• 34:53
  Well, I think it's kind of fun, actually.
• 34:56
  Uh, however, Morton notes, the situation of public affairs is since so greatly altered that we now think ourselves justifiable in removing the restrictions laid upon you.
• 35:11
  So those restrictions are no more, they no longer exist.
• 35:15
  We are no longer restricting you from voting for independence, as it were.
• 35:24
  This is this is June 24th.
• 35:28
  So on July 1st, it's John Morton because he he comes back to Congress.
• 35:35
  He he went over to wherever the state assembly was meeting, June 24th.
• 35:41
  He doesn't have to go far, though, probably just I don't know, down the road.
• 35:43
  I'm not sure where the state assembly would was meeting.
• 35:46
  I don't know if they're meeting in Philadelphia or somewhere else.
• 35:49
  But he doesn't have far to go, shows up at the state assembly, and it's then and there that they agree.
• 35:56
  Look, things are changing.
• 35:57
  The situation of public affairs has been greatly altered.
• 36:01
  And so now we think it justifiable that we're gonna lift these restrictions, and we want our delegates to vote for independence.
• 36:12
  Um July 1st rolls around, and it's Morton, it's Wilson and Franklin who vote for it.
• 36:20
  It's been thought that Morton's own yes vote, in addition to to being influenced by Franklin.
• 36:26
  It's believed that he was also influenced by the speech made by Samuel Adams during the June debate of Lee's motion.
• 36:37
  Uh Morton was a man of deep religious conviction and conscience, and he wrestled with his earlier feelings, and had the had the courage, had the gumption, had the fortitude, as it were, to change his vote.
• 36:54
  According to the biography of the signers to the Declaration of Independence, volume six, page 219.
• 37:02
  The change came dramatically on the final day, bringing Pennsylvania into the United States.
• 37:09
  This would have been the final day would have been July 2nd.
• 37:15
  But on the testimony of McKean, McKean, of course, is the delegate from Delaware, Thomas McKean.
• 37:25
  Uh, in his writings and in his journals, uh McKean, uh, and even in a letter that he that he wrote in 1817.
• 37:34
  McKean said the change took place earlier, as Morton had voted with Franklin and Wilson on July 1st.
• 37:43
  Uh, so you know, Morton later on, he would say that many of his friends abandoned him because of his vote for independence.
• 37:56
  Uh I think this was hurtful to him.
• 38:00
  It was painful to him to be abandoned by the people that he was closest to.
• 38:08
  Um, he did say that.
• 38:12
  Let's see, this note here says his last message for them for these people who abandoned him, his last message for them, was that they would live to see the hour when they would acknowledge his vote to have been the most glorious service that I ever rendered my country.
• 38:29
  And it was it was indeed the most glorious service that Mr.
• 38:35
  John Morton could ever render to his country.
• 38:39
  You know, when I when I hear the name John Morton, I think of Johnny Morton.
• 38:43
  Uh Johnny Morton was the uh the receiver for the Detroit Lions back in the day, Johnny Morton, and he was a good receiver too.
• 38:52
  The city loved Johnny Morton, loved themselves some Johnny Morton.
• 38:56
  Uh, you know, he was kind of in the mold of Amar Ross St.
• 38:59
  Brown, as he is today.
• 39:00
  You know what?
• 39:01
  I'm I'm sorry for that little uh that little football detour.
• 39:05
  But sometimes, sometimes look, we're just gonna we're gonna take football detours because we love football, number one, and you know, number two, detours present themselves, and you know, there goes a squirrel.
• 39:19
  We have to we have to dive into that.
• 39:22
  All right, so July 1st, the the vote happens.
• 39:26
  Morton Franklin and Wilson are a yes, but Pennsylvania is still not carried in the column for independence, and we're moving on to July 2nd for a final ultimate vote.
• 39:42
  Now, this is the this is when McKean, Thomas McKean sends a uh and um an emergency note uh to an emergency telegram.
• 39:53
  I don't think it was called telegrams at that point, uh, via express rider back into Delaware.
• 40:00
  We're bringing Caesar Rodney back, and this is the this is the time when Cesar Rodney rides all night in the storm and the thunder and the lightning 80 miles, literally riding his horse all night long.
• 40:13
  Uh, because he's got to get back to Philadelphia in time for a July 2nd vote because they're gonna they're gonna take another vote.
• 40:21
  They are going to push this thing over the finish line.
• 40:25
  But July 1st, right now, it's not being carried.
• 40:29
  Philadelphia is in the no column, and we're gonna we're gonna pick it up.
• 40:36
  The excitement of July 2nd.
• 40:38
  What in the world happened on July 2nd?
• 40:40
  Well, you kind of know it's a it's a spoiler alert, you know how it shapes out, but the details of how we get there to me are so intriguing.
• 40:47
  This is the part of the story that I love so much.
• 40:49
  All right, we're gonna pick it up on the other side of this break.
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• 44:37
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• 44:48
  This family is, I don't know, it's fun.
• 44:50
  I just like it.
• 44:51
  I love being a part of this network.
• 44:53
  But because you know what?
• 44:55
  It gives me an opportunity to go to history class.
