'Glenn Beck': Founders' Friday: Women of the American Revolution
Monday, July 05, 2010 
This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," July 2, 2010. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GLENN BECK, HOST: Well, hello, America. Today is kind of like Oprah. I have a crowd of women here with us. We're talking a little bit about the founders except not the men. We've had a bunch of white men, we've done two founding Fridays on black men. Heroes all of them, but what about the women?
I have to tell you, this one, either the art was really, really bad back then or they just had ugly, ugly people. Let me ask the audience. When did women get the right to vote? 1920. Yes, 1920. What would you say if I told you not true? Women could vote in the 1700s. Would anybody believe me?
You will by the end of the show. How about women serving in the military? Did women serve in the military? Yes. Really? How do you know that? Do you know any names or any stories? Molly Pitcher, this woman. This is another example. This is another example of — well, let me show you this.
This woman actually was in the military as well, I think, but she — she was impersonating a man. I don't think she had to do an awful lot, but here is Molly Pitcher. She was commissioned by George Washington. I wouldn't mess with her. I wouldn't mess with her.
She knitted, but she actually — you know, you always hear the story that Valley Forge was awful and they didn't have shoes. When I really read the accounts of Valley Forge, it was way beyond shoes. They didn't have pants. They didn't have shirts. Some of them, I mean, were naked out in the winter.
And Martha Washington would come up and she would make them clothing. That was her service. But you wouldn't think — you would think OK, maybe, you know, a woman was sewing, but not necessarily that and certainly not voting. What happened to our history?
You will see tonight, that is the big question on all of it. How many of you guys have been watching "The Founding Fridays?" Have you learned amazing things that you are like how did I not know that? Does anybody have an explanation on why we didn't learn this stuff yet? Does anybody have a theory? Why isn't this stuff being taught? Is it important stuff or is it just frivolous?
So why is it left out? It could be that — were you going to say something? It's intentionally left out. It could be for power reasons. It could be neglect of history. How many of us neglected our own history?
I can't figure out why some of this is left out. I tell you that voting, we're going to start with voting, I think, and what happened to a woman's right to vote? You will see as is almost all the problems, politics.
Let me bring in the guest. David Barton is here. David is I think the most important man in America right now. How are you, David?
DAVID BARTON, AUTHOR, "WIVES OF THE SIGNERS": Good to be with you.
He's with Wallbuilders. He authored the book "The Wives of the Signers." Also with us is Jane Hampton -Cook. She is the author — how are you? Good to see you.
She is the author of "Stories of Faith and Courage from Revolutionary War." She also wrote the book called "Faith of America's First Ladies." OK, let's start with women's right to vote. I thought it was 1920.
BARTON: The revolution changed a lot of things. It changed the relationship we had politically, but it also changed a lot of cultural things as we have seen on other "Founders' Fridays." Black founding fathers at that point in time. Suddenly a lot of the founding fathers were able to express themselves as abolitionists and they couldn't do under British law, same with women.
1776, we wipe out 13 British governments and we have to create new governments so the founding fathers from New Jersey who signed the declaration, they went back, started writing their own state constitution as they did in other states.
New Jersey, they wrote in the constitution the right for women to vote. So women started to vote in New Jersey in 1776. That was a right that the founding fathers put into the documents. Women had voted in colonial America before that as well. In Pennsylvania, back in the French- Indian war, et cetera, but they put in the constitution.
BECK: All right, but it was in Pennsylvania, was it a constant?
BARTON: It was not constant. Interestingly enough, the voting rights were tied a lot of times to ownership of property. If you owned property, you could vote. Being from Texas, our schools are funded by the property taxes. The deal is if you own property, pay the taxes for everybody who goes to school, but the problem in Texas is 47 percent of people own property, the other 53 don't.
So you can get majority of people telling the property owner what we're going to pay for taxes. The founding fathers said wait a minute, you shouldn't be able to tell people what to do with their own property if you don't have vested interest to losing your own property. So you had to be a property owner to vote.
Now, they made easy. In Pennsylvania, you could buy land for one penny an acre. They wanted you to be a property owner, but once you had it that affected the way you thought about telling people what to do with their property.
