Independence (1975)

across seasons and centuries we come to be near the birth somehow the wind of words that blew here once still blows Independence and summer breezes whisper faint echoing words of ancient arguments won and lost and the old cracked Bell Echoes Liberty a gathering of haunted houses peop with ghosts and voices of ghosts were the the fathers of our country still [Music] speak some of the great ones wish to return from Beyond the Grave to see how it all turned out there's power in a wish with 200 years behind it Dr Benjamin Franklin he snatched lightning from the heavens and the scepter from tyrants did I make a wish well so I did I had a Ardent desire to observe the state of America in a century or two I wish to be immersed in a CK of Madera wine with a few friends till I would be recalled to Life by the solar warmth of my dear country now it seems I must relive those first days now two centuries past H we must begin in 1774 I'm 68 how excellent it is to be young [Music] again and John Adams who was our second president the voice of an ancient wish a wish oh yes I wish to meet my wife and Friends ancestors and posterity I believe I could even overcome all my objections to meeting Alec Hamilton again if I could perceive a symptom of sincere penitence in him and Abigail Adams who had wished to be with her husband when she could not leave their Massachusetts Farm 200 years is not too long a journey to join my dear partner I dare not express to you how ardently I longed for you I have some very miserly wishes I must protest your spending one hour here till at least I have had you 12 and Washington the father of our country if we ask him to come back there is no doubt what his reply will be though I'm conscious of the high honor done me in this call though I feel great distress from Consciousness that my abilities may not be equal to the trust however as you desire I will enter again on my momentous duties but if some unlucky event should happen I beg it be remembered by every person in this room room that I this day declare I have never felt myself equal to the [Music] task and Thomas Jefferson author of the Declaration of Independence General Washington Mr Adams Mrs Adams Dr Franklin why it's Tom Payne spokesman of the revolutions Mr Common Sense himself what say you Tom in the cause of America may we disturb your peace the Sun never shined on a cause of Greater worth is not the concern of a day a year or an age posterity will be affected even to the end of time I am your servant Mr Jefferson ah but Tom the generation which begins a revolution can rarely complete it for all our devotion to the public good our inexperience our ignorance our bigotry hardly qualify us to think and provide for the future after all the Earth belongs to the living ah Liberty Liberty are you substance or merely Shadow come Dr Rush our Liberty is one the revolution is over not so not so sir there's nothing more common than to confuse the American Revolution with the war for independence the war for independence is over but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution on the contrary nothing but the First Act of the great drama has been played ah Dr rush you must excuse us we came in late by two centuries having just met some of your colleagues we are eager to understand how this great drama began w wow if you would see the beginning of this First Act again we can't obl for this purpose it must be the 29th of August 74 the colonies were in turmoil delegates came from all of the colonies to attend the First Continental Congress they came from the north to protest the king's troops occupying Boston from the south to protest the king's Governor seizing their right of self-government and they all protested the king's taxes but they were also thinking of something more something they dared not even speak about there is a powerful faction of secret Tories in the town I urge caution upon your sir you must not openly propose bold measures and it would be most unwise at this time to mention the word independence the Continental Congress of 1774 be now session the chair recognizes Mr Samuel Adams of the Massachusetts the streets of Boston are strong with military executions the charter of the colony is annihilated the delegates are meeting they protest they are petitioning the king for address of grievances they demand respectfully their right as loyal British subjects but they are thinking of the word they dare not whisper and in their hearts these sons of the old world have become something new the distinctions between Virginians pennsylvanians New Yorkers and new englanders are no more I am not a Virginian but an American [Music] [Music] world I received the petition to the king and sent it on but it was thrown under the table petitions to the king I dreaded them like death after all they might have been accepted but now it is 75 instead of satisfaction the King has sent us Red Coats to quiet Us by force I'm In Perpetual anxiety Mr Adams lest the Mad measure of mixing soldiers among a people whose minds are in such a state of irritation as may be attended with some sudden Mischief for an accidental quarrel a personal insult an imprudent order or 20 other things may produce a tumult in which such Carnage May ensue as to make a breach that can never afterwards be healed so be it the 19th of April 75 and so it has happened all across the 13 colonies committees are ready for this terrible moment A dispatch from the committee of safety at Watertown to all friends of American Liberty be it known that this morning before break of day a British Brigade marched to Lexington fired without provocation and killed six men and wounded four others the war that was no part of the Revolution it was only an effect and consequence of it the Revolution was in the minds of the people and this had been affected before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington we had built our own government right under the king's nose as common sense would say it it wasn't the work of a day or a year and now may of 75 is upon us the Second Continental Congress is a war Congress things have taken a turn since the first Congress he cousin we are surrounded by danger sir careful cousin I am determined to take a step to get our colleagues to agree on some plan there is a division of South and North the southerners are ambitious of Furnishing a southern General colon Washington is visibly their object I suspect Mr Hancock wishes a nomination for himself possibly for the honor of declining it he has little more military experience than they do but will Colonel Washington accept Sam he protests he does not seek the post he seems virtuous and discreet no Haram stum ranting swearing fellow but sober steady and calm I dare say he will serve I take a man does not arrive at a civil assembly in uniform unless unless he wants that Bloody [Music] job Mr Mr Hancock gentlemen I proposed that Congress adopt the army of our countrymen already in place at Cambridge and though this is not the proper time to nominate a general I have no hesitation to declare that I have but one gentleman in mind for that important command a gentleman from Virginia a great a modest gentleman Virginia who would not wish to you hear himself praised but whose great talent and excellent Universal Character will command the approval of all [Music] America I now embarked on a tempestuous ocean from when perhaps no friendly Harbor to be found 18 18 for Sam was quite correct things have taken a turn a congress is now in session with no other authority than popular consent yet it is supreme philosophers have written that all government is based on the consent of the people but I think the experiment has never before been so directly made we will from this create a government of laws and not of men a letter from abago could you only be here in these trying times we must get on dear friend already it is 76 High time we declare our independence and have done with it shall we not be despised by foreign powers for hesitating so long at a word I will offer you a maxim of state A people may let a king fall yet still remain a people but if a king let his people slip from him he is no longer a king as this is our case why not Proclaim it to the world I think you shine as a stateswoman of late as well as a farmers pray where do you get your maxims of State why from philosophy and reason just as you and Common Sense do and by the way in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I would desire that you remember the ladies remember all men would be tyrants if they could if particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies we are determined to f a rebell ion and will not hold ourselves Bound By any laws in which we have no voice or representation we are told our struggles have loosed the bands of government everywhere that children at aedes are grown turbulent that Indians slight our Authority but this is the first intimation that another tribe more numerous and powerful than all the rest has grown discontented I long to hear that you have declared an independency it is the 7th of June already will no one offer a resolution for our independency the chair recognizes Mr Richard Henry Lee the delegate from the colony of Virginia I move the following resolution respecting independency resolve that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved the committee of the whole has requested in order to allow for consultation that consideration of this resolution be postponed until July 1st and in the meanwhile should the Congress agree there too that a declaration be prepared to the effect of the resolution we hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable that all men are created equal and [Music] independent self evident we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and independent that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable among which are the preservation of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness that to secure these ends governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed and for the support of this declaration we mutually pledge to each other Our Lives our fortunes and our sacred honor press copy the resolution respecting the independency having been favorably reported by the committee of the whole July 1st it was agreed to without descent by the delegates of the colonies now States gentlemen agreed to without dissent by the delegates of the states in Congress assembl on July 2nd gentlemen Gentlemen please please Gentlemen please if we continue to have these displays of motion I I shall never be able to get through it and on July 3rd and on this day July 4th the Declaration having been read debated and amended and on this day July 4th unanimously approved it is now therefore ordered the Declaration be authenticated and printed that the committee appointed to prepare the Declaration superintend and correct the Press with copies of the Declaration be sent to the several assemblies conventions and committees or councils of safety and to the several command and officers of the Continental troops and that it be immediately thereafter proclaimed in each of the United States in due time in due time by August I expect the Declaration shall be engrossed on parchment and that shall be then duly signed by the members again it was indeed in August of 76 that we signed the Declaration I well recollect the pensive and awful silence when we were called to subscribe what was believed by many at that time to be our own death warrant I shall have a great advantage over you sir when we're all hanged for what we're now doing from the size and weight of my body I shall be dead in a few minutes from the lightness of your body you'll dance in the here