• 44:58
  It gives me an opportunity to have a national history class anytime I want.
• 45:04
  Whenever I, and and right now it's Fridays.
• 45:07
  We're doing it every Friday.
• 45:09
  We're having a history class every Friday.
• 45:11
  Today's that day.
• 45:12
  So let's come back in, take a seat.
• 45:15
  It's July 1st, 1776, and the vote has been taken.
• 45:22
  And here's the roll call for Pennsylvania.
• 45:24
  John Dickinson is a no.
• 45:26
  Robert Morris is a no.
• 45:28
  Willing and Humphrey are no, big fat nose.
• 45:32
  John Morton, Benjamin Franklin, and James Wilson are in the yes column.
• 45:39
  Uh, and interestingly enough, that um a later McCain letter, again, this is I think 1817.
• 45:49
  Uh McCain says that Morton Franklin and Wilson voted for independence, Dickinson Morris, Willing and Humphrey voted against it.
• 45:58
  But when the final vote on the independence motion was taken on July 2nd, we still had Wilson and Franklin and Morton voting yes.
• 46:09
  Uh we still had um Willing and Humphrey voting no.
• 46:16
  But how did uh how did the vote pass?
• 46:18
  Because on July 2nd it carries, it carries in and Pennsylvania is in the column for independence, but they still only had three yes votes votes.
• 46:29
  It was still only Morton Franklin and Wilson that voted yes.
• 46:35
  Willing and Humphrey still voted no.
• 46:37
  How in the world did it carry?
• 46:39
  Well, as it turns out, John Dickinson and Robert Morris abstained.
• 46:46
  They weren't there on the day of the vote.
• 46:50
  They were no shows on the day of the vote.
• 46:55
  Well, why in the world uh was it that um why in the world was it that Dickinson and Robert Morris stayed home or went somewhere else?
• 47:11
  I don't know, maybe they went and had a coffee somewhere.
• 47:14
  Jefferson's notes uh on that day say members of a different sentiment attending that morning from Pennsylvania, their vote was changed, so that the whole 12 colonies who were authorized to vote at all gave their voice for it.
• 47:32
  Members of a different sentiment.
• 47:34
  So interesting.
• 47:37
  The sentiment changed from the standpoint that Dickinson, John Dickinson, and Robert Morris didn't vote yes, but they didn't vote at all.
• 47:51
  They just simply abstained.
• 47:53
  They just decided um, you know what?
• 47:58
  This is this is the way of it.
• 48:02
  This is how we're doing it.
• 48:04
  This is uh this is the the will of the people.
• 48:08
  I mean, June 24th, John Morton's the speaker of the house, and he said, look, the attitude is changed.
• 48:16
  We believed earlier that we were doing the right thing by not voting for independence, but but but times have changed.
• 48:26
  Things are different.
• 48:28
  Uh Robert Morris uh was a confirmed moderate, right alongside John Dickinson, who who's the leader, John Dickinson is the leader of the moderate party, what they called the dilatory system, and they stayed away on July 2nd, thereby turning the vote of their colony for independence.
• 48:48
  Here's what Benjamin Rush had to say about about Morris and Dickinson staying away.
• 48:55
  At least it Morris.
• 48:58
  Here's what he said about Morris.
• 49:00
  He was opposed to the time, not the act of the Declaration of Independence.
• 49:06
  But he yielded to no man in his exertion to support it.
• 49:10
  And a year after it took place, he publicly acknowledged on the floor of Congress that he had been mistaken in his former opinion as to its time, and said that it would have been better for our country had it been declared sooner.
• 49:34
  As were the three who voted in favor of the motion.
• 49:39
  So July 20th, it's a new, you know, vote to send delegates back to the Congress.
• 49:46
  And Dickinson is not the people of Philadelphia don't return him.
• 49:51
  Certainly they don't return uh Willing and Humphrey.
• 49:54
  Willing and Humphrey who just came out and said no.
• 49:57
  They didn't get a return vote.
• 49:59
  Dickinson.
• 50:00
  Don't get a return vote.
• 50:02
  Morris, however, does.
• 50:03
  Morris gets the return vote.
• 50:07
  Um he's the only one.
• 50:10
  Uh writing to Joseph Reed.
• 50:14
  Uh, this would have been um what's the date on this?
• 50:21
  Oh, I don't see a date on this letter that uh Robert Morris writes to Joseph Reed.
• 50:27
  He stated that he had opposed the declaration of independence because, in his poor opinion, it was an improper time.
• 50:34
  And although prompted to decline the unexpected election, he could not go back on the conviction which first induced him to enter public life.
• 50:43
  His belief that it was the duty of every individual to act his part in whatever station his country may call him to in hours of difficulty, danger, and distress.
• 50:54
  And Morris was was called to difficulty.
• 50:58
  He was called to danger, he was called to distress.
• 51:00
  Morris was one of the wealthiest men in all of the colonies.
• 51:05
  And Washington depended very much on Robert Morris.
• 51:10
  As a matter of fact, the story goes that later on this year, 1776, Washington and his troops are crossing the Delaware, or they're making plans to cross the Delaware.