So the property rights concept was started. So women could vote if they owned property, but a lot of times being married the property is in this husband's name. If the husband died and woman inherited property, she could vote.
BECK: This is a problem really with like rental cars. I just want Hertz to know, me, I rent a car and I watch it like it's my own. But others who will remain nameless not — you know, you have our own car and you kind of drive it.
BARTON: That's right.
BECK: You park it in the back of the parking lot. You know, you park up next and any jalopy if it's not your car.
BARTON: That way in New Jersey. The constitutional provision is anyone who is worth 50 pounds, money, could vote. It wasn't straight out every man could vote in 1776.
BECK: When did it go away?
BARTON: It went away in 1809.
BECK: That's a long time.
BARTON: That's a long time.
BECK: Were they the only state that did it?
BARTON: The only one constitutionally that did it. There were other states where r had voting provisions, but the only one constitutionally that did that.
BECK: So the year, the year after we abolished the slave trade.
BARTON: 1808, we abolished the slave trade.
BECK: The next year we take the African-Americans say we're not going to do this as trade anymore. We're halfway home. Next year, we're like yes, but that women thing, I don't know.
BARTON: Well, it was interesting because significantly the rise of political parties and you have all these political parties that started, the federalist and anti-federalist and Jefferson and Adams got into it.
But 1809, most women voted with federalists. When they got the power in New Jersey, they said wipe out the women's vote. They're voting in the wrong political party. We're not going to be able to sustain ourselves so that's really where the women's right to vote went away.
It wasn't on grounds of equality or inequality. I was on the grounds that they vote for the wrong party and now that we've got control, we're going take the power away.
JANE HAMPTON COOK, AUTHOR, "FAITH OF AMERICA'S FIRST LADIES": You just think, too, the whole concept was based on taxation without representation. That's what we were crying out against in 1776. Really in a short time it was taken away for a good number of people.
BECK: When they played — I think everybody — if I said the smartest woman founder or most active who would you say? Anybody come to mind? Abigail Adams. Abigail Adams, was she the pinnacle of an active political woman?
COOK: I think so. The reason why we think that about her is because of her writing record. We have her letters and we don't have with a lot of these other women and that's why we don't know as much in part.
But Abigail was the breadwinner in that family. When John Adams joined the continental Congress, he gave up his law practice that was half of their income. Abigail said I'll take over the other half. I'll become a farmeress. I hope to be as good a farmeress as you are a statesman.
BECK: Farmeress.
COOK: Yes, the farmeress and you know, by all accounts she was better at it than he was because they were getting letters from his neighbors saying, you know, Abigail is doing a pretty good job, better than you ever did.
BECK: May I just say — my mother-in-law is in the audience, so close your ears. Sometimes guys pretend to be bad at stuff so then the wife — honey, you are so good at this. You know your husband stinks at wrapping presents so on Christmas eve, you're wrapping all the presents. Really, we're better than you.
COOK: That is true.
BECK: You know your husband gets worse when he wraps presents.
COOK: I perfectly wrap the presents.
BECK: I know!
COOK: But, you know, the thing about Abigail is she didn't like farming. She came in to counterfeit money accidentally had lost a lot of money. Her tenants were just up and quit and wouldn't pay the rent. They had crop shortages. It was really, really hard work.
BECK: She was — she was pretty much a — by herself though wasn't she? I mean, John —
BARTON: She had her kids with her and one of the interesting things is the writing of John Quincy Adams talking about what he did with his mom and how they were on the hill overlooking Bunker Hill when the battle went on, the burning of Charleston.
So she was very active in a lot of ways. A lot of those around her did a lot of recording of what she did. You have her writings. You have the writings from the other parts of the family, but she was so respected and so good at what she did that in 1775, the continental congress appointed her to be part of a committee that we might call like an intelligence committee.
Because they said, you know, we're looking to Great Britain and we have to know who the traders are and who we have to establish in the back. She became of the committee of three to help ferret out the bad guys versus the good guys because she had that kind of connection, that kind of insight and wisdom. She's one of the sharpest, quickest wits you'll ever find.