for an hour or two before you're dead General how is marching through the jerseys the war will not wait and if we lose it the find settlements in our declaration will be so much air our armies are in Retreat somewhere in the jerseys Tom Pay is with him the awful prospects we have before us in the world times make me Melancholy these are the times that triy men's Souls the summer Soldier and the Sun shine Patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of his country but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman 6 years of endless war sickness death Terror and despair and then in October of 81 the endless war at last is ended and what have we won the Articles of Confederation barely hold us together we have concluded peace with the British and already we are near war with each other government of national Union must be formed although it is not part popular to say so in that case let's hurry on to 1787 I just returned from France France 1787 that was a year in which a national government based on the popular will was at last founded and a constitution written I object I object to Mr Randolph's plan I say the Confederation does not have the power to discuss and propose it New York would never have concurred in sending deputies to the convention if she had supposed it were to discuss a national government the small states say their Liberties will be in danger the large states say their money will be in danger now when a broad table is to be made and the edges of the planks do not fit the artist takes a little from both and makes a good joint here both sides must part with some of their demands in order that they may join we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union establish justice ensure domestic tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America no point is of more importance than that the right of impeachment should be continued shall any man be above Justice and shall he be above it who can commit the most excessive Injustice I have often and often in the course of a session looked at the sun carved on the president's chair without being able to to tell whether it was rising or setting but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a Setting Sun our new constitution is now established and has an appearance that promises permanency but in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes The Constitution's permanency is now in the hands of posterity that would be you at this point you have a republic if you can keep it my work is nearly over death became a certainty for me in 1790 it was a good Century all in all I saw most of it I only missed the first 5 years and the last 10 but that 10 years that was a time of first things I wish I could have [Music] seen in former times power was handed from one head of state to another only by heredity or by the sword by murder treachery imprisonment hired a Assassins but peaceably and by popular election I think there is no precedent for that if that should happen as it will of course in 97 that would be most remarkable as I was quite dead by then I was obliged to watch the ceremonies from above the door in a toga welcome to Congress Hall have a seat somewhere good afternoon I'd like to welcome you all to Congress Hall you're now seated in the building that was used by the Congress of the United States between 1790 and 1800 because for those 10 years Philadelphia was the capital of our country and Congress had to have a building to use now keep in mind that the Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1789 so Congress moved in less than a year after that happened and they were busy organizing our country using that brand new framework of government they added three new states to the union while they met here they were Vermont Kentucky and Tennessee um and of course they also had their problems for example one afternoon a representative seated here in this room named Mr Griswald accused another representative by the name of Mr Lion of being a coward and of course Mr lion took grave offense and he stood up and grabbed a poker from the fireplace and Mr gisell took a an imitation wooden sword and the two of them battled it out right here on the floor of the House of Representatives of all the events that took place in this room probably the most important was the inauguration of John Adams as our second president now the Constitution says that every four years we must elect a new man to be our president but this was really the first time that we had tried to pass power from the hands of one man into those of another and there were some people who felt that George Washington might not willingly give up his power however the inauguration took place without any difficulty whatsoever in fact that peaceful transfer of power Mr Adams is about to realize his dream and ours let the ceremonies begin what other form of government can so well deserve our esteem and love a government in which authority is exercised by citizens selected at Reg periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good can anything essential be added to this by robes or diamonds can Authority be more respectable when it descends from accidence or remote Antiquity then when it Springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened people and may that Providence who is Supreme Over All continue continue his blessing upon this nation and its government and give it all possible success and duration consistent with the ends of his Providence [Music] [Music] no no Mr Jefferson go on I'm a private citizen once again and I shall dly follow a gathering of haunted houses where the Declaration and the Constitution are always being written peopled with ghosts and voices of ghosts and the old cracked Bell Echoes Liberty Tom Payne said we have the power to be begin the world a new you have a republic if you can keep it [Music] [Music] oh oh