Happy Independence Day.

But what really happened 250 years ago?

And what was it with those founding fathers?

A closer look at our history on The Cities.

[lively music] [music ends] There are bits and pieces we all know about the founding of our nation.

Patriots, loyalists, George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson.

But what was it really like 250 years ago when the colonies were just colonies?

Augustana College history professor Lendol Calder joined me for another look at the founding of our nation and the people behind it.

Tell me about the Declaration of Independence.

I mean, everyone thinks that it burst out of the minds of Thomas Jefferson, and it's far more than that.

Ha, ha.

Well, in some ways, it did burst out of his mind in that, who saw that comin when he and four others sat down to explain the mind of Americans to the rest of the world?

Well, this is this is one of our two great documents that sets up the foundation of the country, the Constitution being the other one.

Lincoln famously called the declaration our Golden Apple, an inheritanc that belongs to every American.

And, it's a it's a declaration that doesn't get read much anymore in schools.

Students come to college, I find tha sometimes they've never read it.

So it's a great pleasure to fix that.

And, in a college level course, because this is a document that had profound implications for world history.

Because it's more than just a list of grievances.

Yeah.

This document's important for three reasons.

First of all, it set out, the reasons for why people might revolt.

And it inaugurated then an age of revolutions starting here, but next in France, then across Latin American countries.

This notion that the sovereignty lies with the peopl and they have a right to revolt when the system of government i not responsive to their needs.

It was revolutionary.

Ha, ha.

unprecedented.

Unprecedented.

I mean, because you think of it, it was a period of time when monarchies rule.

That's right.

That's right.

And these ideas aren't brand new out of Jefferson's mind.

They had existed for centuries, in some cases in dusty paper documents, in books.

But people have been talkin about it for years in the lead up to the revolution.

Some of these ideas had been put together in a document one month before Jefferson wrote the declaration, a document where Virgini explained why they were joining the revolutionary cause.

And he cribbed quite a bit from that, those Virginia resolutions.

But but it's a it's a work of real rhetorical genius and a great, great courage, Jim.

And it's also a great collective failure of will to actually follow through on the implications of these ringing phrases, especially those in the second sentence, that we hold these truths to be self-evident.

Now, one out of four people in th colonies was an enslaved person when Jefferson wrote those words, and the debate over slavery was already in full tilt.

So we're not importin this back into time and finding reasons to be against slavery in the declaration.

No, I mean, three of the five people who wrote the declaration were abolitionists.

And when they changed the wording of John Locke life, liberty and property, that's the original wording.

That's what Jefferson wrote in the original draft to the declaration life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of property.

We have rights to that.

The abolitionist changed it to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness because property was being use to enslave people at the time.

And they didn't want that to be in this declaration.

So there's a debate and internal debate right there in the declaration as this new idea, of popular sovereignt and of equality, as these ideas are kind of loosed on the world and and their unruly ideas.

This none of these five guys who wrote it and none of the people who voted for it o July the 2nd, none of them knew where the ideas were going t take them and take this country.

But the ideas matured very quickly.

And there were people who signed up for this revolution, who believed that these ideas of equality and popular sovereigntry meant that the United States was committed to the project of being a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multiracial democracy.

That was the experiment that the revolutionaries were embarked on.

It was also in a period of time, as you alluded to, a period of great compromis in order to get the declaration, and later the Constitution.

Because they didn't agree on these things.

Because you had 13 very independent, separate colonies.

That's right.

Remember there were 26 colonies... Oh, I didnt know.

...that Englan had over here in the Americas, and only 13 came together for this revolution.

The 13 in the Caribbean said, count us out because there, enslaved people from Africa far outnumbered the whites, and they needed the power of the, imperial state to maintain that system so they couldn't join the American Revolution.

It seems inconceivable that a backwards frontier would have, at one moment in time, amazing intellects with a number of founding fathers, not just one.

I mean, everyone talks about George Washington, but there's there's there's there's there's name that people don't even remember that were so instrumental i the development of this country.

It's a remarkable moment.

