The promise of the American Revolution was, of course, a promise of democracy, of equality, of liberties, of all these new concepts at a time where in Europe, there were only monarchies.

The republic had won against the monarchy.

It inspired many.

Narrator: The American Revolution would be the opening signal for more than two centuries of revolution, first in Europe, then in the Caribbean, South America, Asia, and Africa.

Baer: The ideas are very powerful.

When they're talking about liberty, when they're talking about equality, when they're talking about opportunity, the freedom from oppression, the American Revolutionary movement served as a model for other societies and communities around the world.

♪ Narrator: But in early 1783 at the Continental Army's winter encampment at Newburgh, New York, things were not going well.

An unsigned manifesto began circulating among Washington's officers openly calling for a mutiny.

If peace really came, they would refuse to disarm and be free to use the army to force Congress and the states into providing the back pay they were owed.

[Approaching hoofbeats] On March 15, at a meeting to hear more about the conspiracy, officers heard horse's hooves.

[Horse whinnies] The door flew open.

Washington and his aides entered.

The general stepped to the lectern.

♪ He spoke for 20 minutes, urging his officers to resist drowning "our rising empire in blood."

Most shifted in their seats, unconvinced.

♪ Then Washington asked if he could read a letter from a Virginia congressman who had pledged support for the army.

He stumbled over the first words, paused, and pulled a pair of spectacles from his coat.

Voice: Gentlemen, you must pardon me.

I have grown gray in your service and now find myself growing blind.

[Washington] ♪ Narrator: The rest of the letter didn't matter.

Many officers, hard men made harder still by battle, were openly weeping.

The mutiny was over before it could begin.

♪ Voice: The unparalleled perseverance of the armies of the United States, through almost every possible suffering and discouragement for the space of 8 long years, was little short of a standing miracle.

George Washington.