America Explained | What America’s Founders Got Right and Wrong

As America approaches its 250th anniversary, Rich Bennett and cohost Greg Derwart take a deeper look at what America’s Founding Fathers got right and wrong. This episode explores the real stories, leadership decisions, and human flaws behind Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.

From Franklin’s entrepreneurial mindset and inventions, to Washington’s quiet leadership and willingness to step down from power, to Jefferson’s role as philosopher, writer, and dealmaker, this conversation goes far beyond what most of us learned in school. Rich and Greg connect history to modern leadership, business, and civic responsibility, showing why these lessons still matter today.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and setting the stage
• 3:07 Why Ben Franklin still matters today
• 10:37 Franklin’s early life, printing, and entrepreneurship
• 15:07 Franklin’s inventions and scientific curiosity
• 18:37 The Junto and improving society
• 31:37 George Washington’s leadership style
• 36:49 Eco-Cool HVAC
• 39:07 Washington stepping down from power in Annapolis
• 55:17 Thomas Jefferson as writer and philosopher
• 1:01:37 The Louisiana Purchase and national expansion
• 1:06:37 Lessons for leaders and entrepreneurs today
• 1:12:37 Closing thoughts and future series ideas

Transcript

Wendy & Rich 0:01
Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios, Hartford County living presents conversations with Rich Bennett. 

Rich Bennett 0:29
Today we're going to discuss you not too long ago with 

Greg Derwart 0:31
me. 

Rich Bennett 0:32
Katie Romero, 

Greg Derwart 0:33
I 

Rich Bennett 0:33
right? 

Greg Derwart 0:34
think it was Katie. 

Rich Bennett 0:34
And my sister, 

Greg Derwart 0:35
right, because we were talking about nonprofits, 

Rich Bennett 0:37
right, 

Greg Derwart 0:38
brought up the Junto. 

Rich Bennett 0:39
Oh, no, 

Greg Derwart 0:40
no, no. 

Rich Bennett 0:41
No, it wasn't that one. It was 

Greg Derwart 0:42
the... Estermine? 

Rich Bennett 0:44
podcast we did about... Oh crap. Estermine? 

Greg Derwart 0:47
The 

Rich Bennett 0:47
Thank you, yeah, that was it. 

Greg Derwart 0:49
Yeah, that's it. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 0:49
Shhh. Me and my mind's not, oh it was 

Greg Derwart 0:52
other. 

Rich Bennett 0:52
one or the 

Greg Derwart 0:53
Probably 

Rich Bennett 0:54
did a lot. But great blue my mind, because he told me how he was like the history buff when he came 

Greg Derwart 1:00
out. 

Rich Bennett 1:01
So, of course my hamster inside my head started running on that wheel. It's like, well, 2026. 200 Americas, 250 years old. So, we needed to do episodes about the four fathers and history. See, but I didn't want to do round table. I wanted you and I because you... I know. Like, when I read your book, I learned a lot. Just talk it to you. I know I can learn a lot. So it's like, oh, okay. We got to do this. I wouldn't learn more. 

Greg Derwart 1:35
Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:35
So, it's like, we have to do... And I figured, what better way to celebrate the 250th 

Greg Derwart 1:42
birth? 

Rich Bennett 1:42
Actually, is it 

Greg Derwart 1:43
Anniversary. 

Rich Bennett 1:43
actually? Anniversary. 

Greg Derwart 1:45
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:45
Yeah, it's not really birthday. 

Greg Derwart 1:47
sometimes we call it America's birthday. 

Rich Bennett 1:49
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:49
Yeah. It's when 

Rich Bennett 1:49
I 

Greg Derwart 1:49
we were 

Rich Bennett 1:49
mean, 

Greg Derwart 1:50
born. 

Rich Bennett 1:51
Is it? Well, yeah. I guess you could say that because we weren't discovered. But yeah, you're right. It's when we found our independence. Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:58
Yeah. The 

Rich Bennett 1:58
So, 

Greg Derwart 1:58
Declaration of 

Rich Bennett 1:59
yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:59
Independence. 

Rich Bennett 1:59
It's hard to believe that the bicentennial was 50 years. 

Greg Derwart 2:04
Yeah, I know. 

Rich Bennett 2:06
It's 

Greg Derwart 2:06
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:06
like, it was yesterday. 

Greg Derwart 2:07
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:08
I mean, 

Greg Derwart 2:09
I was a kid. I was 

Rich Bennett 2:11
So 

Greg Derwart 2:11
five. 

Rich Bennett 2:12
was I. But it's 

Greg Derwart 2:13
five. 

Six. 

Rich Bennett 2:17
Who was I? Yeah. God, maybe I was a teenager because I graduate 81 or a sports graduate 81. So I was a teenager. But I remember like it was just. It just seems like it was yesterday. 

Greg Derwart 2:28
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:29
Yeah. It's weird. 

Greg Derwart 2:30
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:30
So, I think probably when it comes to four fathers we, I want to cover the one that I think everybody's most familiar with. I love him. I think he's your favorite and 

Greg Derwart 2:41
he 

Rich Bennett 2:41
that's 

Greg Derwart 2:41
is. 

Rich Bennett 2:41
Ben Franklin. 

Greg Derwart 2:42
He is. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 2:43
All Let's start there. Why is Ben Franklin your favorite? 

Greg Derwart 2:48
For many reasons. 

He did so many different things. And you could argue that each of the things that he's known for. Each of them, in of themselves, could have been enough to make him like a famous admired person. 

Rich Bennett 3:05
Right. 

Greg Derwart 3:06
He was an entrepreneur. He was a printer. The printing press in Philadelphia. 

Rich Bennett 3:17
I forgot all about 

Greg Derwart 3:19
that. And I learned in one of the books I read that he franchised. He had other print shops up and down the colonies. 

Rich Bennett 3:29
Really? 

Greg Derwart 3:29
And he got a piece of the action. And like so it was like the first American franchise. 

Rich Bennett 3:34
Wow. 

Greg Derwart 3:35
Yeah. So we'll get it. So printer inventor. 

Rich Bennett 3:44
Yeah. Well, a lot of people think 

Greg Derwart 3:45
politicians. You know, 

Rich Bennett 3:46
he a lot of people think he discovered electricity. But he didn't 

Greg Derwart 3:50
Well, 

Rich Bennett 3:50
right? 

Greg Derwart 3:51
that's one of the things he's known for. 

Rich Bennett 3:52
Right. 

Greg Derwart 3:53
And that's that's a we can get into like all the inventions that he did. 

Rich Bennett 3:58
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 3:58
You know, he he discovered a way to tap electricity. 

Rich Bennett 4:03
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 4:03
You know, 

Rich Bennett 4:04
like Frank, like Dr. Frankenstein did. 

Greg Derwart 4:06
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 4:06
Just 

Greg Derwart 4:07
like that. 

Rich Bennett 4:10
We're recording this in October. 

Greg Derwart 4:12
There you go. That's one of my favorite movies. 

Rich Bennett 4:15
The original Frankenstein, 

Greg Derwart 4:16
young Frankenstein. 

Rich Bennett 4:17
A young Frankenstein. 

Greg Derwart 4:20
I usually put that on during 

Rich Bennett 4:24
Home. Oh, I really didn't know. 

Greg Derwart 4:30
Anyway. 

Rich Bennett 4:31
That yeah, that's a 

Greg Derwart 4:32
What 

Rich Bennett 4:32
whole. all right. So we're going to start. We end up. We're going to start talking about Mel Brooks the whole time now. 

Greg Derwart 4:40
Wasn't your hump on what. 

Rich Bennett 4:42
I 

Greg Derwart 4:43
Do 

Rich Bennett 4:43
so real quick? Do you know who actually wrote 

Greg Derwart 4:45
that? I didn't Mel Brooks. 

Rich Bennett 4:47
No. Gene Wilder actually wrote it, and then Mel Brooks helped him 

Greg Derwart 4:52
it. 

Rich Bennett 4:52
with 

Greg Derwart 4:53
Gotcha, 

Rich Bennett 4:53
'Cause, yeah. It was the first one that Gene Wilder had written, 

Greg Derwart 4:57
okay. 

Rich Bennett 4:57
which, eh, 

Greg Derwart 4:59
Okay. Okay. That's 

Rich Bennett 4:59
that's 

Greg Derwart 4:59
cool. 

Rich Bennett 5:00
a whole other podcast 

Greg Derwart 5:01
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 5:01
I learned. 'Cause, Very, uhm, 

original, I guess. 

Greg Derwart 5:07
Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 5:09
Uh, 

Greg Derwart 5:09
He was a Larry's. 

Rich Bennett 5:11
uh, a lot of improv. 

Greg Derwart 5:13
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 5:13
A lot of improv. Anyways, okay, so back to Ben. 

Greg Derwart 5:16
So, yeah, just the fact that he did so many different things, and could be known for each of those things into themselves. Uh, and, but, you know, he was like, you know, the, like the first American I feel 

Rich Bennett 5:31
know? 

Greg Derwart 5:31
like, you 

Rich Bennett 5:31
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 5:32
Um, so, 

Rich Bennett 5:34
almost like America's, I mean, we say four fathers, but a lot of people would say George Washington is the father of America, but 

Greg Derwart 5:41
yeah, 

Rich Bennett 5:41
I don't know, you could argue that and say Ben Franklin. 

Greg Derwart 5:43
Yeah. Well, the other thing that is, I guess when you think about many of the founding fathers, we'll, we'll be talking about many of them wound up becoming president and been. 

Rich Bennett 5:55
Yeah. Ben Franklin 

Greg Derwart 5:56
was never president. 

Rich Bennett 6:00
I keep saying four fathers. That's wrong. 

Greg Derwart 6:02
Why, 

Rich Bennett 6:02
right? Is it wrong? No, family fathers for fathers. Yeah. That's right. Okay. 

Greg Derwart 6:06
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 6:06
Yeah. Yeah. Actually. Did he ever run, did Ben ever run for president? 

Greg Derwart 6:10
No. No. 

Rich Bennett 6:11
Why? 

Greg Derwart 6:11
'Cause he was too old by that point. He was older. Like when, um, when they invited him back to participate in the constitutional convention. 

Rich Bennett 6:25
And 

Greg Derwart 6:26
when was that 1787 when we drafted the Constitution? Yeah. Um, he was like maybe in his 80s. He was. 

Rich Bennett 6:37
Right. 

