00:00In July of 1776, King George III still towered over New York City, not in person, in lead.
00:09At Bowling Green, near the tip of Manhattan, stood a gilded 4,000-pound statue of King George
00:16on horseback dressed like a Roman emperor. It had been erected just six years earlier
00:22as a monument to British power. But by the summer of 1776, Americans no longer saw majesty in this
00:31statue. They saw tyranny. On July 9, 1776, George Washington gathered his troops in New York
00:40and had the newly adopted Declaration of Independence read aloud. The words had barely
00:48settled before soldiers, sailors, and patriots surged down Broadway to Bowling Green and toppled
00:55the King George statue.
00:58While the crowd saw tyranny toppled, Connecticut patriot Oliver Wolcott saw bullets. 4,000 pounds
01:08of lead bullets for a Continental Army Wolcott knew would be desperate for ammunition. So Wolcott
01:16had the shattered pieces of King George loaded onto boats and shipped to Connecticut. From there,
01:24ox carts hauled the remains of King George more than 60 miles over rough country roads to Wolcott's home
01:32in Litchfield. And in the Wolcott family orchard, a shed became a foundry. His wife Laura, his daughter
01:42Mary Ann, and local neighbors worked over melting pots, pouring the King's lead into bullet molds.
01:4942,088 musket balls in all. Some of those bullets were fired two years later at the Battle of Monmouth,
01:58the brutal New Jersey showdown that Washington's army proved could stand in the open field
02:04against British regulars. You have to love the irony. Britain sent America a monument to empire. America
02:14sent it right back at muzzle velocity. So let's celebrate our nation's 250th birthday as we remember
02:23patriots like Oliver Wolcott who made it all possible. From the White House, I'm Peter Navarro.
02:30very long.
02:31Now
02:31Amen.
Comments