• 51:24
  And Washington asks his men, his officers, give me a status report on our boats.
• 51:30
  Give me a status report on our music on our uh ammunition on our on our powder, on our weaponry, on our clothing.
• 51:38
  Give me a report.
• 51:40
  And the report comes back that, sir, uh, there's not enough boats to cross the Delaware.
• 51:46
  We don't have enough powder.
• 51:48
  We don't, we don't have enough weaponry, the men are poorly clothed.
• 51:54
  And Washington just simply says, Get me Robert Morris.
• 51:58
  Somebody get me Robert Morris.
• 52:01
  Robert Morris, who just six months earlier casted a no vote for independence, and then the next day when the final vote came in, he abstained, he didn't show up, but he didn't show up because ultimately he knew independence would happen.
• 52:21
  He and John Dickinson got together, and they both decided to stay home that day.
• 52:27
  So Philadelphia would go into the end of the yes column.
• 52:31
  So again, Dickinson, Willing, and Humphrey are not re-elected.
• 52:36
  Uh Clymer Smith and Taylor are elected.
• 52:40
  And so when it comes time to actually sign the declaration of independence, we've got uh Morton Franklin Wilson, Morris, Clamours Smith and Taylor.
• 52:52
  So Morris does sign the declaration because he's re-elected, he's sent back to Congress.
• 52:57
  He signs the declaration, puts his name to it, and commits his, you know, because at the end of that, they pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
• 53:10
  And Robert Morris pledged his fortunes, his fortunes, and he was extremely wealthy.
• 53:17
  So when Washington says there when they're about to cross the Delaware, get me Robert Morris.
• 53:24
  It's Morris who goes to work and starts raising the funds to get boats and to get guns and to get powder and to get clothing.
• 53:33
  And even as it was, the troops weren't weren't clothed well enough.
• 53:38
  I mean, the stories go that after they cross the Delaware and they're making their march towards Trenton.
• 53:44
  You could follow the trail of blood from the men who didn't have shoes on their feet, and they were just a bloody mess.
• 53:51
  You could see the the bloody footprints and the snow.
• 53:56
  So even though Morris worked overtime to get funds to Washington, it's it still wasn't enough.
• 54:04
  It still wasn't enough to outfit the men properly.
• 54:10
  But regardless, Morris gave it, gave it his all.
• 54:14
  Gave it his absolute best.
• 54:17
  And out of the out of the four here, uh, it was Morris who was given another opportunity.
• 54:24
  And he took it and he signed the declaration and he gave everything that he had.
• 54:29
  Now, in defense of Dickinson, he he was an uh an ardent supporter.
• 54:36
  Matter of fact, you know, he was accused of being a loyalist.
• 54:40
  And even though he wasn't re-elected to Congress, even though he did not vote for independence nor sign the document, he became an officer in Washington's army and and fought bravely and was very much, you know, he very much said, look, if this is the will of the people, uh, then okay, I'm on board.
• 55:02
  Now he, like Morris had had made the statement that it wasn't I was against independence.
• 55:07
  I would just, I wasn't on board with the timing.
• 55:09
  I just um, and I don't know if if I'll have to look it up.
• 55:14
  I don't know if Dickinson came out publicly and made the statement that Morris made that hey, I was wrong.
• 55:20
  Not only was it the right time for independence, but independence probably should have happened sooner.
• 55:24
  I don't know if Dickinson made that statement, but Dickinson certainly proved himself.
• 55:29
  He was not a loyalist, as he was accused of being.
• 55:33
  Matter of fact, Dickinson is re-elected back to the Continental Congress and ends up uh being there when they're um voting on the constitution.
• 55:44
  He's part of that, he's part of the constitutional convention, and he ends up signing the constitution.
• 55:51
  So he's not a traitor by any means.
• 55:53
  He's not a loyalist by any means.
• 55:55
  He was just it was a timing thing for him.
• 56:00
  Uh, for him and Morris, and I don't know, maybe Willing and Humphrey.
• 56:04
  I don't know if these two were uh were absolute stalwarts and not uh voting for independence at all.
• 56:11
  I mean, they did say no, and they weren't given the opportunity, unlike Morris, who was given the opportunity, and Dickinson, who later on was given and took it.
• 56:23
  Uh so there it is.
• 56:24
  Pennsylvania carries with only three yes votes out of the seven delegates.
• 56:29
  It still carries in the column the yes column for independency.
• 56:34
  Because of that, to this day, we are celebrating July 4th.
• 56:39
  And this year, 250 glorious years of American independence.
• 56:44
  I love it, and I love these stories.
• 56:45
  I love history class.
• 56:48
  And I'm grateful that you are here that maybe you love it as much as I do.
• 56:52
  I don't know.
• 56:52
  Do you?
• 56:53
  Do you love it as much as I do?
• 56:54
  I I hope.
• 56:55
  I can only hope that you love history as much as I do.
• 56:58
  All right, my friends, that's all the time we have for today.
• 57:01
  We will pick up another history class here real soon.
• 57:04
  Encourage your friends and family to get on the dean's list.
• 57:08
  Let's unite to renovate the age.