Greg Derwart 6:37
Towards the end of his life. And, um, people joke about, you know, there's, there's, you know, people said that no, like some, he would like fall asleep during the meetings and, but, but when he spoke, everybody paid attention. 

Rich Bennett 6:52
Right. 

Greg Derwart 6:52
You know, he just highly regarded and you know, 

Rich Bennett 6:55
but he was a politician though, right? Wasn't he? 

Greg Derwart 6:58
I'm trying to think if he ever held elected office. I don't 

Rich Bennett 7:00
But 

Greg Derwart 7:00
think. 

Rich Bennett 7:01
did he run for office? 

Greg Derwart 7:02
No. 

Rich Bennett 7:02
No. 

Greg Derwart 7:03
No. No. No. 

Rich Bennett 7:04
No. Interesting. 

Greg Derwart 7:05
I mean, think about it at the beginning there. They weren't running. I mean, they would put their names in. But there 

Rich Bennett 7:11
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 7:11
were no real 

Rich Bennett 7:12
Like, 

Greg Derwart 7:12
campaigns. 

Rich Bennett 7:13
that's, yeah. 

Greg Derwart 7:14
When we get to George Washington, we'll talk about how, you know, he was the unanimous decision. You know, he unanimously won that election. Cultural college votes. Um, and John Adams came in second place in, in the, in the voting. And that made him vice president. This was before, you know, a ticket, you 

Rich Bennett 7:39
Right. 

Greg Derwart 7:40
know, to guys, people running on a ticket. 

Rich Bennett 7:42
Interesting. 

Greg Derwart 7:43
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 7:44
Wow. So. So how did Ben get involved with the declaration of independence? 

Greg Derwart 7:50
Well, as, you know, when we talked about the Junto, um, he was becoming well known, 

Rich Bennett 7:57
right? 

Greg Derwart 7:57
The, in the community. And, um, I know that he had gone. He, he was asked to go to England to try to negotiate like some, some things for the colonies. He tried. He, he, he, he had some, you know, for, for many years still wanted to us to be a part of England. And, um, he was like lobbying on our behalf for, I think he was over there for maybe first years, you know, 

Rich Bennett 8:31
wow. 

Greg Derwart 8:32
And he finally got to the point where he realized they're not going to, you know, they're still going to keep taxing us without representation. And then, and he, he finally said, I think we're done here. And so he came back. And literally, when he got back to America, back to Philadelphia. 

Rich Bennett 8:51
Right. 

Greg Derwart 8:52
Pretty much walked into the, um, you know, the, the convention where they were drafting the declaration of independent. 

Rich Bennett 8:59
Oh, really? 

Greg Derwart 9:00
Yeah. Yeah. And he was, he was, um, even though, um, Thomas Jefferson was the main author of the declaration, it was a committee of like, I think five people. 

Rich Bennett 9:11
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 9:12
Ben was one of the ones on the committee. 

Rich Bennett 9:16
While he was away. 

Greg Derwart 9:17
No, no, 

Rich Bennett 9:17
back. 

Greg Derwart 9:17
no, when he came 

Rich Bennett 9:18
Oh, when he came back. Okay. 

Greg Derwart 9:19
And they started drafting it. I think in June. I mean, it took a while. Um, think about it took. Sometimes it took a, it took a long time for, especially like from New England and especially like the South to get everybody into Philadelphia. 

Rich Bennett 9:33
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 9:35
Uh, um, 

Rich Bennett 9:36
you didn't, you didn't have any track yet. 

Greg Derwart 9:37
Heh heh, 

Rich Bennett 9:38
Plains. 

Greg Derwart 9:39
no, no, no. So uhm, yeah, I know Thomas Jefferson was like the chair of the committee and the main, he was picked to be the main author, but I know Ben Franklin and John Adams and maybe one or two others. 

Rich Bennett 9:58
Ok. 

Greg Derwart 9:58
The committee they drafted the document. 

Rich Bennett 10:01
Interesting. Yeah. So, we, any idea what his childhood 

Greg Derwart 10:06
was like? Yeah, he, um, was born in Boston and originally, uh, his father thought he was, he was like the youngest of like maybe 13 kids. 

Rich Bennett 10:18
Good Lord. 

Greg Derwart 10:19
And they thought he was going to be a minister, but then, um, he started working for his older brother, his older brother was a printer. 

Rich Bennett 10:31
OK. 

Greg Derwart 10:31
OK. And he was working as an apprentice for his brother in, in Boston. And that's where you get, um, he, uh, was, uh, he wanted to, to write and, and, and his brother wouldn't let him put stuff in the paper. So he used a, uh, he created a, uh, a pen name. 

Rich Bennett 10:55
OK. 

Greg Derwart 10:56
So, um, a widowed woman named silence do good. OK. And silence do good would write letters, and put it under the door and the older brother said, wow, this is great. I'm putting this in the paper. And, 

Rich Bennett 11:16
oh, my, 

Greg Derwart 11:17
and then he eventually found out that it was young Ben writing this stuff and got upset and so 

Rich Bennett 11:24
that's funny, but it's 

Greg Derwart 11:24
yeah, 

Rich Bennett 11:25
brilliant at the same time. 

Greg Derwart 11:26
So eventually, he ran away. He, 

Rich Bennett 11:30
why? I 

Greg Derwart 11:31
think he was like 16. Because he, he wanted to do his own thing. And he, 

Rich Bennett 11:35
and yeah, 

Greg Derwart 11:35
his father was, no, you're going to be an apprentice to your brother. And so he ran away. I think he stopped in New York along the way, but then showed up in Philadelphia. So that's when he, you know, he had gotten experience as a printer. And he set up shop. And that's how he initially became known in town because he was the best printer in town. 

Rich Bennett 11:58
Wow. And they're, I guess he was printing the paper. 

Greg Derwart 12:03
Yeah. He was printed a newspaper 

Rich Bennett 12:04
and there probably weren't that many 

Greg Derwart 12:05
it. 

Rich Bennett 12:05
papers 

Greg Derwart 12:06
Well, 

Rich Bennett 12:06
around 

Greg Derwart 12:06
the other thing that he did was he created an almond-acc called poor Richards almond-acc. 

Rich Bennett 12:14
Oh, I forgot all about that. 

Greg Derwart 12:16
Okay. So everybody knew it was him, but, you know, he used that pseudonym. 

Rich Bennett 12:20
Yeah, 

Greg Derwart 12:21
Name and would put out. And that, you know, you think about the farmers, almond-acc. There were all dozens and dozens of 

Rich Bennett 12:28
right. 

Greg Derwart 12:28
almond-accs that were out at the time. And so he put out poor Richards almond-accs. So a lot of the quotes that we think about and we attribute to Ben Franklin originally were in the almond-accs. Like, "I'm 

Rich Bennett 12:43
a damn, 

Greg Derwart 12:43
you know, you know." So when you see a list of Ben Franklin quotes a lot of them were just, they happen to be, he put them in the almond-acc. 

Rich Bennett 12:54
I forgot, I completely forgot that he did that. I loved the 

Greg Derwart 13:00
fact that he, 

Rich Bennett 13:01
to get into the paper, used that a fake name, pen name or whatever. I mean, that... 

Greg Derwart 13:08
But especially a widowed 

Rich Bennett 13:11
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 13:11
white woman, you know, he was like 15, 16 years old 

Rich Bennett 13:14
Oh, 

Greg Derwart 13:14
and... 

Rich Bennett 13:14
that's all? 

Greg Derwart 13:15
Yeah. And he was writing this stuff, and people were reading it and were admiring his, you know, the woman's work in writing. 

Rich Bennett 13:24
And she did, did he write any books? 

Greg Derwart 13:26
He wrote his autobiography. 

Rich Bennett 13:30
Oh. 

Greg Derwart 13:31
And that, and it wasn't... It was like, I don't want to say the end towards the end of his life. He still hadn't... It was possibly before the Constitutional Convention, but it was... He was a great self-promoteer. 

Rich Bennett 13:51
When 

Greg Derwart 13:51
you hear stories about Ben Franklin, a lot of them were written by him in his autobiography. 

Rich Bennett 13:57
Huh. I... 

Greg Derwart 14:01
So that's another... You think you say "Why do I like Ben Franklin?" He just has this eclectic story. 

Rich Bennett 14:07
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 14:08
I 

Rich Bennett 14:09
mean, you think, I mean, at that young age, the stuff he was doing, and the mind, just a brilliant 

Greg Derwart 14:17
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 14:17
mind, 

Greg Derwart 14:18
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 14:19
I mean... 

Greg Derwart 14:19
So, he did the printing and made decent money and retired from printing at age 40. I think it was 40. And that's because he wanted to start doing inventions. 

Rich Bennett 14:35
Oh, my God, 

Greg Derwart 14:36
And then... 

Rich Bennett 14:37
okay. 

Greg Derwart 14:37
So now he becomes a scientist in an inventor. and 

Rich Bennett 14:41
One 

Greg Derwart 14:41
one 

Rich Bennett 14:41
of 

Greg Derwart 14:41
of 

Rich Bennett 14:42
the 

Greg Derwart 14:42
the questions. 

Rich Bennett 14:42
coolest 

Greg Derwart 14:44
things that I saw. 

Picture like a xylophone or 

you know a harmonica that has like the different notes that you he created a musical instrument called the glass harmonica. So think about when you rub 

Rich Bennett 15:11
oh yeah. 

Greg Derwart 15:12
Glass and you can make a little sound. 

Rich Bennett 15:14
Yep. 

Greg Derwart 15:14
Okay. He figured out again part of his science mind. The more water you put in the glass, it'll make a different tune. 

Rich Bennett 15:25
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 15:26
So if you set up 12 glasses, 

You can change the pitch you know based on water in the glass. The other thing 

Rich Bennett 15:37
I didn't realize that was him. 

Greg Derwart 15:38
is and the other thing is the size of the glass. So he took 12 bowls, different sized bowls. Turn them one there side and ran up put a rod through all of them. So they're lined up next to each other. And then it was like a spindle. 

Rich Bennett 16:01
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 16:01
You know, think of like a rotisserie. 

Rich Bennett 16:05
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 16:05
You know, it's it so any any connected it you know old sewing machines. There was a pedal at the 

Rich Bennett 16:13
right 

Greg Derwart 16:13
bottom that made it go. 

