Fox News Channel's Bret Baier: To Rescue the Constitution
Fox News Channel Chief Political Correspondent Bret Baier returns for a Club program exploring the critical role George Washington played in securing the future of the United States.
Baier, author of the new biography To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment, focuses on Washington's return from retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and establish the foundation of American governance.
George Washington rescued the nation and the Constitution three times: first by winning the Revolutionary War, second by presiding over the Constitutional Convention and ushering the Constitution through a fractious ratification process, and third by leading the nation as president in its first years. There is no doubt, says Baier, that the struggling new nation needed to be rescued.
After the victorious war, the states were no more than a loosely knit and contentious confederation, and they were in constant conflict. Setting aside his plan to retire to Mount Vernon, Washington agreed to be a delegate at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. There he was unanimously elected president of the convention. After successfully bringing the Constitution into being, Washington then sacrificed any hope of returning to private life by accepting the election to be the nation’s first president.
Washington was not known for brilliant oratory or prose, but his quiet, steady leadership gave life to the Constitution by showing how it should be enacted.
Join us as Baier explores the dramatic moments when Washington’s leadership brought the nation from the brink of collapse. He says early America was grittier and far more divided than it is often portrayed—one we can see reflected in today’s political conflicts.
NOTES
This program is part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
Photo by Fox News.
Speakers
Bret Baier
Host, "Special Report with Bret Baier," Chief Political Anchor, Fox News Channel; Author, To Rescue the Constitution: George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment; Twitter @BretBaier
In Conversation with Debra J. Saunders
Fellow, Discovery Institute's Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership; Columnist, Creators Syndicate; Twitter @debrajsaunders
