Ken Burns

And I've just walked from western New York State all the way into New England, right, and up into Canada.

And they had formed a union of their own.

that had operated, a democracy that had operated for centuries, that had allowed the independence of each of these separate nations, states, and yet yielded to the larger thing when their interests were threatened.

So essentially with regard to foreign policy.

And Franklin looks at this and goes, 1754, he goes, wow.

This is a great idea.

We should be doing this.

He's been the postmaster.

He's the only person who's been to New Hampshire and he's been to Georgia and all the places in between.

He said, we should do this.

And he calls a conference in Albany and he's got a picture of a cut-up snake above the dire warning, join or die.

And they pass, seven of the 13 colonies attend, and they pass this thing called the Albany Plan of Union in 1754.

And then they go home to try to sell it.

And none of the states take it because no one wants to.

None of the colonies take it because no one wants to give up their autonomy.

So the plan dies.

But 20 years later, join or die is the war cry in the most consequential revolution in history.

Wow.

Isn't that great?

So you're taking the Native American riffing on that, and then as you're forming this, you're bringing in what you've had and inherited for centuries of British constitutional monarchy, and you're borrowing from the New Enlightenment things, and you've got biblical references and classical references having to do with the conduct of individuals and personal responsibility, all of these things.