Rich Bennett 16:14
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 16:15
So he had the foot pedal turning the spindle. So and so he would he would take he would wet his fingers. And he would make songs 

Rich Bennett 16:29
get 

Greg Derwart 16:30
with 

Rich Bennett 16:30
at 

Greg Derwart 16:30
the different with the different tunes from the 12 or 15 or however, you know, and he created an instrument making sound with the different shaped bowls and just 

Rich Bennett 16:42
that's 

Greg Derwart 16:42
while 

Rich Bennett 16:42
pretty 

Greg Derwart 16:43
touching it with water. Yeah. I know this because my family always loved going to Williamsburg 

Rich Bennett 16:50
and right 

Greg Derwart 16:51
Like every few years we would go down and even though we had seen everything we would just we just 

Rich Bennett 16:56
still fun. 

Greg Derwart 16:56
loved it. And one of the things they they had a present they had like a live presentation of this guy playing a glass harmonica. 

Rich Bennett 17:05
I never even heard of that. That's pretty 

Greg Derwart 17:07
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:07
wild though. 

Greg Derwart 17:08
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:09
I first of when you started talking about the bowls, I thought you're going to tell me he invented them. What's it called? The music box. 

Greg Derwart 17:16
Oh, Oh, 

Rich Bennett 17:16
know, 

Greg Derwart 17:17
you 

Rich Bennett 17:17
it's like what? What? No way. Then again, he may have. Who knows. I 

Greg Derwart 17:21
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:21
could have came from. 

Greg Derwart 17:22
Yeah. I don't know. 

Rich Bennett 17:23
Well, no, they may have been way before them. 

Greg Derwart 17:26
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:26
What else did he invent? 

Greg Derwart 17:27
Oh, gosh. 

Rich Bennett 17:29
The people would know 

Greg Derwart 17:31
the Bifocal's. He invented Bifocal Glasses. 

Rich Bennett 17:35
About that. 

Greg Derwart 17:35
Yeah. Mm-hmm. 

Rich Bennett 17:37
I forgot all about that. Wow. 

Greg Derwart 17:39
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 17:40
And look at it right. 

Greg Derwart 17:41
So 

Rich Bennett 17:42
today still. 

Greg Derwart 17:42
Yeah. Yeah. And then so at this at this point, he this is when he's starting to, you know, have the Junto and wanting to be philanthropic and coming up with ideas for the betterment of society. 

Rich Bennett 17:56
Right? 

Greg Derwart 17:57
You know, they they started the first public lending library. You know, they started the volunteer fire company. 

Rich Bennett 18:04
Mm-hmm. 

Greg Derwart 18:05
So all kinds of stuff like that. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 18:09
he started all that. Or 

Greg Derwart 18:10
Again, he's 

Rich Bennett 18:10
is in part 

Greg Derwart 18:12
of the part of it. He was part of it. 

Rich Bennett 18:16
Yeah. Damn. I didn't realize. Well, yeah, I guess what makes sense that the firefighters would be volunteer back then. 

Greg Derwart 18:22
Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 18:23
That's pretty interesting. 

Greg Derwart 18:24
Yeah. So 

Rich Bennett 18:26
Now. So during the war, did he 

Greg Derwart 18:29
take 

Rich Bennett 18:29
take part 

Greg Derwart 18:29
part 

Rich Bennett 18:29
in 

Greg Derwart 18:29
in that. 

Rich Bennett 18:30
that at all? 

Greg Derwart 18:31
Well, he didn't fight. He was, he was, he was older. But when the when the fighting started, like, I think he was over in England already at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775. Okay. So I think he was still over there. Still lobbying for. 

Rich Bennett 18:53
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 18:54
To to several things down. 

Rich Bennett 18:56
Wow. 

Greg Derwart 18:58
But then like I said, he came back and just dove right into figuring out how we wanted to build-- the biggest thing with the founding fathers, you know, and you know, the colonies were still, they still viewed each other as separate entities. 

Rich Bennett 19:18
Right. There 

Greg Derwart 19:19
was no national-- 

Rich Bennett 19:23
no United States. 

Greg Derwart 19:24
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The only thing Georgia cared about was Georgia. The only thing Maryland cared about was Maryland. The 

Rich Bennett 19:31
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 19:31
only thing that-- New York cared about was New York. And so a lot of, you know, the discussions that happened were about building consensus. And we got a, here's a Ben Franklin quote that probably happened when they were signing the Declaration of Independence. He said, "We must all hang together, otherwise we'll all hang separately." 

So, 

Rich Bennett 20:00
people need, people need, to remain 

Greg Derwart 20:02
a name in Brethren. 

Rich Bennett 20:03
Yeah. Holy cow. Yeah. That wow. So what's, I guess, 

Greg Derwart 20:10
misconceptions 

Rich Bennett 20:11
that people haven't... 

Greg Derwart 20:13
We 

Rich Bennett 20:15
can keep saying Ben like we know. 

Greg Derwart 20:17
Yeah. Benny? 

Rich Bennett 20:17
Yeah, Benny. 

Greg Derwart 20:21
Maybe the fact that a misconception that he was an angel, he was no angel. 

Rich Bennett 20:32
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 20:32
He was a, He flirted. He 

Rich Bennett 20:37
he was a lady. 

Greg Derwart 20:38
was married and, you know, Donna Reed, I think her name was. 

Rich Bennett 20:44
The actress? 

Greg Derwart 20:46
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 20:48
Let's get a taste. She definitely wasn't born yet. 

Greg Derwart 20:50
All right, I'm messing up my names. I think her maiden name was Reed. 

Rich Bennett 20:54
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 20:54
And what he, and part of one of the things that he tell, the story he tells in his autobiography is that when got off the boat, you know, at 16 years old and basically had had enough money to buy a loaf of bread and stuck it under his arm and was walking around, he claims that the young lady who would become his wife saw him walking down the street and like, just look, he looked like dirty and disheveled. 

Rich Bennett 21:27
he 

Greg Derwart 21:27
He's been like, "Are 

Rich Bennett 21:29
you going all 

Greg Derwart 21:30
running 

Rich Bennett 21:30
the 

Greg Derwart 21:31
away from 

Rich Bennett 21:31
way, 

Greg Derwart 21:31
home, you know?" So that's one of the stories that he tells in his autobiography that, you know, then they met years later. I think they called it a common law I'm 

Rich Bennett 21:43
marriage. 

Greg Derwart 21:43
a law marriage. They didn't have a ceremony, but I guess they had lived. They just lived together long enough that it was called. 

Rich Bennett 21:49
So I were hitched. 

Greg Derwart 21:50
Yeah. So but yeah, when later on, so I talk about how he went to England to try to lobby on our behalf. Then during the war, 

I guess the Connettal 

Congress, Continental Congress, sent him to France to lobby for France's support, and that eventually happened obviously. 

Rich Bennett 22:23
Right. 

Greg Derwart 22:24
They came and probably we wouldn't have won the war 

Rich Bennett 22:27
France's 

Greg Derwart 22:27
without help. He befriended a married woman over there and they were seen together a lot. 

Rich Bennett 22:39
So that may have kids everywhere. 

Greg Derwart 22:42
Maybe. 

Rich Bennett 22:42
Then again, a lot of them back then may have had kids everywhere. 

Greg Derwart 22:47
So yeah, he was definitely viewed, he was beloved in France. 

Rich Bennett 22:56
Right. 

Greg Derwart 22:57
And talk about a showman. I don't know if this is in the book or not, but 

part of his pitch to France was helping the 

rustic people of America. You know, he wore a coon. What is it? Raccoon. Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 23:27
like Daniel 

Greg Derwart 23:27
He 

Rich Bennett 23:27
Boon. 

Greg Derwart 23:28
would wear that in France just to build up this brand of the rustic Americans. You never wore one in his life over here. 

Rich Bennett 23:39
He probably didn't like the beret. Yeah, I think it's 

Greg Derwart 23:43
a 

Rich Bennett 23:45
All right. You keep mentioning. You've mentioned a couple of times Junto. 

Greg Derwart 23:50
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 23:50
So those are listening to that. Don't know. Explain what Junto is. 

Greg Derwart 23:54
Junto. So this came up when we were talking about the masterminds. 

Rich Bennett 23:56
Right. 

Greg Derwart 23:57
So he created this group in Philadelphia and I don't know if it was I think every Friday, five or six guys would get you know, businessmen from different industries would get together and just brainstorm ideas on how to improve society. And they, so that's when they would Sure. You know, they, they did the library, did the firehouse, uhm, I think they created, uh, there's a, there's an organize a non, a national nonprofit organization called the National, 

his postmaster general for the colonies. I 

Rich Bennett 24:57
forgot about that too. 

Greg Derwart 24:58
Yeah and and he leveraged his printing business along with that. So he was like talk about an entrepreneur juggling, you know, 

Rich Bennett 25:10
all right. So somebody what 

Greg Derwart 25:15
people 

Rich Bennett 25:16
today learn from Ben Franklin, that would help either help improve 

Greg Derwart 25:23
their business or life 

Rich Bennett 25:24
in general. 

Greg Derwart 25:25
Well, I would say he is a role model for never stopping. 

Rich Bennett 25:35
Even today he is. 

Greg Derwart 25:36
Yeah. So just because you retire at 40 from your printing business doesn't mean you're just going to kick your legs up and relax. 

Rich Bennett 25:44
Right. 

Greg Derwart 25:44
And because you stop 

inventing science, you know, machines doesn't mean you can't, you know, get into public life and help in other ways. He was literally working and changing lives and helping to create a country until the day he died. So I think he was 90, I mean which was crazy old 

Rich Bennett 26:17
for back then. Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 26:18
I mean it's old now too, but it's like, know what I'm saying? Don't roll your eyes at me. 

Rich Bennett 26:24
you 

Was it I just heard on the the other day? So the oldest man, I think just passed away recently, he was 116. 

Greg Derwart 26:34
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 26:34
So now I think the oldest man in I think in the world just celebrated his 113. 

Greg Derwart 26:40
Hmm. 

Rich Bennett 26:41
First day. 

Greg Derwart 26:42
Wow. 

Rich Bennett 26:42
I mean, I have a goal. You and I are going to be sitting here doing this still when I turn a 

Greg Derwart 26:46
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 26:46
hundred. Yeah. So you may not understand what the hell 

Greg Derwart 26:49
doing. 

