Transcription
[00:11–00:34] In 1773, the 13 colonies rose up against Britain. On the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. The Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, had no gunpowder, no blankets, no rifles, and no uniforms.
[00:35–00:52] Washington said, my soldiers lack everything needed for the war. The Congress of Philadelphia requested the help of Britain’s enemies, sending Arthur Lee and John Jay to Spain, Benjamin Franklin to France, and John Adams to Netherlands.
[00:58–01:21] Spain and France immediately started to help Washington’s army. From Paris, the Count of Aranda, the Spanish ambassador, approved in 1776 a secret consignment paid for jointly by the two countries, comprising cannons, mortars, bombs, bullets, rifles, and all kinds of supplies for the revolutionaries,
[01:21–01:38] which helped them to win their first victory over the British at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. France no longer held possessions in North America. It had lost Canada and, after the Seven Years’ War, had ceded Louisiana to Spain.
[01:38–01:53] For that reason, in 1778, France decided to declare war on Britain in Europe and help the American rebels with a view to weakening the British. In Spain, the Secretary of State, the Count
[01:53–02:08] of Floridablanca, recommended that the King should adopt a cautious approach and negotiate with Britain. Spain had launched an ambitious program of reform fired by Enlightenment ideas which required a great deal of money. At the
[02:09–02:26] same time, Spain feared that her colonies in America might be attacked by the British, and that the ideas behind the American Revolution might spread to Spanish possessions. After meeting Franklin, the Count of Aranda recommended an alliance with France
[02:26–02:45] to help the American rebels and undermine British power. Charles III and his ministers saw an opportunity to recover Menorca and Florida, and to attempt to regain Gibraltar. In April 1779, Spain allied with
[02:47–02:59] France and declared war on Britain. After the 4th of July, the rebels requested assistance from the Spanish governor of New Orleans. Spanish New Orleans was a strategic city with good links to
[02:59–03:14] the northern territories. Governor Luis de Onzaga and later Governor Bernardo de Galvez administered supplies sent from Havana. For three years, they provided the envoys of the Congress with money, gunpowder, weapons,
[03:14–03:31] medicine and clothes. As soon as war was declared, Bernardo de Galvez organized a small army made up of Spanish soldiers from the Louisiana Battalion, militiamen from New Orleans, and French, Acadians, Afro-descendants
[03:31–03:46] and American volunteers, together with Native American allies, after a long march through swampy land. At the head of these troops, America’s first multicultural army, Galvez expelled the British from the right bank of the Mississippi.
[03:47–04:05] The following year, he conquered the city of Mobile. Meanwhile, a large expeditionary force of 11,000 soldiers was being formed at Cadiz. In April 1780, they set out aboard over 70 ships under the command of
[04:07–04:20] Admiral Solano. They reached Havana in August. Despite losing over 2,000 men due to disease, the following year they took part under Gálvez in the greatest Spanish victory in America,
[04:21–04:37] the capture of Pensacola, the capital of British Florida. They took over 2,000 prisoners and captured the British governor. At the same time, Diego de Gardoqui, a Bilbao merchant with experience in the sea trade with America,
[04:37–04:58] was instructed by Charles III to organize the secret sending of supplies to the rebels. From 1777 to 1783, supplies of all kinds were dispatched from the Spanish ports of Bilbao, Santander, and Cadiz, weapons, uniforms, blankets, and large sums of money,
[05:04–05:26] which made their way to Atlantic ports controlled by Washington’s troops down the coast from Massachusetts to New Jersey. In collaboration with France, Spain also sent supplies from French ports. In August 1781, Galvez and Francisco de Saavedra, the king’s envoy to America, met the commander of the French fleet, Admiral Grasse, to hand over one of the most significant consignments of aid.
[05:26–05:50] One million pesos for the French and American troops which were besieging Yorktown, their victory in September of that year brought an end to the war. Until recently, this story was very little known. Bernardo de Galvez was posthumously awarded the title of Honorary American
[05:51–05:56] Citizen in recognition of Spain’s support for American independence.
https://goodtape.io/tapes/01947ED1ED117927451D47E08BD1F158
[00:00–00:17] We are citizens of an American nation, and our rights are being threatened by a tyrant 3,000 miles away. Would you tell me, please, Mr. Howard, why should I trade one tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants one mile away?
[00:23–00:38] An elected legislature can trample a man’s rights as easily as a king can. Captain Martin, I understood you to be patriot. If you mean by patriot, am I angry about taxation without representation? Well, yes, I am.
[00:41–01:05] Should the American colonies govern themselves independently? I believe they can and they should. But if you’re asking me, am I willing to go to war with England? Well, then the answer is most definitely no. This from the same Captain Benjamin Martin whose fury was so famous during the wilderness
[01:05–01:23] campaign? I was intemperate in my youth. Temperance can be a convenient disguise for fear. Mr. Middleton, I fought with Captain Martin under Washington in the French and Indian War. There’s not a man in this room, or anywhere for that matter, to whom I would more willingly trust my life.
[01:24–01:46] Hear, hear! There are alternatives to war. We take our case before the king. We plead with him. Yes, we’ve tried that. Well, then we try again, and again, if necessary, to avoid a war. Benjamin, I was at Bunker Hill. The British advanced three times, and we killed over 700 of them at point-blank range, and still they took the ground.
[01:47–02:15] That is the measure of their resolve. If your principles dictate independence, then war is the only way. It has come to that. I have seven children. My wife is dead. Now, who’s to care for them if I go to war? Wars are not fought only by childless men.
[02:25–02:46] But mark my words, this war will be fought not on the frontier or on some distant battlefield. Amongst us, among our homes, our children will learn of it with their own eyes. Innocent will die with the rest of us.
[02:50–04:10] I will not fight. And because I will not fight, I will not cast a vote that will send others to fight in my stead. And your principals. I’m a parent, I haven’t got the luxury of principals. Call the levee. Placed without my permission?
[04:10–04:53] Yes, I do. Father, I thought you you a man of principle when you have a family of your own? Perhaps you’ll understand when I have a family of my own. I won’t hide behind them He’s as imprudent as his father was at his age
[04:57–05:06] Regrettably, so I’ll see to it that he serves under me make him a clerk or Quartermaster something of that sort good luck.