BECK: I just think of — you think of the movies from the stupid Bonnet movies from Emma Thompson is always in the awful — you know, Jane Austin. But anyway, sorry, ladies. Torturous, but you see that and they're always so prim and proper.
I don't know if the captain will come home this week and finger sandwiches and that's it. Was a woman who was successful on her own taking on jobs wearing the pants will she had to or not, wearing the pants aggressive, I guess? Did they have the same rap? Like it's only because she's a strong woman they have the rap. Did they have that?
COOK: I don't think they did during the revolution because women were doing everything they could just to survive. If they were at home, they were working that farm. If they husband or their sons were off at war, they were in survival mode. I don't think that that was part of their thought process.
BECK: So it's like Rosy the Riveter.
BARTON: It really is, yes.
BARTON: Yes, they recognized them for what they could do and whether that was militarily or politically or in business or anything else. They — I mean, the bible says the fruit of your hands commends you and that was really what it was. If they were productive, could something well, they were recognized and got the opportunity to do it.
BECK: But then did that turn back around? Was there — because after Rosie the Riveter, the guys came home and they're like no, honey, sit down. Put a ribbon in your hair, so sweet. Women were like wait a minute, no.
BARTON: Well, there were some attempts at societal push-back after the revolution, just as there was with the growth of slavery. The founding fathers pushed it this way really hard. Then society pushed back. Same with women after the revolution.
BECK: I think, as I learn more American history it seems that we are taught these guys were white racists. They were misogynists, whatever, it was all about them and their power. But it seems like there was a collection of amazing people, black, white, male, female.
The problem was us, the slabs afterwards. After that vision was complete, people started relaxing a little bit and gaining their power and it just kind of spiraled almost backwards.
BARTON: It did, but part of that is intentional and you know, as much as you are on socialism and expanding it, the term "revisionist" came officially in 1903 and part of the mark socialist propaganda. I mean that's the term they invented.
They said the reason you do this is you want to separate people from the old and move them in a new direction. Evolve society. You want transformational change. Revisionism was identified as a tool by which you can transform a culture. So we had to make them look bad otherwise we'll be attached to them.
BECK: Did anybody know that? I didn't know that.
BARTON: It's a 1903 term and part of political movement. If you study themselves from the past, you have to make them look bad. Racist, bigots, atheist, agnostics, make them out of step and we say who care what is they said.
Let's have a change and do transformation. That's where it goes and that's same with women. If you make them look like sexist males who had no respect for women, then we can move away from the founding principles and the constitution and declaration. This is part of preserving the foundation of the constitution or looking into something else. History does that.
BECK: OK. When we come back, we'll ask each of you for one story that you think people will say wow! One that sets the table or teaches us about the character of the people or the time and what it was. Back in a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Welcome to "Founding Fridays." I want to make sure you log on to glennbeck.com and sign up for the insider extreme or you can watch the five things you didn't know about the women of the revolution.
Back with us now, David Barton and Jane Hampton Cook. I want to — I guess — I want to ask you each what you think the important thing is that, one story that you think people should walk away with, but I have to ask you about this handsome lady.
BARTON: She was a school — actually she was born in poverty, raised in poverty, bunch of kids. Father deserted the family, went off and left. So she was made an indentured servant. She was indentured for 10 years that took her through most of the revolution.
When she was 19, she came out in 1779 out of indenture and became a school teacher. In 1782, she wanted to do something for the country. So 1782, still have some of the revolution going. She has to enlist as a man.
So, literally what she did was she got rid of the hair and wound the upper part of her body really tight with bandages to make herself look like a man. She dressed like a man and went and enlisted.
What is interesting, she is 22 — exactly. She is 22 years old at the time. Other guys in the army kid her, you never shave. You are just a kid. Of course, she didn't shave. She was a lady. She got wounded in a battle up at West Point and she treated the wound herself so no one would find out what her gender was.
She later in Philadelphia she came up with a really high fever, almost unconscious, so a physician had to check her and found out what her gender was. When they found out her gender, they quietly moved her out of the Army, but General Henry Knocks is the one that gave her honorable discharge from the Army at West Point.