Rich Bennett 26:49
I'm But we're still going to be doing 

Greg Derwart 26:51
it. Yeah. So yeah. He's a role model for never stopping. 

Rich Bennett 26:55
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 26:56
You can always be doing something more, something else to improve the lives of people around you. 

Rich Bennett 27:04
That's a short we have to get me 

Greg Derwart 27:06
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 27:06
never stop and just have been frankness face on. 

Greg Derwart 27:08
Yeah. Sure. 

Rich Bennett 27:09
We're still wet. I don't, well I guess you could put this face on there. I don't think it's copyrighted. 

Greg Derwart 27:13
You would know at this. 

Rich Bennett 27:17
Before we get into George, is there anything you 

Greg Derwart 27:21
about. 

Rich Bennett 27:21
want to add 

Greg Derwart 27:22
Let me think. Now I think a lot of 

Rich Bennett 27:26
looks like 

Greg Derwart 27:26
mine. Now he's he's he's my favorite. So, 

Rich Bennett 27:32
hmm. 

I want. 

Greg Derwart 27:35
One of the things. 

Rich Bennett 27:36
Those of you listening, it may not be a bad idea for you. Look up some of the old movies or find the books and read about, you know, Ben Franklin, George War, all the all the founding fathers, 

Greg Derwart 27:47
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:48
Because you'd be amazed. 

Greg Derwart 27:49
Yeah. You know, and we don't have John Adams on our list yet. I'm sure we will get. 

Rich Bennett 27:53
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 27:56
But the the HBO mini series on John Adams that was is based on the McCullough book. 

Rich Bennett 28:04
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 28:05
Is a great series that touches on all the founding. Well, a lot of the founding fathers. 

Rich Bennett 28:13
What was the one movie they did? It was more of a musical. I think it was 1776. 

Greg Derwart 28:18
Oh, okay. 

Rich Bennett 28:19
But I think it was more of a music when it just, 

Greg Derwart 28:22
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 28:22
It's like, no. Because the whole time I'll try to watch is like, I don't think they were really singing back then. 

Greg Derwart 28:29
What they sang in pubs. 

Rich Bennett 28:31
Well, I say those of you listening just to let you 

Greg Derwart 28:35
know. 

Rich Bennett 28:36
So Greg and I are sitting here. We have our bourbon. You know, we're just sipping on bourbon because And great, correct me if I were wrong. Our forefathers, you should just sit around drinking ale 

Greg Derwart 28:49
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 28:49
mainly. 

Greg Derwart 28:50
Rum, ale, mead. 

Rich Bennett 28:52
Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, 

Greg Derwart 28:54
we're 

Rich Bennett 28:54
holding enough. We can do 

Greg Derwart 28:56
it. 

Rich Bennett 28:56
I'm holding off we can 

say you have to. 

Greg Derwart 29:01
Yeah. I'm amazed at how much they got done. Well, because they 

Rich Bennett 29:08
were all there. 

Greg Derwart 29:09
I know 

Rich Bennett 29:09
I don't want 

Greg Derwart 29:10
we're I 

Rich Bennett 29:10
your 

Greg Derwart 29:10
know 

Rich Bennett 29:10
drunk. 

Greg Derwart 29:11
I know that we're transitioning to George Washington. But one other thing that I'll about Ben Franklin is when he was starting his printing business. 

I can't remember if he was trying to buy equipment from somebody, or uhm, but he went to England to, I think, to buy equipment, but somebody screwed him over, and so he actually worked as a printer in London for 

Rich Bennett 29:41
while. 

Greg Derwart 29:41
a 

Rich Bennett 29:42
Wow! 

Greg Derwart 29:43
And he uhm, and all of his coworkers drank day, and, and he figured out that, and, and to be fair, the water was not drinkable. Back. 

Rich Bennett 30:01
oh, 

Greg Derwart 30:02
It just had disease and, especially in London. I mean, just imagine like that the city of 

Rich Bennett 30:06
London and... Right. 

Greg Derwart 30:07
That's the filth on the disease. But what have Ben Franklin do? He boiled water and drank clean water, while everybody else was drinking beer, and he was the most productive guy 

Rich Bennett 30:22
you damn 

Greg Derwart 30:22
in the print shop. Run in circles around everybody else. 

Rich Bennett 30:31
Wow! 

That's his mind blowing right 

Greg Derwart 30:37
Yeah. The fact that he 

Rich Bennett 30:38
there. Fog 

Greg Derwart 30:38
figured out, 

Rich Bennett 30:39
about. 

Greg Derwart 30:39
figured 

Rich Bennett 30:39
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 30:39
it out, and did it. 

Rich Bennett 30:41
Yeah. And people probably looking at him like, "What the hell is 

Greg Derwart 30:43
he doing? Yeah, what? How--?" 

Rich Bennett 30:43
Cooking up over there and then. 

Greg Derwart 30:45
Moving so fast! See 

Rich Bennett 30:49
making us more amp? Yeah, so you can work-- Run circles around you guys. 

Greg Derwart 30:53
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 30:54
The man. The father of our country. George. 

Greg Derwart 31:01
George. 

Rich Bennett 31:03
George. George. The-- I mean, God, I don't even know where to start with him in. A lot of people-- I think a lot of 

Greg Derwart 31:10
people here 

Rich Bennett 31:10
The 

Greg Derwart 31:10
just, 

Rich Bennett 31:10
story is bad. George Washington. Because he was the first president. You know, the cherry 

Greg Derwart 31:16
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 31:17
tree. His-- his-- he followed his brother, right? 

Greg Derwart 31:22
I think 

Rich Bennett 31:23
so. And it-- because his brother did win into the military first? I can't remember either. I 

Greg Derwart 31:31
but-- I 

Rich Bennett 31:32
mean, 

Greg Derwart 31:32
mean, he 

Rich Bennett 31:32
stuff. 

Greg Derwart 31:32
didn't make 

Rich Bennett 31:33
He stuffed with somebody else. 

Greg Derwart 31:34
Yeah. But George is interesting 

because was six feet tall. And 

Rich Bennett 31:45
he 

Greg Derwart 31:45
we talk about how-- 

Rich Bennett 31:46
that was tall back then, he 

Greg Derwart 31:47
was old back then. Six feet tall 

Rich Bennett 31:50
was tall. Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 31:52
And 

he gained a lot of stature, you know, just by being tall. 

Rich Bennett 32:02
Mm-hmm. 

Greg Derwart 32:03
You know. So, you know, he came to the 

continental convention when drafted the-- the declaration. And he didn't say much. But he-- he had served as a soldier for the-- 

Um-- British. 

Rich Bennett 32:26
Right. Right. 

Greg Derwart 32:27
You know, when-- you know, was it the-- um-- 

Spanish Indian War? What was the war? Was it the Spanish Indian War? When it was-- we were-- we were colonists and serving-- 

Rich Bennett 32:44
I think it was-- 

Greg Derwart 32:45
for the British in, you know, wars in the 1750s. 

Rich Bennett 32:50
Yeah. He 

Greg Derwart 32:51
was Spanish in Indian War. And so he had-- so he showed up at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia wearing his old uniform. 

Rich Bennett 33:02
The reds. 

Greg Derwart 33:04
it 

Rich Bennett 33:04
Was it-- 

Greg Derwart 33:05
may not have been red. It may-- because they-- that wasn't always-- that-- sometimes they 

Rich Bennett 33:09
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 33:09
were blue, you know. 

Rich Bennett 33:10
Right. 

Greg Derwart 33:11
But he-- he up wearing his uniform, and he-- he didn't say hardly anything, but that was his way of lobbying to be the general of our army. 

Rich Bennett 33:24
Oh. 

Greg Derwart 33:25
Because they-- they hadn't-- we hadn't started the army yet. So this was probably 1775 when the first time they met. They-- 

Rich Bennett 33:35
Right. They just 

Greg Derwart 33:35
decided to, you know, build an army and they needed general. And so six foot in in the uniform, Washington gets picked. 

Rich Bennett 33:48
Wow. Wow. 

Greg Derwart 33:51
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 33:51
Yeah. Yeah. Now, and he was-- Right. So his childhood besides the Cherry Tree, where was he? 

Greg Derwart 33:58
Virginia. 

Rich Bennett 33:58
Virginia. 

Greg Derwart 33:59
And his career, what-- he would, you know, like many of our founding fathers came from wealth. 

Rich Bennett 34:06
Right. 

Greg Derwart 34:06
And so, you know, a lot of men who were, know, Virginians that were sent to Williamsburg, you know, for the, you know, Virginia house of, 

Rich Bennett 34:19
you 

Greg Derwart 34:19
you know, delegates or whatever they call them, they were selected because you owned land. 

Rich Bennett 34:28
Oh. 

Greg Derwart 34:29
Right. 

Rich Bennett 34:31
Oh, 

Greg Derwart 34:32
It's 

Rich Bennett 34:32
yeah. 

Greg Derwart 34:32
not unlike the British house of Lords. 

Rich Bennett 34:36
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 34:36
You know, you were appointed because you owned that county or 

Rich Bennett 34:40
Right. We 

Greg Derwart 34:41
whatever. 

Rich Bennett 34:42
adopted a lot of that stuff. 

Greg Derwart 34:43
Yeah, for up until a certain point. 

Rich Bennett 34:45
Yeah, right. Not now. 

Greg Derwart 34:46
Yeah. But where are we going with this 

Rich Bennett 34:54
growing growing up? 

Greg Derwart 34:55
Oh, yeah, he was a surveyor. 

Rich Bennett 34:57
He was a survey. That's what 

Greg Derwart 34:58
he was a surveyor. 

Rich Bennett 34:59
Yes. 

Greg Derwart 35:00
So later on fast forward to, um, we're a country. Our nation's capital started in New York. It was a Philadelphia for a while. But then when we decided to take part of Maryland, and part of Virginia, and create the District of Columbia, he surveyed it, even at that older, older stage of his life. He's the one that mapped out and 

Rich Bennett 35:31
I 

Greg Derwart 35:31
surveyed. 

Rich Bennett 35:31
was going to say, because he was responsible for doing a 

Greg Derwart 35:33
of 

Rich Bennett 35:33
lot 

Greg Derwart 35:33
he. Yeah, he mapped it out. 

Rich Bennett 35:36
Wow. Yeah, that's right, because it was the movie I saw about that. Because he was just traveling 

Greg Derwart 35:44
everywhere, 

Rich Bennett 35:44
doing all these surveys, and I think it was his older brother was serving in the military. 

