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TREASON!!! · Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

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  O. Live from the banks of the Sheet
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  Tucket River in the heart of downtown Norwich.
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  It's revolutionary talk here on WREV. 760 AM or Patriots prompt.
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  The phone and text number is 209565.
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  Dave. That's 209-565-3283.
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  Now here's your host, Dave Diamond.
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  It is not a good day, my friends.
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  It is not good news. I don't even know really where
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  to begin with us. I thought that the reason that
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  Doctor Church had been escorted under heavy military guard had
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  more to do with a plan to inoculate the army, but that has
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  turned out to not be the case. My friends it it it is far worse
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  than even I could have imagined, and I have a pretty broad
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  imagination. Governor Hancock of
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  Massachusetts is in possession of a letter that was sent to him
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  2 days ago by General Washington, and it turns out
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  that Benjamin Church, Doctor Benjamin Church, the Surgeon
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  General of the army, was in fact arrested.
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  He was not being escorted. He was being arrested by the
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  army at the order of General Washington himself, it appears,
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  according to his letter to Governor Hancock that last week
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  on or about the second or third of October, he was presented
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  with a letter that had been intercepted.
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  I don't want to get into the details of the interception.
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  It apparently involves a woman of ill repute with a badly
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  pockmarked skin and a reputation of being just, so we say, a
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  woman of ill repute who apparently Doctor Church trusted
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  for some reason. Read between the lines and
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  figure out what those might have been.
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  The letter was written in a cipher.
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  The cipher was taken to the Army headquarters in Cambridge.
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  Where it was broken. I don't know.
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  I wasn't there. I don't really know how or why
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  they broke it. I'm my mathematics skills are
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  pretty weak, as you know, and I have no way of knowing how they
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  broke the code. But they did.
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  And it turns out that this entire letter was a report on
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  colonial troop strengths, dispositions, plans.
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  It was basically telling the Brits everything they would want
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  to know in code. And at least part of the code
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  reads to the effect of please be careful with this, because if
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  that if I'm found out, I will be killed.
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  You're damn right. Church was taken to the
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  headquarters at Cambridge where he was charged.
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  I guess Church has been arrested.
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  He has been confined. It is my understanding that the
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  army has already had the Washington has already had the
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  investigation and the the interrogation.
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  It is my understanding based on this letter and some other
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  conversations that I have had, this has already been handled.
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  This has already been, it's wrapped up and that Doctor
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  Church has admitted to sending this letter.
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  Now, he claims, he claims that he was trying to trick the
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  British. In other words, she was just, he
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  was just telling them to try to scare them into thinking they
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  shouldn't attack because we're stronger than than they think we
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  are. Of course, the problem with that
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  is if you're trying to scare the British into thinking that they
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  shouldn't attack because we're so strong, wouldn't you tell
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  them that we're stronger than we really are instead of giving
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  them, you know, pretty accurate details?
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  He is the surgeon general. He pretty much goes everywhere,
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  sees everything, knows everything.
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  Washington and the others said that his denials do not ring
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  truth, and that consequently they do not believe him.
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  They do not believe that Doctor Church was trying to scare the
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  British. They believe that he was in fact
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  a traitor. This, my friends, is the first
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  great treason of our revolution. Not by some Tory merchant, not
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  some known loyalist, but by one who speaks the language of
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  liberty himself while writing letters to our enemy.
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  And if a man like Benjamin Church can can, can be bought,
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  who else might be a spy? Now, here's where it gets really
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  messed up. You ready?
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  I told you the yesterday that John Adams was telling me that
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  Congress is working on instructions and rules and
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  regulations and that sort of thing for the army, as if
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  somehow or another this was important.
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  Well, now I know why, according to our laws, our rules, our
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  guidelines for the military, 'cause you know, you got to have
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  those. Do you know what the penalty is
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  for being caught as a traitor in our army?
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  Well, it's not what you would think it would be.
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  You would think it would be hung till dead, but it's not.
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  In fact, there is no penalty for it.
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  It's not even covered. Nobody even thought that we
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  would have a traitor in our midst.
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  And so it wasn't even addressed. And now Congress is having to
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  rewrite this stuff in a hurry to try to deal with this.
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  The problem there is then now we're into ex post facto laws.
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  We're now, we're now we're, we've already tried and we've
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  already found him guilty. But the punishment is not going
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  to fit the crime. The punishment is limited
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  basically to confinement. And perhaps, I guess we could
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  expel him. I guess we could send him
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  somewhere else. I mean, he wants to be British
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  so bad. Let's send him to Britain.
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  There's plenty of ships that are still going that direction.
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  But we can't execute him. We can't.
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  We can't give him the punishment that he deserves because our
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  laws don't allow it. Our rules do not allow it.
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  It's not insane. There's a part of me that just
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  wants to say hang the rules and let's just hang, hang the man.
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  Let's just be done with this. But the problem with that is if
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  we if we do that, then we're descending to their level too.
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  We didn't take this into account.
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  We did not believe that there would be a traitor in our midst.
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  And so we didn't. We didn't plan for it.
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  And now here we have one and we don't know what to do about it.
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  Currently, he's under confinement.
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  Currently he is awaiting whatever it is we're going to
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  do. The Army is exceedingly
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  irritated by this. It's apparently common
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  knowledge, according to General Washington, and upon a free
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  discussion the nature and circumstances and consequences
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  of this matter, it has been unanimously agreed to lay it
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  before the honorable Conference Congress.
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  Sorry for their special advice and direction at the same time
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  suggesting to their consideration whether an
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  alteration of the 28th article of War may not be necessary.
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  Let me, let me just go out in your line.