And she ends up with a military pension, because she served as soldier. If you were a soldier you got pension. She was tough lady. She went back to teach in school afterwards. By the way, the way she got the pension was interesting because she used to travel across America giving lectures on what she had done as soldier and she would wear her uniform.
It was Paul Revere who wrote Congress and said you forgot to give a pension to this lady over her and she got the pension because Paul Revere wrote Congress and pointed out that they hadn't given her a pension.
BECK: I'm telling you, I want my pension. Real quick, Pritchard. She was commissioned by Washington.
BARTON: She was commissioned because she was — Mary is her name, Molly is her nickname. In 1778 June, really, really hot day and if you are part of the artillery crew with all the heat and everything, guys were falling from exhaustion.
She was running back and forth from the creek and the well carrying pitchers of water for them to keep from dehydrating and that's how she got the name Molly Pitcher. When her husband painted from exhaustion, she stepped in and kept it firing and throughout the rest of the battle.
In the end they found out what she had done and kept that gun alive. It takes several guys on the crew to keep the gun alive. The rammer and cleaner and the one that puts the powder, a guy to fire and aim it so she kept that gun going throughout the battle and at he end she was commissioned as a sergeant in the Continental Army.
Now, we think Washington, it may have been General Nathaniel Green, but either way it was a general that commissioned her and she served throughout the rest of the American revolution. When she died she was given a military funeral and buried with the honors of war and military funeral at her death. Great lady. Served throughout the revolution.
BECK: And I couldn't even get a pack of Kool cigarettes. Tell me one story you think people should know.
COOK: Well, I really think that Lucy and Henry Knox's love story is very intriguing. It shows that the revolution was a civil war. Henry owned a bookstore like a Barnes & Nobles type in Boston and fell in love with Lucy. She was the daughter of a loyalist. He didn't care. They got married.
A year later, Boston is under military occupation by the British. You can't come or go. It's in lock-down. Henry really wants to join the continental Congress out in Cambridge. What about Lucy? What is going to happen to her if he leaves?
And so they made the decision together. She sewed his sword into the lining of her coat and they slipped through the dark of night over into Cambridge. By 1777, it was clear her parents, loyalists had disowned her. They weren't responding to any of her correspondence.
But Henry recognized what a sacrifice his wife had made and he wrote her a letter and he said this, although father, mother, sister and brother have disowned you, your Henry will always consider you the best boon of heaven. She lifted loudly for liberty, as loudly as anybody else and he appreciated that about her and you can see how families were torn apart because they had to make a choice.
BECK: So really, within 80 years or so, we had almost two civil wars. We had the revolutionary war, which is a civil war. We don't think of it that way. We think of British. Did any of the founders talk like this? " Hey, me bloke!" that may be Australian. I'm not really sure.
BARTON: We didn't have Australians?
BECK: How many were English, we'd recognize as English?
BARTON: You had 20 Irish generals that served with Washington. A bunch of Irish generals. You had several Polish generals. You had several French generals.
BECK: So how many of the families were split?
BARTON: Talking about the loyalists. When you go to some of the battles in the southern area, like down in North Carolina, you'll find that one of the battles down there and the revolution was 1,500 loyalists taking on 1,000 patriots, 2500 in battle, they're all Americans.
It is a civil war. One of the signers of the declaration, Richard Stockton ends up in prison, tortured in prison and he taken to prison by the loyalist neighbors. The British couldn't find him. His neighbors captured him and took him to British and turned him in. It was a problem.
BECK: If Henry would have left his wife, would she have been captured? If she would have stayed, would they have tried to use the families? Is there any example of families being used or arrested who split, but they used the family or children to coerce?
BARTON: You bet. One of the really tough stories in the revolution is Frances Lewis. Frances Lewis' wife, Elizabeth Lewis, he's signer of the declaration. Elizabeth Lewis, he left home so maybe she would be safe. They're trying to kill him.