Greg Derwart 35:49
Oh, okay. 

Rich Bennett 35:50
And George always wanted to. 

Greg Derwart 35:53
Gotcha. 

Rich Bennett 35:54
Yeah. If I'm not mistaken, 

Greg Derwart 35:55
Gotcha. 

Rich Bennett 35:56
God, I cannot remember. It may have been one of those movies on or documentaries either on history or Fox. 

Greg Derwart 36:03
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 36:05
yeah, 

Greg Derwart 36:05
history channel for years had all kinds of stuff. 

Rich Bennett 36:09
Yeah, I have to get back and start watching that. 

Greg Derwart 36:11
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 36:12
You're listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

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Greg Derwart 37:34
to name? Who knows if that's even a true 

Rich Bennett 37:37
story. Probably not. 

Greg Derwart 37:38
But it was it was a it became American folklore and and and it just centered in it was telling the story about how he was honest. I cannot tell a lie it was me that chopped down that cherry tree you know so it it became a part of the the American story we know 

Rich Bennett 38:01
Yeah, 

Greg Derwart 38:01
we painted this picture of our found you know the father of our country. It is true or not who cares you know it's it's it's it's a nice. 

Rich Bennett 38:10
I think somebody else 

Greg Derwart 38:11
image symbolism you know. So. 

Rich Bennett 38:15
Wow. 

Greg Derwart 38:15
But the thing that I admire the most about George Washington was and and and and and it first happened in anapolis okay so battle it we win the war 

Rich Bennett 38:33
right. 

Greg Derwart 38:36
I told you how are the so the the the the the delegates yeah the you know would meet in different cities so for about 11 months let's say we want we won in 1781 but there was still like a couple years you know so I think it was December 23rd 1783 or was the that year anyway. They were convened in anapolis Maryland in in our state house and that's where he came to voluntarily step down from his position as general 

Rich Bennett 39:24
R. 

Greg Derwart 39:25
of the 

Rich Bennett 39:25
O. 

Greg Derwart 39:26
Okay and up until this point in world history if you are a conquering war general 

Rich Bennett 39:33
right 

Greg Derwart 39:35
you appointed yourself king you you you for the most part 

Rich Bennett 39:40
yeah 

Greg Derwart 39:41
so this was his this was the first time he voluntarily step down from a position of power 

Rich Bennett 39:50
Wow. 

Greg Derwart 39:51
And so think about the significance of that, 

and-and everybody in the room understood the significance of this. Some men were crying, root, Just thinking about how, how significant this act 

Rich Bennett 40:06
yeah. 

Greg Derwart 40:07
of giving the power back to the people. The general isn't gonna maintain the I'm stepping down and given the power back to the representatives. Because we're 

Rich Bennett 40:20
strong, 

Greg Derwart 40:21
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 40:22
Damn. 

Greg Derwart 40:23
And so when we talked about how he voluntarily didn't run for president after two terms, that wasn't the first time he stepped down. 

Rich Bennett 40:36
Oh. 

Greg Derwart 40:36
He-he did it 10 years beforehand in anapolis. 

Rich Bennett 40:42
Okay, wait a minute, so he served 

Greg Derwart 40:44
for two terms. 

Rich Bennett 40:45
So after the first term, he stepped down, but it was... 

Greg Derwart 40:48
He 

Rich Bennett 40:49
picked again. 

Greg Derwart 40:50
He chose... he allowed himself to be on the ballot. 

Rich Bennett 40:53
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 40:53
The second time. 

But after that, he chose not to be on the ballot. 

Rich Bennett 41:00
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 41:01
And that's when John Adams won. 

Rich Bennett 41:06
Who was his vice president? Uh-huh. Okay. 

Greg Derwart 41:09
But he still... he still had to run for election. 

Rich Bennett 41:11
Right. 

Greg Derwart 41:11
Yeah. But George wasn't on the ballot. Interesting. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 41:18
Well, 

Greg Derwart 41:18
So... 

Rich Bennett 41:18
no. Cause there were other... that's not when the two term things started though, 

Greg Derwart 41:22
No. 

Rich Bennett 41:22
right? 

Greg Derwart 41:22
The two term limit didn't happen until FDR won his fourth. Think about it. He was... need 

Rich Bennett 41:35
Jesus, I 

Greg Derwart 41:35
to... FDR, first won in 32. So 32, 36, 40, and 44. He won four times. Now, when he won in 44, then he died in 45, and Harry Truman, vice president, came up. So, he only served for 13 years? 13 years. 

Rich Bennett 42:02
Jesus. 

Greg Derwart 42:03
Right. So after that, that's when they added into... I don't know which amendment it was, uh... 

Rich Bennett 42:11
...but the two 

Greg Derwart 42:12
limit. 

Rich Bennett 42:12
term 

Greg Derwart 42:12
Two term limit. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 42:13
They just forgot 

Greg Derwart 42:14
...but... 

Rich Bennett 42:14
to add... 

Greg Derwart 42:15
But... But... But think about it. This is the other thing about George Washington. 

Being the first president of our country, he set all the precedents. So the fact that he voluntarily stepped down after two terms... 

Rich Bennett 42:36
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 42:37
...no other president ran for a third term. 

Rich Bennett 42:43
Interesting. 

Greg Derwart 42:44
Even though it wasn't a requirement. 

Rich Bennett 42:46
Just... Think it was out of respect? 

Greg Derwart 42:50
I guess, or just, uh... ...president. 

Rich Bennett 42:53
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 42:55
I mean, obviously, a lot of them only served for one term, and then lost in their re-election. 

Rich Bennett 43:02
Right. 

Greg Derwart 43:03
But up until FDR, no one had served more than two terms. 

Rich Bennett 43:08
So when he 

Greg Derwart 43:08
down... 

Rich Bennett 43:09
stepped It's time. Actually... 

Greg Derwart 43:11
How old was 

Rich Bennett 43:12
he at... What do you do afterwards? 

Greg Derwart 43:13
He went back to his farm at Mount 

Rich Bennett 43:16
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 43:16
Vernon... ...and lived for a couple more years and died. 

Rich Bennett 43:20
How old was he when he died? 

Greg Derwart 43:21
Um... I'm not sure. 

Rich Bennett 43:23
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 43:24
But probably 80s. Maybe early 80s. 

Rich Bennett 43:29
So did he actually work the farm? 

Greg Derwart 43:32
He owned. Or 

Rich Bennett 43:32
he owned 

Greg Derwart 43:33
back 

Rich Bennett 43:34
the f---er 

Greg Derwart 43:35
then. The slaves worked for the farm. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 43:38
That's right. I forgot 

Greg Derwart 43:39
that. 

Rich Bennett 43:39
about Geez. Okay. But now, when he came to the 

Greg Derwart 43:43
...independence. 

Rich Bennett 43:43
tech... ...independence... But he was 

Greg Derwart 43:47
...he 

Rich Bennett 43:47
already... 

Greg Derwart 43:47
was already serving his general. So when 

the declaration of independence was signed... ...we were already fighting. So he may have been up in New York or somewhere fighting. Or Boston. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:08
Huh. 

Greg Derwart 44:11
That was the first time we ever had to deal with... ...someone lobbying for more money for the... ...for the military. 

Rich Bennett 44:22
Really? 

Greg Derwart 44:22
Yeah, because the... ...the delegation didn't have much money... ...and George Washington, General Washington... ...was always lobbying them for more money. My soldiers don't have shoes. 

Rich Bennett 44:37
Right. 

Greg Derwart 44:38
Help me out here, guys. 

Rich Bennett 44:41
still fighting to get more money at times. 

Greg Derwart 44:43
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:44
What do you think about it? You grow up to the Civil War. 

Greg Derwart 44:47
We're 

Rich Bennett 44:47
I mean... 

Greg Derwart 44:48
Yeah. You 

Rich Bennett 44:49
had people using their own 

Greg Derwart 44:52
weapons. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 44:56
I mean... Then again, sometimes some of their own weapons... ...maybe a better what you get from 

Greg Derwart 45:00
military. 

Rich Bennett 45:00
the I'm just saying. 

Jesus, I, so with George, it's anything with Ben, what could today, what could be urn? From George Washington, whether it be for business or life in general, 

Greg Derwart 45:18
yeah? 

Think about all these, Talk about, like, high-powered type A, you know, up until this point is all about, you listen to me. Right, 

Rich Bennett 45:47
right? 

Greg Derwart 45:47
you know, 

Rich Bennett 45:49
actually a strong alpha-mails. 

Greg Derwart 45:50
it's Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 45:51
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 45:51
So, the fact that he was able to convene these alpha-mails and start to create a government. Like, he, he, 

Rich Bennett 46:04
and technically a country. 

Greg Derwart 46:06
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 46:06
United States. 

Greg Derwart 46:07
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So, just from the standpoint of 

leadership without yelling, you think about our political environment right now. So, all about whoever's the loudest, you don't have to be loud and mean to get stuff done. 

Rich Bennett 46:29
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 46:30
And to get build, he built consensus and, you know, say the same, same thing happened when, he, he presided over the constitutional convention in 1787 when Ben Franklin was falling asleep. He was the, he was the, he was the president of, I think they call it the president. Yeah. He was the president of the Continental Congress. 

Rich Bennett 47:00
Right. 

Greg Derwart 47:00
Yeah. So, think about how he, again, another group of type A, you know, powerful men. 

Rich Bennett 47:09
Uh-huh. 

Greg Derwart 47:10
And the fact that he was able to build consensus and get to a decision, you know, he had to do the same thing, create a government. 

Rich Bennett 47:20
Damn. 

Is he part of that Junto? 

Greg Derwart 47:24
No. 

Rich Bennett 47:25
He 

Greg Derwart 47:25
No. 

Rich Bennett 47:25
should have been. Yeah. He 

Greg Derwart 47:27
He should have been. should have been. Yeah. But I talked, I've talked about how I enjoyed growing up and even taking my girls to Williamsburg. 

Rich Bennett 47:37
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 47:37
And so, you think about the guys that came out of Virginia. 

Rich Bennett 47:42
Mm-hmm. 

Greg Derwart 47:42
George Thomas Jefferson. 

Who said give me liberty or give me death? 

Rich Bennett 47:49
Oh, Patrick, not Neil Patrick here. 

