Ten days before the 250th birthday of America's Declaration of Independence, I was a guest of Evelyne Joslain on her Radio Courtoisie program to talk not about the news for once, but to engage on a history stroll through the first half century of the American Republic.
What is essentially a podcast goes over 50 years of American
history, from the French and Indian War and the Boston Tea Party through
the revolutionary years and the writing of the Constitution until
Jefferson's purchase of the Louisiana territory and the Lewis and Clark
expedition. (Thanks for the the Instalink, Sarah))
A second podcast, due a month from now on July 22, will treat the
next century of American history, from the War of 1812 and the Texas
Revolution through the conquest of the Wild West and the Civil War to
the closing of the frontier and the Spanish-American War.
I
am grateful that we have received lots of congratulations from people
who added that they have learned a lot. The podcast is in French, but
here are some of the subjects that I mentioned:
• With
Britons from the British Isles fighting against Britons
from North America, the conflict was often described in the 1770s as a
civil war or a war between brothers. As George Washington put it,
"Unhappy it is … to reflect that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a
brother's breast and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America
are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves."
• The term "Americans" (in centuries past used only for… the Indians) had slowly but surely come to be used for the Britons
from North America — by both the latter and by the Britons from
the British Isles — to mark the growing difference between — but to what
extent is the following description 100% correct? — the two (?) peoples
(or the two populations of the same people).
• Why were the
colonies so set against taxes from London? Were they ingrates regarding
the French & Indian War? The answer is simply that, in the view of
the colonists, the empire was sort of like the Commonwealth today.
Granted, every member is under the king (George III or Charles III),
but: apart from that, every part should take care of nobody but the
people within its own domain. Let London take care of the Britons within
the borders of England. England should no more make decisions about
(and levy taxes on) the Britons in Maryland or in Virginia than
Philadelphia should make decisions about (and levy taxes on) Britons in
Georgia and in South Carolina — or, for that matter, in… England itself!
• However, we must be realistic, right? Britain is an empire, correct? Now,
if you accept this and that, therefore, it needs a centralizing center
of power, then fine, by all means let it be London. (Where else would
it be?!) But in that case, let it be composed of Members of Parliament
not only from Birmingham and Leeds and Edinburgh, but of MPs from all
parts of the British Empire around the planet (including the 13 colonies
and Québec). To summarize this in four well-known words: No taxation
without representation. (By the way, did you know that while none of the
colonies on the mainland had a representative in London, the sugar
island of Jamaica did have one?)
• What with the redcoats' aim at Concord and Lexington, it turns
out that a major reason for the outbreak of the revolution was the
government's attempt at (what we in today's parlance would call) gun
control.
• What is amazing is the young ages of the founding
fathers. At the time of the Declaration of Independence (1776),
Jefferson was 33, John Adams was 40, Washington was 44. At the time of
the Constitution (1787), James Madison was 36, James Monroe was 29,
Alexander Hamilton was 30, John Jay was 41. (And how about Lafayette
— how old was he when he became a general in the Continental Army? Read
the answer below…)
• Every single sentence of the Constitution provides the same message: that the citizen is a free man
• There are quite a number of parallels between POTUS1 and POTUS47 (aka POTUS45):
—
As president George Washington had a powerful message: "The promotion
of domestic manufactures will, in my conception, be among the first
consequences which may naturally be expected to flow from an energetic
government."
According to Ron Chernow, George Washington
believed that "commercial connections, of all others, are the most
difficult to dissolve," which foreshadowed his faith as president in
enduring commercial rather than political ties with other countries.
— Also — just like Trump's bombings taking out Iran's leadership (not to mention his Caracas raid taking out Venezuela's lider maximo)
— the Continental Army would deliberately aim for enemy officers; which
was not how wars were fought between "gentleman" in those times.
• Used to gather at inns, the Founding Fathers' generation was higher
into liqueurs and other types of alcohol than their descendants are two
centuries later.
Benjamin Franklin once said: “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there
is Freedom, in water there is bacteria.”
The greatest distiller of whiskey in North America was located at…
Mount Vernon; George Washington produced 41.000 liters of whiskey per
year.
• After purchasing Louisiana territory, Jefferson offered the post
of governor of the territory to the Marquis de Lafayette
• Because it is a French podcast (en français), we
focused quite a bit on French subjects such as Louis XVI's military
intervention and French officers, notably the nobleman whom George
Washington considered a son. Lafayette was only 19 when he became a
general in the American army. His own (real) son was named Georges
Washington de Lafayette, and the last of his three daughters was
named Marie-Antoinette Virginie Lafayette. This led Benjamin Franklin to
quip that his wife had only 12 more children to give birth to (in order
to have one child named after every state).
• Although it depends on how the statistics are used, there
seems to be more more places and townships named after Lafayette than
after Washington, Jefferson, or Lincoln.
• How exactly were the Indians' lands "stolen"?
By the end of July 1804, after sailing 600 miles up the Missouri River
for two months (since leaving on May 21), the members of the Lewis and
Clark expedition
had not once met a single American Indian.
Here are some related history NP posts written over the past 22 years:
• What Caused Secession and Ergo the Civil War? Was It Slavery and/or States' Rights? Or Wasn't It Rather Something Else — the Election of a Ghastly Republican to the White House?
• During the Winter of 1860-1861, Did the South's Democrats Obtain Their Aim — the Secession of 7 Slave States — Thanks to Elections Filled with Stealth, Lies, Voter Fraud, Intimidation, Violence, and Murder? (Wait 'til You Hear About… Georgia's Dark Secret)
• Wondering Why Slavery Persisted for Almost 75 Years After the Founding of the USA? According to Lincoln, the Democrat Party's "Principled" Opposition to "Hate Speech"
• The Greatest Myth in U.S. History: Yes, the Civil War Era Did Feature Champions of States' Rights, But No, They Were Not in the South (Au Contraire)
• Harry Jaffa on the Civil War Era: For Democrats of the 21st Century as of the 19th, "the emancipation from morality was/is itself seen as moral progress"
• "Break Their Spirit" with "Maximum Warfare": What Nobody Tells You About Reconstruction in the South After the American Civil War
• Why Does Nobody Ever Fret About Scandinavia's — Dreadful — 19th-C Slavery Conditions?
• A Century and Half of Apartheid Policies: From Its 1828 Foundation, the Democrat Party Has Never Shed Its Racist Past
• The Confederate Flag: Another Brick in the Leftwing Activists' (Self-Serving) Demonization of America and Rewriting of History
• How to Prevent America from Becoming a Totalitarian State
• Inside of a month, Democrats have redefined riots and election challenges from the highest form of patriotism to an attack on democracy — And by “democracy”, they mean the Democrat Party
• Why They Don't Tell You the Whole Truth: The 1619 Project Summarized in One Single Sentence
Libre
journal du nouveau monde du 24 juin 2026 : « De l’insurrection des
Treize Colonies à l’Indépendance : les débuts de la jeune Amérique »