They come to the home and they find her, they open fire on the home. She stands out when they open fire. A ship at the harbor is firing at the house and British on the other side is firing at it. She stands on the porch as they're finding. Cannon ball hits where she is standing and she looks down at it. The soldiers attacked and they captured her.
BECK: They knew who she was.
BARTON: They took her off to prison to get Frances to do certain things and Congress to do certain things. They threw her in prison and brutally treated her. They gave her no clothing, no bed on which to sleep. They would feed her occasionally. That was it.
She was in a dark dungeon, actually one of her black friends found out where she was and got word back to the family and got word back to Congress. Congress sent a demand for the British to change — they wanted to make an example of her to show all the other founders and all the other signers, if you do this, this is what will happen to your family.
They got word back to Congress and said you change the way you treat people. They wouldn't change it. George Washington went and captured two British loyalists' wives and put them in custody and said we'll treat them the way you treat ours unless you change it.
Well, that's when they arranged prisoner exchange and she died as a result of what they did with her but the British literally took part of the family and publicly humiliating, abusing and torturing her and she died a hero.
I mean, she never backed down. There's a great coin that's been made showing her in prison. Fellow prisoners would try to cram bread through the key hole to keep her alive because they weren't feeding her. There is the coin. You see the coin that was minted afterwards. That's the wife of the signer. But the British tried to use the family.
BECK: Ladies, how many of you know the story? None. None.
COOK: That's why Benjamin Franklin on July, 4, 1776 said if we don't all hang together, we'll most assuredly hang separately. They knew they were living for liberty and it could cost them their lives and their families.
BECK: I will tell you that I have noticed — not these situations, but how many talk to people or you yourself have come to a place where you know enough of what is true and you know where you think the country may be headed and you feel the same way.
You'll just have to come through me. Is anybody feeling that way now? Yes, back in just a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWS BREAK)
BECK: Hello, America. Tonight is another founding Fridays — "Founders' Fridays." Tonight, it's the women of the American Revolution.
With us, David Barton. He is the author of "Wives of the Signers." And Jane Hampton-Cook — she is the author of "The Faith of America's First Ladies" and also "The Revolutionary War Battlefield and Blessings."
I have to tell you first a real quick story. I was in Denver, I think, this weekend. I listened to a lady speak. She got up and she was a grandma. She said, "I have eight grandchildren."
And I was surprised, because I was thinking OK, I have to stop thinking that she is, like, hot because (UNINTELLIGIBLE). My grandma didn't look like that. Anyway, she was talking and she said, "You know, things have changed for me."
And when we went to war and after September 11, she said, "I started, you know, getting involved and I was writing this and doing this." She is starting to get a patriot group a couple of years ago. She's just — she's got to be exhausted.
And she said, "I wrote a book about the troops that nobody would publish because troops books weren't popular. I published it anyway." Then she said, "And then, I decided to write this second book."
And she said, "And I know nobody will ever talk about it on TV or give it a shot." She didn't know I was in the audience and I'm like, "Oh, yes, somebody will," because it's called "My Rifle, With My Rifle by My Side." It's a children's book about the Second Amendment.
And it just kind of — just hacked the left off like crazy. I know, because I got a book one time about — I can't remember what the name of it is, but it's a little boy that goes hunting up and gets a bearskin — you know, needs a bearskin rug because he's cold in the winter and goes and shoots bears.
And I have friends, you know, on the left and I leave that out on the coffee table just for them. I'll walk away and I'll say, "Can I get you something to drink? I'll be right back." And I come back and they're like, "Oh, my gosh. You read this to your kids?"
"Yes, I do. Would you like me to read it to you, too?" All right. An amazing accomplished woman. We want to talk about women of the American Revolution. And I want to go to Ann(ph) first in the audience. And Ann(ph), what are you thinking?
ANN, AUDIENCE MEMBER: I've been wondering if any of the women in the revolution who had a husband that made the decision to become involved and yet she didn't want to be. So did she betray them in any way?
COOK: Well, I know that James Otis, who was the firebrand and mentor of John Adams — his wife did not support the revolution.
And I don't know if she betrayed him necessarily, but James ended up living with his sister, Mercy, because they were all on the same side. And so it did split husbands and wives sometimes. And I don't know about the betrayal part.