And then we can celebrate it for that.

I you know, as a historian, I can lead people through a consideration of why these men and a few women came together at this time, what prepared them.

But, you know, Jim, at the end of the day, there's something almost a little bit weird about, miraculous maybe.

Very much so.

And that's one of my rules about history.

You're not telling a true history till you found the weirdness in the story, because history's always a little bit weird or weirder than you think it ought to be.

A couple of the great things that you pointed out.

One was that, that there were a number of drafts to the Declaration of Independence.

And one of the great things is that you see the original that Thomas Jefferson had presented, and you see the lines being drawn through it.

That alone is a jewel in itself, because you can see that thinking that was going on.

And this was new.

We have empires in the world and the First nation states, but they had all existed for a long time.

Their existences and their origin stories predated written history.

When James Madison shows up a the Constitutional Convention, he comes with a pen and a notebook.

He, he, and he makes it his ambition to record every word said at the convention.

He said it felt like he had gone back to the beginning of time because they had, as theorists debated, how do human beings com together in political societies?

But nobody knew.

It had never been observed before.

And here they were doing it, observing it in real time.

And so he he wrote it down.

And we have preserve these drafts of the declaration.

These were religious texts.

The other document that I enjoy is, John Adams letter to Abigail Adams on July 3rd that was written, if I may quote for just a moment here.

He wrote that he was disappointed the declaration was delayed seven months at that point saying, “...an earlier declar- ation could have assured alliances, conquered Quebec and taken Canada.

But the delay also extinguished hopes of reconciliation, gave people time to mature their views and better cemented the union.” Not everybody wanted this revolution.

Even George Washington at the First Continental Congress just the summer before hdd said, nobody here wants to be independent.

And they called it independency.

But things change.

And then all of a sudden change in a big way and and people sign up for this daring and dangerous adventure.

It was John Randolph who answered one of the delegates.

One of the delegates.

So we're not ripe for a revolution yet.

So let's not publish this declaration.

And Randolph said “We are ripe to rotting, sir.” Let's get it.

Let's let's do it.

And in some ways, in that very hot, Pennsylvania room, they were pretty ripe at that point.

Let's talk a little bit about what happened, later, because at that point, the Declaration of Independence, 250 years ago, there was an estimat that about 20% of the Americans, as I'm calling them now, were loyalists, fewer patriots, perhaps 12%, they even thought, and most wer what was called fence sitters.

So the country hadn't really coalesced yet either.

That's right.

John Adams famously said one third were revolutionary, one third were loyal to the king, and one third went back and forth depending on who held the upper hand in their locality.

So this was a civil war, not just a decolonial war or a Revolutionary war.

And in it was, horrible civil war, the atrocities committed on both sides, make you want to weep.

But it was also a war in some ways, of propaganda, for the, patriots to actually win over the country.

The British didn't help their cause in any way.

But but the Declaration of Independence really was, in some ways a further step of of creating a more perfect union.

That's right.

And it was one of, many thing that were published to promote the cause or published to attack the cause of revolution.

That's one of the remarkabl things about this moment that, the American colonists were a reading public and pamphlets poured out the printing press by the thousands, and people read them, and they debated them in taverns and on street corners and in living rooms and churches.

Yeah.

Anybody lucky enough to be able to pay for a newspaper would read it in a, you know, as you said, in a pub, in a tavern, which was a meeting plac for for Americans at that point.

The way the information was disseminated may have been slower, but not any less effective.

And these ideas had a very wide reach.

So you see enslaved people, enslaved black people taking the ideas of the declaration and immediately quoting it back to their white enslavers and saying, well, if if we hold these truths to be self-evident, what are you doing enslaving me?

And and so the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts is kicked off in a big way by the publication of the Declaration of Independence.

And then the course of the war with, the British offering amnesty to free, to slaves who cross over and fight for the British.

Yeah.

It's a major, major support for the abolitionist cause.

You are not only a historian, but you're also an expert and an educator about history, education, and congratulations on the award that you received last year, national recognition... Thank you.

