Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s February 24, 1761. I’m in a Boston, Massachusetts, court with lawyer James Otis, Jr.
JG: “Mr. Otis, what are you so stirred up about?”
JO: “Mr. Gillespie, it is the British lack of respect for colonial rights. The king has his soldiers searching our homes and businesses without proper warrants. It is the worst instrument of arbitrary power and destruction of liberty. It must stop.”
John Adams later wrote, “The child of Independence was born in that old council chamber by James Otis’ demand for search warrants.”
Read the full text of the Fourth Amendment (Search and Seizure), which was passed by Congress on September 25, 1789, and ratified on December 15, 1791.
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