Greg Derwart 47:54
Patrick 

Rich Bennett 47:54
Henry. Patrick Henry. Okay. 

Greg Derwart 48:00
dude. 

Rich Bennett 48:00
Sorry, 

Greg Derwart 48:00
But that was always cool for me. Go into Williamsburg and just thinking about how, you know, a third of the Founding Fathers that I admire. 

Rich Bennett 48:11
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 48:12
I'm not going to be able to go out and sit and sit in this, you know, Raleigh tavern, you know, drinking meat and coming up with, 

Rich Bennett 48:20
you know, that's something I don't think people appreciate, you know, when you go somewhere, even if it's not just Williamsburg, just even rann or county. Just take a moment and stand and look around and think who was there back in the day. 

Greg Derwart 48:39
Yeah. Well, we just, as a Hartford County, we just celebrated the anniversary of the Bush Declaration, 

Rich Bennett 48:43
Yes. Right? 

Greg Derwart 48:44
right? before 

Rich Bennett 48:44
Which is 

Greg Derwart 48:45
which 

Rich Bennett 48:46
original, 

Greg Derwart 48:46
exactly. Yeah. 

So, yeah, go to Williamsburg and we were talking when I was talking about how George, Step down as Commander-in-Chief of the Army. 

Rich Bennett 48:59
mm-hmm. 

Greg Derwart 48:59
He did that in the Maryland State House in anapolis and they, it's the old Senate chambers and they have an exhibit. And so you can walk into the room where he actually resigned. Kids on field trips do it every day. 

Rich Bennett 49:20
But how many of them actually just let it sink in and think about that? 

Greg Derwart 49:25
Not many. 

Rich Bennett 49:25
No. I mean, actually, I mean, to think that you were your 

Greg Derwart 49:29
stand, you 

Rich Bennett 49:30
could have been standing right. 

Greg Derwart 49:31
We're 

Rich Bennett 49:32
standing. Yeah. And I think if you just took the time to think about who knows you may feel something. 

Greg Derwart 49:39
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 49:39
It's hard to say. 

Greg Derwart 49:40
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 49:40
Yeah. He got around too, didn't he? 

Greg Derwart 49:43
Not as much as bad. 

Rich Bennett 49:45
Well, you think about it. It seems like George slept everywhere. 

Greg Derwart 49:48
Oh, but again, isn't that a cool part of American? Oh, you know, you know, we 

Rich Bennett 49:58
George Washington slept here, Ben didn't. Ben was a one-night stand-oh. 

Greg Derwart 50:04
But yeah, I think I think we need to get back to like more of that. 

Granted. Nobody's perfect. 

Rich Bennett 50:13
Now 

Greg Derwart 50:14
They 

Rich Bennett 50:14
they 

Greg Derwart 50:15
were. 

Rich Bennett 50:15
weren't. 

Greg Derwart 50:15
They were slave owners and they did a lot of things wrong. But I'd say I always say when you think about the representative republic that are founding fathers created. I think it's the best form of government ever created in world history. The biggest problem is that it has to be run by humans. 

Imperfect humans and we're all imperfect and well, you may be close. 

Rich Bennett 50:49
Maybe Ben had a vision that one day would be run by AI. 

Greg Derwart 50:55
I bet he invented it. We're just catching 

Rich Bennett 50:58
Wow. 

Greg Derwart 50:58
up to it now. 

Rich Bennett 50:59
I so with with George. It's still one of one of my favorites as well. I think you can learn a lot from him. But you know, Ben wrote his autobiography. 

Greg Derwart 51:14
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:14
Did George? 

Greg Derwart 51:15
I don't think so. 

Rich Bennett 51:16
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 51:17
Yeah. I don't think so. I mean, there's probably he's probably has hundreds of biographies 

Rich Bennett 51:24
about 

Greg Derwart 51:25
him. 

Rich Bennett 51:25
They're probably still writing them. 

Greg Derwart 51:26
Yeah. Yeah. Well, heck, think about what's the author's name that I did that did the John Adams thing. Is it McCulloch? Is that David 

Rich Bennett 51:34
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 51:34
McCulloch? 

Rich Bennett 51:34
I think you said McCulloch. 

Greg Derwart 51:35
Yeah, one, another one of his books is 1776, which is literally about the year 1776. Most of it is about the War that's where I learned about, you know, how George was lobbying for money. To the 

Rich Bennett 51:53
and 

Greg Derwart 51:53
Continental Congress. So, yeah, I would recommend those books, you know, 

Rich Bennett 52:00
I 

Greg Derwart 52:00
he's 

Rich Bennett 52:00
wonder 

Greg Derwart 52:00
a 

Rich Bennett 52:00
if you 

Greg Derwart 52:00
good 

Rich Bennett 52:00
can 

Greg Derwart 52:00
historian. 

Rich Bennett 52:00
still get. Actually, I wonder if you can still get Ben's autobiography. I'm sure 

Greg Derwart 52:04
Oh, sure. 

Rich Bennett 52:04
they 

Greg Derwart 52:05
Oh, sure. Yeah. Absolutely. I have, I have a copy on my shelf 

Rich Bennett 52:09
do. 

Greg Derwart 52:09
here by barrow it. 

Rich Bennett 52:10
But by 

Greg Derwart 52:11
bar. 

Rich Bennett 52:13
Okay. Thanks. I said what 

Greg Derwart 52:17
What 

Rich Bennett 52:17
else? 

Greg Derwart 52:17
else? 

Rich Bennett 52:18
George, 

Greg Derwart 52:18
What else 

Rich Bennett 52:19
before we move on 

Greg Derwart 52:19
about? 

Rich Bennett 52:19
to Tom, 

Greg Derwart 52:20
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:20
Tom, as you said, you're. 

Greg Derwart 52:21
Tommy. 

I think the thing with George, you know, he, like I said, was a quiet leader. But he also, like Ben, knew how to promote himself. He was, 

you know, talk, talk about. I'm in Beller rotary and we have a guest speaker come to speak to us about, you know, so this week we had a wonderful young lady named Krista Demshire. 

Rich Bennett 53:01
Yes. Who 

Greg Derwart 53:02
it yeah. And she was talking about using social media to, to create and promote your personal brand or your company's brand. And great talk. She, you know, is fantastic. But yeah, George and Ben knew how to do that themselves. 

Rich Bennett 53:21
Yeah. And there was no social media back 

Greg Derwart 53:23
there. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 53:24
Yeah. I mean, they, they traveled around and and the thing is, here's something a lot of people don't realize that, yeah, they traveled the country. was not the country as we know it today. 

Greg Derwart 53:35
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 53:35
But it still took a lot of time to get around because it was mainly by horse. 

Greg Derwart 53:40
yeah. That's what I'm 

Rich Bennett 53:41
And 

Greg Derwart 53:41
saying. All those guys coming to Philadelphia were 

Rich Bennett 53:44
and 

Greg Derwart 53:44
riding 

Rich Bennett 53:44
to 

Greg Derwart 53:44
on horse 

Rich Bennett 53:44
build their brand up that fast. 

Greg Derwart 53:46
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 53:47
That's just, so yeah, 

Greg Derwart 53:51
so George, just an example in leadership. 

Rich Bennett 53:56
He, you know, you said, when you said just the quiet type of leader, 

Greg Derwart 54:01
mm-hmm. 

Rich Bennett 54:03
It makes me think of Joe Flaecco. 

Greg Derwart 54:07
That's a good point. That's a good 

Rich Bennett 54:09
Joe was always quiet. But he branded himself. Look at many. He's one in his 40s now. I think, 

Greg Derwart 54:15
I think he's early 40s. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:17
And all these teams keep 

Greg Derwart 54:17
still on him. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:18
I think you just 

Greg Derwart 54:19
went to the Bengals this week. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:21
It's like, 

Greg Derwart 54:22
yeah. So he's got something teams 

Rich Bennett 54:26
But 

Greg Derwart 54:26
want. 

Rich Bennett 54:26
I mean it's and he gets, he can get the job done. He 

Greg Derwart 54:29
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:30
wanted a Super Bowl force. 

Greg Derwart 54:31
Yeah. Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 54:32
So, all right. Tommy boy. 

We're going to talk about Chris Farley now. 

Greg Derwart 54:39
I love that movie. 

Rich Bennett 54:40
All right. So Thomas Jefferson, 

Greg Derwart 54:41
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 54:41
the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. 

Greg Derwart 54:45
yeah, He's a child. Yeah, he, again, a wealthy property owner in Virginia, 

and inherited property from his father. And he had a farm, 

Rich Bennett 55:06
so 

Greg Derwart 55:07
owned a farm. 

Rich Bennett 55:08
Right. 

Greg Derwart 55:10
But he was, I think his trade-- he was a lawyer. And was-- what I admire about him was just how learned he was. He was always studying. He had an extensive-- when I go to Monticello as a kid. 

Rich Bennett 55:30
he 

Greg Derwart 55:30
And you see his library in his house. And he was just always learning, 

Rich Bennett 55:38
Yeah, 

Greg Derwart 55:38
always. and you know, studied. So when you think about how we wanted to design our country, he studied Rome and all the philosophers. This was the age of enlightenment in the world. And he was a principal player in the enlightenment. You know, just-- 

Rich Bennett 56:00
that's smart. 

Greg Derwart 56:01
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, when he showed up at the Continental Congress, 

'75, '76, he was very shy and quiet. 

Rich Bennett 56:18
Really? 

Greg Derwart 56:19
yeah, yeah. It was usually Ben Franklin and John Adams that were 

Rich Bennett 56:25
The loudest-- 

Greg Derwart 56:25
the pontificator that liked to hear themselves speak. 

Rich Bennett 56:30
And we didn't 

Greg Derwart 56:33
know the-- And Jefferson was like painfully shy and 

Rich Bennett 56:37
quiet. I'm a damn 

Greg Derwart 56:38
And I think it was Ben Franklin that suggested Tom 

to be the drafter 

Rich Bennett 56:45
joke-- 

Greg Derwart 56:45
of the 

Rich Bennett 56:46
yeah, okay. 

Greg Derwart 56:46
document. Yeah. So because he was a gifted writer. 

Rich Bennett 56:51
Well, actually, now to he write his-- because a lot of people wrote their own biographies back to it, 

Greg Derwart 56:57
yeah, I don't think he did an autobiography. But-- yeah, he-- so he founded University of Virginia towards the end of his life. 