...for work that you have done.

Thank you.

So tell me, do we whitewas this period of history too much?

Do we.

do we, as you said, you want to find those littl nuggets that tell the story in even greater detail.

Do we not find enough of those?

Well, it depends on who we is in that sentence.

Do we whitewash?

The days are long gone that official school texts whitewash the past with, with some exceptions.

Every once in a while you hear a horror story about enslaved people being described in a seventh grade textbook as laborers or something ridiculous like that.

But but those are the exceptions that kind of prove the rule I'm talking about.

School history, across the 50 states today is mostly a balanced history, with the exception of states who have recently set up new regulations for the teaching of a more patriotic, heritage based approach to history.

And by heritage her we mean history as a a monument for praise and celebration.

I don't, as a historian, have any problem with history memorializing moments in our past because there's so much beauty, so much, courage, so muc adventure in the American story.

We should be celebrating those things.

But certain states, here in the in the past ten years, want to institute a state sponsored approach to history that defines what happened and what can be taught to students wh what can't be taught and that, compromises the very nature of history instruction.

I mean, history comes from a Greek word that means inquiry, hi-story.

And so whe I'm teaching history, I want to teach students to work their way towards beliefs, to stories, to interpretations that end in question marks as they discipline themselves to be humble about what they know.

Heritage, history, the kind that some states now are experimenting with, wants to end all statements about the past with an exclamation point.

America is great because America is good.

Exclamation point.

That's not history anymore.

That's heritage.

Where you tell a positive story that makes people feel good about themselves.

The problem with i is almost all heritage stories make some people feel good about themselve by making other people feel bad, and the story becomes an us versus them story.

Were the good people, they, the wicked, they are out to get us.

Yeah.

That's kind of story, students need to be taught that's that's one approac to history and made aware of why that just doesn't work.

Americans have been arguing over what our story is for 275 years.

I mean, even before the revolution.

Ha, ha.

Sure.

That's the history we should be learning, the history of that argument over what our story is and who we are as a people.

And the declaratio of Independence will always be the primary text for this because that is what binds us.

I mean, we're not bound by our skin color.

We're not bound by a common religion.

We're not bound by a basketball team that we all root for.

Go Spurs, by the way.

Ha, ha, we're not bound b a king, not bound by a monarchy.

None of that that traditionally binds a people works for the Americans.

What has binded us are these truth that we hold to be self-evident.

We're allowing your Texas background here for just a moment.

So we're going to ignore that.

But really, when you tal about this nation and 250 years and you talk about it starting with the Declaration of Independence, as you said happened before that, of course, but then take a look at after that.

You have a bloody Revolutionary War.

That, thank goodness for a few, moments in time, that, whether you're talking about, Trenton or if you're talking about anything that George Washington did in order to, outwit, the British, you talk about the articles of Confederatio and the failure of the creation of the United States of America as a government, and then the success of the Constitution.

As you said, these are all in the first decades of the creation.

This could have been a failed experiment a long time ago.

Well the very first Federalist paper and the Federalist Papers were about 70 pamphlets published to promot the newly drafted Constitution.

The very first Federalist paper used this expression that we ar embarked on a great experiment.

They really believe that.

And they were worried it wasn't going to work.

They they were mostly worried that there would be a short, shor shelf life for this Republican experiment in democracy.

It had never been done before, never even tried before.

And it's the first time a polity, have come together around and, around the basis of a set of ideas instead of a set of time honored inherited practices that had come down from from God.

It had not been done before.

It's really revolutionary in that sense.

And it all still remained to be worked out.

Who would be part of this polity?

Will, will slaves be part of it?

That remains to be worked out.

What about women?

Will they be part of it?

Can they be citizens?

Should they be part of the body politic?

That remains to be worked out.

They were feeling their way forward in a fog, step by step, without knowing where this was going.

Where these unruly ideas are going to take them.

And that's the story of American history, is the story of people who believed in those ideas and want to expand them.

And American who are suspicious of the ideas worry that they're not enough to really make a people and so resist them.