BECK: Was there —
COOK: In terms of giving them out.
BECK: Was there a sense a sense at all because I'm doing research now on the Holocaust of Germany, and reading this one story of a couple in Amsterdam.
And they had a hard time in their family because they said, "Don't get involved. Don't get involved in the underground. Don't do any of this because you're going to get the family killed." Was there that kind of pressure in the American Revolution?
BARTON: A great story like that is involved in a lot of Quaker families. And Lydia Darrah is a great story.
BECK: Because Quakers were —
BARTON: Quakers don't get involved. You stay out of this. If you get involved, we'll kick you out of the church. And so.
BECK: Right. Because they were pacifists.
BARTON: They were pacifists and because of they were pacifists, they tended to lean loyalists, pro-British. Because they were not going to support a revolution, and so leave status quo the way it is.
BECK: Right.
BARTON: And when the British invaded Philadelphia and as they invaded every city — major cities every winter, they would take it over.
And that's why we have Third Amendment to the Constitution, because they would go in and put the British troops in private homes and say, "Lady, you take care of these five guys — laundry, food, cooking — whatever. Ma'am you take this."
Well, as Gen. Howe(ph) got in Philadelphia, he chose the house he wanted for himself. He threw the Americans out. And they went to the house of the Darrahs. Lydia was the wife and said, "Out, we're going to use your house." She said, "I've got no place to put my kids."
Instead, they said, "But give us rooms in which to meet." The rooms were used by a guy named Major John Andre. He's he guy who later got hung as a spy — Benedict Arnold, the treason attempt. But he was the spy master for the British.
And so he would use those rooms in her house. She is a Quaker, not supposed to do anything about this. And one night, he came to her and said, "Lydia, we need your rooms tonight. I want you in bed early and I want you asleep."
BECK: Really, Mr. Fancy pants? Is that what you want?
BARTON: He got there, knocked on the door. She let them in and said, "They're all asleep." He said, "You go off. I'll awaken you when we want out." And so she to her room, supposed to get in bed and go to sleep. And she said, "Something is not right."
So she went sneaking down the hallway, put her ear up against the keyhole to hear what was happening. Now, they were in winter quarters then. This is December, so the Americans are over — in the winter quarters. The British were in there.
And nobody fights in the winter. Six months off. No army does anything. And that's just the way they fought wars. So she's listening and hears that in two days, the British are going to a surprise attack on the American winter quarters with 5,000 British soldiers, going to wipe out the American army.
They're not supposed to do that. That's not playing fair, not supposed to do this. So she hears this. She rushes back to bed and gets in it. And when Andre comes to let himself out, he knocks on the door quietly. She didn't answer.
So he beat on the door a little louder. She didn't answer. He banged on the door really loud and she gets up kind of groggy and answers the door and lets them out. So she says, "What am I going to do?" She lay in bed all night and prayed, "What am I going to do?"
The next morning, she got up, because she's not supposed to be involved. Next morning, she got up and told her husband, "I've got to go to the mill outside of town to get flour." Well, to go outside of town, you're under martial law. She had to go see Gen. Howe, the British commander, and get a pass to get out of town.
She got out of town, got to the mill, dropped her bag and ran down the road to find the first American officer she could find. Found him and said, "You've got to let Washington know. Here is what I just heard. Here's what's going to happen. They're coming after you tomorrow. This is now one day down the road. You've got to be ready."
So she gets back to the mill and gets flour and goes home. Two days later, which was the next day, two days after the meeting, the British go to attack the Americans in White Plains and walk right into a bunch of cannons waiting for them.
And it turns out the British got their tail kicked. And so they come back to town. Major Andre knows somebody sold them out. And he went to Lydia and said, "OK. Who in your family was awake?" She said, "All my family is asleep."
And he says, "Oh, I know you were asleep because I knocked three times to wake." They never figured out who it was, but she got excommunicated from her church." Her husband wouldn't get involved, but she saved the lives.
