This is CBS I Am The World. I'm John Bashler with Professor Joseph Ellis. His new book

is The Cause, the American Revolution in its discontent, 1773 to 1783. Not just what

happens on the battlefield, but how it's thought about before and after, what it means.

We now go to the summer of 1782. John Jay, a man who I would want from my attorney

and eternity. Good heavens, he is. This man comes forward with a suggestion one summer's

evening in France, chatting with the Spanish ambassador to France, Count Aranda. They're

pausing over a map. They're debating the future if and when Britain seeks to end the

war. They're looking at a map of the continent, what they have. Count Aranda, and this is

Spain. France gave up its continental empire when it was defeated in the 1763. Spain, however,

has a portion of it, you will recall. A very large portion of it that will become critical

for the expansion of the United States in the 19th century. But right now, Count Aranda's

looking at a line, he draws somewhere between Ohio and the middle of Florida, Florida being

a Spanish possession at the time. John Jay cleverly leans forward and finds the Mississippi

and points out the Mississippi. Professor, this is an amazing moment. It's the moment where America

becomes an empire. Did they recognize it at that moment when John Jay rushed to tell Franklin

what had happened? They didn't hear about it for no six weeks, but it was a big decision,

and of course, they didn't have cell phones, and he couldn't call back to Philadelphia to get

instructions. He had instructions that he had to go along with the French, and that many had to

go along with the Spanish, and he treated with the French. He's breaking his orders here,

and he's saying, there are two things that you know that independence is non-negotiable.

Now, I'm telling you, the Mississippi border as our Western border is non-negotiable, too.

I mean, it's a bold act by a man of extraordinary intelligence and wisdom. John Jay,

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