Is there a strong belief that you have of American exceptionalism?

When you take a loo at how the nation was created?

You know we fight a lot over that word.

Yes, we do.

Historians, the general public.

I myself believe that America is an exceptional history in the sense that that this idea that surfaces in the Declaration of Independence is a truly exceptional idea.

Nobody had made that the basis for a government before.

That's brand new in human events.

It's exceptional.

And 250 years ago?

And the attempt to create a multiracial, multicultural, multi-ethnic democracy is, it's not we're not the only ones who are trying to do it, but it's darn near exceptional still.

And we, I would argue, has succeeded at it better than anyone else who's tried.

Of course, we're hypocritical.

And of course the ideas remain to be worked out, of course.

But what's the alternative to hypocrisy?

To to not have ideals at all?

Is that really what we want?

I don't think so.

So the the the wonder, the beauty, the the adventure of the American story is that it's a has a chapte for every generation to write, and each generation of Americans steps up to run the experiment, which means it could fail.

And, with each generation that' that's the, the terror and the and the, the inspiration of the American project.

Our thanks to Augustana College history professor Lendol Calder.

Doctor Calder was honore last year with the Eugene Ascher Distinguished Teaching Award, presented by the American Historical Association for outstanding teaching and advocacy for history education.

We are now in the month of July, and it's more than just fireworks and apple pie, though both are pretty nice.

Here's some of the events going on in our area, thanks to Visit Quad Cities.

[soft music] Check out the things to do this week in the Quad Cities.

The entire month of July you can check ou the Figge Art Museum for free.

Don't miss out on this opportunity.

Next, enjoy a classic movie come to life in a musical adventure.

The Wizard of Oz is taking the stage at Circa 21 Dinner Playhouse.

Then, relax this summer with free yoga in the park.

Enjo fresh air with beautiful views.

Then spend your weekend at the world's largest truck stop for the 48th Annual Walcott Truckers Jamboree.

Finally, experience live music, pop up shops, lawn games and so much more at 2nd Saturdays in downtown Rock Island.

For more events like these, check out our events calendar at VisitQuadCities.com [music ends] Murray Lee is a singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist, and we invited him to take the stage at the Black Box Theater in Moline to perform one of his originals.

So here's Murray Lee with “Claustrophobic”.

[guitar strumming] I was flipping through a news article about our brains, their size and their shape, are genetic.

Oh, what an awful trick.

[guitar strumming] And I was reading chapters in a people's history of the United States.

Oh, what an awful place to be.

And I'm too poor to leave.

[guitar strumming] And I was reading in a science journal about Mother Earth.

Her fever's getting worse.

Oh, I'm stuck in a hearse.

[guitar strumming] And I was trying to understand a Brian Green book about space time and how our strings are attached to it.

Oh, we can leave this universe.

[guitar strumming] And I was skipping through a news article about our brains their size and shape are genetic.

Oh, I feel so claustrophobic.

[strumming ends] Murray Lee with “Claustrophobic”, performe at Molines Black Box Theater.

We are continuing to celebrate the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence by celebrating the Civic Spark in many of us.

It showcases the reason our work make a difference in our community.

And as long as we're looking back at history, we figured we'd ask a historian about his Civic Spark.

Neil Dahlstrom knows all things John Deere as Deere's resident historian.

We wanted to know what drives him to tell the story of John Deere.

What is his Civic Spark?

[soft music] I just think peopl are inspiring, their thoughts, their creativity, just kind of how they work out problems, how they learn.

Whether it's John Deere, Charles Deere, William Butterworth, like a company like John Deere that has a rich legacy of people, working out ideas.

I just find it incredibly inspiring.

And it drives m to just learn more, to do more, and to kind of share what I learned with other people.

[music ends] Our thanks to Deere historian Neil Dahlstrom.

And from all of our Civic Spark participants, and from everyone here at WQP and Western Illinois University.

Happy 250th Independence Day.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device, and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on The Cities.

[lively music] [music ends]