COOK: And —
BECK: Go ahead — hang on. I've got to take a break. Ann, if that wasn't — I mean, I think you could probably go on for another 20 minutes. I hope that answered your question. We'll be back in just a second.
(APPLAUSE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: America, I want you to know this summer is — we are going to try to restore a few pieces of our history. And we're working on something that will air most likely in August that I think is vitally important. It is the restoration of the truth of race relations in this country.
We have already told you about the founding of the country can — kind of. And I warn everybody who is going to watch, black and white. You're going to learn stuff about your country that is both good and ugly that you didn't know. Watch for it all summer as we try to restore our own history, good and bad.
Back with us is David Barton, Jane Hampton-Cook. And we were talking about founding women and women around the revolutionary war. Raven, you have a question.
RAVEN, AUDIENCE MEMBER: First of all, thank you all for everything that you're doing to help restore our country. We do appreciate it.
Throughout my academic career, whenever I've learned about heroic women, the name Margaret Sanger came up pretty often. And then, it wasn't until later that I learned later that Sanger was, you know, pretty much a terrible person.
BECK: Wait, wait, wait. In school, they don't teach the truth about Margaret Sanger?
RAVEN: No. She is the champion of women's right is what we're told.
BECK: She is one of — you really read. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) really done it. You go home and you Google Margaret Sanger and really get down to her real words on progressivism. And she is one of the most horrible women in American history.
RAVEN: Absolutely. I agree. And I'm just figuring this out now that, you know, not only is the revisionist history writing these women out, but they're elevating a woman like Sanger and removing the truth about her. And I just want to know who is behind this. Is there something else to attribute to, you know, contemptible Woodrow Wilson?
BECK: Woodrow Wilson — Woodrow Wilson was really one of the main guys who did it. There were many architects. We talked about Bernays. And correct me, David, if you know — if you know any of this. But Bernays was a guy who we learned — that we taught the Germans propaganda.
Everybody thinks Hitler was the best at propaganda. Goebbels said they learned it from Woodrow Wilson's administration — Bernays. We changed the history books. We changed the Constitution. We changed everything under Woodrow Wilson.
And it was honestly — because like today, you couldn't win healthcare just by debate. George Washington said, "Meet me on the battlefield of ideas". You couldn't win with this debate because Constitution and our Founders were so strong.
So when Woodrow Wilson was pushed back by 1920, they knew they had to do something and they had to disconnect us from the faith, our founders and, really, the truth of our Constitution. Correct?
BARTON: Correct. And I said, again, 1903 — that revisionist and that transformational change. They wanted to tear down traditional heroes, build new heroes. What better hero for the progressives to use than a progressive hero like Margaret Sanger?
BECK: Yes.
BARTON: So we're going to get rid of Abigail Adams and all these others were put into progressives because that's what we want to become.
BECK: Yes.
BARTON: And that's it.
BECK: There's nobody that would ever call themselves a progressive. You might call yourself a liberal, but no one would call themselves a progressive if they really, really read the original works — not the history books, the original works of these people.
BARTON: Sure.
BECK: You, in the back, your name is?
TRACY, AUDIENCE MEMBER: Tracy.
BECK: Hi, Tracy.
TRACY: I just want to thank you so much. I have to say I have learned more about the history of our country just watching your show -
BECK: thank you.
TRACY: Than all my years in high school and elementary school. My question relating to that is, I want to know what the intention of our school administrators were, of leaving out these important events of these women fighting for our country. Why didn't I learn any of this? And this is all new to me now.
COOK: You know, I think sometimes it's not always — I think sometimes they don't know either. And as a writer, I really want to bring history to life. And I want to go to the original words of the people who lived it.
I've buried myself in the Library of Congress to find books of original writings. And when you read some of the original words, and Abigail original words, it's completely different. And you see their story from their perspective and that's, you know — I think it's an important thing to do.
BECK: That's the way history used to be. We have to take a break. But that's the way history used to be. Go to the original source. Jefferson took a step further and said never read a book out of its original language because you lose too much.
We teach — we have some egg head tell us about it instead of going and reading their words. When you read their words, read diaries of Columbus or any of the founders or the pilgrims. Totally different story.