Rich Bennett 57:09
Oh. 

Greg Derwart 57:10
Yeah, he started UVA. 

Rich Bennett 57:14
What was the first university do we know? 

Greg Derwart 57:17
In America? 

Rich Bennett 57:18
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 57:20
Harvard, maybe? I don't know. 

Rich Bennett 57:21
I still don't know if it 

Greg Derwart 57:22
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 57:23
was Harvard. But University of Virginia had to be close to it not far. There could have been that many around. 

Greg Derwart 57:28
Well, there-- I know there was Harvard, Yale, Princeton-- 

Rich Bennett 57:32
OK. 

Greg Derwart 57:33
--back early on when we were still colonies. 

Rich Bennett 57:38
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 57:39
But yeah, Thomas Jefferson is interesting also because he was a part of the first 

hotly contested presidential campaign. 

Rich Bennett 57:55
Really? 

Greg Derwart 57:56
Yeah. So we talked about how George stepped down after two terms. 

Rich Bennett 57:59
Uh-huh. 

Greg Derwart 58:01
Then after him, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson went-- we're on the ballot. And John Adams won. 

Rich Bennett 58:14
So did Thomas become vice president 

Greg Derwart 58:16
then? Correct. 

Rich Bennett 58:17
OK. 

Greg Derwart 58:17
And then four years later, John's vice president, Thomas Jefferson, runs again. And Thomas wins then. 

Rich Bennett 58:29
So he ran against John again. 

Greg Derwart 58:30
Yeah. And beat his president as vice president. Yeah. And it was like they were going after each other. John Adams put stuff in the newspaper about what's the name of the slave that Thomas Jefferson had kids 

Rich Bennett 58:51
with. Oh, what got out of 

Greg Derwart 58:54
him? But yeah, so all that. 

Rich Bennett 58:57
So that's when mud sling and started-- 

Greg Derwart 58:59
Yes. Yes. Oh my god. And 

Rich Bennett 59:00
God, 

Greg Derwart 59:00
it hasn't stopped. 

Rich Bennett 59:02
what? That was kind of early to start, did 

Greg Derwart 59:06
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 59:06
you? 

Greg Derwart 59:07
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 59:07
Damn. 

Greg Derwart 59:09
The other thing that's interesting-- talk about him being shy and just being very private. When his wife died, he burned all of the correspondence that he-- the two of them had ever written to each other. 

Rich Bennett 59:29
Really? 

Greg Derwart 59:29
Because like he was over in France for a while as well. As like our ambassador or something 

Rich Bennett 59:40
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 59:40
like that. So or like when he was in Philadelphia or wherever. They husband and wife would correspond with each other. That's how you communicated. 

Rich Bennett 59:50
Right. 

Greg Derwart 59:50
Yeah, for some reason he burned all his correspondence with her when she died. 

Rich Bennett 59:59
Interesting. That's a shame, too. 

Greg Derwart 1:00:01
As opposed to John Adam, we know a lot about the relationship between John Adams and his wife Abigail. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:12
Right, 

Greg Derwart 1:00:13
because we have all their letters. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:18
That, that's just, uh, that's 

Greg Derwart 1:00:20
things 

Rich Bennett 1:00:20
one of 

Greg Derwart 1:00:20
that I'm saying, 

Rich Bennett 1:00:20
the 

Greg Derwart 1:00:20
so when you think about like an author or somebody doing research. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:23
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:00:24
That's, you know, old letters is, you know, where you get a lot of information. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:29
One of the best books I ever got, and I forget the name of the book, but it's, uh, we went to Gettysburg. 

Greg Derwart 1:00:36
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:36
And there were two books. Only about the one one from the south and one from the north. And it was the letter from the soldiers. 

Greg Derwart 1:00:44
Oh, yeah, 

Rich Bennett 1:00:45
yeah. I mean, you talk about. I mean, to read, because when you're reading it from the people that were there, 

Greg Derwart 1:00:54
you're hearing about 

Rich Bennett 1:00:55
condition. 

Greg Derwart 1:00:55
the 

Rich Bennett 1:00:55
Yes. 

Greg Derwart 1:00:56
And I bet. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:57
I mean, that's, oh my 

Greg Derwart 1:00:58
god. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:59
If he wasn't burned to his letters. 

Greg Derwart 1:01:01
Yeah. The other thing that is, um, very important to remember about Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana, 

Rich Bennett 1:01:10
uh, yes. 

Greg Derwart 1:01:12
For pennies on the dollar. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:15
Uh, huh. 

Greg Derwart 1:01:16
We, he literally doubled the size of the United States with a stroke of a pen. 

So, think about, you know, we often gain land through war. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:32
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:01:32
Right. He doubled the size of our company. Good. Our country got me off with the stroke of a pen. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:42
I wonder if he read the art of the sale back 

Greg Derwart 1:01:46
of the deal. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:46
then. Art 

Greg Derwart 1:01:48
But 

Rich Bennett 1:01:49
you think. I mean, the funny thing is, I mean, yeah, that was big. 

Greg Derwart 1:01:54
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:54
But has that ever happened again? Something like that. 

Greg Derwart 1:01:59
I mean, for us, like, I mean, we kept expanding just by taking over Indian 

Rich Bennett 1:02:07
yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:02:08
territories, you know, um, that wasn't a negotiation. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:12
Right. 

Greg Derwart 1:02:14
We, we, we bought Alaska. That was pretty big. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:18
Oh, yeah. Okay. What was the stroke of a pen? 

Greg Derwart 1:02:21
I think so. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:22
Really? 

Greg Derwart 1:02:23
Probably. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:23
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 1:02:25
I don't know. I'm not 

Rich Bennett 1:02:26
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:02:26
in Alaska expert, but strategically it was important to put that buffer between Russia. And, you know, 

Rich Bennett 1:02:35
wow. I, he also advocated for a lot of things as well too, Of course Liberty, rights, South, very 

Greg Derwart 1:02:45
right? 

Rich Bennett 1:02:45
important 

Greg Derwart 1:02:45
church. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:45
separation of 

Greg Derwart 1:02:46
Yeah. So here's a, that's another story that is, is really important to tell the separation of church and state. When, when people throw that comment out separation to church and state, it's not, it's not what you think. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:04
Right 

Greg Derwart 1:03:05
must have meant. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:06
Right. It 

Greg Derwart 1:03:09
happened when he was president, and was it the Danberry Baptist 

Rich Bennett 1:03:17
church? I sounds right 

Greg Derwart 1:03:19
up in Connecticut, somewhere in New England. 

And this is crazy. Whatever state, whatever state it was, say it was Connecticut, New Hampshire. Danberry, Connecticut, that sounds right. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:34
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:03:34
Yeah. I think the state of Connecticut wanted to make a certain denomination, the state, 

Rich Bennett 1:03:41
state denomination. 

Greg Derwart 1:03:42
Denomination. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:43
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:03:43
And it wasn't Baptist. And so the Baptist church wrote a letter to president Jefferson saying, Hey, what's going on here? You know, and that's when he said, you're right. There's a separation of church and state, meaning the state can't create a sanctioned 

Rich Bennett 1:04:03
religion. Right. 

Greg Derwart 1:04:03
That's all that meant. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:05
Just like you have the state flower, state, bird. You cannot 

Greg Derwart 1:04:07
state. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:07
have a 

Greg Derwart 1:04:08
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:08
I have a state religion. 

Greg Derwart 1:04:10
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:10
Yeah. And you're right. 

Greg Derwart 1:04:10
People, I think a lot of 

Rich Bennett 1:04:11
people get that confused. 

Greg Derwart 1:04:12
So that he wasn't necessarily saying that there can't be any religion or any religious elements in government. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:20
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:04:21
Yeah. It's okay to pray before a council meeting. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:23
It's okay to have the 10 commandments 

Greg Derwart 1:04:25
there. Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's all 

Rich Bennett 1:04:27
people. Yeah. Boy, how that, 

Greg Derwart 1:04:30
but think about how people have this taken that and just used 

Rich Bennett 1:04:32
Huh 

Greg Derwart 1:04:32
it. to push their narrative as opposed to actually researching and understanding what that would what 

Rich Bennett 1:04:41
what 

Greg Derwart 1:04:42
is 

Rich Bennett 1:04:42
unfortunately 

Greg Derwart 1:04:42
talking 

Rich Bennett 1:04:42
You know, 

Greg Derwart 1:04:42
about. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:43
a lot of things. 

Greg Derwart 1:04:44
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:44
But he also advocated for individual rights as well. Right. 

Greg Derwart 1:04:49
Right. So think about how. 

people often talk about how our country 

Rich Bennett 1:04:57
is a democracy. 

Greg Derwart 1:04:58
Right. The right definition. A 

Rich Bennett 1:05:01
Right. 

Greg Derwart 1:05:02
democracy is majority role. So if, and that's not the system we have set up, we, we have a representative republic where we send representatives to Congress to represent us and make decisions on our behalf. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:19
you're all at least they're supposed 

Greg Derwart 1:05:20
Well, 

Rich Bennett 1:05:20
to. 

Greg Derwart 1:05:22
But that speaks to the fact that, if I want to paint my house purple and 51% of the community doesn't like that, majority rules, 

Rich Bennett 1:05:43
uh-huh, 

Greg Derwart 1:05:43
that's democracy. So that takes the individual liberty away from me. So that, so the, so when you talk about individual liberty, we have the, the pursuit of happiness. We have that, the individual right and ability to pursue what we want to pursue without the government, you know, 

Rich Bennett 1:06:07
getting involved. Right. 

Greg Derwart 1:06:09
Theoretically. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:10
Yeah. Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:06:11
Um, so just think about how that has become bastardized over the general, you 

Rich Bennett 1:06:15
oh 

Greg Derwart 1:06:15
know, 

Rich Bennett 1:06:16
my God, 

Greg Derwart 1:06:16
100, yeah, 100, 250 years. Um, but yeah, he believed in the, in, in the rights of the individual. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:29
People need to go back and they need, well, first they need to go back and study history. And don't rewrite 

Greg Derwart 1:06:40
it. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:41
Learn from it. Did they make 

Greg Derwart 1:06:43
mistakes? 

Rich Bennett 1:06:44
Yes. 

Greg Derwart 1:06:46
Absolutely. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:46
But don't change what they wrote, especially, I mean, yeah, when you, when you explained the part about separation of church and state, some people just get all mixed up. 

