From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

And he says he's not trying to invent something new.

He's trying to reflect the common mind, right, the sentiment of the time in doing this.

This is your host, Scott Bertram. Welcome to the

Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. This is a special

Independence Day edition of the program. You just heard briefly from Dr. Matt Spalding from

Hillsdale in D.C. He'll join us again in a moment to talk about Thomas Jefferson's influence and how he helped shape the declaration. And later on in today's program, Robert R. Riley, with the defense of the founding and his book, America on trial. First, Dr. Spalding is Vice President of Washington Operations and Dean of the Van

Andal Graduate School of Government at Hillsdale in D.C. We talked at length with Dr. Spalding about

Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. Dr. Spalding, thanks for joining us.

Great to be with you, Scott. And thanks for hosting me today as I visit in Washington

at the Kirby Center, the Boyle Radio studio here, a magnificent layout. It was a pleasure

to be here in Washington and to talk. We've talked previously on the program about the Declaration

of Independence. I wanted to spend some time today speaking specifically about Thomas Jefferson and his contributions, large as they are, to the Declaration.

When we think of the Declaration of Independence, we know Congress had appointed a committee.

So how did the Declaration chiefly then become the work of one Thomas Jefferson?

That's actually a great question.

The history leading up to this moment, I think, if I can make just one step backwards, is very important.

If you recall what gives rise to the American Revolution, or all these

various things the British are doing after the end of the French Indian War, so that

decade preceding it, they're raising taxes. They start enforcing their laws. They eventually

are housing troops. So this has been building up. The colonies start agitating, and they eventually

call a Continental Congress. There are two Continental Congresses, the first in 1774, 75,

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