BARTON: Yes.
BECK: Totally different story. Back in a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECK: Jane Hampton-Cook wrote a couple books, "The Faith of America's First Ladies" and "Battlefield and Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War." And "Wives of the Signers" by David Barton. And David, this is actually not your writing. This is —
BARTON: No. That's reprint of 1911 textbook. We used to know this stuff.
BECK: OK. And show me the other one from —
BARTON: This is an 1848 textbook. It is two volumes. It's on the women of the revolution. They were not hidden stories. They were out there. We had textbooks all full of these things.
BECK: They are now and all we know now about the women and the revolution is we think we know a couple stories. But then, the rest — everybody was just an oppressed woman, as we found out earlier. They didn't have a right to vote. Yes, in New Jersey you did. Billie(ph), you have a question?
BILLIE(ph), AUDIENCE MEMBER: I think one of the most intriguing women is a black girl who rose from being sold naked on an auction block to entree into George Washington's camps even. I know David knows the story of Phillis Wheatley, and I think we'd like to hear it.
BECK: David?
BARTON: Phillis Wheatley was brought to America as a six-year-old girl, stolen from Senegal. She was sold as a slave. She was ought by the Wheatley family and adopted her as a daughter. She became a daughter. She, at the age of six not knowing English, entered into studies on Latin, geography — you name it.
BECK: Where was she —
BARTON: Boston. In Boston.
BECK: Was it highly unusual to adopt a —
BARTON: No. A lot of Christian families would adopt slaves, buy them from slaves to make them part of the family and to keep them from going into slavery.
BECK: Right.
BARTON: The Wheatley family did that. By 12, her poetry was being published. She was the first black poetess in America. She was a child prodigy. She wrote a particularly great poem for George Whitfield. She wrote another one to honor George Washington.
Washington actually had her come before the officer and read her poetry because it's a morale boost. She was like the first USO — you know, keep the morale of the troops high.
And Washington had her — she was baptized in the old south church, probably the first black that was baptized in that church but went to church there with the whites and everyone else.
So she broke through a lot of barriers and was a really great lady and helped support the troops morale-wise in the revolution, but was a great poetess. Great poetess.
BECK: I — what was the thing surprised you most when you first started doing research and looking into the women of the American Revolution and women of the presidents?
COOK: Well, you know, Martha Washington surprised me the most. I had kind of a dowdy picture of her. And she was a Spartan. One of the colonels described Martha as being Spartan, that she was very tenacious.
And when George took up the command of the continental army, she realized he wasn't coming home anytime soon. And that's why she would spend 50 percent of the time on the road him. And she did that knowing that the British were out to kidnap her.
She did that knowing that she's going to have to skip smallpox inoculation and she was definitely afraid of that at that time. So she faced some pretty significant fears and made that bold, courageous decision the travel and join him year after year.
BECK: Was their love — was their love true? Because I've read stories — you know, you never know unless you read their words. I read history about George Washington and it's — the contemporary history of George Washington is he really didn't love her.
COOK: I think if she thought that, she would have spent 50 percent of the war with him.
BARTON: You know, the other thing is, she specifically asked that her letters be burned. She wanted her letters — because there was so much personal stuff back and forth. And they didn't just want it becoming public. And you will find that a lot of the founders — John Adams asked for a lot of his letters to be burned because he didn't want that out publicly.
BECK: Wouldn't that be great? Instead of, you know, Sandy Berger stealing them in his underpants later? Wouldn't it be great to have people that were serving that were just saying, "The personal stuff, completely out"? Final thoughts, next.
(APPLAUSE)
BECK: This Fourth of July, do me a favor. And don't just have hotdogs and hamburgers and, you know, talk about the pool or whatever. Talk to your kids about our Founders. Share one story that really intrigues you. Try to really have that become alive in their mind.
Everybody in the audience tonight is going home with a copy of David's book, "Wives of the Signers." And make sure you check out Jane Hampton-Cook's column posted this weekend on "FoxNews.com" on why we should read the Declaration of Independence.
From New York, good night, America.
Content and Programming Copyright 2010 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2010 Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