Greg Derwart 1:06:58
Yeah. 

So 

Rich Bennett 1:07:01
I said, where are some of the biggest mixed misconceptions or myths about Tommy Boy? 

Greg Derwart 1:07:06
Well, just, just like we said with, with Ben. You know, folklore tried to hide the fact that, you know, he slept with his slave and 

Rich Bennett 1:07:16
right. 

Greg Derwart 1:07:17
you 

Rich Bennett 1:07:17
American 

Greg Derwart 1:07:17
know, again, nobody's perfect. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:20
Right. 

Greg Derwart 1:07:20
You know. And 

Rich Bennett 1:07:22
I wonder if that's why he burnt those letters. 

Greg Derwart 1:07:25
I 

Rich Bennett 1:07:25
You think? 

Greg Derwart 1:07:26
never thought of that. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:28
Because I 

Greg Derwart 1:07:29
mean, 

Rich Bennett 1:07:30
alright, so when his wife passed, how was he at the time? 

Greg Derwart 1:07:36
God. I'm not sure. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:37
Or better yet, was he still involved with his wife? 

Greg Derwart 1:07:40
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:42
Did they ever marry that we know of 

Greg Derwart 1:07:44
Nope. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:44
whether becoming law or 

Greg Derwart 1:07:45
not? No, no, but she still was around. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:48
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 1:07:49
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:50
I'm what, 

Greg Derwart 1:07:50
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:50
I bet that's why. 

Greg Derwart 1:07:51
Mm-hmm. Maybe. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:53
I don't, whatever her name is, I don't want her to find these letters. Hmm. 

Greg Derwart 1:07:59
He did some inventing too. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:01
What? 

Greg Derwart 1:08:02
Thomas Jefferson. Um, he, um, I'll put it this way. He made the first photocopier. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:11
Hmm? 

Greg Derwart 1:08:13
He created, so you would write letters, you would write documents with a pen. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:20
Right. Right. The Quill. 

Greg Derwart 1:08:22
Yeah. He created a device where the pen was connected to a rod and another pen and a, and a piece of paper next, next to him. So as he wrote, the other pen was copying the same thing on another piece of paper. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:44
That's where auto pen came from. 

Greg Derwart 1:08:46
Yes. Yes. So he, he, being a lawyer, he saw 

Rich Bennett 1:08:50
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:08:51
the value and making a copy of the document 

Rich Bennett 1:08:54
of the 

Greg Derwart 1:08:55
document that he was, or letter he was going to send. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:59
There could, that could be a good argument too, because 

Greg Derwart 1:09:03
is 

Rich Bennett 1:09:03
it really his, is it really his signature if he pulled the pen? 

Greg Derwart 1:09:07
That's a great, great point. That 

Rich Bennett 1:09:10
I didn't know that though. 

Greg Derwart 1:09:11
Yeah. Yeah. Didn't they ah, criticize, um, Jew Biden for that. It was like an auto, 

Rich Bennett 1:09:17
the auto pen thing. 

Greg Derwart 1:09:18
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:21
Wow. 

Greg Derwart 1:09:21
He did the first letter copier. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:26
He didn't invent anything else. That is 

Greg Derwart 1:09:27
the, I, I don't know if he invented, when I toured, uh, Monticello, um, wanted, did he invent the dumb later? 

Rich Bennett 1:09:39
So 

Greg Derwart 1:09:40
he had a dumb later in Monticello. So I'm just remembering that, but I can't remember if he invented it or not. A couple of 

Rich Bennett 1:09:47
that. Wow. 

Greg Derwart 1:09:48
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:48
Those things are brilliant too. 

Greg Derwart 1:09:49
Mm hmm. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:50
God. No wife. 

Greg Derwart 1:09:52
But uh, in the 

Rich Bennett 1:09:53
house for the laundry. 

Greg Derwart 1:09:57
When I was growing up, we had a laundry shoot. Like it went down into the laundry room. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:02
Yeah. Now I was the laundry shoot, 

Greg Derwart 1:10:03
but I 

Rich Bennett 1:10:04
carried it down, 

Greg Derwart 1:10:05
but it didn't fold it and take, 

Rich Bennett 1:10:07
take it 

Greg Derwart 1:10:07
[LAUGHTER] 

Rich Bennett 1:10:07
back. Yeah, that'd be 

Greg Derwart 1:10:09
He also was really big into experimenting with agriculture. Like crops, and he had a vineyard, and so 

Rich Bennett 1:10:21
right. 

Greg Derwart 1:10:21
we did a lot of experimental things with, like, crop rotation and stuff like that. 

So, 

Rich Bennett 1:10:32
what could people learn from 

Greg Derwart 1:10:34
Thomas? 

Rich Bennett 1:10:35
question, you know, 

Greg Derwart 1:10:36
Same 

Rich Bennett 1:10:36
about business that are life in 

Greg Derwart 1:10:38
general. Don't 

Rich Bennett 1:10:40
burn the 

Greg Derwart 1:10:41
Don't 

Rich Bennett 1:10:41
letters. 

Greg Derwart 1:10:41
burn the letters. And he was all- like I said, he was like the philosopher. So, he was open to learning from other cultures, you know, 

Rich Bennett 1:10:56
other people. 

Greg Derwart 1:10:57
Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 1:10:58
yeah. I love that. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:00
So, 

Rich Bennett 1:11:01
I love that. And I kick myself into tail for not doing that when I was younger. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:07
I 

Rich Bennett 1:11:08
mean, I didn't really start doing it until I was probably in my 30s. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:13
Mm-hmm, 

Rich Bennett 1:11:15
Yeah, 

Greg Derwart 1:11:15
yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:15
because you could learn so much from people, read a book all the time. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:22
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:22
Actually, there we go. So, because we had talked about the autobiographies, but for all three, what, you know, (PEIST (PEIST INSIDE CONVERSATION) Tommy Boy. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:30
INSIDE CONVERSATION) Yeah, 

Rich Bennett 1:11:31
Benny? (PEIST INSIDE 

Greg Derwart 1:11:33
Benny, 

Rich Bennett 1:11:33
CONVERSATION) Benny? 

Greg Derwart 1:11:34
the Jets. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:34
his two 

Greg Derwart 1:11:35
[LAUGHTER] 

Rich Bennett 1:11:35
Jets, 

Greg Derwart 1:11:35
And 

Rich Bennett 1:11:36
Georgie and Tommy. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:36
[LAUGHTER] 

Rich Bennett 1:11:38
What books do you recommend? Or movies? 

Greg Derwart 1:11:40
Oh, gosh. I'm going to have to give you a list. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:42
Okay. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:42
Yeah. I've got a whole shelf. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:45
I bet you do 

Greg Derwart 1:11:47
book shelf full of stuff. I'll give you a list. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:50
Yeah, I have to find some 

Greg Derwart 1:11:52
options 

Rich Bennett 1:11:53
to 

Greg Derwart 1:11:54
Yeah. 

That'll be 

Rich Bennett 1:11:57
talk. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:57
good. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:57
Yeah. 

Greg Derwart 1:11:58
Yeah. That'll be good 

Rich Bennett 1:11:59
for that. I'll make it happen. 

Greg Derwart 1:12:03
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:03
Anything else out of bed, Tommy Boy? 

Greg Derwart 1:12:06
No, I think that was it. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:07
I 

Greg Derwart 1:12:08
think we're off to a good start. [P1C] 

Rich Bennett 1:12:09
Oh, you are. And it just gave me some more ideas. I mean, number one, we gotta definitely talk about more people, more of our founding fathers, but something else you've been seeing. I think it'll be fun to cover, and I think it'll be fun to cover, "Is the American Foe Glor?" 

Greg Derwart 1:12:24
Ooh, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:25
The "Tall the 

Greg Derwart 1:12:26
Great" 

Rich Bennett 1:12:26
the 

Greg Derwart 1:12:26
idea, 

Rich Bennett 1:12:26
"Tall Tales" and everything. 

Greg Derwart 1:12:28
Mm-hmm. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:28
Paul Bunyan, 

Greg Derwart 1:12:29
that. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:29
all of them. 

Greg Derwart 1:12:30
Mm-hmm. That's a great 

Rich Bennett 1:12:31
I 

Greg Derwart 1:12:31
idea. I 

Rich Bennett 1:12:32
love 

Greg Derwart 1:12:32
love that. I love 

Rich Bennett 1:12:33
That. 

Greg Derwart 1:12:33
that. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:34
And now, we just need now, Barry just needs to set a date so he could just sit with us. 

Greg Derwart 1:12:39
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:40
And we can do that 

Greg Derwart 1:12:41
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:42
Hartford County history. 

Greg Derwart 1:12:44
Yeah. That would be great. Yeah. Thank you, 

Rich Bennett 1:12:46
John. Was the bourbon okay? 

Greg Derwart 1:12:48
was great. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:48
I 

Greg Derwart 1:12:48
I 

Rich Bennett 1:12:49
mean, 

Greg Derwart 1:12:49
mean, 

Rich Bennett 1:12:49
I 

Greg Derwart 1:12:49
I 

Rich Bennett 1:12:49
know. 

Greg Derwart 1:12:49
know it wasn't Al. It'll mean. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:51
Yeah, it 

Greg Derwart 1:12:52
I 

Rich Bennett 1:12:53
don't know if I can get meat. I'll try to bring Al 

Greg Derwart 1:12:54
No. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:54
next. 

Greg Derwart 1:12:55
This had a nice smooth flavor. It

Rich Bennett 1:12:56
did. That was good. I mean, you drank five to my one. Thank you. Great. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:05
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love it if you could leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at conversationswithrichbennett.com for updates, giveaways and more. Until next time, take care, be kind and keep the conversations going. You know, it takes a lot to put a podcast together. together, And my sponsors help add a lot, but I also have some supporters that actually help me it comes to the editing software, the hosting and so forth. There's a lot that goes into putting this together. So I want to thank them. And if you can, please, please visit their websites, visit their businesses, support them however you can. So please visit the following. Full circle boards. Nobody does charcuterie, like full circle boards. Visit them at fullcircleboards.com. Sincerely, so your photography. Live in the moment. They'll capture it. Visit them at sincerelysoior.com. The Jopitan Lines Club. Serve in the community since 1965. Visit them at JopitanLinesClub. org and don't forget the E at the end of Jopitan because they're extraordinary.