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  I'm not in Congress and I get it.
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  But yes, it's, it's necessary. Get it done.
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  We need to hang this guy. We should have hung him already.
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  We should have shot him. But shooting him is too good.
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  He's a traitor. You hang traitors, you don't
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  shoot them. You hang spies, you don't shoot
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  them. You don't give them the honor of
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  war. You embarrass them, you
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  humiliate them, and you hang them.
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  This has shaken the army to the core again.
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  It was not a Tory merchant. It wasn't.
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  It wasn't even Loyalist Bob, for God's sakes.
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  It was the Surgeon General of the Army, Doctor Benjamin
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  Church, who has sold us out for money for gold.
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  Let's go to the lines. Let's go to the funds.
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  Line 1. This is Corporal Josiah Green,
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  Norwich Militia, Sir. We trusted Dr. Church with our
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  wounded men who bled for the cause, and he sold us for gold.
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  He spoke of liberty while counting his British coin.
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  I've seen soldiers die with less shame than he's shown.
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  If a man of learning can betray us, who's next?
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  Every letter home feels suspect now.
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  We've learned to watch the enemy's lines, but from this day
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  forward, we'll be watching our own tents too.
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  Why isn't that? Isn't that we've, we've reached
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  that point now everything is suspect.
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  What if you don't say the right thing?
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  What if you don't, you know, look the right way?
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  What if you've got a friend that's a Tory?
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  What if, what if everything now is going to become suspect
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  because of what Doctor Church has done?
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  Line 3 go ah. Yes, I say the man merely
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  returned to sanity. How long can any gentleman keep
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  company with rebellion before reason reclaims him?
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  You call it treason, I call it wisdom.
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  Perhaps he saw what you refused to see, that this so-called
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  Congress leads us not to liberty, but to ruin.
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  Mark me, Sir, the good doctor will be remembered kindly when
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  this fever of sedition finally breaks.
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  No, he won't, Bob. No, he will not.
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  He will be remembered forever as America's first traitor.
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  With any kind of luck, his passing will be marked with
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  great joy, great excitement. Stay with us.
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  We'll be right back. Welcome back.
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  I'm Dave Diamond. It's revolutionary talk here on
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  AM 760 AM because said that twice.
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  Norwich, CT. The segment brought to you by
• 12:59
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• 13:02
  for a modest subscription. Old Harbor will lend a hand when
• 13:04
  the tides turn foul. They will recover what the sea
• 13:08
  takes and ensure your cargo against worst weather and worst
• 13:12
  fate. No lawyers, no baffling papers.
• 13:16
  Just stout men, stout oaths and stout work.
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  It's Old Harbor Mutual and Salvage on the docks here in
• 13:25
  Narch. Stout oaths are what we need.
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  Congress is going to have to do so.
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  They're going to have to sharpen up the loyalty oaths.
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  They're going to have to adjust the Articles of War.
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  We're going to have to scrutinize every man in the
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  Army. We're going to have to
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  reorganize things in the Army. General Washington is going to
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  have to. And no man can hold rank without
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  complete scrutiny. Dr. Church was obviously not
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  vetted properly. We're going to have to fix that.
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  The news yesterday was that General Howe had arrived in
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  Boston. That was erroneous.
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  I am apologize. That was a mistake.
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  General Howe did not arrive yesterday.
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  He's been here all along. I didn't know this.
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  He apparently has been in London or in Boston the whole time.
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  And now the rumor, the rumor is still that he's going to take
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  over, that he's relieved General Gage.
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  But I don't know what to believe now.
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  I really don't. General Gage, clearly not the
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  man that the Brits want in charge, but it's, it's being
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  said around town, the General Howe will take over.
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  I don't know if that's true or not.
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  I don't know why it's true. I I do know that Billy Howe is,
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  you know, I said yesterday, the guy's a wig.
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  He and his whole family are wigs.
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  They've been our friends in the past.
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  They were not our friends when it mattered most.
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  They call them Gentleman Billy, but don't lead.
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  Don't be fooled by that. General Gage has fumble the
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  British match, but how has come to light the fuse?
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  I believe some of us, I was in the Tavern last night, some of
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  you are hopeful that the British will just give up and go home.
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  I don't. I don't think so.
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  I I think how is here to bring destruction to us and if how
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  means it, we'll see harsher blockades.
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  We may not have any trade left by Christmas.
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  We'll have to wait and see. The British morale, I'm told in
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  Boston is improving, which is not good.
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  They are badly out of supply, but their morale is holding.
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  Is that an effective of Gentleman Billy?
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  Possibly, hopefully the news of the capture of Doctor Church
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  will will put a little pinprick in that and let the air out of
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  that a little bit. It'd be better if we took him up
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  to the top of Bunker Hill where they could see him and just hung
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  him there. But there you go.
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  Two men fell today, one by disgrace, the other by recall.
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  One betrayed his country and the other possibly his king.
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  I don't know if Gage betrayed the king or not, but he
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  certainly failed him. Doctor Church will be forever
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  remembered as the first to sell his soul in this struggle.
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  General Gage will be marked as the first to lose his command.
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  But mark this well. General Howe's rise here means
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  that the king has not yet gotten tired of us in this war.
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  And neither was me. Neither must we.
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  We must not give up. Trust is a costly coin in this
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  revolution. Spend it carefully.
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  We'll be back tomorrow for revolutionary talk right here on
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  760 AM Norwich, CT. I'm Dave Diamond, you can e-mail
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  me dave@powderdepartchment.org. Check us out online powder
• 17:24
  departchment.org. Stay strong my friends, stay
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  strong. The.